New Delhi: A three-run loss at Lord's to England on Sunday sealed India's fate in the World T20 championship and made sure that there will be a new T20 world champion come June 21.
A day after the shocking defeat, CNN-IBN's Nishant Arora dissects the mistakes that cost India the game:
Dhoni's first blunder as skipper was to yet again not complete the quota of overs for his best new ball bowlers. RP Singh delivered a wicket and went for only 13 in his three overs, yet he didn't get a fourth over to bowl.
Despite going for 26 in his three overs, Zaheer Khan's experience was too invaluable to ignore. Why did the skipper not turn to him instead of handing over the ball to Ishant Sharma, who has generously given runs throughout the tournament? Ishant went for 36 in his full quota of four overs.
India's third mistake in the field was allowing two wide balls by Harbhajan Singh to sail to the boundary, not once but twice. As the senior spin bowler, it was a cardinal sin by Harbhajan to bowl two such shocking deliveries - first in the 18th over and then in the final over. Those 10 runs cost India dearly.
The decision to bat Suresh Raina at number three in the batting line-up despite his obvious weakness against the short ball was also hard to understand. With the asking rate (required run rate) not too stiff, could the skipper have given himself the role of seeing the initial England burn out and kept Raina in the dugout for an assault on the spinners?
Then came the game breaker – Ravindar Jadeja sent in to bat ahead of Yuvraj Singh at number four. Jadeja was simply unable to find the boundaries. He consumed six of the 20 overs on offer, making just 25 with one four leaving Yuvraj, Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan too much to do in the end.
Comments
0 comment