After men in blue tasted bitter defeat in the first T20 with the Kiwis, their unsuccessful fight back in the second T20 match was a good consolation- not to mention that I had to stay awake till 4am (EST) to see the last-over drama. Although, the win in first ODI yesterday was a well-deserved redemption but they have miles to go before they make this tour a grand success. So in a cricket match, what makes one team better than the other one? Is the strong batting lineup or is the form of paces and spinners? Does the presence of legendary players makes a game one sided or does the young-guns-on-fire tilts the balance. May be it's the quality of Pitch or the Toss? Or may be its crucial partnerships- as Dhoni quipped at Napier.
The simple game of Cricket looks so complex the moment we start looking into so many factors which influence the outcome of the game. Anyways, I think it's the positive frame of mind and confidence which helps a team perform well- in terms of individual performance, building partnerships and being aggressive in batting, bowling and fielding.
Without underestimating the opposition, A team should think (not talk !) as if they were the best and eventually they'll win. The team which takes this attitude to a little higher level unfortunately becomes a big-headed side thereby risking of losing games unnecessarily- something which the Indians did at Wellington. But weren’t the Kiwis positive of their victory prospects at Napier after their resounding victory over the Indians in the previous two T20s? Yes, but they were far outshined by the renewed confidence in the Indian team. The men in blue learned (again) that they need to go back to basics and focus on scoring runs rather than entertaining the crowd with their frequent fireworks of 4s and 6es. And let’s not forget the Sachin-Ala-Re factor … the maestro is a huge confidence booster- both on and off field for them. Anyways, as expected, great bowling by Bhajji & Zak. Also, the game saw a good comeback by Praveen although his deliveries still lose their fizz as the new ball ages. Sometimes I feel the best part of a match is the first ten over of Indian batting because the rockets launched by Veeru are just spectacular and are worth watching again & again on YouTube. Dhoni's gamble of playing at a higher batting order has been working fine lately and Raina's good form indicates that his unspoken mission of scoring the longest Six might come true this year. Amidst all, I seriously missed watching Gambhir taking the shine off the new ball … I hope he’ll be back soon.
Anyways, it was an entertaining game although the Lord Indra did show his untimely display of his powers thinking the Indian Tigers will meow again. The Indian team has now a renewed confidence which they need to maintain but now let’s see how the Kiwis fight back
The simple game of Cricket looks so complex the moment we start looking into so many factors which influence the outcome of the game. Anyways, I think it's the positive frame of mind and confidence which helps a team perform well- in terms of individual performance, building partnerships and being aggressive in batting, bowling and fielding.
Without underestimating the opposition, A team should think (not talk !) as if they were the best and eventually they'll win. The team which takes this attitude to a little higher level unfortunately becomes a big-headed side thereby risking of losing games unnecessarily- something which the Indians did at Wellington. But weren’t the Kiwis positive of their victory prospects at Napier after their resounding victory over the Indians in the previous two T20s? Yes, but they were far outshined by the renewed confidence in the Indian team. The men in blue learned (again) that they need to go back to basics and focus on scoring runs rather than entertaining the crowd with their frequent fireworks of 4s and 6es. And let’s not forget the Sachin-Ala-Re factor … the maestro is a huge confidence booster- both on and off field for them. Anyways, as expected, great bowling by Bhajji & Zak. Also, the game saw a good comeback by Praveen although his deliveries still lose their fizz as the new ball ages. Sometimes I feel the best part of a match is the first ten over of Indian batting because the rockets launched by Veeru are just spectacular and are worth watching again & again on YouTube. Dhoni's gamble of playing at a higher batting order has been working fine lately and Raina's good form indicates that his unspoken mission of scoring the longest Six might come true this year. Amidst all, I seriously missed watching Gambhir taking the shine off the new ball … I hope he’ll be back soon.
Anyways, it was an entertaining game although the Lord Indra did show his untimely display of his powers thinking the Indian Tigers will meow again. The Indian team has now a renewed confidence which they need to maintain but now let’s see how the Kiwis fight back
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment