IT IS said that cricket is a great leveller. A young exuberant side led by MS Dhoni with almost no Twenty20 (T20) experience had shocked the world by winning the world cup in South Africa. It was a team effort but the team did have its share of heroes. Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir with the bat, Harbhajan Singh and RP Singh with the ball. The world champions arrived at Melbourne to take up the Aussies’ challenge. The might of the Aussies had been humbled twice. But they were not the ones to take this lying down; even in the absence of Ponting and Hayden, it was a cakewalk for the kangaroos.

 

From an Indian point of view, it was a feeling of melancholy. Throughout the Aussie summer, this was one clash that was being anticipated. But, the Indian batsmen could not even last the stipulated quota of twenty overs, forget making a decent score. It was appalling to see Sachin Tendulkar watching the wickets fall down like bowling pins. Now we need to understand the importance of experience.

 

Look at the Aussie side – world champions, the best team in tests – and their recent win over India in T20 makes them a force to reckon with. Australia has had great youngsters doing well in the domestic circuit but sadly, there is no place for them in the international side. Guys like Hayden and Hussey had to wait till their thirties to make their respective debuts. Australia focuses on performance and form rather than age as criteria to fetch the players their coveted baggy green.

 

It was the same old story yesterday. A batting collapse, we all have got used to. Sehwag with a poor choice of a run, Gambhir and Uthappa trying to go over in the field even when they had barely gauged the bounce of the pitch, Karthik and Sharma falling to irresponsible shots, Dhoni trying to clear the field but only holing out to the fielder at square leg. And Indians could have been bowled out for the lowest total in T20 ever, if it was not for a face saving knock from Irfan Pathan, the only Indian batsman who exercised some caution while batting.

 

T20 is a game of fours and sixes, but remember the boundaries are still at the same distance and hence all the rules of cricket apply. Whatever the format of cricket is, you just can’t score from the first ball. You need to get yourself set first. Indian batsmen, it seems, were awed by the great occasion and this is where the experience of Tendulkar could have helped. And you can’t really prove that guys like Karthik, Sharma or Uthappa are better players then Tendulkar.

 

The scene that caught my eyes was the one in which, there was a spinner bowling to a number eleven batsman with all the fielders crowding around the bat. Trust me, it may have been a hat-trick ball but you will never see this happening again. This must have hurt the pride of the Indians, as the Aussies, most certainly, avenged their two earlier defeats.