I am glad its over not because India has not made it into the semis, not because they didn’t deserve to move to the next round. I am glad its over because, while it might occur now and in the next few days, the outcry from an irresponsible media and associated mediocrities will die down. We would have been subject to some pathetic analysis and over-analysis from all and sundry every game India played further in the tournament if they beat England today. I am glad we will not be subject to that anymore.
Yes, India lost today and yes, I am disappointed. However, I will not disown this team like most short-sighted critics of this team tend to do. From ball one, you could sense that the british bourgeois in the commentary team (Naseer and Co.) tabled this game as team representing the “Home of Crieket” versus a team that, in their view, presented the antiestablishmentarianism (I wanted to use this word sometime and I hope I got it right!)of cricket. How dare these Indians take away the game from where it belongs! The number of innuendos that the David Lloyds and Naseer Hussains of the world provided, the number of sarcastic references to the “superstar” Indian team, the frequent expressions of disappointment of the prejudiced audience at Lords, all of it become far too tiring after a point. I am glad its over.
Seriously, T20 is nothing but an entertainment package. Younus Khan, probably one of the most intelligent minds in the game today, was not too far from the truth when he stated his opinion on this form of the game. One could be as critical of Dhoni as you possibly could, discredit his strategy, scream for Jadeja’ blood, and dismiss Ishant Sharma’s performance as outright mediocre. I have to come to believe that T20 is an interesting anomaly to the game of cricket. For crying out loud, Ireland played a close game against one the current favorites earlier in the day. Could you imagine them doing the same in a one day format or even more so in a 5 day game? I may just have become tired of the overdose of this format in the last couple of months. I can guarantee that would not be the case with the traditional form of the game.
Coming back to the game, India did seem out of sorts today. Were they tired and fatigued? Was it another 0ff-day? They could beat this England side 9 out 10 times, I would have thought. They did fight it till the end though, and that is the character that I have come to admire in this team. This is the future of Indian cricket, no doubt about that. Yes, this was a hiccup and that was all it was. Suresh Raina will soon learn to pull, hook and duck in style. Ishant Sharma will learn to mix it up and bowl yorkers. Harbhajan Singh will bring more control on the ones fired down the leg side and Dhoni will get his batting order right. This is a good team and we have to put faith in it. You can’t win them all. I continue to characterize Dhoni as one of the best captains of India and he will get it right more often than not.
The tournament will lose its colour here on. Atleast team blue will be conspicuous by their absence. If I were a betting man I would go with a South Africa/Sri Lanka final. My heart though goes out to a Pakistan/WI finale. I like Younus Khan as a captain, player and a cricket ambassador. I also think that this Pakistani team is a good one and I would hope that they do well. West Indies, on the other hand, is exciting to watch. It will good for the game if the two “nations” make it to the finals. West Indies cricket will be revived financially and public interest wise, and hopes of sanity may arise in Pakistan if sport takes over once again.
Cheers,
Srikanth
i3j3Cricket :: A blog for fans of Indian cricket... 
I would love to see a Pak /Sri final.
Nice analysis and beautifully expressed. Looking forward to a Pak – WI final. To me it is immeterial which team wins, cricket would surely have won.
Srikanth
Is that ‘really’ you writing this? As I started reading, I almost thought it was Mohan – this is your best piece to date. Keep it up. I was indeed sick of listening to the Nassers and Bumbles this morning. Even Sachin when asked if he can point out to any new talent from IPL said that it is too short to talk about techniques and who can do well in the longer version of the game – so that much for T20 cricket!! Agree with most of what you have said but we should accept that we lost because of MSD and no one else.
I couldn’t agree more.Somehow this WC was boring and most Indians should be thankful they are spared staying so late awake by Dhoni & c0. Starting matches at 10 pm when next day is Monday cannot promote viewership in the subcontinent .I am very sure that this WC will have less viewership than previous ones due to its odd timings.I saw heavy discussion at office on IPL and negligible on WC.
And I think fatigue caused the loss, no other reason..
I want WI to win , they seem a re-energized side. Dont want SA and Lanka(for reasons other than cricket).
Some factors contributed to India’s failure.
Suresh Raina failed. Bowling has not been impressive including Zaheer Khan.
For this match, Ravi Jadeja is too young to be sent at no. 4- Yuvraj should have come ahead of Jadeja. Dhoni is not able to push the score or hit at crucial times.
I still can’t understand why Ravindra Jadeja was selected. He was unable to accelarate even in the IPL matches and was one of the main contributors to Rajasthan Royals’ failures.
Yesterday he just continued from where he left off. He slowed down India’s chase and one of the main reasons why we lost. He took 2 wickets, fine, but Ojha could have done the same.
” The tournament will lose its colour here on.”
It is just KARMA that a tournament won by 3 runs last time has slipped out by the same margin.
@deadeye
What is ur definintion of “KARMA”?
yes man you are write that it will be good for indian team.i love cricket but not a fanatic type fan.ya there is win and loss in a game but the thing that hurts most is the unusal strategies of captain Dhoni.my mouth was widely open when i saw ravindra jadeja coming before the inform batsman Yuvraj singh.common man it is 20-20 not a 50 over match that you are experimenting like that.i believe that Dhoni should think now that his exxagarate strategies wont apply always.
Harinee
“In Sanskrit, it translates to DEED
My yoga teacher tells me that in Buddhism and Hinduism, Karma is a person’s action in one reincarnation thought of as determining his fate in the next.
Last time, Misbah chose the wrong shot and gave the title to India–but you thought you won on merit!
Now you lost it because you have been found lacking that merit!!
What goes around comes around, my friend!
Daniel Vettori, in my opinion, is a poor loser, an irresponsible leader, an immature personality, and an insult to the wonderful game of cricket. His baseless attack on Pakistan’s integrity (whatever might be the past is irrelevant in this case) should receive strong condemnation and his future should be put to question. If I were the owner of Delhi Daredevils, I would immediately suspend his contract.
No matter what.We are with the team always even if we lose,we ensure butts kicked in the near future.RevenGE will be taken.Go India Go…
@deadeye
We won because of one mistimed shot! Wow !you must really hate the Indian team. I will not even argue, no point dealing with such bias.
http://www.cricinfo.com/wt20page2/content/story/409173.html
We should probably send a pack of booers from India alongwith English team to all tours.It might better their chances in Ashes.
“YEH CUP KAHI NAHI JAYEGA”…….”ANE DE”……AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA….what a joke……..INDIA TEAM ALWAYS SO OVER CONFIDENT SHOWING COMMERCIALS ON TV AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH….THEY R BETTER IN TV NOT ON FIELD……………..
“ANNE DE” hahahahahahahhahahahahah
SO CALLED “TEAM INDIA” SHOULD CONTROL THEIR INVOLVEMENT WITH MEDIA AND PLAY CRICKET MORE………AMONG 10 ADVERTISEMENT ON TV 8 OF THEM ARE OF DHONI…..WTF!!!!!!!!!…………
@ Harinee
What Paul Collingwood wanted to say was that Indian Booers would have beaten England, if they had played–instead of Dhoni’s BOYS.
If Indians were the best players of spin, how do YOU explain Botha taking 3 for 16 of 4 overs
May be–just may be–the Indian Booers would have scored more runs of Botha.
http://www.cricinfo.com/wt202009/content/current/story/409432.html
I guess it’s shape up or ship out for all the non performers!! 🙂 Hopefully, players now take the time to get some rest by not partaking in club matches and tournaments…and being committed to international cricket.
Maybe botha bowls really well. Nobody is claiming Indians are the greatest.But say booing by Indians in their home ground caused them to win is a bit ridiculous.The Indian team just happens to have more fans, you have to live with it.
If there were not enough english supporters to back the team in their home ground , that shows the level of confidence the country has on its own team.
And next time probably collingwood should stick playing in “the home of cricket” rather warm benches in IPL.
“YEAH CUP KAHI NAHI JAYEGA”
“ANE DE”
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
harinee said
“Nobody is claiming Indians are the greatest.”
Well All INDIANS DO CLAIM……LOOK AT ALL THE ADS
SO OVER CONFIDENT “YEH CUP KAHI NAHI JAYEGA”…….”ANE DE” …..AS IF ONLY THEY GOT PLAYERS AND OTHER TEAMS DONT.
Finally, our guys could not chase 130 in 20 overs. Poor batting is the reason for the exit.
Does this mean, India still needs – Sachin, Dravid to play the bouncers.
\”Seriously, T20 is nothing but an entertainment package\” – Now that sounds like you are sore loser.
This was still an international, they were still representing the country not playing gully cricket.
India deserves this. They were very arrogant going into the t20 world cup. If only Dhoni had lead from the front, India might have atleast reached the semi final.
@speaker
You answered your query yourself, they are just “ads”.Companies capitalising on people’s expectation and overhyping them
And let me also add no country goes into any tournament without an expectation of winning.
What do u want people to say? “Yeh cup bilkul jayega ..”
India lost because the other teams were better.Thats all why bring personality issues here.
Take defeat with dignity and this dhoni bashing makes no sense, we just lost 3 matches where the result could have gone anyway.
We need to back our team even in low times.We have one of the best captains possible and let us not whip his confidence out.
Dhoni was out of form. How could he lead from the front? Raina was in good form but was found out against short balls. Rohit is nowhere as consistent as one should be despite having good potential. Ravi Jadeja is not ready for the international matches yet.
Our bowling was terrible apart from the spinners. Ishant was really bad. Don’t tell me you’ve lost faith in him because of his poor showing in some T20 matches! Zaheer was not fully fit and RP Sigh and Irfan are of no use without swing.
So the reason is clear. The team was tired, not in form, not fully fit, was missing its most experienced player Sehwag and was tired too after constant grind of last 5 months.
Don’t tell me that you disown the team on the basis f above facts!
I’m not sure if a captain’s form has anything to do with his team’s performance. During his captaincy the team performed well while Sourav Ganguly kept giving ‘regulation catches’ to keepers and slip fielders in the initial overs.
Some players like Yuvraj and RP Singh were under-used. If that hadn’t happened we’d have reached at least the semis.
Congratulations to Pakistan for reaching the Final tonight.
And they should thank BCCI, Lalit Modi and the Indian Govt for keeping the entire Pakistan team out of IPL.
No injuries. And no tiredness.
I sincerely hope that Pakistan go all the way.
Then Modi and co would want a 3 match series –Pakistan vs IPL XI !!!!!!!
@ded: Ok so the ultimate aim of Pakistan is to have a piece of IPL pie. Keep dreaming….
I agree Raina, Ishant and a few others will improve their games. Raina will learn to hook, cut, pull. Ishant will learnt to bowl better at the death. But Harbhajan?? Give me a break! The guy has been bowling for more than 10 years now, and if you say that he will now learn not to fire yorkers down the legside, what has been doing all these years? And this is isnt the first time he has fired them down there.
I find the tone of this post curiously at odds with the euphoria of September 2007.
I would agree that losing at T20 is no big deal. The nature of the game is that is it is a lottery hence the Dutch beating England.
Symonds made this point when he said that he thought Indian celebrations after the 1st T20 were a bit over the top but unfortunately he was roundly critcised. Perhaps there will be a more balanced and intelligent view now
@ The Pav
Reading between the lines, your opinion is that Symonds had a balanced and intelligent comment!
Was he sober then or are you sober now??!!
He is a cultural ignorant at best and a street fighter at worst.
He thrives on alcohol induced euphoria when he is winning and drowning the sorrows with a few ales when is losing.
No credibilty whatsoever for his utterences. That’s what they are!
Maybe T20 cricket has suddenly gained importance because ‘Al Pakeezah’ has won some matches in the T20 World Cup? Symonds should have tried banned drugs to boost his performance instead of alcohol. I read somewhere that steroids are cheaper in the Swat Valley.
It’s hard to digest when senior cricketers like Younus Khan or Symonds reduce its importance after they lose matches. All formats of cricket, except 6-over matches, should be important.
Good post Srikanth. There is no doubt there was euphoria in 2007. And so there should be when India wins. And sure there are fingers being pointed when India has exited now. And as with most things in Indian media, the pendulum has swung the other way. I would lie if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I am. But I would be far more disappointed had India lost a Test match. The T20 loss is annoying — not disappointing.
That said, it was a phenomenal exit that is only partially acceptable to me because Australia exit even earlier! 🙂
However, I do believe this will fix Lalit Modi’s plans for 2 IPLs and 222 Team India T20 games. I feel that this may also bring a sense of balance and proportion to all things T20 in India.
There is, after all, a silver lining to every dark cloud!
Dear Dead Eye Dick
I see that once again my desire for intelligent discourse has been disappointed by an inane & needlessly rude post from an Indian supporter.
I admit to puzzling over your statement “No credibility whatsoever for his utterances utterances. That’s what they are!”
I take this to mean that anybody who says anything ( utters in other words) has no credibility because , ipso facto, they are “utterances” which by your logic means they have no credibility. No doubt this means anything Gavaskar or Dhoni or Tendulkar or in fact anybody who says anything has no credibility because they are “utterances”
Well done for choosing such an accurate name. I mean:-
Dead for being brain dead
Eye for being one eyed &therefore half blind and
Dick for being a dick head
I would suggest that Symond’s comments demonstrated far greater sobriety than was shown by the over reaction of Indian fans of the time.
Well done to team India for getting through to the semi finals after defeating such two cricketing giants in the pool stage.
Obviously it was sheer bad luck that they lost out in the next stage but credit where credit is due. They did defeat Bangladesh.
really wanted india to do well, but the fact is we just got outclassed, im glad we didnt face pakistan later in the tournament as i could not handle more humiliation. Would love to see boom boom afridi and bang bang razzak in the IPL