Aaya waapas India!!!!

The Indian challenge in ICC World Cup 2007 is over!!!!! We could not even get past the league phase of the tournament. The league phase, at the most, was designed to give a morale boost to the upcoming cricketing nations and the real WC was supposed to start in the second phase, with the 8 strongest teams. Now the Super 8 will be played sans Pakistan and India!!!! India has no one but themselves to blame. They were uncertain and scared in their match against Bangladesh and they let go a fairly simple opportunity against Srilanka. Indians bowled well to restrict the lankans to 254 though they did let go the leash in the end overs. And then the mighty Indian batting line up put a strong display.....of its weakness. Utthapa played positively but inexperience got the better of him. Ganguly, after playing two innings for regaining his captaincy, played an unnecessary and rash shot. He was among the runs in the two previous matches but he was not playing for the team. Runs never flowed from his bat. All he needed to do was to rotate strike. Tendulkar disappointed by getting bowled by an incoming delivery, a long time problem. Yuvraj Singh, who was in supreme touch in both the previous matches, ran himself out and Dhoni got out in the ugliest of fashion. The match did expose Rahul Dravid. He may be a man for crisis as he clutches on to one end but he is certainly not a match winner in the shorter version of the game. I have always maintained that Rahul Dravid cannot pull off a victory by himself when the asking rate is climbing on top of him. He always needs a stroke player at the other end. In the match, when the asking rate was hovering around 7 runs an over, "The Wall" was busy taking singles and giving strike to Ajit Agarkar!!! Well played Captain!!!

Now, the whole of India....the media...the politicians...ex-cricketers...selectors...BCCI..everyone will start playing a blame game. Greg Chappel will be on top of the hit list. People will talk that the "senior" cricketers should have made for youngsters. But isnt that exactly what Greg Chappel asked for? We never gave the man a freehand. He was always under the scanner and constant media pressure. I do not have any grudges against the man. Its our team who has let us down. Its unbelievably painful. :-(