Mumbai, May 11: They saw the bouncers coming from a mile away against Australia’s pace-heavy arsenal in their first Super 8 match, but could do nothing about it.
Soccer World Cup 2010That the West Indies would use the short ball generously in the next game was as predictable as anything in the game’s most unpredictable format, but India’s batsmen still didn’t have any answers.
In fact, the only surprising fact going into the last two matches before stage of the third World T20 Championships is that India, despite two thoughtless and spineless performances on the trot, have a fairly decent mathematical shot at going through to the semi-finals.
MS Dhoni’s side have to beat Sri Lanka by a reasonable, but not ridiculous, margin (see box) and then hope that Australia see off the West Indies in the Tuesday evening’s second match. (In fact, things are so hazy in Group F that any two of the four teams could be going home including Australia, in the unlikely situation of them losing by more than 87 runs and Sri Lanka beating India by more than 68 runs).
For the Indian cricket fan, a breed that has grown increasingly optimistic over the last decade or so, both scenarios would look imminently plausible, what with the teams heading back to St Lucia, where the pitches have been so much more to the Indian team’s liking.
Having been thrashed in consecutive games in Barbados, the comprehensive wins against Afghanistan and South Africa seem like they happened a long time ago, and Dhoni is less likely to feel bogged down by an spin-heavy attack in slow, low conditions. However, if he had to pick an opposition to avoid playing in such sluggish, sub-continental conditions, it would probably have been the Lankans.
India’s spin-centric attack has gone for a lot of runs so far — even in the game against South Africa at this venue, the four tweakers (Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja) were collectively taken for 139 runs in the 15 overs they shared. The Lankan line-up, which is as adept at tackling slower bowlers as any, will not be losing too much sleep over taking on this Indian attack.
They do have their own set of problems though. Mahela Jayawardene has been in such good touch that the rest of the batsmen have hardly had to contribute, and when the right-handed opener fell early against Australia, the team were bowled out for a paltry 87 (leading to a massive 81-run defeat that has given India a glimmer of hope). In fact, of the 590 runs that the Lankans have scored in this tournament, Jayawardene has accounted for 288.
But Sangakkara insisted there were no negative thoughts running through the squad, and that the focus was solely on getting the results.
“The match against India, we are going to win it,” Sangakkara said. “That’s how we are going to look at it. We’ve got one win and West Indies have a win. We got everything to play to trying and get into the semifinal.”
If India do win the contest by 20 runs or more (or with about three overs to spare), cricket fans will be treated to the unlikely sight of Indian supporters — who have descended in big numbers in the Caribbean — cheering an Australian team on.
Will Dirk Nannes, Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait have the same impact on St Lucia’s slow turner as they did in Barbados? Or will Chris Gayle & Co, for the second year running, be partly responsible for dumping India out of these championships? We can only wait and watch — with the optimists keeping their fingers firmly crossed.
—-Agencies