Team India : No Not Again !

No, not again!!!!

Once you are burned, you are twice shy

That’s a lesson that I’m still trying to learn

And it’s one I forget as you walk by

I’m tempted to ask you to return

And like a fool I stand and wonder

Chance slips by me and the words just don’t get out, no

No not again

No not again

No, no, no not again

Not again, no, no, no, no no

Thats what my feelings are since I have seen India lose meekly. Indian batsmen just couldn’t stand up when the going got tough. As it seems, Dinesh Karthik can’t counter the moving ball without coming down the track but when the keeper is standing up to the stumps he seems to run out of ideas. Rohit Sharma just can’t seem to get over his folly of taking his front leg to far across. Scoring areas of Raina seem to be severly handicapped when he is not allowed to get on frontfoot. Dhoni seems to have developed this folly of walking across and poking at deliveries outside off stump. It seemed all so repetitive.

When all main batsmen of a team commit mistakes and none of them lucky enough to survive, you get bowled out for a paltry total and thats what happened to India. India’s star of the last match Virendra Sehwag got out early, getting a sharp incutter from Kulasekara. Karthik was scratchy as he has been throughout the series. Even though he got a rough decision, he will have to play a top class innings in last match to prevent his place in the team. The situation,though, arises only if he maintains his place in the team for the match against New Zealand. Yuvraj seemed to be on road to recover his form but fell when he was looking set. No credits to Malinga for his wicket though, he got his wicket as a gift from umpire. When you get hit outside off stump with ball missing the stumps but still are given LBW, then its simply not your day. It wasn’t Yuvraj’s and it wasn’t India’s. With the rest of batting order collapsing, India could manage just 103 in 33.4 overs.

Amid all this criticism of Indian batting, I almost forget to mention Perera’s 5 wicket haul. He did the basics right in favourable conditions and was rewarde with his maiden 5 wicket haul in ODIs. He took away India’s hopes of any fightback by removing India’s lower middle order cheaply.

After this, it was to be a walk in the park for the Lankans unless they committed the ultimate hara-kiri. But nothing of that sort happened and they romped home in style winning in just 15.1 overs with 8 wickets still in hand.

A match that promised so much, couldn’t live up to the expectations. There was no Sehwag vs Randiv encounter. There was no thrilling finish. But one conclusion, Sri Lanka are in the finals of Tri-nation tournament waiting for the winner of India vs New Zealand match.