Idea Cup Final - Turning Back to Look Forward: Only bilateral series wins are not desired for India

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Sreelata YellamrazuJan 20 2010

by Sumit Srivastava

Yet another defeat in a multi nation tournament is not a good sign for Indian cricket. Victories in bilateral series are different from multi nation tournaments. In bilateral series one just has to take a lead to win. But to pack a knockout punch in a knockout situation like a final of a multi nation series is difficult and this is where team India is missing its shots.

kumar sangakkara with the idea cup

It is not as if there have not been batting collapses for the Indian side or any other side in the past. The conditions were good for batting. This was not Leeds or Perth but it was Dhaka. Neither there was any grass cover on the pitch nor any extra bounce. The Sri Lankan bowlers too, didn’t bowl too many wicket taking balls. They bowled just short of the good length and poor shot selection by the Indian batsmen did the rest.

zaheer khan dismayed

Certainly, toss was very crucial still, on a batting beauty, a score of 60 for 5 in 11 overs, needs an explanation. Poor shot selection by the Indian batsmen put the side into a very intractable position and a target of 246 was never meant to pose a threat to the Sri Lankan batting line up. To make a big score, India certainly needed quorum of batsmen putting up good show with the bat. Apart from Gautam Gambhir, who was a bit unlucky, the rest of the top 5 batsmen just threw their wickets away.

Virat Kohli looked too flashy at the start of his innings and paid the price. Yuvraj Singh has always been iffy against seam bowling and quality spin bowling, especially at the start of his innings and he was once again did in with a good, rising delivery, outside of his off stump.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the biggest jolt for the side as he has been magical player for India in pressure situations in the past and his wicket was really pernicious for India and it meant that India needed Virender Sehwag to stay at the wicket for a larger part of the Indian innings if India had to make a statement with the bat.

sreesanth dejected

With a guy like Sehwag, who has only one gear when it comes to batting in one day internationals, looked a very tough ask. He tried his best by playing his shots in insolent manner and made Kumar Sangakkara delay the bowling power play, but it was not his day. A very productive shot for Sehwag, the upper cut did not come out well this time.

It was really heartening to see the two young left handers, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, shoulder the responsibility of taking the team through in this big match. Raina loves hitting the ball in the air but for the sake of his side, he cut down his aerial shots initially. He and Jadeja both played risk free cricket. They ran really well and produced a much needed partnership.

One can feel that Jadeja was unlucky to be given out and that too, at the wrong time. Had he and Raina stayed together till the 40-41 overs, the game could have changed. Even a wonderful century by Raina could only get India to respectable total which was looking unlikely earlier.

To defend this total, India needed a very spirited bowling performance. 2 or 3 quick wickets were the need of the hour and that would have done the trick for the Indians. But that was not to be the case this time around. Ashish Nehra’s absence also did not help the Indians.

Despite of the wicket of Upul Tharaga early, Kumar Sangakkara and Tilakratne dilshan did not allow Indian bowlers to settle down. The experience of Mahela Jayawardhne came handy for Sri Lanka in the middle overs of this all important tie.

Fielding was a major difference between both the sides in this final. Where Sri Lanka saved at least 20-25 runs with their excellent fielding, the Indians gave as many runs with their poor fielding. This area needs vast improvements if the Indian team aims to be ranked highly in ODI format.

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