Monday, March 19, 2007

hmmm...if I say I'm not hurt then I'd be plain lying, It hurts and badly too.
But at the same time, this time there are no excuses at all, few days back I read some article on cricinfo , it was about 're-building' inning after early loses, Australia topped that list whereas India was in 9th position, that clearly shows irrespective of 'high-power' middle order we simply do not have in us to counter-attack.

If one observes, South Africa or Australia, these team never go into shell after early loses, at most they play it safe for a couple of overs and after that they start counter-attacking. No matter what the scorecard reads like Ponting or Greame Smith or any other player they just counter attack, but in case of India, batsmen make mountains out of moles, they all gooooo in deep slumber, they treat rookies as worldclass performers. Too much of defensive mould, sets the tone and they actually never recover from early setbacks.

Game against B'desh was another classic example of same, I think we lost the game during Ganguly-Tendulkar partnership, they were soooo slow and defensive in mindset that affected whole team.

I'm not a Ganguly fan, never was one; and will never be one either.
I still feel that he is just playing for himself, his big scores after his comeback do not affect the outcome of game, in wins it is always some-else's contribution. Ganguly is proving just a point to media/Chappel/More etc but he is not helping the team. He has been painfully slow, he started the rot in B'desh game, and even against Bermuda he was slow.

I'm sure, after world cup he'll blow his own trumpet and ask the media to check his averages and blah blah...

I always questioned the role of minnows in world, I always thought the only purpose of having them was to::

1) Players getting freak-injuries while playin against them jeopardizing their rest of tournament or
2) India losing a point against coz of rain-washouts :-(

This time Ireland, and B'desh has turned the tables much in favor other Super-8 teams, and I still stand by my words, its going to SL-NZ final, and NZ winning in a tight game.