The rank smell of defeat
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933
The Indian batsmen were gripped by fear; they bathed in it and ended with the malodorous smell of defeat. The exception was Sehwag who doesn’t recognize it and Dravid, the only one with the strength of mind to absorb FDR’s words. The rest of them couldn’t handle it.
Ganguly started out in a reverie and never got out of it, Uthappa tried to awaken him but perished quickly and even Sehwag’s clean hitting couldn’t nudge Sourav out his slow death mode. He finally succumbed to Chaminda-left-arm on the spot-Vaas. Sachin came and departed crushed under the pressure that even Atlas couldn’t bear. There was hope while Sehwag was clattering boundaries at will, but Murali produced some magic to snuff him out and India’s hopes. Yuvraj promptly ran himself out of the cauldron, and even the die-hard India fan would have given up after Murali quickly disposed off a clueless Dhoni. Watching his colleagues crumble seemed to light a fire under Dravid who chose to go down fighting the flames and flailed four boundaries before holing out to long off. It was over.
It wasn’t that desperate on a sunny morning when the bowlers made a good fist of it to restrict Sri Lanka to 254. In fact they did a fantastic job in reigning in the top order and it would have been a much lower total if not for a brave innings by the fearless Chamara Silva, in the Aravinda de Silva mould, and some enterprising hitting by Vaas and Arnold at the end. Yes, India didn’t field too well, but nobody expects them to be great in the field and the plan was that the experienced batters will make up for it. An unsound strategy if there ever was one. The Indian batting has crumbled so many times under pressure that counting on it to offset any deficit was just a terrible blunder. Heads will roll and more effigies will be burnt but life goes on, after all it is only a game.
But, the stench remains.
Labels: roosevelt FDR india sri lanka dravid defeat sehwag murali muralitharan vaas
posted by nish_the_dish @ 6:01 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Hey Nishanth,
Even with the disappointment that you must have felt today, your blog reflects the spirit of the game in assessing the strengths of the victors and the consistent weaknesses of the losers! A true fan of the game I think! Really liked reading your posts for today and the unfortunate Pakistani coach episode.Keep writing. Jinee
Hi, Nish
Indian ownership (selection comittee)will not change ever if we just comfort our selves with foreign mgmt (chappel-good coach.) don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong having a foreign coach, it's just that he will be made the fall guy of this event.
The team should be accountable at the end of the day and not the coach. I def though we could win this. We bowled well, even though we gave out so many extra runs. Dravid had the hunchback confidence to let them bat 1st.
So it wasn't fear that we fell into, it's deeper then that. It all has to do with these 11 guyses upbring from childhood into an adulthood. They might be train well time-being physically and mentally, but childhood events are the one's that defies a man at the end of the day when he's an adult and world is watching. We have a cultural norm to overachive and if u do under achive, god can't even help you, cause your daddy is going to kick your ass so bad that you wish you were never born. You have to like what you do for living. You can't do something for socio-economic reasons for long time where you soul as an intercation with one's body.
"sometimes you have to grab the life by the horns."
V. Santaram(filmmaker)
So are you going to the Caribbean or have you cancelled your tickets :(?
I realized something about myself: I am not a cricket fan, I'm an "Indian cricket" fan. Sad but true. I can't put aside my jingositic feelings to watch the sport just for aesthetic reasons. Afar as I'm concerned, this world cup is over.
With this has come the realization that I need to find a sport that I truly care about and can be passionate about. After all, I can't let all that cold beer go waste. Oo la la la loo le oh!
V. Santaram, I am confused by your post. Are you suggesting that these players chose to play cricket for socio-economic reasons, and not because they love playing it?
Well, I'll have to disagree. Until last year, domestic cricket(Ranji, Deodhar) did not provide a decent livelihood. When kids in India choose cricket or any other sport as their profession it is definitely not for socio-economic reasons but because of their passion for the game.
Ranjit,
We cancelled our Caribbean plans. It didn't make any sense to go. If we had included the World Cup final in our plans, I would have still thought about it. But, our Super 8 games package now looks like this:
SA v Bangl,
Ire v NZL,
Eng v Bangl,
Aus v Ire and
Bangl v Ire.
What a line up!
With all due respect to Bangladesh and Ireland, I just couldn't bring myself to travel to watch you guys. But, I will be rooting for Bangladesh to upset another team. Maybe the Aussies! C'mon Bangla Tigers smoke 'em.
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