Indian & England players congratulate each other after a thrilling draw.
676 runs, 18 wickets and a tie at the end. Who would have thought that the India-England encounter at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore would produce such interesting numbers. We all went into the match with a hope that rain stays away and does not spoil a perfect Sunday for all cricket lovers. To our utter surprise, not even a drop of rain interrupted the proceedings. But what spoilt it all was the end-result of the game, which ended in a tie leaving all Indian fans and supporters (including me) highly disappointed and in complete awe, courtesy some terrible performance by the Indian bowlers and some fantastic batting display by the English men in the middle.
As expected, the nation is in distress and negative sentiments have already started pouring in from all corners of the country that this team has no potential. I am sorry I beg to differ. I am ready to admit that it was only because of the pathetic bowling display that we could not win this match. I even think we did not draw it, England drew it and we lost it. But having said that I am not willing to be one of those mean-minded citizens of the country who only has the courage to support the team when it is playing fantastically well. I am a strong lover of the game who thinks winning and losing are part of it but you have to know why you win and why you lose. If you cannot defend a mammoth total of 338 on your own soil that too against a foreign team, that does not mean you do not have the calibre to qualify for the nest rounds of the tournament. Had that been the case, we would not have been able to defend 191 runs against South Africa in South Africa just a month back. But we did. Cricket is an unpredictable game and you have to respect it that ways.
Team India and captain MS Dhoni could not have asked for a better beginning to a Sunday afternoon after having won the toss and putting the opposition take the field first. We had to bat in sub-continent conditions and we did just that. Openers Sehwag and Tendulkar got the team off to a decent start earning 46 runs for the first wicket. Sehwag was at his usual self playing the odd shots and giving the opposition few unorthodox chances, something which he frequently does.
Tendulkar after reaching his century.
Maestro Tendulkar after starting off cautiously, gradually built up his innings like a true master showing why he is what he is today. With the help of Gautam Gambhir, who after scoring his half century got out in the same fashion as in the last game against Bangladesh, Sachin reached his 98th International Century and his 47th in ODI. With this hundred, he now has 5 World Cup centuries, more than anyone else in the history of the game.
Gambhir and Tendulkar during their century partnership stand.
At this stage, when most thought it would have been sensible for Dhoni to come out in the middle and take guard, he promoted Yuvraj ahead of himself in order to give him some confidence in the middle. Yuvraj did pace his innings well managing to score a half-century, first in partnership with Sachin and then with captain Dhoni himself. The Indian middle order did falter a bit today, with crucial wickets falling at the wrong time. Even the batting power-play could not produce some bright results for us. An innings total of 350 which seemed gettable at one point of time could only be seen wrapped up at 338.
Chasing 338 runs on any given day is a herculean task, no matter where you play, whom you play against. And when you put your opposition to bat with such a huge total to chase on a sub-continent pitch that too under lights, you definitely are on the winning side. What you all have to do is bowl a decent line and length with no experiments and innovations whatsoever. This is where team India failed today. Their bowling off late has been criticised like hell. they have been all over the place with their deliveries to batsmen. And today was just that day when the Indian bowlers found no rhythm. Not even the pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and the much in-form Munaf Patel.
Munaf sits in amazement after dismissing Pietersen.
The English batsmen did no wrong to kick start their innings going at 7.00 runs an over with both openers captain Andrew Strauss and his partner Kevin Pietersen looking in golden touch. After being hit all over the park, the Indians did manage to break through with Munaf picking up Pietersen in one of the strangest caught and bowled dismissals one would ever come across in the history of the game.
England Captain Andrew Strauss after completing his century.
Captain Strauss led from the front, starting from where he left in the match against Netherlands and going on to make yet another well deserved century. He scored 158 runs before being scalped leg before wicket by Zaheer. But the damage had already been done. Captain MS Dhoni did express his anger at the UDRS system after his decision to opt for the referral system to dismiss batsman Ian Bell was out plumb before wicket was over-ruled by a strange 2.5m rule of the game, which no one seemed to know except England captain Andrew Strauss. It was the crucial 3rd wicket partnership between Strauss and Bell which in my opinion took away the game from the men in blue.
Indian Captain MS Dhoni calls for the UDRS.
The verdict is absolutely clear. India has to work tremendously on their bowling to win matches or else even a score of an excess of 400 would be tough to defend. Former Indian Captain Anil Kumble went on the record saying that India will have to bowl well to win the match. Sadly, this did not happen and we lost this game. Although the statistics and points table might show that the match was a tie, I think we completely lost it, due to our poor bowling display.
It's about time that we start start bowling a decent line and length or else it will be way too difficult to even enter the quarter finals.
Picture Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/
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