Not the best day to be an Indian cricket fan - the capitulation under pressure was quite sickening. I feel for the skipper Dravid - his 100th Test (ok, 99 for India and 1 not-so-super Test) couldn't have gone more disastrously for him. He got the decision after the toss wrong (surely it was a team decision with Chappell in tow), and a situation where all India needed was a draw to win the series turned into a series draw that feels like a loss, just like against Pakistan at home.
A positive move to go with 5 bowlers will roundly be criticized, but as Dravid rightly said, that is the way forward if we have to win more Tests abroad. The strategy was right, the execution went horribly wrong. The shakiness at the top of the order is more than worrying now - we need more runs in all conditions from the rest of the top order. Poor Dravid can only do so much!
Freddie must be over the moon at the moment, and it is indeed a fantastic performance. Great spirit shown by England to overcome the injury crisis and a deserving series draw. Debutants were successful, discards returned and shone like they had never been away, and the experienced hands stood up when it mattered. Terrific team performance!
End of the day, spirit was what was the difference between the two sides - England were prepared to fight it out longer than we did.
Ugh, this feeling sucks!
No comments:
Post a Comment