Yesterday night I witnessed a real life example for “What happens when the expectation exceeds limits?”
Its not only me,But millions witnessed the same. This is about the exit of India from T20 world cup.
Yesterdays match was between India and England. India in a must win situation after there defeat to West Indies in their first Super eight match. India were clearly the favourites with strong batting and bowling line up. This is one of the best teams India ever had in their cricketing history. And the young,wise captain M.S.Dhoni was considered the best captain in the world. The day before the match, Legends like Sachin Tendulkar,Srikanth and Gavaskar quoted “This team can perform very well under lots of pressure”. Everyone from legends to millions of fans were expecting India to defend the title.
It was the first time in history the English crowds were outnumbered by our Indians in lords. The stadium never looked like Lords in England. It was like one of the Indian home ground's. The stadium was full packed with tri colour flag flying high in the air. It was a lovely scene to see our flags flying in air. There was a sudden huge roar from the crowd when Dhoni came to the field for the first time to call for the toss. Dhoni won the toss and selected to field. Indian Players walked to the field with a strong line-up. Gautam Gambhir, Rohit sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh, Ravi Jadeja, R.p.Singh, Zaheer Khan,Harbhajan Singh,Ishanth Sharma&Suresh Raina accompanied the captain.
Things started well when dangerous Luke wright was dismissed my R.p.singh.Credit goes to pathan for his excellent catch from leg slip position. However Kevin Peterson and Ravi Bopara smashed the Indian blowers. Kevin Peterson was at his best. Everyone expected the intresting duel of Yuvraj vs Kevin.But kevin proved to be mightier than ever. Ravi Jadeja rescued India by taking the wickets of Kevin and Ravi Bopara. Still England managed to get a comfortable total of 153 at the end of their Innings.
Indian innings started of in a great fashion but didn't last long.As Rohit sharma and Raina went back with a single digit. It was a great disappointment. But jadeja and Gambhir stabilised the innings. But the Run rate went sky high and the inexperienced jadeja failed to capitalise due to pressure. Further Disappointment awaited India when Yuvraj was stumped out in a cheap way. Yuvraj started of well but he went out like a cracker which failed to burst. The crowd remain silent and the captain accompanied by Yusuf pathan tried till death. Atlast the tri coloured flag came done after falling short by just three runs.
It was the same time last year when Dhoni lead an inexperienced Indian side towards the glory.There were no expectations last year as trio Dravid, Sachin and Ganguly opted their way out of team.But India managed a great win. But this year million hearts broke down when our players fell short and failed to win the battle.
Whom can we blame for the failure?
Our Great captain of all time Dhoni??
Inexperienced Jadeja??
Man with immense ability Yuvraj??
None can be blamed.The expectation we had on our team,The expectation the great legends had on our team were shattered. The greater expectation makes things worse than it is in real.
This is my rating according to yesterdays performance.
| Players | Rating(out of ten) | Players | Rating(out of ten) |
| Gautam Gambhir | 7.5(average performance with both bat and in field) | Ravi Bopara | 8(stabilised English batting with impressive shot) |
| Rohit Sharma | 5(poor in field and with bat) | Luke Wright | 6.5(impressive with ball but failed with bat) |
| Ravi Jadeja | 8(good bowling,poor strike rate in batting) | Kevin Peterson | 9(Absolute match winning knock) |
| Suresh Raina | 5(poor fielding and bating) | Paul Collingwood | 7(Impressive in field and confident as a captain) |
| Yuvraj Singh | 6(unimpressive bowling and batting) | D.Mascarenhas | 8(Good running between wickets and got an important wicket) |
| M.S.Dhoni | 8(for fighting spirit) | Owais Shah | 6(was he in English line-up yesterday) |
| Yusuf Pathan | 9(great catch and impressive batting) | Foster | 6(Didn't get an opportunity to prove himself) |
| Harbhajan Singh | 8(excellent bowling except that 2x 5 wides) | G.swann | 8(Great bowling,got dangerous yuvraj and jadeja) |
| Ishanth Sharma | 5(No match to peterson’s skill) | Stuart Broad | 9(SPlendid performance with ball and in field) |
| R.P.Singh | 8(Bowled well getting early wicket) | Ryan Sidebottom | 9(Clearly the match winner striking two early wickets) |
| Zaheer Khan | 7.5(better bowling Performance) | James Anderson | 6(poor bowling performance) |
Overall Performance:
England 7.5/10
India 7/10
9 comments:
I do not follow cricket that closely...but I am impressed with your detailed analysis.It is not cookie cutter and has a rationale.Good stuff.
thanks blogueur
Shankar, why expect in the first place.. Win or lose is part of it. Also we had too much of hype for these T20 games. This is my personal opinion. Your comparison is good. Good work.
But you know we had a grea team..great captan..great players....so as a normal human being we ofcourse would have some expectation right...That our team will win..we have best side..etc..etc.. but when nothing happens...it leads to great disappointment.
Though we lost.. i still think we have a great team and great captain. But great teams fail too.. For example didnt australia get eliminated as well.. But can we disagree that they are world champions. They still hold that dont they..
ya...ofcourse..anyway disappointment still in my heart....
Hey shankar :) Very well written :) We expect things when we see capabilities in others.Like in our real life,if there is a good student then people expect him/her to do well in exams.If nobody is expecting anything from you then you are taken as incapable and our Indian cricket team is definitely not that.So after last T20 world cup win, this year the cricket fans were expecting more and that was natural.But things didn't workout.Lets hope for best ahead.Your blog is nice.keep blogging.Thanks.
Thanks a lot kunu...for your valuble comment. I believed a lot in dhoni than anyone else in our team.
I cant believe you gave 8/10 for that mokkai mannan he is a shadow of himself nowadays. He was the main reason why CSk lost. He with his selfish motive to increase his average comes to bat at no3 when the team is in good position and send raina the bali kadaa if the team is struggling, come in bat 20 overs with a run a ball strike and increases average and then gets praise for others work.
Everything said and done the blame or praise should be on whole team, not on any individual.
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