Canberra: Indians grounded.

The indians won’t know what had hit them, would they? 194/5 off 29 overs was a big score though not the batted-out-of-the-game score. But to bowl out OZ for 169 on one day and to lose this game by eight wickets, sure the Indians would be confused.

That’s because Indians made many omission and commission of errors both before and after the start of the game.

Before start.
(i) While 125-all-out srilankan team chose to drop a batsman and come with five bowlers, India went in with 8 batsmen (including pathan). While India did well to bowl out OZ for paltry 169 at MCG, but a fifth bowlers there would have atleast maintained pressure and score points over OZ batting order if not bowled them out for even more paltry score. You got to learn from your victories as well. Dhoni and his team did not do that and it was no surprise they looked the dumbest thing on Canberra.

(ii) The 169 run chase at MCG looked difficult because Gambhir and rohit sharma found it difficult to score runs once the shine is off the ball. Ideally gambhir, who had some excellent strike-rate innings at top of the order in 20-20 format, should have to bat there. Instead the Indians have made out a grafter out of him by playing in No3.

After start.
(i) It was 29 overs game, a bit more than a 20-20 game but very less than a 50 over game. Gambhir and rohit again was at wrong place; grafted and the projected score kept falling.

(ii) The target for srilanka was 154 off 21 overs. My god, it was 20-20 chase and look what Dhoni came up with? Three slips and only 2 on onside! Sure you need to attack and take wickets in any form of cricket. But an attack that leaks runs in plenty would recede to defence at the same pace. The Indians lost to pre-meditated back foot play by lankans. Indian bowlers need a lot to learn from this match.

Summing up, The Indians lost not because of lack of skills but because of (lack of) understanding of game and refusal to learn from matches. Honestly, I am tempted to think that Indians have been fortunate not to have seen shown dumber on more occasions in the series. Indian media and fans sure played more than a big hand in that.