Can we have a series without finals?. Review on Indian Oil Cup Tri-Series 2005

ANOTHER LOSE

09/08/2005 witnessed another disgusting performance by the Indian cricket team, this time by 18 runs which may sound a narrower margin to lose.  After failing to beat the Srilankans in the league matches, the Indians managed to achieve another defeat in the finals, but this time under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid who could only manage to say'Pressure will be on Srilanka' before the match.

Dravid's captaincy still continued going the wrong way as the Indians managed to lose more matches than they won with him as the captain.  After narrowly edging the weak West Indies team without Brian Lara, Chris Gayle or Sarwan, the Indians managed to lose all the advantages they had against the final match against Srilanka.

LOST A VICTORY

With Shewag finally coming back to his original flow, the advantage which the Indians had was spoiled due to the inability to accelerate during the middle overs and at the end.  The required run rate which was just above five when Shewag departed and just a bit higher as Ganguly left, the runs were coming, but the Indians just seemed to lag behind the run rate required.

The middle order did give some contribution, but it was the way in which the last six wickets fell in a hurry, that destroyed the Indian hopes.  The Indian lower order failed to click when it was most needed.  The big hits were missing and the runouts maximised the Indian problems.

Coming back to Indian bowling, it was never upto the mark in the last match.  Even Ashish Nehra who took six wickets managed to give runs at the rate of almost six an over - the way in which he bowled to Vaas was simply horrible.  The fact that the strike bowlers of India remain wicketless is a tragic phenomenon as Pathan and Zaheer Khan doesn't seem to trouble the batsmen much these days.  Even Kumble and Harbhajan remained wicketless.

GOING ON.

The highlight of the series were the 10, 000 run mark of Saurav Ganguly and Sanath Jayasuriya following Inzamam and Tendulkar.  Ganguly showed signs of coming back to form in the series and so did Yuvraj and Kaif in the final league match, but no one could save India in the finals(as usual), even the World Cup finals was no exception.  Dravid also made some contributions, but he too failed to make a big score.  Even if the Indians have lost lots of finals, this one can be said as the one match which they gave away due to some irresponsible performance.

As long as the fielding is concerned, I have to admit that the Indians have done a better job.  But it surely is the West Indies team that did a great job in the field.  A group of inexperienced players beating Srilanka andgiving some scare to the Indians was amazing.  It seems that they do have some future in themselves.  Even the Srilankan debutant bowlers were bowling at a good line and length and managed to end up with better figures.  It seems that Tom Moody will be one of the happiest men alive on the day.

WHERE IS INDIA?

India's opening disaster came to an end when Shewag and Ganguly put a 67 and 62 for the first week as Ganguly was retired hurt in the final league match.  But the fact that the team has got some players who perform only on rare occasions is a concern.  All the bowlers and our wicket keeper are some of them.  Lets hope that these players will one day become far more responsible and the Indian team will keep on winning matches, especially those finals which they just cannot end in style.

Just look at the Ashes series - the way in which the Aussies fought back through the tailenders was amazing - even if they lost the match by a small margin, they were able to give a scare to the opposition.  It just wasn't a meek surrender like the Indians, letting a match in their hands go off.

TOO PREDICTABLE

We can see how the Srilankans fought back after Shewag smashed them all around the ground - but remember what happened to the Indians when Afridi send the Indian bowlers to the boundary?  Rahul Dravid, who was the captain then, didn't have an answer, but Marvan Attapattu does have some tactics.  Its time that the Indians learn from their mistakes - there are lots of mistakes from which they can learn.

Well, this performance was surely what I expected, if you want know how to repeat the same mistake again and again, just take a look at the Indian team - they are just too predictable.  Who else can mess up things better than this team?  May be the other teams will now hope to have the Indians in finals with them so that they can lift the cup in an easier way.  Let's hope that something like that run chase Natwest Trophy does happen again.

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