O pen up…

Hi,

If an American finds the news of India winning a world cricket tournament interesting and sends a congratulation mail to his Indian colleagues, I am sure you should accept that Twenty20, the new format of cricket started with the same purpose, has been successful. I spoke to my American manager and he was all inquisitive about the kind of effect India-Pakistan matches have on the cricket fans. I am sure, I have sold the concept of cricket to him. All praise should go to ICC for introducing the format that binds people to the game.

Now coming to the match, I am a big believer in body language and other psychological factors that affect the result of a game, and since the toss, I could see that India, though nervous, had the belief that this was going to be their day. The way Dhoni spoke immediately after the toss showed that even ‘captain courageous’ could get nervous, but something in his voice conveyed that they were going to pull it through. Shoaib Malik tried to put on a casual tone dismissing any pressure India-Pakistan match can have on his team, but the tension that he had beneath the surface was evident.

India did not have the best of the starts, but Indian batsmen have matured in the way they are handling innings. They are no longer giving any importance to reputations and are believing in the age old wisdom of building partnerships. The partnership between Yuvraj and Gambhir was actually a good one. Though Yuvraj did not fire, Gambhir kept going and made sure that India had a good platform for a decent score. Rohit Sharma utilised this platform to push the scoreboard just beyond a respectable score. While Gambhir controlled his risky shots, Rohit Sharma impressed everyone with his cool head.

With the runs on the board, Dhoni’s men always believed they had a chance and applied pressure the way they had done in the previous matches. After Azharuddin, I feel Dhoni is the only captain who has succeeded in pressurizing the opponent teams. I am not saying anything against Saurav or Dravid – they both were excellent captains, but their captaincy styles were different. Saurav and Dravid lead their teams by setting an example whereas Dhoni’s style is that of bringing the best out of his mates and making the right tactical moves to put pressure on the opponent team.

Anyways, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan took crucial wickets for India and the match was almost over before Misbah showed some real guts. Again it was Irfan and RP that pulled back the game with 2 important wickets. Dhoni’s decision to give the ball to Joginder Sharma in the final over can be debated till the end of this milennium but the only thing the decision shows is ‘Dhoni knows tactics’. It definitely was a surprise for Misbah and he was tempted to go for an uncoventional shot and failed miserably.

The post match euphoria was evident the most in Harbhajan Singh’s actions. The way he was shouting and the way he was jumping and dancing just showed how much the victory meant to India. The last catch taken by Sreesanth set the nation on fire. Deepthi and I could not believe it for a second, particularly after witnessing Misbah’s batting, and we both were jumping for the next 5 minutes. The tournament has costed me a lot of mobile bill, as I was constantly on phone with my Dad and Vivek Chauhan discussing every wicket, every sixer. Never in my life have I enjoyed a cricket tournament this much. Hope to see more of such tournaments and more wins for India. Chak De…

Hi,

I liked Sunil Gavasakar’s song at the end of the Thursday match between India and South Africa – ‘Chak De, Chak De India! Choke De Choke De South Africa!’

So very true. India batted like men and bowled superbly (except for the umpteen wides given away) and fielded like lions and made sure there was no chance they could not qualify. South Africa never ever believed they could even qualify to the semis (let alone winning against India).

The comment made by Dhoni, “The team believed that they can beat SA even on a pitch as tough as the Kingsmead’s and the belief got them through” and the comment made by Shastri, “SA have always looked at the figure 126 rather than the figure 154 and believed that there was a possibility of them getting knocked out. That belief did them in” sum up the mood in the two camps.

I also liked the comment made by Graeme Smith, “We seem to be inventing ways to get ourselves knocked out of World Cup tournaments”. I actually felt sympathetic towards the SA camp when they started panicking to qualify for the semi finals. But at the end of it, there is just one statement you can make. THEY DID NOT DESERVE A SEMI FINAL BERTH.

I had watched all the world cup exits of SA:
1. 1992 – Only their 1999 exit was as tragic as the 1992 one. In the semi final encounter against England, their target was revised from 22 runs to win in 13 balls to 22 runs to win in 1 ball – by a stupid rain rule.
2. 1996 – SA having won all their league matches was on a song only to face wounded Windies in the quarter finals. West Indies, having suffered a humiliating loss in the hands of the Kenyans, gave it all they had to defeat the South Africans. Lara’s 111 in the match was a world class innings.
3. 1999 – The tragic exit where SA almost scraped it through with Klusener in deadly form. His 2 boundaries off the first 2 balls of the last over just rocketed past the fielders who stood helpless and then Aussies tightened the field to get Donald run out and a first ever tie in a semi final match in the World Cup took Aussies through because they were rated better than SA in the Super Six stage.
4. 2003 – None was as stupid as the 2003 exit where they mis-read the Duckworth Lewis system and ended up with a tie (which knocked them out). Boucher playing a defensive shot off the last ball will make him grimace at himself every morning when he wakes up from sleep.

True that the players’ psyche gets affected due to such losses. But the fact remains – If they can’t play under pressure they can’t win the world cup.

Hi,

The India Vs New Zealand match in the Super Eights was a match for the Indian cricketers to learn from their mistakes. Firstly, Dhoni has to realise that Agarkar is not the best bowler to be reserved for the final overs. I understand that during the early overs, he is getting tempted to use the spinners and other slow bowlers which is leaving him with Agarkar as the only option towards the end. But in this match, Dhoni had 2 overs of Pathan left and still he opted for Agarkar.

My sympathies are with Dhoni because he expected him to bowl with the same economy after yielding somewhere around 15 runs in his first 2 overs. Same with Yuvraj. Yuvraj is a kind of bowler who can be given only 1 or 2 overs just to break partnerships. He cannot bowl better than that. The batting lacked the maturity after an explosive start given by the openers. Batsmen just had to stay there to get runs, but they panicked.

And Dinesh Karthik was a culprit in the match. He had dropped the catch of Jacob Oram when New Zealand were batting. Then, he got Dhoni run out and he himself tried to hit too much off Vittori who was bowling amazingly well that too the immediate ball after he got dropped (the last ball of Vittori’s spell) – he committed too many blunders and looks like he is praised by everyone because he looks athletic. True he looks athletic and saves some runs in the field once in a while, but he lacks some basic skills to play longer for India. Let us hope he learns soon and the team too learns after its mistakes in the match.

Hi,

The Twenty20 match between India and Pakistan was one of the best cricket matches I have ever watched. Not that, great quality cricket was played, but the match had all the ingredients of a box office thriller. The first ever tie in the T20 world cup and the tiebreaker in the form of ‘Bowl Out’ was amazing to watch. And the fact that India won the ‘Bowl Out’ comprehensively was even more satisfying. It was good to note that Indian team was prepared for the ‘Bowl Out’ and Sehwag, Bhajji and Uthappa are among the best candidates for the same eventuality. I believe no other team would have done this much homework on “Bowl Out’.

Anyways, the match was gripping from the beginning till the end. Although India lost 4 early wickets owing to a superb spell by Asif, Indian batsmen had never given up. It was good to see them play the entire quota of 20 overs and make as many runs as were possible on the pitch owing to the bad weather conditions. The bowling was good and despite some loose balls by Bhajji and Agarkar in the end, it was impeccable. It is time the Mumbai selectors stop pushing Agarkar into the team. He has done enough damage and has proved to be a match winner for the opponent teams. I personally used to be a fan of his bowling as he was a wonderful wicket-taker. But he is too expensive a bowler to be retained in T20. Irfan Pathan who is bowling wonderfully wasn’t kept back for the last overs in a match which had all the signs of having a thrilling finish. Anyways, the last 2 balls bowled by Sreesanth were gr8 under pressure and Dhoni’s cool head was easily seen in the attitude of the Indian team. Now that India is in the Super Eights, it is time to let the best players be included in the playing eleven.