'Exceptional leader': Dravid defends Sharma despite skipper's moment of madness triggering World Cup final failure

When I saw the shot from Sharma you knew it was an opportunity but the catch was just plain fantastic. They don't come any better in the big time. We were on. Later Cummins bowled Kohli and all Indians were stunned. There is no Sharma blame but the guts of it is, you want him to go on and score a ton and more. He was showing the way but Kohli and Rahul both with the ability, didn't take it on to attack as Rohit demonstrated. They stuck to the conservative approach which also failed them in T20. The guys aren't into risk. They suffered the consequences of failure.

It was a similar effect to the Langer/Gilchrist chase in Hobart 99, I imagine. A feeling that "we can win from anywhere" which than catapulted that side to 16 wins in a row. Totally fearless cricket.

At least he didn't look as sour as little Johnny Howard handing over the Rugby world cup in 2003 to England.

The optics of the Indian PM handing out the trophy weren't great. I'm guessing he clearly thought he'd be handing this to Rohit and not to an Aussie. I'm also pretty confident there are all manner of links between the government in India and the BCCI in particular, but cricket in general, eg building that monstrous stadium they played the final in, then naming it after the current PM. IMO, the teams that win clutch matches, do so because a) they want to win and b) they're not afraid to be beaten by a better team if they know they've given it their very best effort. Perhaps that's the thing that's missing from the Indian psyche.

Australia were in P when they started, and just got better and better. I reckon Maxi's knock against Afg would have boosted their confidence even further. A "we can get out of any situation" type of confidence. Almost like a reverse impact on Australia of the Bairstow stumping and ensuing crowd and media beat up.

Good comment, BG. Perhaps the BCCI should spend less money, time and resources on hosting Modi, airshows and other cringe pre game hype activities and more in mental conditioning players to close that 1% - 5% gap. There is already so much pressure, the Indian lads don't need more. Down to Modi presenting the winners cup... I can't recall a single international sports comp where the country's political leader played that role.

Lets face it..you don't win 10 matches in a row without have great leadership, and we know that just having talented players doesn't win games if the team is rudderless. India was hands down the best team of this tournament, and deserved to be crowned champions..however deserving something, doesn't always translate to getting something. I thought the final was played in great spirit, and fully understand the disappointment of the home crowd and the Indian Team.. The difference between the qualifying matches, and the finals is that team need to find another gear. Australia did this through their fielding which went to another level, and they then had enough courage to back themselves when batting. I am ecstatic, however I think this Indian side is going to be very hard to beat going forward.

At the least, it took the crowd out of the game. They were fully expecting he and Kohli to provide quite a few overs of fireworks

India had a similar run in 2019 and suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Black Caps. Perhaps they need someone to somehow keep them grounded, so they don't think they've got everything under control and take wins for granted. Only guessing.

I think this is an excellent comment/rant. :happy: There's one statement you made that perhaps sums up the Indian cricket dilemma; "I find it tough to analyse how good (or bad) we are". I wonder if this is exactly the same issue facing the BCCI, Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma and the rest of the top flight players? You felt there might be 5% missing, I'm guessing there's only 1% and that's some mental block. It's clearly not the quality of the player representing India, given their overall track record at home but especially away, so bringing in fresh blood won't necessarily fix the problem. What ever that problem is, I'm sure a billion people hope the answer's found soon.

Contrast that to Australia who were stretched and tested multiple times during the tournament and had practice implementing different strategies in different situations... it was almost a blessing in disguise. And India's relatively bruise free run to the final maybe gave us a false sense of security in our ability to keep executing the same plan and get a W. Australia are too good a team to not expect a stern challenge in the big games.

Both their batting and bowling seem to lack a Plan B, or even a Plan C in the case of their bowling. The top 3 batted according to the Plan A they'd used so successfully for 10 games, but the rest of the order struggled to do their normal jobs because this was not a pitch you could easily hit through the line, as they were used to doing. They obviously had a Plan A for Australia and in fairness, that worked for Warner, MM and Smith but Plan A to Head, bowl short, didn't work and there was no plan B for him or Marnus. They were also caught short with only 5 bowlers, so Australia knew exactly what was coming their way and could bat accordingly.

it looked to me like India turned up at the ground to collect the World Cup, not win it.

India , the new South Africa

India simply never expected, and never planned, to not make 300. They're bowling was reflective of a team who rarely defends under par totals, and just didn't know what to do. The only batting "failure" until the final they had was against England, and even then 229 was probably par on that wicket. England's batting collapsed and India coasted home.

He hardly 'gifted his wicket.' He was trying to hit a six and had the misfortune to fall to a brilliant catch. That catch turned the whole game.

Sharma leadership was bad , his batting was a good innings he got a decent number of runs in no time. Sharma looked to be care free , it was the younger batsman that were nervous if he knew what was to come then he would have played differently, Shreyas looked like a no 11 backing away from a fast bowler with that shot to get out. They could have easily gotten 280 by just playing for singles after Sharma or even Kohli got out. It was deer in the headlights stuff for the rest of the team. Having 240 was a challenge but India had the most dangerous period bowling wise of the match with the new ball , getting Head out was the key, and what Sharma ended up doing was giving away the match for free with generous low risk run options with his field placings.

I think it is a bit rough to criticise Sharma for that dismissal. The price of batting aggressively is you will get out some times, just as Maxwell did against SA. He should have been able to rely on his lower order to go at more than 4 an over which they were not able to do. Head was able to play with a freedom last night knowing that when Smith failed, Labuschagne was there to anchor the innings, and there was still some batting to come.

I find it tough to analyse how good (or bad) we are. Indian cricket has come such a long way over the past 20 years. We perform at a consistently high level in bilateral series across all 3 formats and go deep in just about every ICC tournament anywhere in the world, but with no silverware to show. I haven’t seen the stats but I reckon our overall W/L ratio in tests and 50 overs would have to be at the top of the list. And I reckon we have won more test matches in SENA countries than Pakistan, Lanka and Bangladesh combined. But our failure to perform when it matters most has become such glaringly huge problem it can no longer be ignored. Sometimes we’ve fallen sort we’ve genuinely lost to teams playing better than us in conditions that suit them. Like the two WTC finals. Which is fine. But there are other occasions where we seem to have let good opportunities slip, last night included. Australia brought their best game of the tournament, as they always seem to do in the final, and we looked a shell of ourselves compared to the past 6 weeks. Others that come to mind are failing twice to bowl out South Africa after setting decent 4th innings targets (in South Africa). From memory the gritty Dean Elgar guided the Saffers home on both occasions after we led the 3 match series 1-0. Another one is England chasing down circa 370 in the delayed 5th test (in England) thanks to a blistering Bairstow knock, with us leading the 5 match series 2-1. Our loss to the Kiwis in the previous WC semi was down to 5 horrific overs where we lost 3 wickets in seaming conditions. That after another pretty solid campaign overall. The afterglow of the Gabba and 2 consecutive BG series wins in Australia has well and truly faded. In over a decade on international cricket across 3 formats, that is all we have to show. No test series wins in South Africa, England or New Zealand. No ICC trophies. I get that the Indian cricket team face a level and intensity of pressure unmatched by another other sports organisation on earth. And I get that ICC trophies are hard to come by. But we are venturing to a point now where this will start to play on our minds and each time we make a final or down to a decisive 4th innings in a test match, it will get harder and harder to come out on top. Every Indian captain of the 21st century has instilled resolve, confidence and discipline in our cricketing culture in their own way. But now with many ageing stars and as we churn over our team for at tough few years ahead, Indian fans can only hope the next captain can start to take us that one step further and find some reward for all our hard work, that 5% that is missing. That’s my rant over. To the winners to bask in the glory of another ODI WC win.

Sounds like Dravid's practicing his speech when he'll no doubt have to front the BCCI and explain why this team lost another ICC final. He can make all the excuses he likes, but the simple fact is, India played its perfect game in the semi against the Black Caps and Australia played its perfect game in the final. In this format, it only takes one bad day at the office......