Team India's campaign to retain the T20 world cup came to an end with the second consecutive loss in the Super 8 stage. There has been lot of expectation from the Indian fans and the stadium looked grim at times even though the match is played in England and the host nation is progressing to win. Indian fans out numbered the English fans on Sunday and the match moving from one side to the other like our sensex, the cricket mad Indian fans were backing Team India like anything but in the end it was the team which held their nerves and the experience won the match for England. The Semi-final line up is already done, so the remaining matches in the Super 8 is just for the sake of playing.
I pity Dhoni.
I have mentioned quite a few times in my previous posts during the IPL that Dhoni is a bit confused with his batting position and desperately wants to prove as a batsmen. This confused state of mind has reflected in the not so aggressive moves that he took in the 2 super 8 games. To me dhoni is kind of likes to dominate the proceedings and likes to be in the thick of action all the time but once his batting style changed he was not able to do this with big success and this was very much apparent in the IPL & WorldCup.
I feel it has become a habit now for the general public and the media to take a player to the cloud on success and dump him to the ground from there on failure. This is very much evident in Dhoni's case, what ever he did made news and every other move was talked as a strategy and so on and when he and the team failed its the opposite. I feel pity for dhoni, he could have done a lot of things much better but i strongly feel that holding one person for the team's debacle is crap talk. I just do not understand how the past Indian cricketers sitting in the news channel's just talk what ever they feel like and get so personnel on their comments, its very disgusting and disturbing trend.
I would say Team India was a bit off color in this tournament. Bowling was very ordinary, Zaheer did not deliver what was expected from him (early breakthrough) Ishant Sharma was listless and Harbhajan was not able to produce a maginc spell in the middle overs which normally puts india well positioned on chasing or defending. On batting it was even more disappointing that other than Yuvraj & Y.Pathan none of the other guys looked comfortable, Gambhir is the key player for the team's success and when he was not getting the runs the top order failed badly. Rohit & Raina were shot of experience to handle some fine swing and seam bowling and failed miserably. I dont have to write on the fielding, we fielded below par through out the tournament and gifted 10-15 runs in all the matches.
Overall i would say that a combination of too-much pressure to retain the trophy, over-worked body and fatigue factors contributed to the early exit of Team India.
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9 comments:
Yes Vasu... Dhoni is pretty much confused about his batting position and his batting style. He just cannot hit as he used to.. and he was also not successful in playing the waiting game as the batsman in the other end also struggled to get runs. In yesterdays interview, Dhoni mentioned that he is willing to get back to his slam-bang approach to batting. Hope that clicks and we get to see the Dhoni of old.
Anyway.. nothing to take away from England. They bowled extremely well, using their pace and bounce to good effect. Batsman have to regroup and they shud use the break until the WestIndies tour well and rest their overworked mind and body.
Hope, Sehwag returns .. without him at the top(even if he fails).. Indian team surely seems to miss something..
Being the tough character Dhoni is, i strongly believe that he can regroup the team and they come back to their winning ways soon
Yes, the Indian team looked jaded indeed and lacked intensity. Another 4 ODIs in West Indies in a few days from now, will be another taxing schedule. I don't expect great results there as well, unless some of the guys are rested (sehwag, harbhajan, zaheer, yuvi, i.pathan{drop him}) and their replacements shine.
VJ
I dont see anything wrong in singling out Dhoni. All the accolades went to Dhoni in the past, even though it was the individual who performed. Then naturally i believe he should be able to accept the criticisms too.
Since its the batsman who decides the batting order and bowling order, which inturn decides the fortunes of the player and the team. Like sending Rohit Sharma at No.1 and not bowling Irfan in swinging conditions and not completing R.P.Singhs quota of over and persisting with a lacklusture Ishant sharma even though we had a good swinging wicket taking bowler in Praveen.
As long as people dont ask for Dhoni's head, the criticism's are fine. Afterall its his decision. No other captain in the past had a much better say in the team selection compared to Dhoni.
India's debacle at the T2o cannot be solely blamed on Dhoni. The team as a whole failed to perform. Be it the bowlers or the batsmen no one actually stepped it up to make it a match winning performance.
And Gary Kirsten blaming the IPL for India's early exit is not justifiable. Most of the South African players also played at the IPL but they seem to be doing extremely well.
India just lacked that will to win, they seemed like a listless lot on the field. The spark of enthusiasm we saw in 2007 seemed to be missing this time around.
Dhoni and Yuvraj came in way too late against England. Why is this the case?
Top site you have here by the way. Really enjoy reading it. Would you be able to email me when you get the chance?
There is something I would like to run by you.
Thanks a lot,
Thomas
Should be a great final today. Suddenly I see myself supporting Pak, esp against SA !!
Wondering whether we should debate and analyze so much about T20 at all. A decent individual performance is enough to defeat all strategy as we saw in both the semis. Its not the case with longer versions of the game, atleast it was very rare. Key is to have 90% of the players in top form and give your best, which was the case when India won last time. SA were like that this time, but just the two people in Afridi and Gul made all the differnece.
It was apparent that media was settling personal scores with Dhoni. I have learnt to just ignore them, lost all respect for anything they report. I see no issues with passing criticism on Dhoni, that is expected of any professional handling responsibility. Its the way its done that is awful. The way he has handled it, my admiration has grown much more !!
Vasu, a request. You being an expert, in addition to writing your opinion after the matches, why dont you also explain what is with an individual and a team going out of form. We have seen it even with greats, the look as though they know no cricket for a season or two. Why this happens, how they handle it and how they come out of it? We all know India played badly and lost and in hindsight can list 100 things why they lost. But I am interested in reading about a genuine insider perspective, than reasons like they are focussed only on ads and making money and WC does not matter.
Thanks for stopping by my blog Thomas Rooney :-)
The T20 format is such that no analysis or planning can really win the match for you. The game changes in the space of 6-8 balls and whichever team keeps its nerves comes out winning.
If Team India failed to chase a moderate total, it was the same for SA. As Rajesh mentioned we can come up with 100+ reasons for the failure but again, Eng & Pak played some good cricket on the day.
Its natural outburst by few past cricketers that they were not playing in this good times where almost all cricketers are making good money and that comes out through news channels. Most disgusting part is these so called greats attack the cricketers personally.
I would also think that Dhoni did take few steps as a leader outside of cricket which has affected his credibility. It is absolutely not necessary to parade the whole team in front of the media to show that the team is together (He is not running a political party right!). I think he can study how the great players like Sachin,Steve Waugh, Border and few Tennis stars keep out of these controversies. You can not win over the bad media but you can ignore them. This is what these Greats do to keep the media away from them at certain stages of their career.
On what goes into the cricketers and teams that run into bad patch is a big enough topic for discussion. So i'll reserve a post for that.
On today's finals, if Srilanka chases Pak wins.
Vasu, my immediate thought seeing Dhoni's team parade on the press meet was the dialogue from the movie Mudhalvan : "kadasiyila ennayum arasiyalvathi aakitangale !" (apologies for the local example, now that your blog has international audience :-)).
Sometimes you have to empathize for the celebrities. Even we get so angry the way media goes overboard. You cant keep quiet all the time when supposedly reputed agencies like times group go on a spree. You need to show your protest. Because there is no way to question the media today, other than such protests. Blog (like yours) can be a difference.
Am sure it is only a minor % of even the fans who would be extremely critical of the team. If, we as a country, had given at least the perception of complete backing to the team after the debacle, it would have done wonders to the team !! After all, every business, every establishment in the country make strategies, take risks, fail somestimes, make comeback, win etc. You dont make the executives roll on the floor and kick them for one bad result. Performance over a period of time takes care of the progress !! Hope we see more professionalism in the media.
Any way, 5th over of the finals and its already turining out to be a classic (in T20 sense) !!
There is only one word for today's media and that is "sensationalism"! They believe sensationalism sells and I think they are winning ..
Media doesn't care if people like or hate what they are doing, as long as they have people watching/following/talking about it .. now that's a shame indeed!
Coming back to cricket, I was happy Pak won. (there aren't too many occasions that I have felt this way :-)). They were the better cricket team in the crunch games and showing character like this produces best results most times.
And we also saw Afridi's transition from boy to man :-) (finally for the ageless wonder if you could call him that!)
VJ
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