Euthanised

I'm amazed, what a comeback.

A double hundred from Sachin built around grinding fifties from Vijay, Badrinath, Dhoni, Saha and then fireworks from Harbhajan enabled India to take a 214-run lead, leaving South Africa to chase 215 with 10 overs left on day 4 and on a tricky last day pitch. Zaheer Khan then picked up a hat-trick in his second over, and Ishant picked up two more before Harbhajan picked up another wicket on the last ball of the day. South Africa need 180 on the final day with AB deVilliers, Steyn and the tail remaining.

Wait, that was the version in my head, did I say that out loud?

Actually, Sachin made a hundred and got out, there were no fifties, and the lower order crumbled after starts. It was a merciful killing, really - who wanted to watch more awful delaying-the-inevitable stuff?

India were shit and that's the truth. Everyone is to blame - selectors, management, players. The selectors for throwing a largely untested keeper into the deep end, as a batsman no less, when the likes of Dinesh Karthik, who has faced South Africa before, are around. The team management for picking Saha in the actual lineup - the bowling is weak, it's a flat pitch, South Africa's batting lineup is strong... Mithun could have been a surprise weapon. And besides, in the event of a batting collapse, as we saw, an extra batsman is hardly going to help - an inept one no less.

The players are like zoo lions who are fed all their meat in the cage and don't have to go hunt for it, and when a bigger predator comes along, they don't know how to fight back. A lot of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh really isn't going to raise standards - they simply weren't prepared for the Steynmeister and Morkel and Mindy (Harris) (yeah I'm calling him that now).

Obviously we know what the backup plan is - prepare a square turner at the Eden Gardens. But what of that? Mindy outperformed both Indian spinners - granted, he was bowling on an imaginary set of stumps right next to the actual ones... that actually seemed to work for him though. Harby, flight the ball please. Duminy looks more threatening than you.

Laxman will probably be back, but if he isn't, either Karthik will return or Raina will make his debut, which is ridiculous... his handling of the short stuff is exceptionally bad. Sreesanth is unlikely to play, having been inactive for a month now. Of course, I don't know what goes on in the minds of those in control. It takes one to know one, and I'm not a moron.

3 comments:

Really good post, I've put it in my news section. I like it when people show some emotion and not just write like news robots. Your blog is really a good way to get some sort of approach to the Indian team. No I won't change sides :D If I start liking the Indians England will be the only team left on the smack list, which makes it hard in most of the matches to actually support a side :P

But! The blog is really nice to read and makes me wonder why you don't have more visitors.

Although I think the only euthanasia (beautiful death) will have happened in Steyn's bathtub afterwards *lol* The way India died was rather ugly.

Dhoni has enormous ears, didn't realise it before. Their size exceeds any grampa ear dimensions by far.

Thanks Wes! The emotion really had to come, us Indians are very passionate about the cricket and I can't help but feel that knowledgeable cricket fans like us would do a better job being in charge of the team :P

You don't have to change sides at all, rivalry is what makes sport interesting! And sometimes even neutrality :)

I get many visitors from different countries, as you'll see at the bottom of the blog, but I have no way of knowing how they got here or if they actually read the stuff... but it's OK as I really enjoy the writing!

Yeah you're right, the death was pretty bad... what I meant to say was that it happened a day early so more ugliness was avoided, haha.

Dhoni's ears are probably why he used to have that long biker hair, before he went all captainly and cut it off!

shrikant! the tamilian that he is...came up with a master plan to combat the south africans.

shrikant: "hmm!..so!...they have plans to bowl to dravid eh?"

Dhoni: "yeah! you know...you can say they had planned how to bowl to dravid. I thought laxman played really well, credit goes to zak, for his superb spell, but south africa was just too good for us. u no to have someone like sehwag is always a good thing. we dont think about winning, just about good cricket. if we play well the rankings will take care of themselves..."

shrikant: "ehh???...illa poda?...dude! what was tht?"

Dhoni: "wht? just practicing my presentation ceremony speech! i dont like too many questions! so i talk about everything in one go! irrespective of what the question is?"

Shrikant: "ahem...anways....how about we drop dravid?"

Dhoni:" yeah! you know...you can say they had planned how to bowl to dravid. I thought laxman played well......"

shrikant: " yeah yeah...i get that! but shall we drop...?"

dhoni "yeah! you know...you can say they had planned how to bowl to dravid. I thought laxman played well......"

Shrikant: "fuck u man!...looks like im gonna decide myself!...but if i drop dravid...i'll be critisized by the media!..what do i do? :("

Dhoni: ""yeah! you know...you can say they had planned how to bowl to dravid. I thought laxman played well......"

Shrikant: "SAY THAT AGAIN AND THE NXT THINK U KNOW IS SAHA IS IN THE STARTING XI ALONG WITH BADRINATH AND VIJAY!!....anyways....i have a plan!"

(Dhoni: "Rascalla!")

beep beep......beep beep......beep beep....

Shrikant: "hello? is that shahadat hossain?....."

Post a Comment

This is where you tell me that I suck/am awesome.