Won by 87 Runs !!! But was it REALLY A VICTORY…?????
So the heat is on.. The icc world cup 2011′s inaugural match is over… It was the clash of the neighbours… More than that the indians were looking for a revenge against the Bangla tigers for the 2007 world cup upset…The score card says that india won by 87 runs.. Well, looking into the winning margin it was a comfortable win.. but was it really…????
Well lets have a look at the teams and the supporting factors first..The Bangla’s are a team of ‘performing’ youngsters those who are playing to win… Their improvement in all fields of the game in the rescent years is outstanding.. They forged a good spin bowling department(mainly left handers) and scoring batsmen…They came out of the image of a ‘small fish’ and became a team capable of beating any other team without considering their golden past or their legendary player’s statistics… Also they were having the advantage of playing in their own ground(Shere bangla national stadium mirpur)… Any player will get an extra energy when thousands of people are there to cheer for his each and every action…
On the other side, the Indian’s were the hot favourites in the cup run.. The Bangla players are nothing when compared to the Indian legends.. I heard somone saying that the total runs scored by all the 15 bangla players is just 165 runs more than the runs scored by the God of cricket,ie.,Sachin… Also there were only 7 in the Bangla squad with an experience of more than 100 matches.. But the Indian line up was too crowded with stars.. The best example is that the current world no.2 batsman Virat Kohli’s place in the team was in doubt till the start of the match…
Well lets come to the match… After winning the toss the Bangla captain Shakib elected to field first… He must have considered the fact that the team which batted first in this ground won a game only three times in the past… Also the dew factor… Under the light and with a wet ball.. it will be much more difficult to bowl second in this pitch… There wasn’t anything surprising in that decision…
The Indians begin well… Sachin and Sehwag were batting brilliantly.. It was a real beauty to watch.. They were a bit more careful than usual not to lose any wickets.. but during the 2nd over of the fielding powerplay, when Sachin’s wicket fell as a result of some misunderstanding between the pair,it seemed that Sehwag was killing India’s expectations… But Sehwag took the duty from Sachin.. It was a great innings.. The first century of the 2011 world cup came from the first batsman stepped out into the ground..175 runs in 140 balls with 14 boundaries and 5 sixes..The third highest in the world cup by an Indian and his personal best… It seemed that he was going to break sachin’s record of 200*.. On the other end Kohli did justce to the captain’s choice to include him in the playing XI… His 83 balls 100* knock (8 fours,2 sixes) was a promising one.. Century in the world cup debut.. Also they made a 200 run stand between them.. The score card was a pleasing one at the innings break…370/4 in 50 overs..
There after it wasn’t that good.. The Indian bowling department revealed its problems.. The opening bowler Sreesanth went for 24 runs in his third over(the previous two overs were of 8,8).. The Bangla’s crossed the 50 runs in the 5th over.. For us, the performace of the first malayali playing in the world cup was below par… But still Zaheer was doing well.. In the 7th over the 1st bowling change,Munaf Patel did the trick by removing Thamim Iqbal.. But that wasn’t enough for Indians.. all the top six batsmen contributed to the target well… Thanks to the Indian batsmen that they raised a himalayan target infront of the Bangla tigers.. Eventhough Zaheer(10-0-40-2), Munaf(10-0-48-4) and Harbhajan(10-0-41-1) had some outstanding figures in the end, they lacked something.. Because the Banglas batted through out the 50 overs and ended their innings with 283/9..
It has got some importance… Because i dont think that with its batting power alone india will be able to seal the cup.. The Bangla scorecard was a message to the Indian bowling department… In the upcoming matches they have to face much more stronger batting line ups and a below par performance wont be enough to succeed there..
Anyways a victory is a victory.. We have got 9 days to our next match.. Thats more than enough to find a solution.. Hope the Indians will rectify the faults before the next match.. Else, Sachin’s dream of kissing a world cup will remain as a dream for ever..
Like every true Indian fan, i too pray… And i’m sure.. We will lift the cup and our living legend will kiss it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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What man, after all deep analysis of the various tests have our cricket analysts stilll been able to predict one game??…never…cricket is like weather..never analyse both.. you will be wrong, definitely!!.. it drives u crazy hearing commentators saying a little more power play is required, he’s not in form, I mean,what the f***, all batsmen would always wanna score higher but you cannot predict they way things happen…F the analysts..