Team India was missing pluck and killer instinct

If experience could win you cricket matches, the Indian team’s vast experience would have won them the World Cup game against South Africa here on Saturday hands down. But it needs pluck, huge doses of determination and the killer instinct, and all three ingredients were starkly missing in the Indian dressing room.

Consider the gigantic difference between the two sides: the 11 Indian players had a combined tally of 1,919 One- day Internationals while the South Africans had played only 935 — 984 less than the hosts.

In terms of accumulation of runs, the Indian XI had a grand total of 47,712 and the South Africans could only show 27,378 going in the day- night encounter at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha, near here. The difference was a whopping: 20,334.

And the Indian bowlers went into this Group B match with a cumulative 1,117 wickets while the visitors had a tally of 535, which was 582 scalps less than Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team.

However, South Africans won the day with their resolve, focus and a never- say- die attitude that amply reflected in their batting, bowling and fielding. On the other side, the Indian batsmen, except for Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gambhir, seemed to have been distracted by the close to 45,000 cheering spectators, as Dhoni pointed out later, for the team’s abysmal slide from a position of strength. They lost the last nine wickets for 29 runs.

Dhoni was angry with those who got carried away, leading to India being all out for 296 after two century partnerships at the top of the order. “ When you try to hit those big shots, you tend to forget that you are playing for the country and not for the crowd. In the process of trying to get those 20 extra runs, you end up scoring 40 runs less.

Some were playing to the gallery rather than for the country,” he said after the match.

“ There are times you need to curb your instincts of trying to hit every ball out of sight. If you play normally and play for 50 overs, you end up getting 325- 330. I tried to shuffle the batting order. It didn’t work today,” he admitted.

Still, a total of 296 could have been defended if the bowlers had bowled a tidy line and length and the fielders had been sharper and held all the catches.

The Indians have a tendency to leave everything till the very end. It happened with the Eden Gardens, whose renovation was delayed till the time the administrators had to bear a global embarrassment.

India’s progress into the second stage of the World Cup has also been delayed, though they have one foot in the quarterfinals.

Now, they need to beat West Indies in the sixth and last league game to secure their berth.

On Saturday too, everything hinged on the last over, from which South Africa needed 13 to win and they coolly reached the target. Now, there are hints that Dhoni was not happy with leftarm pacer Ashish Nehra bowling the last over. There was a midfield conference on who amongst Nehra, who has been so successful in the ‘ death’ overs, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh should bowl the vital over. But it looked from a distance as if Nehra had taken the ball from Dhoni even before the conference was over.

The question, however, should be: Why leave the fate of a match till the end?

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