In short, a stupid side gives stupid results. If the vehicle driven is an 1970 designed ambassador, whether the driver is rahul dravid / or ganguly, the results are going to be predictable. So 2005 July season begins a repeat of 2004.
Begins with sachin out till october, so we are gonna win nothing as the ’’side’’ always needed sachin. Sachin’s absence is now showing the sheer backrupcy of the side due to Dalmia-isation, and now we need 101 Dalmiations to equal ourselves to the task of 11 players. Our woes are going to get fuller if you check out the standard of English county sides playing 20-20.
Series began with:
No sachs.
Ganguly - bad form, he never deserved to be in the side as a batsmen and in the finals, his score was just a counter to indicate the number of overs he batted. Completely neutered the Indian XI a bonus of 30 odd runs given by Sehwag. If u see Sehwag’s rate, it actually mean he cut out 30 runs from Lanka and we had to do just 230 in 46 overs. We landed up 212 all out ! Ganguly does better for the side if he gets out for 2 in over number 2 rather than 20 odd runs in over number 20. Frankly he is as useful to the side as yesterday’s used nose-wipe tissue, if one still wants to carry this in your pocket to endorse some drinks or desh ki dhadkan bikes ... hmmm.
Kaif was game, but his fitness needs work. Fitness is not only about running end to end or wicket to wicket quickly, that is how Kaif works. It is also physical strength. Our game was over when Yuvraj was out. The others simply did not have the physical strenght to push the ball anywhere near 5 yards of the boundary circle. So the asking rate simply went climbing. However his score was good, though performances in overs 35-45 was not upto the mark.
Russell Arnold does not have strength, but he scores by simply using cross bat sweeps and other strokes to the leg-onside. And our stupid bowlers kept bowling at the legs, Dravid in his intelligent fielding packed guys on that side instead of having guys on the off with a slip, third man and off fields and bowl at his weakness, the off-side.
Dravid - did his job, acted as an anchor, got out a bit too early. Dhoni and the rest ran out of overs. 6-7 overs in the last with asking rate of 11-12 against the Vaas - no way man.
Bowling: Nehra was my ghoda through-out the tournament, and always looks to be the one to take wickets. Strategy for laid out before the match - only way to win was to knock the wickets. Unfortunately, only one bowler delivered. Sardar does not have the brains or the intellect to be a good spinner. This klutz kept bowling at the legs at a cant of 5-10 degrees line, but with most of the field on the off-side. So even though the figures looked flattering, no wickets at the end of it.
Zahir was the pits, absolutely no control on the movement or direction. He needs to go to england and learn the basics of controlled swing bowling. A much slower Vaas holds terror to the Aussies on these dead wickets, while this peacock only lands up staring and showing faltoo agro like a Sunil Shetty flick. Some lip for a just 80 mph bowler, wonder what where he is gonna look after Flintoff is through with him.
The fielding dropped crucial catches and with this kind of useless bowling, they never had a chance. When WI batsmen with major technical flaws scored 80 odd, the writing was always on the wall.
In the interim, the White countries are having a ball. NZ - UK - AU have raised batting to a new level, 5 runs an over in the Test matches and 90 overs a day. Vettori and Giles are among the best left arm spinners, Scott Styris - a stock bowler bowls at 80 mph, NZ with a nation of less than Bombay has 2 quickies in the 90+ mph category. About time this XI goes and works into the new economy - Call Centers
My advise: Switch over to Sania games, she looks good and she plays hard. About time she runs the racket over some of our super-upstar-ts.