India's Exit- Instant Reaction

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The disgust at India's exit from the T20 is keeping me up blogging at 1:30 in the morning instead of getting a good nights sleep. We were terrible. Every time we lose a match people throw out questions. Here are 5 that cropped up in my mind. They are brief, confusing and frankly, don't have any answers from my end. Please help me answer them because I am struggling.

Firstly, hats of to England. I think Naseer Hussein put it best when he said that England were tactically beating India. They studied our eternal weakness of the short ball and exploited it beyond belief.

Now for the questions

1) Why drop Irfan Pathan and keep Ishant Sharma? In the match against the West Indies Irfan went for 4.5 runs per over in his two overs and took one wicket. Ishant on the other hand went at 10.33 in his 3 overs with no wickets. Plus this gives you an extra batsman. Ishant went for a nice 9 runs an over today against England. It just seems that Ishant has not come to terms with this form of the game.

2) Why was Jadeja sent ahead of Yuvraj, Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan? Need real help with this one. 

3) What has happened to Dhoni's batting? While I mentioned how much I loved how he handled the press, the free hitter we know and love seems to have disappeared. Not one lofted shot or even an attempt. 

4) Should we select players by the playing conditions? Look I understand if you have a problem with the short ball. But I am sorry, if you are as bad as Suresh Raina is, then you don't deserve to play in conditions that don't suit your game. I don't care if you scored 1 million runs in the IPL. What was he doing out there?

5) Is there any concept of sending a message out to a player? I agree that Jadeja bowled well, but when you see that by batting this way you are gradually giving the game away by being unable to hit the ball, then come out swinging. If you connect, then great, if you don't then at least give the other batsman a chance. What was he doing?

Few other points

I was fuming when I saw Raina laughing in the pavilion when India's defeat was imminent in the last couple of overs. A friend was correct when he said that these guys are God's in India. When they come back they will still be mobbed at the airport instead of being booed. No accountability.

The IPL has done nothing to boost India's T20 team. We all lived in the myth that the IPL will make us the best T20 team in the world because of the match practice we get. Boy, were we wrong. We are so far from being the best it is scary. Who knows, if we didn't play with Bangladesh and Ireland we may not have made it to the Super Eights.

Ian Bishop said that India gave away 10 runs in the field. I was especially shocked by the 4 wides that Yuvraj's casual fielding gave away in Harbhajan's last over. We lost by 3 runs.

Anyway, need to get some sleep, need to enjoy the rest of the tournament and I am looking forward to US Open golf, The Championships (Wimbledon) and The Ashes.

More later

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 2:32 AM

    Agree. Had most of the same thoughts. We suck

    ReplyDelete
  2. TSJune 15, 2009 at 2:34 AM

    There is no reason Ishant should be playing in the team. He has no clue what he is doing in T20. He did that with KKR as well.

    I remember we chatted before the world cup started and u said India had no chance. So then why do you build up your hopes so much? You were right.

    ReplyDelete
  3. TSJune 15, 2009 at 2:36 AM

    Worse than sending out a message. Yuvraj, the vice captain was out there with Jadeja, why didnt he say anything? He seemed like he was in his own zone. But since he is the only player who played well this world cup I will hold off on my criticism.

    Raina was pathetic and yes agreed, the IPL has done nothing for us.

    ReplyDelete
  4. TSJune 15, 2009 at 2:37 AM

    There are no good answers to your good questions. We just manage to do it time and again. Sorry, can't help you

    ReplyDelete
  5. TSJune 15, 2009 at 2:38 AM

    As you can see by my 3 comments, I am as pissed as you... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 9:29 AM

    We lost, thats the real thing. What is the use of post mortem. There was no strategy in the beginning & also the law of averages must play a part - what goes up, must come down. We won the last time around, this time it's bye bye dolly

    ReplyDelete
  7. TSJune 15, 2009 at 10:21 AM

    The whole purpose of the post mortem mr. anonymous is to analyze why India lost. The problem is we don't do enough post mortem and so so we never learn,

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:25 AM

    Agreed, no matter how shit a team you may be, in this case England, if you study and analyze a team, you can beat them.

    THe problem is that India's lazy players feel they can just come in, swing the bat around and win matches based on talent. We are terrible.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:26 AM

    Honestly, I think Dhoni should be dropped. NO KIDDING.

    ReplyDelete
  10. HMJune 15, 2009 at 10:29 AM

    So what is the call? I say South Africa - Sri Lanka final with a SA win

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:31 AM

    PAKIIIIISSSSTAAAAN is winning it HM. No question

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:46 AM

    1) Agreed, team selection was weird.

    2) No idea. That one is a toughie

    3) This is the biggest worry as far as I am concerned.

    4) No, if we did that then we would have no players to play in foreign tours

    5) I disagree with you a little here. I think Jadeja tried but just couldn
    t connect

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:50 AM

    Dude, so we lost, whatever. Give it a rest, who cares, its only T20

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:50 AM

    the call is SA

    ReplyDelete
  15. SamJune 15, 2009 at 11:50 AM

    PRG- some valid questions you have raised. I am a die hard Dhoni fan and agree think he is a great captain. However, he definitely missed the bus yesterday. Which is fine, no big deal. Everyone has a bad day. I think he needs to take a break, gather some perspective and regroup and we will be fine.

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousJune 16, 2009 at 9:37 AM

    When Dhoni won matches, even PRG has blogged that is he the best captain ? now suddenly you guys want him dropped, c'mon grow up, its just a game & a learning process, no post mortems Mr/Ms TS

    ReplyDelete

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