The Indian cricket team’s dream of retaining the World Cup crown, which appeared a distinct possibility till the semifinal, came crashing down on Thursday at the SCG when they lost to Australia by 95 runs. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team lost to a side which, undeniably, had better depth and firepower.
Had India won and qualified for the final on Sunday, it would have given cricket lovers a lot of satisfaction. But no team can say it can win every game and never lose. There was a time when Clive lloyd’s invincible West Indians conquered every frontier of the game including annexing the first two WCs. Today they are just a shadow of the team of 1970s.
In a game of cricket, winning or losing the toss can dictate the course of the encounter as the pitch plays a huge part. The moment Dhoni lost the toss—and no one can blame him for that --- it became an uphill task for India at the SCG. The Aussies had the first use of a surface ideal for stroke play and seized the initiative. India, despite some late efforts from the bowlers, could manage to restrict Australia to 328. But anything above 300 always becomes a tough target to chase.
India, coming out of a horrible tour down under when they miserably lost the test series and also faltered in the triangular ODI series, played superbly in the league stage of the WC winning every match and topping the group. Then they defeated a spirited Bangladesh in the quarterfinal.
The bowlers, who lacked penetration and guile in the series against Australia just prior to the WC, appeared a transformed lot as they picked up 70 wickets in seven matches bowling out the opposition in every match. But against Australia in the knock-out game, they couldn’t repeat that performance.
Australia, playing at home, had depth in their batting and penetrative fast bowlers. If anyone feels that India’s loss was a shame for the country, such views are misplaced.
The Indian batting did well in the first few encounters with Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina coming up with good knocks while the pacemen comprising Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma picking up wickets while bowling at a furious pace not seen from Indian medium fast bowlers for a long time. Off-spinner Ravi Ashwin also played a big hand in India’s progress.
But once the team lost in the semifinal, the collective mourning in India could have been heard in distant Australia. “It’s an absolute surrender, Dhoni owes the Indian people an explanation”, thundered the anchor of a TV news channel while another shouted “we are a restless nation, we want to win.”
India had also lost to Australia in the final of the 2003 WC dismally, but bounced back to win the title in 2011. Most of the players in Dhoni’s team, except for Kohli, Raina and Ashwin besides Dhoni himself were playing in the world championship for the first time. There were several bright spots in their showing which must be taken note of while scanning for new talent.
The question, however, is why those demanding an explanation are not restless about several other issues stalking our nation for decades. Why no animated debate takes place on TV on the question as to why no Indian excels on the world stage to win a Nobel IJ Why no Indian University finds place in the top 200 centres of learning in the world IJ
A few decades ago, India was known world over for its expertise and artistry in hockey. The country used to be Olympic champions from 1924 till 1980 though it had lost in 1968, 1972 and 1976. The country had won the World Cup only once in 1975. No one has bothered to debate this issue and find out what should be done to improve the game in which we once were the undisputed kings.
Even as the WC dragged on for six weeks, marketing brains went into action coining new slogans as promotion of products surrounding the event took centre stage. Slogans like “bring it back” and “we’ll not let it go” did not help anyone. It only put more pressure on the team.
The collective indignation at the team’s failure only points in one direction —we are not a mature people. We have not learnt to take things, read defeats in the playing arena, in our stride with dignity. The team’s performance demands that we should congratulate it for its showing and unbeaten run of seven victories before they lost to the Aussies. It was amazing to hear during the group matches that India must not lose to Pakistan in any case. “We don’t mind if the team loses all its matches, but it must win against Pak,” said a government employee.
“What is this mindsetIJ,” one is tempted to ask. After all it’s just a game and not war. Two of India’s former cricket captains Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid have gone on record saying India had lost to a superior team and the best two sides had reached the final. They definitely know a thing or two about cricket than most of our news channel anchors.
Former test opener and commentator Aakash Chopra felt India ran into a team in the semifinal that was simply superior in all aspects of the game. A national daily has analysed the performance of the Indian team and has categorized the players in four categories of excellent, good, average and bad. While the showing of skipper Dhoni, Dhawan, Yadav, Shami and Ashwin have been found to be excellent, the performance of Mohit, Raina and Rohit have been listed as good.
Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have found themselves in the average bracket while Ravindra Jadeja’s performance has been rated as bad. That sums up the performance of the team as a whole which was not abysmal. Maybe, they tripped at the hurdle in their endeavour to reach the final, but the same team can be tipped to turn the tables on any top team on another day at another place.
(The writer is a Bhubaneswar-based senior journalist)