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No miracles, just misery for India
Australia knock hosts out with a comprehensive six-wicket victory, reports Kadambari Murali. Scorecard
Everyone was waiting for something special, for one of those unexpected but utterly special moments that puts the splash into sport and makes you a believer.
The kind of moment that makes you want to cock a snook at the know-it-all sceptics and say, “Magic does exist”. The kind of moment that makes you want time to stop.
On Sunday, while the head said India could not and would not beat the formbook and Australia and make this a game to remember, the heart said they could do it. After all, this Indian team has the dash and the flair, a fair mix of experience and youth, a couple of miracle-workers and at least one genius. This would be their hour of reckoning, their moment of triumph.
But, as so often happens, the head was right and the heart lost out, as Australia played as Australia play — like the world champions they are — and put up a thoroughly professional display to beat India by six wickets and move into the semifinal of the Champions Trophy.
It was not an Australia at their aggressive best that we saw, but they did not need to be. They bowled with discipline to restrict India to 249, always the kind of score that might not be enough and then, batted with a minimum of fuss and a combination of gusto and commonsense to overhaul the target with over four overs to spare.
Everyone played a part — Adam Gilchrist and especially Shane Watson gave them a flyaway start (helped no doubt by some extremely loose bowling by India), Ricky Ponting came in and got to his half-century in quick time and Damien Martyn took on the role of anchorman and took the Aussies home safely.
Frankly, they never looked like they would lose. India's only hope, actually, lay in grabbing a couple of quick wickets with the hard, new ball and then hope that the track — which (when Australia bowled) moved from being one with a little movement and an even bounce to a slower one where the ball, even when fired down with express pace, did not come on to the bat quite easily — helped their spinners.
But they bowled awkwardly right from the start and though both Harbhajan and (in a rare positive for India, like Sehwag’s rising to the occasion) Dinesh Mongia, bowled with grit and discipline, the Australians, with plenty in hand and not that much to get, were immovable.
Yet, this loss, the first time since the 1975 World Cup that Asia will go unrepresented in the semifinal of a major event, is not unexpected, given the way India have performed in one-dayers over the last six months. Their record run chases of less than a year ago now seem part of a distant past. There is a brittleness to the batting and a fickleness to their play that is distressing.
There is an obvious disquiet among the ranks, an insecurity that is becoming more and more evident as the days go by and the losses pile up. There are unanswered questions about experiments (or strategies gone wrong), prolonged losses of form, a lack of accountability and a general air of depression around the team.
Even as this happens, those who whisper of a camp divided and discord will gain momentum and even those who dismiss these as mere canards will obviously begin to wonder. And why wouldn’t they?
Rahul Dravid is in the unenviable position of trying to weld together his band of boys in quick time before they make a mockery of themselves at the World Cup.
He has one chance to do it, over the next two months in South Africa, far enough from the overwhelming pressures that playing in India brings with it, far away from the prying public, the endless discussions on television and in newspapers, from other continuous distractions.
The Indian skipper said on Saturday that his team did not need a miracle to win, just a good performance. Well, with a cricket-heavy season ahead, perhaps the time for prayer has begun.
