February 14th 2012
Yet another close match between India and Sri Lanka ended in a Tie betwen both the teams . Dhoni facing the last ball of Malinga had to score 4 runs and hit a shot on the off-side which was somehow collected by the fielder there. However, it could not stop Dhoni and Vinay Kumar from taking 3 runs to tie the match.
Is India really playing like World Champions since they won World Cup?
Of the 5 matches played so far in the series 3 were close. India has played 2 matches with Australia and 2 with Sri Lanka so far. The result is 1 win out of 2 matches played with Australia and 1 win and a tie out of 2 matches played with Sri Lanka. The first match with Australia was dominated by Australians while the second match India somehow managed a win, termed close match. With Sri Lanka , the first match won by India was the one India had dominated Sri Lanka throughout and yet they could have finished the match much earlier than how it ended up as. Today’s match was a tie between India and Sri Lanka which was supposed to be a win as Sri Lankans could not score lot of runs and ended up making 236 only. Yet India could not win the match.
Well, not denying that both the opponent are quite strong contenders hence close matches are always expected. However, the question is , has India ever played like World Champion since winning the World Cup? The answer is No. Mostly wins come resulting from Close Matches. Close wins indicate clearly that the opponent was as strong as the winning team. In case of Australian Team which had dominated World Cricket for more than a decade, Loss was rare and close always and Wins were out of dominance throughout the match! Whereas in case of Team India the story is completely different. Even now when India loses it is rarely a close match. They are dominated almost throughout the match. Though there is no denying the present Team India is a strong contender to any One-Day Teams of the world but facts are also that they can easily lose in front of top order Teams of the World Cricket as well.
The Test Series in England and Australia had been devastating snatching Team India’s number one position in Test Cricket. India lost all matches in both the countries. All One-day matches and series were always close wins and never clear dominance. World Cup Winners should at least dominate the other teams for a stretched period of time indicating they deserved to be the winners. In India’s case, it is clear that present Team India is deadly but not consistently deadly. They may be a threat to all other top order world teams but not a continued threat, the way Australia had been, during their tenure of long success. The opponent teams would not mind losing to Australia, given the standard and committment of the team in batting , bowling and fielding and the overall Team Effort. India still lacks that and that is probably a strong reason matches are still thrilling and close , no matter whichever Team , India is playing with. The high-standards which Australian Team has set of being a dominant World Cup Winner and the number One Cricket Team of the world is yet to be broken by our Team India. As a Team India fan, one would love to see their team being an undisputed champion rather than champion of a tournament!