India Makes An Early Exit From T20 World Cup -- Deja Vu..

In yet another disappointing display, Team India failed to deliver the goods in a must win situation; a game, victory in which would have kept the hopes alive to book a seat in the semis.. It was again the same old story of poor strategy and even worse execution..

As soon as the match started, it was baffling to see Dhoni opting to field (after winning the toss) in a must win situation match.. It is really very difficult to understand what makes the captain(s) decide to opt to field in a high pressure match.. If we go back a little, we will realize that luck has been on India's side in all such crunch matches and it's the skippers who made the wrong calls.. I will list quite a few of those below from what I remember:

• World Cup 1996 Semifinal match against Sri Lanka: Md Azharuddin made the right call in toss but surprisingly opted to field on a underprepared pitch at Eden Garden, Calcutta.. Opening ceremony of the World Cup had been organized at the same venue just a month ago leaving the organizers very little time to prepare a quality wicket.. Sri Lanka scored 251 in 50 0vers and in second inning the bowl started turning square and except Sachin, no one could handle the things.. India had made a paltry 120/8 in 34 overs, staring at a certain defeat when the crowd went berserk and match had to be stopped.. Sri Lanka were conceded the match.. A wrong call after toss costed India the match.. Even on a good batting pitch, chasing 250+ in a semifinal match would have been tough call..
• World Cup 2003 Semifinal match against Australia: Skipper Saurav Ganguly won the toss and elected to field! I still remember everyone in my hostel staring at the TV disbelievingly in utter frustration.. Cheer which was there moments before(after winning the toss) suddenly disappeared.. Aussies went on to score 359 in the alloted 50 overs which set them up for an emphatic victory and from there, it was just a matter of time for them to win the World Cup second time in a row.. India were all out on 234 and surrendered meekly against the mountain.. Yet another wrong decision after winning the toss had cost India dearly..
• World Cup 2007 First Round Match against Sri Lanka: This match was quite different from the previous two we talked about earlier since this match was for the survival in the World Cup.. After losing the match against minnows Bangladesh, India were in a embarrassing spot wherein they were to make the exit in the very first round! It was a high pressure match and a must win also.. India won the toss and yet again elected to field! Needless to say, things were too hot to be handled in 2nd inning and India made an early exit, worst one after the 1979 World Cup..
• T20 Word Cup 2009 against England: India were the defending T20 World Cup champions and this match was to decide their prospects for the semifinal spot.. Dhoni won the toss and no prizes for the right guess, elected to field.. India lost the one sided match and bowed out even before the semis..
• T20 2010 World Cup against West Indies: Today's match :(

It is a common sense thing in cricket that any crucial match comes with a lots of pressure.. Chasing any total is always a tricky things.. So it is surprising that no one made any observation about these facts which have cost the team on a number of occasions..

Coming back to today's match, there are several other things which come into mind.. Certainly, this team was not a well prepared one with several chinks in the armor.. Right since the onset of IPL, Team India priorities have taken a backseat for most of the players, mostly the younger lot.. It's not among the best kept secrets that how fragile we are technically against the rising bowl and the short pitch stuff.. Playing on the flat and slow pitches of India in IPL is comletely a different bowl game when compared with an International match, that too having the magnitude of World Cup.. There is a whole set of younger generation cricketers whose performance leaves a lot to be expected.. We have seen Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Dinesh Kartik and few others going great guns in the IPL.. But they could not deliver when played for team India.. It shows the state of their mental preparedness.. Not just these players, even Dhoni, Raina, Yuvraj, Gambhir couldn't do much with the bat.. Except Sachin, Dravid and Laxman, we don't have any batsman who is comfortable against quality swing bowling on fast and bouncy tracks.. It is sad that the current lot is not bothered about it since they know that they will not be getting such tracks in most of the matches, at least in IPL matches.. Bowling department has always looked in jitters except for Harbhajan Singh.. Our pace bowlers couldn't perform well in the same conditions where average bowlers from opposition side made merry.. This is a department which really looks a matter of worry for India in coming years.. Most sad thing is the fact that a player of Sehwag's caliber giving more importance to IPL than the team India jersey.. Sehwag getting injured while playing in IPL (Or may be injury was there earlier too) and then opting out of World Cup certainly didn't do any good to the team's prospects..

As a matter of fact, it is very surprising that schedule of IPL (which ended just couple of days before the T20 world) didn't raise any eyebrows! With so much cricket being played, players are bound to pick injuries.. It's an enigma why no one ever thought over it..

So we are done in another World Cup.. Sure enough it will be soon forgotten.. Come July and there will be auctions for the 10 IPL teams.. I wonder, given a chance to choose between IPL and Team India, how many of our players will go for the second option.. Sad to see the game we grew up loving going in tatters..

May be we should get used to seeing our players performing in insignificant tourneys like IPL only..

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FURTHER UPDATES: Got some updates that India can still make it to semis provided they defeat Sri Lanka and Aussies defeat West Indies plus some calculations go India's way.. It worked for Pakistan and they are through to semis now even though they have won just a single match in Super Eight! Strange format.. but still it's the one being used.. Keeping my fingers crossed for India's semis prospects..


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The end meant disappointment.. We are finally officially out of 3rd edition of T20 World Cup.. But our players do have 4th edition of IPL and more than that, auction of the 4th edition of IPL to look forward to..