Sometimes Winning Is Not Enough

Victories of all shades ranging from the diffident to the emphatic  ,interspersed by a shattering loss against Australia and than a tricky exit from the tournament ,that’s what defines the India’s journey in the ICC world Twenty 20 . And as usual in the process of doing postmortem of India’s defeat like a true Indian cricket team fan we came to some very logical conclusions like - Australia conspired to lose to put India and South Africa out , South Africa has spoiled the Indian party ,they should have lost it under 121(because we so hate it when other countries don't play according to India's needs).

In a format which equalizes both sides sometimes only winning is not enough . If we talk about this world T20 in particular where the four teams of semi finals are not decided until the last match is been played we should learn a important fact that the difference between almost winning and actually winning a match is that the former doesn’t count . So if we now accept the reality and analyze what actually went wrong than we will find India itself is responsible for their such unfortunate exit .Starting from the India Vs England match where both team have already qualified for the super eights and considering the fact that spin has always been a problem for Poms we should not have played with three spinners against Australia .Playing five bowlers is so unlikely Dhoni’s way ,that huge loss against Australia have actually made the India’s task tougher ,considering the group in which India is playing . How can you expect a team to win a match against team like Australia without playing with their regular opener , if Sehwag was injured or what ever may be the reason for not including him in the side than India should have a back up opener .Blaming  rain of just five minutes is not the way to justify your lose when you actually have not putted enough runs on the board .

Many are satisfied with the Indian performance because India have won the match which actually mattered i.e. the one against arch rival Pakistan . Winning in that match with eighteen balls left instead of the required nineteen to have a better run rate than Pakistan have only complicated the equation. The next match became must win for every team, and the situation was very much in Pakistan favor .History says that Pakistan plays exceptionally well when they are in a do or die situation ,than how can you expect them to flunk when the situation is so much in their strength zone .At least I was pretty assured that Pakistan was going to win that match .

With that Pakistan win ,South Africa had nothing to lose but India have many things to achieve .The things started getting wrong from the Toss itself , as Indian have to bat first they have to put a big total on the board and that extra pressure have left India short of fifteen to twenty runs and eventually India could only post a modest target of 153 which Dhoni is so good at defending .But India had to win it by 32 and since we had digged the  hole ourselves, we need to find a way to claw out of it .India started off brilliantly but since the result was not in our favor Dhoni’s decision to save his best bowlers and delaying Ashwin’s spell cost India the semi final berth .

India has been in such situation many times under Dhoni’s captaincy and nothing less than win is expected from our  team ,but as only two teams from a group can advance to the semi finals we have accept the truth  and to take positives from it and must admit that Indian bowlers, contrary to the expectations, did exceptionally well , but it’s the batting which let the team down.

India Vs Pakistan Series Is Back After 5 Years

No matter how many matches India win or loose but when it comes to an India Vs Pakistan match win is the only acceptable result .The matches between these two arch rivals are always high voltage both on field and on stands with stadiums going jam packed .Indian cricketing history is full of many memorable matches between these two countries.For a while we thought India Vs Australia could make up for it but India Vs Pakistan 2011 World Cup semi final reminded us that India Vs Pakistan will always be special.

Apart from  game these tours are considered as a pathway in betterment of the relation  between these two countries .I still remember in 2004 when India toured Pakistan after 14 years under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly which I  had followed ball by ball ,has actually proven to be the strong step in improving the relation between the two countries .But it is vey important to understand that cricket is merely a sport and that eventually all solution will have to be political .Sports is a great vehicle for reconciliation ,but it is also true that terror and sport cant go hand in hand .

The last bilateral series between these two countries was played in November 2007 and after the 2008 terror attack India has cancelled all its sport assignments with Pakistan. The point which should be noted is that Cricket has always been successful in fulfilling the purpose of bringing the persons of these countries together but the problem actually lies within the country . I am sure even after resuming the cricketing relation after 5 years sport will definitely win .

Of course Pakistan touring India to play 3 ODIs in December  is a stunning and positive development for cricket and  I hope this time it proves to be positive in all ways .This is a statement of intent more than it is a cricket tour ,but in any case  cricket fans should be ready to enjoy some real electrifying actions on the field .