India vs West Indies 2009, Third ODI, Beausejour Stadium, Grose Islet, St.Lucia
Scorecard
What is merely a coincidence is beginning to appropriate the irrationalization which goes beyond coincidence: India invariably win when I am not watching them play! The blue boys who couldn't put a step right till now managed to overhaul the proud hot West Indians in a game rapidly changing with every drop of rain pelting down from the clouds on this beautiful stadium. I must credit Dhoni here with leading the way in this series through personal example.
Gambhir was beaten this season. His mind was shot to pieces by the enormous concentration constructing a grand season required. He was playing and erring, knowing but not correcting, like a gramophone needle led astray by an errant track. But in this match, in this crucial match serieswise, he came good. I cannot tell you how he played, for I didn't watch the match and shall catch it only on the replay, but it must have been better than what he has played till now this season. Or maybe the luck went alongwith him...whatever. When he fires at the top, India is able to sustain a healthy momentum.
DK continues to make serious contributions. He got a beauty from JT the last game unlike others who perished to Ravi Rampaul's seductions (also called rotibelly by WI supporters/detractors of his in WI cricket forums due to his fullish girth for a fast bowler, according to them). This time he appeared to have beaten the dun out of JT...yet again, JT proves most expensive. But he is the kind of player who will win you games on one day and let it go the other. It was all LIXXXXXXXXXXX today though for him...
Gambo and DK should have completed the task once they had the West Indians on the run, but we are Indians, we like to download and write in tortuous plots and subplots from our imagination into reality. These twists and turns spring up at you as if saying boo! People have tried to figure out why...they theorize that we are a naturally hysterical people with a liking for the flash and adrenaline rush...most blame it however on the spices we tend to eat. Indians are emotionally labile peeps with fertile imagination because the spices are shooting fire out of their backsides and rocketing them into the orbits of fantasyland. They need the rush...often they get their fix by watching cricket matches and riding the esses introduced by the Indian players. Dhoni stepped up to marshall the innings here in such a situation.
But before all this, the worry continues that Ishant Sharma has been overbowled in the past two years. remember, he is still just 20 years old or thereabouts. His physical maturity isn't complete and he may well be a pile of useless burnout before men take cognizance.
He isn't ready for LOI bowling...if he has to play then he has wasted his time in that KKR team as well...he's have learnt at least a thing or two if he had been playing alongside McGrath and under TA Sekhar's guidance. I know that he playing for KKR is not his or our choice but the bidder's choice...and this is a disservice of sorts done my the KKR team management to India's brightest hope in pace bowling.
The lad cannot figure out the nuances easily and he might just end up losing both his shoulder and test match bowling prowess in the process. Let him mature first...let him try out things...give him 2-3 years...spread out his burden as well logically...he could end up being a dangerous bowler in all forms. As of now, he simply doesn't know how to bowl in LOIs...yeah, he'll do well against peeps like us, but not Gayle!
Continuing with the hyperbole-fantasy-bollywoodistic (or Tolly or Lolly or Polly or Molly or Kolly or whatever) mindset of the average Indian and extending it further, if suppose Sarwan and Chanders were laid out in their last moments and were asked for a last wish, I am sure they would immediately clamour, with all remaining energies, to play one last game against India. For you see that is like amrit for them. Remember the vish-amrit games played when one was a toddler? They are revived when they play India...they stand up and puff out to gigantic proportions after having been snuffed out gradually by other teams...the ordinary spinners of other teams will trouble Chanders to no end, but he will play the champion spinners of India as if they were less than other novices. Sarwan will burgeon the myth of him being an all-conqueror when he has actually success loaded in certain pockets of his career. Take a look at him now...it is difficult to imagine that this is the man who has been stuttering in recent times in ODIs or T20s. Chanders failed this time. Rare one that against India.
Abhishek Nayar debuted but didn't get a chance to either bowl or bat. I hope that will not be the case for I think he will be a useful player for India in ODIs/T20. Welcome him.
Now it is the time for Dhoni to do a Dada - like Sourav Ganguly did, he's got the Caribbeans in a bind and musn't take his foot off the pressure...Gayle or no Gayle, Sarwan or no Sarwan, Chanders or no Chanders....and the other XYZs who generally prosper against India ONLY (read as Morton and like).
Beat dun the WI in West Indies!
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