What was supposed to be a Super Saturday for subcontinental fans (especially from India and Pakistan), turned out to be disaster!!! India beaten by Bangladesh, though it had happened earlier, was not expected even after the first innings was completed by India. Pakistan tumbled to a new low with their loss against Ireland.
What happened for the Indians? Rahul Dravid, looking at the green wicket, thought that this was a good time for his team to practice on damp wickets against a decent attack, batting first. It was probably what he thought the team will face later in the championship. But, he didnt expect his batsmen to let him down (including himself) so badly. The opening bowlers bowled really well with Syed Rasel completing his complete quota in one stretch.
It was left to the 3 left-arm spinners to take charge of proceedings until the end of the innings - and what a performance they gave? Sachin Tendulkar has this tendency to give his wicket away to an unknown bowler - and he repeated the same this day. Rahul Dravid was out-thought by an armer. Sourav Ganguly was the only one who stayed for sometime, showing guts to fight it out, alongwith Yuvraj Singh. Of course, the last pair came to the rescue with some lusty hitting. 5 wickets in a space of 4 runs is not good for the team to put up a decent score.
When it was their turn to bat, the youth showed the way with some brave adventurous shots. The batsmen showed that they dont care about experience and history of the Indian bowlers. They came out with their guns blazing. What it did was that the Bangla batsmen never had to worry about the run-rate. The Indian field-placing was not great but credit should not be taken away from the Banglas.
Finally, what needs to be done by the Indians to goto Super-8s? Beat Bermuda by a big margin (more than 150 runs, if they are batting first), beat Sri Lanka convincingly, wait for Sri Lanka to beat Bangladesh, hope Bangladesh dont record a high win against Bermuda. Overall, a very tough path ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment