Beating him up now is the easiest thing to do. Looks smart too. And today the talk is all about 'looking good' anyway. Bashing Dhoni up can effortlessly be made to sound like sage punditry in prevailing situation. Sure, the captain must take flak beacuse he also takes the roses and scents, but true punditry is that which looked at his shortcomings and spoke about them when he was winning handsomely.
Why does Dhoni look so despondent? General suggestion has been that he craves fast inflows of money over long-winded Testing for his country. Nothing can be stupider than that. I have yet to see a more commited person that Dhoni...who played all formats, all games, with the big gloves and the smaller ones from under the captain's hat without ever complaining of overwork. Nothing but cheap talk this. The man has produced results none could match. That can certainly not be a "thukka"!
Dhoni's been a good pilot but when his Rolls-Royces, Pratt & Whitneys and GEs are collectively hit by bees in their tespective bonnets, all he can try is belly land.
His despondency is a reflection of the Catch 22 situation he finds himself in - babysitting ambitions of veterans who refuse to tein them in, instead of being absorbed in the creativity of constructing a new team.
Yes, he hasn't been intuitive but could it be because of all the bother that's going in to say a simple 'Thank You'?
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Drumming Dhoni
Ben Hilfenhaus made the difference
In my opinion, it was the return of Ben Hilfenhaus that undid whatever batting plans India had. He was incisive and unpleasantly accurate to a team that appeared to have convinced themselves about the popgunness of the rest of Australian bowling. I said 'appears', for I'm sure pros like Sachin et al don't think that way...that's how armchair observes like us do.
Siddle was boosted by Hilfenhaus's presence. To be honest, India didn't show enough patience and application to push an innings to the next new-ball and see how the Australian bowlers hold up across 100 overs. If that had been done early in the sries, the relative impressions of domination and capitulation might not have be as stark. But this is straying into the hypothetical.
Australian batting slid through concealed by their bowling and stepped forward now and then to punch hard mediocre spells of purposeless Indian bowling.
The Test was over in under three days. India was the poorer team. My congratulations to Australia.
About Soldiers and Guardians
Progression awards itself to determined Soldiers
None more valiant than Loyalty and Familiarity
In their time. Guardians are but old Soldiers
None stauncher than Loyalty and Familiarity
Their time awarded to keeping an Obsession.
