02/01/08

Written by : TollywoodBollywood from IndianPad.

India's disastrous performance today can be easily written off as an one off batting collapse…but let me go one step forward and analyze today's performance from our boys.

With 90,000 people filling the MCG, an electric atmosphere was something that came with it. The way Dhoni's boys came out seemed like they wanted to score 200. Nothing wrong with that in a T20 match when you are 1 wicket down; nothing wrong when you are 2 wickets down but when you are 3 down?

Dhoni was asked at the toss how he felt about the stadium, the crowd presence and its atmosphere, It would have been nice if he just said it was wonderful to have so many present for a T20 match blah blah…Instead Mr. Dhoni chose to talk as if this was nothing compared to what he saw back in India. I have no problem with that, but a true ambassador of the country first acknowledges the facts and then justifies his words.

Revisiting the wickets today, Sehwag was the only one who was out to a brilliant piece of work. Gautam Gambhir hits one down mid-off's throat unable to read a slower ball off Brackan. I guess Dinesh Karthik does some special favors to Dhoni, no wonder he keeps reappearing in spite of his continued dismal performances, I wonder what he was doing exposing all his stumps to Bret Lee…bowled off a full toss, he is simply not capable of International level cricket. Watching Gambir getting out to a slower ball was not enough for Uthappa to learn that it is a slow pitch and the ball is holding up.

With the captain and a youngster like Rohan Sharma at the crease you would think sensibility will prevail and at 4/20 they would look at getting a score of 120 or so which might prove to be a competitive score on that slow wicket and full crowd. Rohan Sharma gets out playing probably what would be called a horrible shot in street cricket. Dhoni on the other end struggles to knock the ball into the gaps for 1's and 2's, so he decides its Six hitting time and holes up to midwicket. What followed after this was an absolute disgrace to Indian Cricket. At one stage all 10 fielders were around Ishant Sharma, Probably the first and the first and last time in T20 cricket. Today at the MCG everyone wanted to be a one ball wonder…and yes they did.

Sachin Tendulkar is rested?? Rested for a 4 hour match, who are you kidding Mr. Dhoni. To have Sachin Tendulkar on the bench while Dinesh Karthik plays is foolishness. Well… after getting rid of Dravid and Ganguly from the limited over's game, Dhoni only has Tendulkar to get rid of and I am sure that day is not too far away.

A team can be made into a great team with a blend of experience and youth, if we are considering Dhoni, Yuvraj and Irfan Pathan to be experienced players alongside which rookies can play international cricket, we are making a mistake. Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly are the experienced cricketers with whom 3-4 youngsters need to play along with Dhoni and Yuvraj.

I think this experiment of youngsters is all because the Captain and management feel intimidated by the big three's presence in the dressing room…Great players and teams cannot be made by force; it is a transformation process which none of us ever notice.

The three have to play along with youngsters for as long as possible to have the right balance…lets see what is in store for us in the ODI series…

These are just my views, I am completely open to discuss…

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A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after
another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was
a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he
arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very
carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he
would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached
into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped
something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put
his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten
thousand dollars.
"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"
So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer...... ......... ........ $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap......... ......... ........ $ 9, 998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the
difference!