ICC WORLD T20 : Team India's Gift to their Fans

Team India has fixed its berth but not in the semi finals of current tournament but on their return flight to home. In their crucial tie of super eight stage on Tuesday , India were required to defeat the islanders by a margin of 20 runs and then the fate of India’s place in the semi finals was rested on the outcome of the next match between Australia and West Indies which seemed to be in favor of India , given the current form of the Aussies.

But unlike Pakistan , not leaving anything in the hands of destiny , India succumbed to Sri Lanka in another humiliating show. Captain Dhoni won the toss , once again and rightly decided to bat first with three, much needed , changes in their team composition – Murali Vijay , Ravindra Jadeja and Zaheer Khan being replaced by Dinesh Kartik , Piyush Chawla and Vinay Kumar respectively. However , resting Zaheer Khan , given his invaluable experience , in a crucial match like this was unexpected.

Altogether , India started well this time managing to get 90 runs in the first half of the game with Gautam Gambhir 41 (32) and Suresh Raina 63 (47) laying a very solid foundation for team India’s innings. In contrast to this , not capitalizing on the prospects generated , the Indian middle order - Yuvraj Singh , M.S. Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan failed to carry forward the momentum of the innings. Yuvraj Singh again disappointed his fans by scoring just 1 run of 2 balls. As a result , India managed only 73 runs in the next half of the game and the target for Sri Lanka , which once was looking like to be around 200 was reduced to a mere 164.

Sri Lanka were crippled by early blows with , the man in form Mahela Jayawardene out in the very first over for just 4 runs. He was soon followed by Sanath Jayasuriya who was even unable to open his account and went for a duck. Sri Lanka were struggling at 6-2 at this stage but after this they never looked back and India once again failed to capture the opportunity. With Dilshan scoring a swift 33 of 26 balls , the islanders gained the momentum which was successfully carried ahead by captain Kumar Sangakara ‘s blistering knock of 46 in 33 balls and then Angelo Mathews providing the finishing touch with his 46 of 37 balls. Sri Lanka scored around 110 runs in their last 10 overs. The chances of India managing to win with a margin above 20 runs were long before made hazy by the Lankan Batsmen , however India could not even manage to win the match with Kapugedara hitting a six of the last ball when they required 3runs of it to win the match.

Yesterday , when Pakistan was in a similar situation , it defeated South Africa , putting in the required hard work and then leaving things to the fate. All Pakistani Fans would have supported and wished England to snatch the victory out of New Zeland’s hands so that Pakistan can get a semis berth.

Team India saved its fans from such a pitiful state of wishing for another team’s victory , by not leaving any thing to be decided by the Aussies and instead succumbing to Sri Lanka to finish their disappointing show in the Caribbean. It is rightly said that “God help those who help themselves”. Clearly team India now need god’s help to face all the criticism back home.