T20 World Cup: India failed in all departments of the game

29 September, 2012

It was the weak Indian bowling along with the failure of their famed batting line up, which lead to an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Australian cricket team in Super Eight match in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

THE INDIAN team put up an embarrassing performance with both the bat and the ball to lose their first encounter in the super eight stage match against the mighty Aussies. The Indian team put up a paltry score of 140 runs, which was an easy target for the strong Aussie batting line up, and they completed the run chase with more than five overs to spare. Shane Watson and David Warner tore apart the Indian bowlers with their lusty hitting. Earlier, it was their bowlers, who did not give anything away against the Indian batsmen.

In this nnis video, MS Dhoni indirectly put the blame on the rain, which spoilt India's chances. He says, “The ball got wet, it was very difficult for all the spinners, who bowled short pitched bowling and full tosses, which meant there was no grip for them and that was the reason why we did not put pressure on the Australians.” These are just lame excuses. The writing is clear on the wall – India batted and bowled poorly. Indians are still to learn the art of accepting defeat graciously.

The Indian team wanted to play with five bowlers, hence one of the batsmen had to miss out. Sehwag was unfortunate in this regard. It could have been better to drop a middle order batsmen rather than Sehwag, whose presence instills fear among his opponents. The opening slot is such a vital position in any format and they went in for a make-shift opener in the form of Irfan Pathan. There stands no comparison between the two. In fact, Sehwag is the best opener in the team. He may be out of form but a cameo of five overs can tilt the match in favour of India. Hope, MS Dhoni does not commit the same error against Pakistan.

It goes without saying that amongst all the teams in the super eight stage, India has the weakest bowling line up. It was on full display against the Aussies, who made merry at the expense of the Indian bowling. The two best bowlers of the Indian team, Zaheer Khan and R. Aswhwin opened the bowling attack but to no avail. What does one expect from the rest of the bowlers when there was no early break through.

Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla and Irfan Pathan went for more than 10 runs per over. One wonders, what was the need for the Indian team to go in with 3 spinners. If they wanted to play five bowlers, they could have played Balaji, who deceives batsmen with his pace. But the baby-faced Chawla was picked by MS Dhoni, and later put on a poker face when questioned about the decision.

Now, India is scheduled to play a do or die game against Pakistan. If they come up with a similar performance along with same team combination, expect the next morning newspaper headlines to read, 'India exits from T20 World Cup'.