Frustrating Finals

India yet again lost a final to Sri Lanka yesterday. The final margin turned out to be 18 runs. What made it even worse India were in the chase till about 35 overs chasing 282 for victory till panic set in and they lost it.

Any team with a reasonably stong middle order would be expected to win a match when you have to score 76 runs off 67 balls with 7 wickets in hand and the top scorer still on the crease. But not so in Indias case. First of all Yuvraj Singh played a highly irresponsible shot to get himself out. He probably should listen to Geoffrey Boycott who says always add 2 wickets to the present to get a real assessment of the value of your wicket. Yuvraj has done this time and again. In the Natwest Final though he acted very disconsolate he had actually thrown his wicket away. And to repeat the same mistake that too after a couple of years experience at the top level is unpardonable. The Indian selectors should probably take a leaf out of the Aussie selectors to drop him for the next 6 seasons. They did the same thing with Damien Martyn when he played an irresponsible shot in the 1994 series against SA, thus depriving us of watching one of the most graceful batsmen of our times.

And then the Indians panicked. Kaif had no job whatsoever looking at the ball when Dravid called him for a run. He should have shouted an outright "NO" when called if he felt there was no run, but he took 2 steps making Dravid commit and then refused in mid pitch. Dhoni played a forgettable innings. For the first time I think he is facing so much pressure and he came out on the losing side. He needs to tighten up on his defence and look to rotate the strike more. Pathan of course showed us why he will never become the fine batsmen that he can by getting out stumped off the last ball of a Murali over. He could have just knocked it down the ground for a single or just played him out and waited for the next over. As it is the old adage that you dont make any runs from the pavilion still holds good I think.

Zaheer Khan yet again started off by bowling so many wides that India must seriously consider resting him for any big match. He has lost all the pace he had when he made his debut, can no longer bowl the yorker consistently, has lost the ball that curves back in and is a liability on the field plus his fitness is always a question mark. The Indian bowling lacked incisiveness, there was no planning and just went about listlessly through their overs. There just wasnt any inspiration to be found everywhere.

I dont know what Greg Chapell has done to the Indians but for some strange reason they seem to be very angry these days. Look at Nehras reactions on taking wickets, or Yuvraj after scoring his century going be*****od. Or even Pathan. Aggressiveness is fine but if one is not enjoying cricket then they will never be able to perform at the peak. What was entirely avoidable was the spat between Harbhajan and Nehra in the middle of the field. Nothing can account for that sort of behaviour.

And then there were some strategic mistakes as well. Kaif should play at #4 the spot where he played at the world cup, he is a rotator of the strike and India sorely missed such a player in the middle of the innings. Yuvraj whose power hitting would have been more useful in case he had to play the last 13 overs would have been more useful at #6. I think India should play with Sachin,Sehwag,Ganguly,Kaif,Dravid,Raina,Dhoni rather than send in Kaif at #6 and expect him to hit boundaries on a slow,low pitch against the spinners. Further whenever one is trying something new, they always do it in a league match not in a final. I have no idea why they changed the composition for the final, the least they could have done was play this combination agains the Windies before the final.

The final was won by the team which enjoyed the game, had a quiet belief in themselves against an opponent who were listless, had a wrong notion of what constitutes agression, playing an untried line up, panicky led by a capatain whose head was on the line. No prizes for guessing who won.