World Cup Cricket Chronicles 2015 - 2
(Want to know how it began? Read this)
India have begun the campaign with an emphatic win over their arch rivals, Pakistan. The contest was indeed, high voltage. It did provide the glimpses of drama and action that every India - Pakistan match promises, but the result had become obvious far too early in the game.
Team India is going to take a whole lot of positives out of it. It's a breath of fresh air for them, after a series of defeats in the Australian soil, and a vortex of criticisms surrounding it. Now, this game has suddenly turned the tides. Or at least it looks so. Shikhar Dhawan, who was having a poor run, has come out of it and played a brilliant knock, just when the team desperately needed him to. The more re assuring factor is the way he played that innings. He looked composed, he was curbing his instincts, and he picked the right balls to score boundaries. Right from the start, he was announcing that he meant business.
Kohli was as prodigious as he is always. His drives look poetic, his pulls look as solid as a brick wall. Raina did what he does best, by shifting the gears swiftly. And our bowling rose to the occasion, being within their limitations. Umesh Yadav generated good pace which would have been effective if not for the wayward line. Mohammed Shami ran in hard and bowled in good areas.
On the other hand, Pakistan had them in trouble, right from the word go, or even before that. They made a mistake by handing over the keeping gloves to Umar Akmal rather than opting for a specialist keeper. None of their key players failed to fire when it mattered.
But for Pakistan, more than the fact that they lost it, it is about the way they lost. This Pakistan team had nothing to flaunt, nothing to boast of. It was a much weaker side compared their avatars in the previous world cups and the absence of Ajmal and Hafeez was just like rubbing salt to the wounds.
Pakistan have always been a good bowling side. They used to have at least two genuine fast bowlers who could bowl at high speeds consistently. They would always create apprehensions in the opposition's minds, even before going into the game. Well, this bowling attack was nothing like it. Wahab Riaz hit good speeds in his second spell and curbed the run flow in the death, but he was no match for the greats they have had in the past.
Batting looked thin, crumbling like a piece of paper, in front of just an average Indian bowling. Misbah was the only one who looked solid but there was no scope for solitary heroics. Their fielding was also below par.
Pakistan lost the game, but more hurtful than that is the psychological hit that they have taken. Their team has nothing menacing. They couldn't even bring in the fight. This could prove very difficult for them, while Ireland and Zimbabwe would be eagerly waiting to convert the slips from the major teams into their gains.
As for India, I would say, this game is more of a reminder on what work needs to be done, as we progress. Lots of improvement is needed in the bowling department, and the performance against Pakistan could give us a deceptive picture. Death batting needs to improve, that is, we desperately need Dhoni to find some form.
Now, for the conclusion, I have a question. How different would this game have been if it was on a green top?
We had very short square boundaries yesterday. What if the game was played on a bigger ground where the boundaries were pushed back to 90 meters?
Do you think the result would have been any of different in any of the above cases? Let me know.
(Want to know how it began? Read this)
India have begun the campaign with an emphatic win over their arch rivals, Pakistan. The contest was indeed, high voltage. It did provide the glimpses of drama and action that every India - Pakistan match promises, but the result had become obvious far too early in the game.
Team India is going to take a whole lot of positives out of it. It's a breath of fresh air for them, after a series of defeats in the Australian soil, and a vortex of criticisms surrounding it. Now, this game has suddenly turned the tides. Or at least it looks so. Shikhar Dhawan, who was having a poor run, has come out of it and played a brilliant knock, just when the team desperately needed him to. The more re assuring factor is the way he played that innings. He looked composed, he was curbing his instincts, and he picked the right balls to score boundaries. Right from the start, he was announcing that he meant business.
Kohli was as prodigious as he is always. His drives look poetic, his pulls look as solid as a brick wall. Raina did what he does best, by shifting the gears swiftly. And our bowling rose to the occasion, being within their limitations. Umesh Yadav generated good pace which would have been effective if not for the wayward line. Mohammed Shami ran in hard and bowled in good areas.
On the other hand, Pakistan had them in trouble, right from the word go, or even before that. They made a mistake by handing over the keeping gloves to Umar Akmal rather than opting for a specialist keeper. None of their key players failed to fire when it mattered.
But for Pakistan, more than the fact that they lost it, it is about the way they lost. This Pakistan team had nothing to flaunt, nothing to boast of. It was a much weaker side compared their avatars in the previous world cups and the absence of Ajmal and Hafeez was just like rubbing salt to the wounds.
Pakistan have always been a good bowling side. They used to have at least two genuine fast bowlers who could bowl at high speeds consistently. They would always create apprehensions in the opposition's minds, even before going into the game. Well, this bowling attack was nothing like it. Wahab Riaz hit good speeds in his second spell and curbed the run flow in the death, but he was no match for the greats they have had in the past.
Batting looked thin, crumbling like a piece of paper, in front of just an average Indian bowling. Misbah was the only one who looked solid but there was no scope for solitary heroics. Their fielding was also below par.
Pakistan lost the game, but more hurtful than that is the psychological hit that they have taken. Their team has nothing menacing. They couldn't even bring in the fight. This could prove very difficult for them, while Ireland and Zimbabwe would be eagerly waiting to convert the slips from the major teams into their gains.
As for India, I would say, this game is more of a reminder on what work needs to be done, as we progress. Lots of improvement is needed in the bowling department, and the performance against Pakistan could give us a deceptive picture. Death batting needs to improve, that is, we desperately need Dhoni to find some form.
Now, for the conclusion, I have a question. How different would this game have been if it was on a green top?
We had very short square boundaries yesterday. What if the game was played on a bigger ground where the boundaries were pushed back to 90 meters?
Do you think the result would have been any of different in any of the above cases? Let me know.
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