Well, we really played like footballers or hockey players who are suddenly thrust into a cricket field and asked to play cricket. Granted this is a typical reaction to an Indian loss, but heck! How else do you react?
Talk about being caught on the wrong foot. What was the last three days about? It certainly wasn’t cricket, least not from the Indians and it's not like they can say it was unknown conditions or adjusting to the weather. This is home turf for crying out loud! And we lost by an innings and 90 runs in three days!
I am a huge Kumble fan and he is, according to me, one of the finest cricketers there is but we’ve seen better judgement from the man. He really wasn’t fit enough to play and that showed not just in the way he played but also in the way the team played – an unfit captain is not exactly a good motivation for a team. Of course, there was a fair bit of experience in the side, which should, ideally, have taken on the mantle, so to speak. To give credit, Ganguly did give it a shot in the second innings and Pathan gave it his best in both the innings, he just ran out of partners. And I refuse to talk about the bowling. Like I said, not having Kumble at his best was bound to hurt our chances.
Of course, we shouldn’t discount the efficiency of the Proteas. It was like the two teams played on different pitches. The Indians batted on one that seemed bowler friendly, and the South Africans on one that was batsmen friendly. Dunno whether it was the brilliance of the South Africans or the mediocrity of the Indians. Perhaps both.
As for Gary Kirsten, a pretty uninspiring start. But I guess this is like medicine, you get worse before getting. Pardon me, that wasn’t me guessing, that was me fervently hoping!
Of course, I am also hoping all this distracted playing from the Indians has nothing to do with a certain star-studded event that’s about to start in the next couple of weeks! If so, we may as well hand over the trophy to the South Africans for washing us out!
Prove me wrong please!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment