Dispirited, Dishevelled, Direful

Its been a month since India began its new cricket season. It has taken all of my self-restraint to abstain from posting anything related to cricket for the past month and a half or so. Cricket makes me primitive; it makes me animalistic; it's effect on me is almost hypnotic. So I should pat myself on the back for showing so much control. This was broken last night. The same Indian team which fueled my heart with passion and angst...joy and sorrow...hope and resignedness, made me break my restraint with the show it put up yesterday.

From the moment MS Dhoni and his men stepped onto the field, there was something amiss. There were no springs in the steps, no familiar gleams in the eyes that you usually expect when facing Pakistan and no commitment to the core. The manner in which RP singh bowled his first spell personified the mood of the team...anything but cricket. His listless attitude enraged me; I would have become a murderer if the guy was within reaching radius. Nehra was patchy and effective in parts, but nowhere near international standards. Harbhajan seemed to have something else on his mind (maybe the leaked dossier...or issues related to its content) and looked clueless with the ball in his hand. Ishant sharma ran in like a pensioner, offering all of his allowances to the out of form Pakistani middle order. they should be grateful for his helping hand. The rest of the part timers were abysmal to say the least. Of course, the less said about the Indian ground fielding, the better it is. Have you ever imagined a scene where even the great Tendulkar fakes a dive, fearing flak? It happened yesterday. That one display on the field marked the atrocity which is often called poor fielding by our experts.

There is no point in having a go at the dispirited batting performance by India when its bowling and fielding didn't put up even a semblance of a fight. Dhoni's remark that he was 3 bowlers short showed his hollow mentality rather than derision or ironic comedy. It is typical of him to make a witty joke about the team during the presentation and save himself the blushes by showing his humorous side. With such lacklustre and clueless captaincy it wont be long before he jokes about himself...right now the joke is on him and his team. The biggest irony of all is the fact that the weakest bowling and fielding unit in the world was holding the top position in the rankings for the past 3 days. With any luck, Team India will return with at least one win under their belt, because there is no way in the conscious world that India could beat Australia. For all those die hard and still hopeful cricket fans...I can only pray...