Dhoni’s men too good for Aussies in wheelchairs
Columnist By Kersi Meher-Homji, 30 Oct 2009 Kersi Meher-Homji is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- Australian Cricket, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Champions Trophy, Cricket, india cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Michael Clarke, ODIs
A worker pulls his rickshaw past a billboard of Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008. Dhoni attracted the highest price of US$1.5 million (euro1.02 million) per season in the first round of bidding. AP Photo/R S Iyer
The series in India is locked at one-all, but after the Nagpur massacre, only a miracle can save Australia. Just as well Ponting’s pensioners won the first match in the series by four runs or else a whitewash could have been likely.
To lose is one thing, to be outclassed is entirely different. Especially for the world champions.
I hate to say “I told you so,” but I have to say it. Not gloatingly, but honestly.
Ricky Ponting’s men have been playing almost non-stop cricket for over a year. After the grueling Ashes series, they deserved a few months rest from cricket until the first Test starts on 26 November in Brisbane.
But as I have said in previous posts, there is just too much cricket – especially for the Australians.
There were seven one-dayers in England, the Champions Trophy, and now this seven-day series against a rested and fresh India under a dynamic leader Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
It would be easy to criticise Ponting’s decision to send India in to bat after winning the toss in Nagpur but, face it, his bowlers let him down. Even in the first match in Vadodra, Australia almost lost an un-losable match through wayward bowling, especially by Shane Watson.
The fall of the once invincible Australians has many reasons:
* Year round cricket has resulted in injuries to key players Michael Clarke, Brett Lee, Brad Haddin among others. (I am not including injuries to James Hopes, Tim Paine and Nathan Bracken in this category as they have not played many internationals this year).
* Poor team selections. The dropping of Phil Hughes in the Ashes series (after just two Tests, including an innings in which he got a bad decision) following an encouraging Test series in South Africa where he became the youngest to score centuries in both innings of a Test.
* Simon Katich has had a good season. Why make him a Test specialist when he can contribute equally significantly to Australia’s success in one-dayers as a top order batsman, a Chinaman bowler and a potential captain?
* And what is Stuart Clark doing as an expert on the Foxtel panel when he should be in the middle applying breaks to the run flow of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh?
But I must be fair.
Rather than just caning the Aussies, let us praise the spirit of young India. Their big names – Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble – have pulled stumps and they too have injury problems with star bowlers Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan.
Also, dashing batsman Yuvraj Singh was unfit for the first ODI.
The big plus for Australia is the return to form of Mike Hussey. Ponting is batting and fielding well. It will add years to his “expiry date” if captaincy were to be handed over to Katich.
I sincerely hope that Ponting proves me wrong before the series in India ends on Remembrance Day.
Recommend this story.
October 31st 2009 @ 12:45pm
davido said | October 31st 2009 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
Give me runs on the board any day. It looked to be, right from the start, a really very poor decision to put India into bat. Is it me or did I see Dhoni’s eyes light up like he had won the jackpot. Counting on the dew as a winning factor was a gamble. Indeed, does it play that much of a role? Sure, the spinners cant get a good grip, but the outfield is slower. Surely, batting at night with a white ball that turns green withing 20 overs is almost never as good as batting during the day.
This is not the first incorrect pitch decision by Ponting, you have to wonder about the advice he is being given. A quick look at the previous scores on the ground will tell you that it is a batsman’s paradise.
If Australia loses the series it will have more to with the umpiring than anything else. I have never seen such disgracefully biased umpiring as I have in these two matches. Having an all Indian umpiring team helps a lot. Take for instance the end of the 31st over where the umpire correctly did not call a wide to a shoulder high ball and Dhoni signalled the umpire to do so. The umpire then changed his call at Dhoni’s beckoning. Another example was Sharma bowling well wide of the off stump and not being called for it. In the first match there were repeated LBW calls that should have been given but were not.
From my personal knowledge i can tell you the ICC is investigating these Indian umpires.
As a note: Watson looked to be puffing and huffing in the field. Not looking good.
October 31st 2009 @ 8:12pm
Freud of Football said | October 31st 2009 @ 8:12pm | Report comment
I won’t comment on the Indian umpires here but I am against the idea of “neutral” umpires. That Taufel cannot stand in a Test series involving Australia is simply rubbish, over the last 10-15 years some of the best umpires have come from Australia but too often we have been stuck with those prone to making many mistakes.
Really, if we have to put up with the bias of curators turning out ridiculously favourable pitches, surely we can put umpires in the middle regardless of their nationality?