Ten reasons why Team India crashed out! by Vivek Atray

The sudden and dramatic exit of Team India from the race for the semi-finals of the ICC World Twenty- 20 Cup 2009 has shocked onlookers and confounded experts. Being the joint favourites along with South Africa for winning the Cup, the defending champions displayed a lack of innovation as also the absence of sheer desperation that resulted in their amazing success in South Africa in 2007 when they lifted the trophy as rank outsiders.
The ten main reasons that led to their shocking elimination are-

Complacency- There seemed to be an air of ‘nothing-can-go-wrong’ in the team’s approach. They appeared to feel all along that the Cup was rightfully theirs and that no other team had the fire power to gun them down. That they lost to both the West Indies and England, two of the less formidable teams in the draw, indicated a sense of false superiority which did not result in runs on the board or wickets in the bag.

Sehwag’s unavailability- Despite a star-studded line-up, India had no other batsman who could scare the wits out of the opposition bowlers quite like Virender Sehwag does. Yuvraj Singh is India’s batting hero in this version of the game, but the task proved too much even for him, in the absence of the Sultan of Multan, whose shoulder injury cost India dear.

Wrong team selection- India bungled by playing an extra bowler in a batsman oriented format of the game. As a result, there was not enough ammunition in the late middle order to test the opposition seriously enough. Dinesh Karthik should have played instead of Ravinder Jadeja in the match against England. Yusuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma could have bowled spin along with Yuvraj Singh to fill the breach. Ishant Sharma could have been dropped in favour of Praveen Kumar whose swing bowling was suited to English conditions. RP Singh should have played all the matches, given that he was the highest wicket taker in the IPL, and the in-form bowler in the team!

Fielding lapses- In the match against the West Indies especially and also on some other occasions, misfielding hurt India badly. Two clear boundaries went through the legs of the fielders against the Windies, and could have made the difference in a close match. More over, India’s field placing was such that the slower fielders in the team found the ball coming towards them on more occasions than did the best fielders. Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan were cases in point!

Easy early matches- A factor that Team India could not do anything about, given their top-seeded billing! They had Bangladesh and Ireland for company in their group and found them to be easy meat. But the lack of serious opposition at that stage meant that they had to suddenly up the ante against better teams in the super-league, which they could not manage!



Jadeja’s dilemma- By pushing green-horn Ravinder Jadeja up the order the team management exposed him to some accurate and hostile bowling from the England pacers in the crucial tie at Lords. Jadeja is a talented player and had claimed two key wickets with his left-arm spin earlier in the match but he appeared to be overawed by the occasion and could not really handle the pressure. In a match that India lost by just 3 runs, Jadeja’s 22 off 30 balls was surely a match-losing effort.

Short-pitched challenge- The manner in which the West Indian fast bowlers, followed by their English counterparts, tested India’s top order with short-pitched bowling was revelatory. Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina just could not get going and were tied down and then forced to find ungainly ways of hitting out or getting out while facing the bouncy stuff. India’s top order has seldom looked as ruffled as it did in this tournament. Perhaps a realization that the conditions in England are such that they require pure cricketing shots in the first few overs may have done the trick.

Dhoni was out of sorts- Captain cool, MS Dhoni kept wickets reasonably well, and marshaled his forces to the best of his ability, but his batting was a let down. Even in the match against England when he and Pathan almost chased down the target, he could not really get the big shots going. His bat seemed to have lost its potency, for his shots simply lacked the explosiveness that they are known for.

Media trouble- Another factor was surely the off-the-field distraction especially the manner in which the Sehwag issue was dealt with. The media flayed the present Captain’s attitude for the first time ever and the foolhardy attempt at displaying a sense of camaraderie by presenting the whole team at a Press conference was most bizarre.

Too much cricket- The current Indian team plays all around the year and big matches obviously lose their aura for the players when so much cricket is played. This was the World Cup after all, but from the look of them, Team India could well have been playing any other international series. Gautam Gambhir, who has been the most prolific scorer in world cricket in the past one year, looked totally jaded, and exemplified the mal-effects of excessive international cricket.

Fans of the Indian team are distraught and shocked at their early exit from the ICC World Twenty 20. Let’s see if the team can re-group from here and win back our admiration in the coming months.

ICC World Twenty20-England should have gone Dutch!

Every modern day youngster knows what it means to “Go Dutch” – splitting the bill at a restaurant. England could have gone Dutch by splitting the match against the Dutchmen on the last ball of their ICC T20 World Cup match last night. A Super Over finish may have ended up in England’s favour.
Stuart Broad tried to save the single by throwing the ball at the non-strikers end while supine on the ground, missed by a mile and ended up giving away an overthrow that landed the match in Netherland’s lap.
What an upset! England could never have dreamt that they would have lost a match in which Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright gave them a flying start at the home of cricket, Lords in the opening encounter of the Cup. Wright’s 71 off just 49 balls appeared to be a match-winning knock, but the team from Holland had other ideas. Imaginative batting TN de Grooth and PW Borren took them close to their target and ten Doescahtte sealed the win off the last ball.
England looked shell shocked after the match and they ought to be! They bowled a lot of rubbish and paid the price for some glaring fielding errors as well.

The Indians need to guard against complacency. By Vivek Atray

The Indian cricket team needs to watch out for an unfamiliar enemy in the ICC T-20 World Cup- complacency. They have never before entered a World Cup as clear favourites. Not even in 1987 when they were the defending champions and ultimately lost in the Semis at Mumbai to the Englishmen. In fact the Indian team looks much stronger than in 2007 when they emerged champions, but had some modest players in their ranks.
On paper they look awesome this time, with a batting line up that reads- Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Rohit, Pathan and Pathan. No other team, not even Australia or South Africa, can boast of such batting firepower in this World Cup. Each of India’s top eight batsmen has the ability to clear the field by some distance, the only question being who hits the longest sixes. In that department, Yusuf Pathan is probably the winner, closely followed by Sehwag, Raina, Dhoni and Yuvraj, in no particular order!
India’s bowling looks robust too, with RP Singh having grabbed the Purple Cap in the just concluded IPL, and also having bowled the maximum number of dot-balls in that tournament. Irfan Pathan bowled superbly in the IPL too, and picked up a bagful of wickets, though he tended to go for quite a few runs in his opening spells. Ishant Sharma bowled well in the warm-up game against the Kiwis and though India lost that match by 9 runs, they can take heart from the form of their spinners too- Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha were quite impressive. If Zaheer Khan is fit, then India’s bowling would test the very best. They also have an embarrassment of riches in the batting-allrounders department, with Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma all proving to be capable spinners of the ball.
Their fielding looks impressive too, with only a few of the bowlers being somewhat slow in the outfield. Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are absolute dynamite in the inner circle. During practice the Indians need to focus on getting a few direct hits for these often result in run-outs that could clinch some close matches. India’s running between the wickets has never looked as energetic as is does with this young team.
While the Indians garnered invaluable practice during the IPL, top players of teams like New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa benefitted immensely from the event too. In fact the South Africans are second-favourites given their all round skills and the form that their batsmen are in. Their fielding is still the world’s best, even though the Kiwis and the Aussies run them close in that area. The experience of Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and Graeme Smith coupled with the firepower of Dale Steyn and Albie Morkel makes them a formidable line up.
The Australians are probably next in the list of likely winners. They can never be counted
out as potential champions and have the ability to raise their game in World Cups. Ricky
Ponting still has a point or two to prove in this format, while Michael Hussey and his
brother David, along with Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds lend them some real
class in the middle order. Their retired openers Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, the
two top run-getters of IPL 2009, would have been invaluable assets to them had they
been coaxed into playing this event!
Sri Lanka are next, and have in Mahela Jayawardene, skipper Kumar Sangakarra and old
war horse Sanath Jayasuriya, three of the most attacking batsmen in world cricket. The
bowling looks a little suspect though, despite the presence of the slingy Lasith Malinga
and the ever potent Muthiah Muralidharan in their ranks. They have to watch out against
giving away too many runs off their lesser bowlers.
New Zealand could well be the dark horse of ICC World T-20 2009. They have always
been under estimated by opposing teams and the media at major cricketing events. In
Ross Taylor they have one of the finest batsmen in the world today. Brendon McCullum,
Jesse Ryder and Jacob Oram add some serious hitting-power to their batting. Daniel
Vettori is not only a wily spinner but also a cool captain in the Anil Kumble mould.
Conditions in England are similar to their home conditions and they will come out with
all guns blazing, for sure.
England, Pakistan and the West Indies are still major cricketing powers. But all three
have a lot to prove in the shortest format of the game, on current form. Last time’s losing
finalists Pakistan are inhibited by lack of international exposure, of late. Their bowling
looks reasonably sharp but their stroke-players are suspect when the going gets really
tough.
England would enjoy home advantage but are missing Freddie Flintoff. Skipper Paul
Collingwood remains their best player in this format along with the mercurial Kevin
Pietersen. Their bowling is their strength, with some good seamers in the side, led by
Stuart Broad.
The Windies are looking below par too, as they go into the tournament. Despite having come off a Test and ODI series in England recently, and having an edge over other visiting teams in terms of the need to acclimatize to conditions, they would need some remarkable performances from Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo to be perceived as serious contenders for the title.
It is extremely difficult to predict anything that has to do with T-20 cricket. The very nature of the game is such that one big over can change the fortunes of teams either way.
Nevertheless, the T-20 World Cup in England would be won by the team that combines a large amount of flair with confident execution of plans, and also holds its catches.
Some nail-biting action is in store for sure. Watch this space!