The Indian team seems to have a 'hearing problem' in addition to its bowling and fielding woes which led to its failure to defend a strong score of 338 in the World Cup match against England here last night.
The on field umpire Billy Bowden with the Australian third umpire, made a mockery and added more fuel to the fire when he ruled Ian Bell - not out after reviewing the LBW DRS appeal. His interpretation was the leg was 2.5 meters in front of the stumps, which the English commentators themselves would not agree.
Replays showed three things working in favor of the appeal --- there was no no-ball, the ball hit in line, and Hawkeye said the ball was hitting the middle stump. Seeing the replay on the giant screen, Bell started walking back when the umpires decided to stay the not-out decision.
Hawkeye said the ball was hitting the stumps and there was no reason to not give it out, even though Bell was out of his crease. There were many instances in which batsmen walked down the pitch, hit on the shin and were given out LBW. So if that can be out, so should be this.
This is a clear example of adulteration of technology with human intervention.
The World Cup match between India and England at Bangaluru, which ended in a thrilling tie, has sparked a new life into the tournament and sent a strong message to the critics who believe that one-day cricket is nearing its moribund stage, British media reported on Monday.
In a nerve-wracking World Cup group-B league match at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium last night, England tied the scores after being set an imposing target of 339 by the Indians.
I really thought the game would be over by the 48th over the way Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell were batting, so I am quite happy with the result.
Dhoni, covering one of his many faults of not retaining Zaheer for the 49th over said he was at peace having given Munaf Patel the final over in which England needed 14 to win. Rookie pacer Azmal Shahzad hit a first-ball six to put England back in the game. But Munaf did a good job. He was bowling in the right areas, but Shahzad played a good shot. It happens.
No need to discuss about how poor bowling and fielding in addition to a late batting collapse that resulted in the fall of India's last seven wickets for 33 runs and nearly enabled England to win.
Strauss benefits as Team India turns deaf: England skipper Andrew Strauss, who was the architect of India's agony by hitting his highest ODI score of 158, should have been out when he has scored a mere 13 if wicket-keeper Dhoni, Zaheer or close-in fielders had appealed for a caught behind at that point. Strauss clearly nicked a Zaheer delivery but there was no appeal by the Indians.
98 runs later, the England skipper had another stroke of luck when he again edged Zaheer to Dhoni with his score at 111 but none of the Indians on the field appealed.
Some of the television commentators, who heard the clear nicks in the replays, thought that the Indian players probably did not hear the edges because of the crowd noise -- an unconvincing argument given the fact that Indian cricketers are used to noisy, boisterous crowds everytime they set foot on the field. No cricket ground in the world has as vocal spectators as Kolkata's Eden Gardens where over one lakh fans turn out for big matches.
Petersen also nicked a Munaf Patel delivery early in his inning as well (players never appealed)
Now each and every Indian cricket lovers are so worried and scared about this WC. How can a team listed as favorites to win the World Cup concede 621 runs in their first two matches? That is the worrying thought as the Indian campaign continues on its roller coaster ride, the ups being provided by the batting and the downs by the bowling and fielding.
The words Shahid Afridi has used in lambasting his own team could well be used for the Indians too. "If we field like this we will return home long before we have planned" said the Pakistan captain mincing no words in describing the abysmal fielding standards.
But by going with what we have seen so far the Indian cricketers are no better. For at least a couple of players it is ‘going back’ to the bad old days when the fielders used to "escort the ball to the boundary."
One wonders as to how a team can hope to win the World Cup with thin bowling resources and sub-standard fielding and faulty catching. The latter has always been a sadly neglected aspect of Indian cricket and while there has been some improvement in recent years the Indians are still some way behind most other countries whose players leap, dive and slide while making saves or completing catches. Indian team’s fielding appears to be far below the standards displayed by some of the teams like Kenya, Zimbabwe and Netherland.
In a closely fought match between teams evenly balanced in batting and bowling - and from the quarter-finals every match is going to be frightfully close - it is the 20 odd runs conceded in the field or a dropped catch that can make the decisive difference between winning and losing.
The point is that MS Dhoni seems resigned to the ineptitude in the field. After Sunday's game the Indian captain remarked that "we could have defended this total if we had a better fielding side but we have to make do with what we have got." Therein lies the problems for the Indians. It is customary for any team's think tank to discuss shortcomings after a match and come up with solutions.
The disturbing aspect is that there seems to be no practical solution for these twin problems. The fielding will continue to be sub-standard while the bowling will continue to be hit all over the park whether the team management goes in for three seamers and a spinner or two seamers and two spinners.
A lot has made about the Indians having many part time spin options but on current evidence their bowling does not provide a comforting thought. On the contrary it is alarming to think that the team will have to soldier along on these lines with the Indian team management not inclined to shift from the seven batsmen four bowler policy.
Time and again the Indian batting has come to the rescue of the team. But it appears that the most illustrious batting line-up in the game will have to perform superlatively even by its own Himalayan standards in the World Cup. If the bowling and the fielding cannot defend a total of 338, what can be done? A lot may be made of the fact that the Indians slid sharply from 305 for three to 338 all out. It is asheer display of reckless batting at the end.
I am sure the bookies have already made some changes and installed Pakistan, South Africa or Australia as the new favorites. Going by what one has seen during the first ten days of the competition these three teams have been particularly impressive but of course it is still a long way to April 2 and anything can happen. Who expected Pakistan down and almost out midway through their campaign in 1992 to emerge World Cup winners?
Plenty of fuss was also raised over the India and England match after former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne correctly tweeted seven hours before the start of the match that it would be a tie.
England skipper Andrew Strauss claimed that Warne had shown he was a cricket genius with his correct prediction but others also observed that it was strange how one could predict a tie so early before a match.
Yes, on summarizing, the main reasons for not winning this match:
1. Poor fielding - only one or two fast movers in the eleven. Others are anchored, flat footed fielders.- Sachin, Sehwag, Gambir, Yuvraj, Bhajji, Zac, Munaf, Chawla - no where near international standard.
2. Poor bowling ability, except for Zac, others have - no speed, no variation, no talent, no ideas. No one is available in India, Can't help.
3. Blunders by umpires, blunders by bowlers in not appealing (thrice).
4. Clueless lower batting order - 7 wickets given for 30 runs.
5. Very poor captaincy- in field placing, bowling changes.
6. Above all, team has a terrible coach- who doesn't do home work at all. No bowling strategies, No batting strategy towards the end, Unable to read the opponents and perform the SWOT analysis, Not working in repairing our batsmen's weakness against short pitch balls, slog over bowling, catching and fielding. Simply hangs around, never troubles the players to work hard, pats all the players all the time, keep their belongings (mob ph, wallet etc) and be a nice guy. Only one solution - We need Greg Chappell maan !!!
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