Panic button in the times of Knee Jerks !

England on the verge of thrashing India 4-0 in the Test series. There are reactions galore. One of my friends said, "What happened all of a sudden that the batsmen, bowlers and fielders; all have failed except for one".

Geoffrey Boycott  declared, "India look like a pale shadow of an ordinary team". There are a lot of reactions, over-reactions and knee-jerk reaction with doomsayers abundant.

In spite of a lot of criticism, Dhoni declared, "No need to press the panic button". Sreesanth said, "This is not the toughest series we have played". Not much has been heard from the likes of Laxman, Sachin, Sehwag and of course Gambhir.

Facebook, Twitter and all social networking sites are overflowing with snide remarks, tweets and offensive comments about the greed of our players. It hurts to see a team lose like this. I don't remember Team India playing such spineless Cricket since the 2003 New Zealand series.

For one who predicted a 2-1 or 1-2 or 2-2 result for the series, I too am taken aback. So I decided to sit back and doing a postmortem of the series. Keeping the knee-jerk out, here is what I feel about the series.

What went right for England

England were playing full strength with very few carrying injuries. Playing at home, they had abundant supply of replacements. They had walloped Australia in Australia and were very very eager for the No. 1 spot. They played ruthless, efficient and Champion brand of Cricket, no doubts. They deserve to be No. 1 now and no contesting that either. But if we look closer, so many things went in favor of England. Almost all things.

Home conditions, swinging pitches with bounce and carry.
All top order batters in form and even one who was out of form came out on top as the series progressed.
Their bowlers were definitely in supreme control and never allowed Indian batsmen to relax.
Every Umpiring and UDRS decisions went in favor of England. They got the Bell run-out reversed and sent Dravid packing when there was no clear evidence.
Overall they were fantastic on field and absolutely ruthless in every aspect including gamesmanship.

What went wrong for India

Sehwag and Gambhir in full form and fitness have terrorized best of the bowling attacks over the past 4 years. Both of them were coming back from long lay off and lack of match fitness showed.
Laxman and Tendulkar have done fabulously well for 4 years since 2007, the last time India toured England. Every time there was a crisis, one of these two had stepped in to lift the team. It was just the law of averages perhaps. Both failed in tandem.
During the series, India never completed test without someone breaking down.
Losing 2 out of 11 players on a tour can be tough. Then how about entire half of the team ? Gambhir, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Sehwag, Yuveraj, Sachin and then Praveen Kumar were hampered by injuries at one time or the other. Three of them were completely sidelined.
Umpires were reasonably kind to India but UDRS was not.

I have no complaint about the Cricket India played. The best of the teams can lose. But the way they capitulated to the pressure mounted by England to call back Bell was deplorable. For me, that was the defining moment in the series. If India had stood the ground, it would not have escalated into World war-3. But it definitely would have sent a message across. It was all downhill from there. The tough have thumped the soft-bellied meek.

This piece should not be dismissed as rantings of a disgruntled Indian fan. Just remember how England bumbled through World Cup 2011 and then kept complaining about everything including the size of the shrimps served for dinner.

Before we castigate this team for this series, let us not forget they had 'Won' the World Cup less than four months ago and had not lost a Test series since 2008. This just was one really sad series where nothing went right for India and everything worked perfectly for England. That will not happen all the times. India will bounce back and we have enough talent to sustain us in the Top-3 if not the top spot.

So, cheer up guys and gals and relax. Tomorrow is another day and Poms will fall sooner than later !





SPun Doctor Also blogs @ http://diehardcricketfans.org/category/contributed/govind-raj-shenoy/

Oh Kiwis, They Know Not What They've done !

The Bhajji, The Kiwis and The Peace of Mind of a Country !

New Zealand have always tormented India. Much worse than the South Africans, Steve Bucknor, Maoists and Pakistan sponsored Terrorists. India's records against Australia, Pakistan, England and West Indies have shown significant improvement over the past decade. But the Kiwis somehow have maintained a kind of enviable hold over the Indian psyche. Something like the Post-Miyandad Pakistan did for a long time.

This is true in spite of the fact that India managed to beat the Kiwis in Kiwi-land the last time they visited. But that win was a labored one. This can be explained by the fact that India always play at the level of opponents. Never crushing wins; almost always hard fought wins !

Chris Martin gave a glimmer of hope of an unbelievable win for the Kiwis last evening. But that perhaps was a ploy by the Indian top order to fool the visitors and then unleash Laxman once again on a day five pitch.

Laxman did what he is best at. He batted on and on and on till the frustrated Umpire Davies got him out. How can he remain not out for the third time in three tests on a day five wicket ? There should be some kind of respect for that dreaded entity !

But what the Kiwis have managed to do or rather not managed to do is what is going to hurt us Indians more and more in future.

No, it isn't Chris Martin's spell on day-4. We have seen and survived worse !

No, it isn't Kane Kane Williamson's maiden hundred on debut. We have seen that too !

No, it isn't Jesse Ryder either. Ryder somehow likes Indian bowling like Srisanth loves to make faces.

No, it isn't about denying Sachin Tendulkar his 50th test century. He will get that and we aren't worried.

No, it also isn't about Rahul Dravid managing to survive and thus keeping Pujara out for some more time.

It is about Harbhajan Singh's Century. For a long time now, he has threatened us with his 'All-round' abilities. The Aussies managed to keep him at bay. He has played some cameo knocks before and has saved some matches or helped in some wins.

But a Test Century had eluded him. It was this distinction that allowed us to sleep in peace. The peace assured by the fact that we can always ridicule Bhajji for his 'tall claims'. Alas, the peace of mind is decimated now.

Bhajji had declared himself as 'All-rounder' before the recent Australia series. And we all had a good laugh when he failed with the bat. Imagine a Century on a last day track for Bhajji. How will we survive the Centurion Harbhajan now ?

Oh They Know Not What They Have Done !





S-Pun Doctor