With all the comedy of errors and the house of horrors on the field, India has huffed and puffed to square the series at 3-3. Whatever you think about the Indian team, love them or hate them, you just cannot ignore them, and you cannot deny the fact that they have been great entertainers in this series – Tendulkar; Ganguly; Yuvraj Singh with the bat, Zaheer Khan; Piyush Chawla; Ramesh Powar with their bowling guiles, Dravid with his entertaining post-match speeches, and of course the fielding(mis).
However, I am sure the Indian viewers would rather prefer Team India as dull winners rather than entertaining winners. We all wish they win matches more convincingly, when they are in a commanding position, without making the Indian viewers requiring pacemakers. We would prefer India snatching victory from the jaws of defeat rather than the other way around.
Personally I am a very content man, no matter the outcome of the last match. They have worked hard and fought hard after being 1-3 down, with a much-improved fielding performance in the 6th one-dayer.
The Legends
Though their running between the wickets has been nothing to write home about, Sachin and Sourav have given their team 3 gems in 3 century partnerships paving the way for 3 Indian victories. This, however, leads to a concern. Can India put up a good score if this legendary opening pair with 20 century partnerships fails? I would love to see Robin Uthappa come in one down if this pair fails, as he must have gained confidence from his match winning innings from the 6th match.
Death bowling (6th one-dayer)
It certainly was a nightmarish bowling performance by the Indian bowlers in the last 20 overs, where they gave away 183 runs in the last 20 overs. Admitted, debutant Luke Wright and Owais Shah played great knocks, but it is criminal to give so many runs in the end overs. At the most, England should have been restricted to 275 or maybe even less. Ajith Agarkar has become too much of a liability for the Indian team with his once-in-a-blue-moon good performances. He should be given the tag of the all-rounder who can neither bowl, bat or field - the same tag, which was rather unfairly given to Ravi Shastri late in his career. RP Singh who is a much better death bowler should be recalled for the last match.
Hopefully a humdinger of a last match beckons at the Lord’s, 2mmorrow and may (for sure) the better team wins. Lets try Njoying the real cricket show rather than just Indian Cricket show. What do U say...???
