In the ongoing test series between India and England, the rub of the green often went against the Indians - few instances noted below:
Gary Player once said
One can give similar instances where the Indians contributed to their downfall with reckless shot-making, dropped catches as well as superb bowling by the English pacemen. No wonder, no one is talking about luck playing its part in the English ascent to No.1
- Zaheer Khan was ruled out of the first test at Lords due to injury - this reduced to the Indian bowling attack to three bowlers (one of them being an out-of-form 400+ wicket-taking spinner) and occasional captain-bowler. This was felt sorely when the English team (second innings) was at 62-5 and 107-6. The main bowlers were tired and without any backup bowler, the captain was direction-less.
- Praveen Kumar pinged Kevin Pietersen's on his foot, looking very plumb only for the umpire to reject the appeal. A DRS review would have resulted in KP being ruled out, depriving him of the double century he eventually went on to score.
- Gautam Gambhir, at forward short-leg, was hit by a strong pull-shot that made the Indians lose their other half of a great opening partnership which was till then crucial for the No.1 position in test cricket.
- Stuart Broad's hat-trick had Harbhajan Singh edging the ball on to his pad which was not noticed by the umpire. Without DRS in this series, the Indians had no chance to review the decision. Thus the hat-trick hastened the closure of Indian innings and gave them a small lead over the English.
- Harbhajan Singh, during the second innings of second test, pulled up a muscle which rendered the Indian attack again to three bowlers.
- Rahul Dravid was beaten by unbeatable deliveries in the test series - only such balls could break the Wall in this series.
- The weather was overcast for most of the Indian innings so far while the English had only one such instance (1st innings of second test) when they were bowled out by the Indians.
Gary Player once said
The more I practice, the luckier I get.This quote more than sums up the performance for all the points mentioned above. Ishant Sharma's dismissal in the first innings of 3rd test was an example of how everything went right for England in this series.
One can give similar instances where the Indians contributed to their downfall with reckless shot-making, dropped catches as well as superb bowling by the English pacemen. No wonder, no one is talking about luck playing its part in the English ascent to No.1
3 comments:
Not sure where you are going with this
1. India did not want DRS. Now they want to complain about LBW decisions?
2. You call Harbhajan an "out-of-form" spinner, and yet bemoan his absence in the second innings of the 2nd Test. The England counterpart Swann was also not in great form (almost as bad as Harbhajan), but England still managed to win with their three main bowlers.
3. India won the toss twice. If the weather was overcast, they should have used the toss wisely.
Thanks for your comment, Krish.
India was not in favor of DRS but its presence would have helped India in the decisions mentioned. Call it irony or bad luck.
Harbhajan is out-of-form but still the only spinner selected in the 2nd test. Since he was not available, the Indians were reduced to 3 bowlers. England managed to win with 3 main bowlers because the Indians hardly stretched their innings to the 2nd new ball. Swann bowled few overs but could not make any impact.
MSD has a 'great' record with tosses but this series he won the first two and opted to bowl obviously trying to help his playing eleven. But, weather did not impact the match as much as it did when England bowled.
India loose their talents.
I am always see their loose moral of india.
Shame indian cricket team.
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