The Cricket blog

Too much caution cost India dearly

The Indian side just didnt have enough runs on the board. I think they got over cautious and did not paly their natural game. Dhoni curbed his natural instincts and played a restrained innings but he stayed right till the end to give some respect to the score card. Raina wasted too many balls in settling down and got out soon after he hit is first boundary in 36 balls. Tendulkar played too many dot balls. Sehwag, though keeping in line with his strike rate, missed the fast incoming ball and was trapped lbw, yet again. Pathan has failed on more occassions on NO.3 spot than he has been successful. An early wicket within the first 5 overs with as little as 20 runs on the  board, I would like to see a more technically sound player to step out and no one fills that slot better than Dravid. Pathan could have been more uselfull lower down. If the 4 middle order batsmen, Dravid, Raina, Yuvraj and Dhoni could have accumulated 25 more runs as singles, which surely were possible, the story would have been different. The bowlers didnt do well either. With the exception of Bhajji, Patel and Sehwag, filling in for the other left out spinner, no one bowled a steady line and length. Great discipline was required from the seamers when the asking rate was below 4.5 r/o. Shane Bond, the other day showed how to derail a solid and steady patnership  between Mohd. Yousuf and Shoaib Malik. He out-thought the batsmen with a beautiful blend of short balls, slow balls and good length deliveries. Indian fielding also paled against the fieldwork of the carribeans. Couple of good throws got Dravid and Dhoni out who might have pushed the total to 240-250 range. That in enough in matches where 1 run is the difference between winning and losing. I also feel India did not field their best team for this game. Powar ommision could be a miscalculation because of the dew factor but with such fragile batting I would like to see another genuine batsman replace a bowler. I would have gone with Dinesh Mongia in place of RP Singh. Pathan has been able to keep his place because he is the only genuine all rounder in the side. He failed yesterday but I will give him another chance. My XI against Australia will be … Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Mongia, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Pathan, Bhajji, Agarkar, Patel