Following up (not on)
posted by Samir Chopra at 7:01 PM
Thursday, April 09, 2009
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6 Comments:
Hahahahaha, 868 comments! Do you get email notification of them?
David,
Yes :) The 868 is just those that were printable. Also, there were some repeats. The whole two-day experience was something else.
Cheers,
Samir
Bah! is all i can say! If I remember correctly, Dhoni in a post-match interview said, he was looking at getting 110 overs to bowl at the kiwis. The fact that he declared with more than 5 sessions to play shows that he was accounting for bad light. Of course, you are not exactly sure when its gonna start to rain. India got in 93 overs. He could've declared a little earlier and its possible we would've had no play on day 5. NZ could've batted out of their skins and made the chase... I think Dhoni's first and foremost responsibility is to his teammates and his bosses and that is to deliver the series which he did. Yeah, the fans may not like the tactics but it sure is effective. I agreed with India's tactics against England in England when they drew the last match to win the series... Yeah, they could have gone for a win and won 2-0 or for that matter against Pakistan at home when they won the series 1-0 and almost pulled off the 2-0 with Kumble bowling seam up in the 2nd innings -- but the key is winning the series. How he does it, I don't care a jot!
Subash: Let me use a running analogy. If you don't develop a finishing kick, you will only win races when the field is weak. The Indian cricket team will remain at #3 or so unless it develops such a finishing kick. I've been watching Indian teams for over 30 years now. This problem remains the same. Call it "ensuring a series win" or "lack of killer instinct" or whatever you want - somehow the result is the same, a drawn test when a win was possible.
Samir -- I understand what you're saying. However, you cannot compare this current team with those of the past. This team actually competes in every game and wins test matches overseas on a regular basis. However, they are still in their infancy in terms of winning test series. Yeah, the team from 2003-2006 won matches overseas but did not close out the series deal, now this one's doing that as well. Baby steps, baby steps.
Those who are defending Dhoni are probably the same ones who criticised Rahul when he was defensive in England and settled for a 1-0 series win. And there was not even prediction of rain, then so he was justified better than Dhoni.
Problem with Indian cricket is one of holy cows - Dhoni/Sachin can do anything, they are Gods; Poor Rahul, he scores 75 off 36 balls for BRC, is their best batsman in IPL - 1, yet all previews by bloggers, newspapers, TV commentators mark him as a liability for BRC as compared to, note this, Mark Boucher, Virat Kohli and Misbah Misbah was miserable-bah last year. Yet, newspapers cooly write that as compared to luminaries like Misbah, Rahul Dravid failed to shine last year.
Same with Ganguly. Ricky Ponting, David Hussey, and a bulk of others failed for KKR last year, Dada actually was instrumental with his all-round skills in winning matches for them. Nobody else made a whiff of a difference - Shoaib won a match with a 15 minute spell, and Hussey flopped, and flopped again, and again. Yet, he is touted as the one-of-5-captains for KKR. And the younger Hussey has been pathetic for Oz, too, recently.
What a bunch of morons, the Indian media are! (and some bloggers, too!)
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