Unfortunately, there was neither a miracle nor rain to save us.
The Indian innings folded on expected lines. Dravid and Laxman fought the good fight, before Mendis got the breakthrough. Surprisingly it was the more assured looking Dravid who departed first. Laxman who was batting with Gambhir as his runner led a charmed life, nicking to non-existent slips and squirting catches before settling down to carry his bat.
This is the second time in this series Laxman is running out of partners. Doubtless, this will reflect in healthy averages, but his refusal to take charge when tail-enders was batting is frustrating. He neither farms the strike nor plays his shots, but plays regardless of the impending doom. One certainly wishes for some more leadership when he plays with the tail-enders in particular.
Harbhajan played some extravagant shots that fetched him boundaries. However, his contribution was too little to make a difference.
It is simplistic to conclude that India lost because its golden oldies failed. That is certainly one reason. Other than Harbhajan, not one Indian bowler took five wickets in a Test. Contrast it with the Sri Lankan bowlers, you will know it is the main reason we lost.
In addition to these two, the abject fielding contributed significantly to our failure. Both Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad have a lot to answer for the falling standards of their wards.
Then there is the much maligned review system. The attitude of the Indian players was that of injured innocence. Tendulkar padding up only to fall lbw to Mendis showed that the Indian batsmen are still relaying on the umpires to judge based on their reputation. Unfortunately, they failed to realize that the technology is beyond influence.
Does this mean that Sri Lanka had no part to play in our defeat? They certainly had a decisive hand and if one notices closely, you can see the wily hand of Ranatunga behind it. Sehwag’s unpredictable brilliance undid their plans to some extent; save for that innings, Sri Lanka would have won 3-0.
6 comments:
doesn't reaming not out inflates averages?
the failing of fab four was not one of reason but THE reason...is it coincidence that we won the one and only match in which we scored (albeit with 2 batsmen)?
ishant certainly looked overworked...zahir never bowled enough and biggest failure in bowling was again one of stalwarts (look how i avoided saying senior) kumble...
we never used to be good fielding side (in tests) but our catching used to be good...not anymore now...
so if anybody deserves to be axed first...then it has to be Robin singh...he is associated far to long with our team for the pathetically falling fielding/catching standards...
or is it bodies are too lethargic to follow commands?
Pan are you asking me a rhetorical question regarding not outs and averages?
If not, the answer is yes, not outs inflate averages. :)
i was just commenting on VVS 'leadership' role while plying with tailenders...
Okay
India never has a plan for Lanka, whereas Lanka always plans in great detail, and over time, to down the big mythological bro, India, at every opportunity they can lay their hands upon. Sometimes the do not succeed, but often this mismatch of temperament comes off spectacularly. Many of India's spectacular failures have been against Lanka in all forms of the game excepting T20 (it's time will also come).
Soulberry,
In that aspect they are like the Australians. Unfortunately, it comes off only against India. The other teams are good at sticking to their plans.
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