Different Day, Same Result!

Yes! You guessed it right...its all about the MEN IN BLUE yet again! On Oct 29th 2006, I was one among the many Indian supporters who woke up early on a Sunday morning; gearing up to see the all-important knock out game against arch rivals Aussies. This was a week long goal/hope/desire to make sure that I get up right in time for the game! The first four hours were absolutely satisfying to see the Indians put up a decent total on the board against some quality seam attack. Also given the behavior of the pitches for the tournament so far, a target of 250 looked like a good contest on the cards. Well......a weeks desire for me, the hope of millions back home....everything ceased in the next hour of play, making a lot of people think twice "is it worth watching and supporting yet another Indian game?"

Lack of penetration from our "young guns" in the bowling department helped by some lazy display of fielding took the game away from us in a couple of overs. It was too late to even make a come back of sorts, especially given the Aussie line up and the fact that a batsmen like Hussey, who holds an average of ~ 78 in ODIs, was set to bat at number 7.Anyway all said and done, yet another painful defeat for India who have now just managed to have 2 victories over the Aussies in the 15 matches played against them after the 2003 World Cup. As Ravi Shastri rightly mentioned out, its high time that the Indian think tank stops taking chances around with the number three slot, though they dint do it on Sunday.

Taking a look at the World Cups so far, you can see that the men who made a difference, Amarnath in 1983, DeanJones in 1987, Inzamam in 1992, DeSilva in 1996 and Ponting over the last 2 world cups, were all the number three batsmen on most of the occasions....It was also disheartening to see all sub continent teams being thrown out of the tournament even before the semifinals. I just happened to see a statistic couple of days back, that among the top 5 leading run scorers in ODIs this year, four are from Srilanka. So it makes things even worse ...does it not??

With the team for South African tour announced today, I hope the bowling department would gel into a strong unit with the likes of Zaheer and experienced Kumble. Also eager to see the top order fire more consistently from now on, given the fact that the World cup countdown has already started. So, I sincerely hope that the team performs well in South Africa and all future series leading to the World Cup. I always feel Cricket is something special and supporting India is all the more special and exciting. How many ever Sundays pass like this, I still would never let my hope die - we would be at the top, one fine day! That's Cricket and that's what it is to support Indian cricket!....Wishing the MEN IN BLUE Good luck!...