Viru to open the batting?
I really doubt the seriousness with which the Indian team took the field during their world cup opener against Bangladesh. Will any sane person let an out-of-form batsman like Sehwag, open the batting? They made the mistake and they paid the price when Viru dragged an in-cutter on to the stumps. I t was Mortaza who hit the first nail on the Indian coffin. Experts have been repeatedly saying that ODIs are won by good opening partnerships. While batting first, only when a team gets a decent opening partnership, can the middle order capitalize on the good start and build an innings to set a defendable target.
Dravid ‘The Best No.3’ Batsman
The moment the Indian team’s think-tank saw the openers struggling to get going and score runs freely, they should have decided that the next batsman who goes in should not be an inexperienced player (Robin Uthappa) but a technically sound batsman (Dravid). If the team management can’t take such simple logical decisions, then the logic behind hiring a foreign coach is in question.
Middle order collapse
The Indian middle order collapsed once again denying the team any opportunity to recover from the pathetic start that they had. Uthappa departed flashing outside the off stump. Tendulkar, Dravid and even Dhoni fell prey to some top quality left arm spin bowling by Rafique and Razzak. The next time when somebody tells you that the Indians are good players of spin bowling, give that person a tight slap and ask him/her to watch this match’s video. Ganguly and Yuvi had no option but to do the damage control by not losing another wicket.
Good partnership between Dada and Yuvi
The only consolation in the otherwise poor Indian batting display, was the partnership between Dada and Yuvi. They played sensible cricket and kept the score board ticking. In their attempt to rotate the strike, they didn’t miss any opportunity to score boundaries off loose deliveries. They eventually got out trying to accelerate the scoring rate.
Mahi disappoints
M.S. Dhoni, who is being appreciated by experts through out the world for his ability to change gears at will, didn’t do justice to his fans. When Ganguly departed, leaving Mahi with a tail-ender called Bhajji, what would anybody expect Dhoni to do? Dhoni should have held one end and should have asked Harbhajan to go for his shots. But he did the exact opposite. He tried to guide the ball fine between the wicket-keeper and the gully fielder and ended up giving an easy catch.
Lack of application
If the irresponsible performance by the Indian batters has to be summed-up, then I would call it ‘Lack of Application’. Had the top order batsman showed the courage and guts that Zaheer and Munaf displayed, we could have scored in excess of 250. In fact during the Bangladeshi innings, for the last half an hour we were defending the runs scored by this Indian duo’s last wicket partnership.
Bangladesh’s innings
The Bangladeshis were impressive in their batting too. Their opener Tamim Iqbal, blasted the Indian bowling and gave his team a very good start. Rahim is the player whom the irresponsible Indian batsmen should learn from. He never looked like getting out through out his innings. His strike rate was not high, alright, but the way he held one end of their batting and saw his team home was commendable. Saqibul Hasan exhibited a fearless batting display. Ashraful, the gutsy Bangladeshi batsman who scored a century against Australia during that historic defeat that the Aussies suffered at the hands of Bangladesh, had very little to do, before taking his team to victory.
Indian Bowling
The Indian bowling was good considering that the match went on till the 48th over. Bhajji was the most impressive of the lot. Munaf Patel also impressed with his impeccable line and length. Zaheer, who sent the 1st Bangladeshi batsman to the pavilion, and Agarkar looked decent on a bowler friendly pitch.
Overall a forgettable outing for Team India.
