India failed to seize the moment

The India-South Africa world cup group B match in Nagpur on March 19, 2011 was a stunner. India loosing their last 9 wickets for less than 30 runs. From 267/1 to 297 all out.

The match went down to the last over, South Africa needing 14 runs to win in the last over. South Africa doing it with 2 balls to spare.

In every match, there are specific moments to be seized and the team that seizes these moments will usually win the match. India failed to seize two crucial moments, one was just after the 15th over when India were coasting along scoring more than 8 runs an over without taking any risks and they had the opportunity to take the batting power play, they didn't take it. There are times when fear inside you stops you from doing the unconventional and this was the moment India failed to seize the moment and put the cat among the pigeons. Had India taken the powerplay in the 16th over, it would have caught Graeme Smith by surprise and panic would have set in the opposition camp.

The next moment came in the final over of the South African innings when South Africa needed 14 runs to win in one over, MS Dhoni threw the ball to Ashish Nehra instead of his top spinner Harbhajan Singh who had bowled an excellent 48th over. This was hard to understand, MSD looked more like a captain looking to keep his job and play it safe, rather than the fearless captain who won the first edition of the T20 world cup. I don't understand how a bowler can be good enough to bowl the 48th over but not good enough to bowl the 50th over.

What was even more disappointing was the public outcry expressed by the Indian Captain that his batsmen were playing to the gallery rather than their country, this was a poor comment from the Indian Captain reminding me of Sourav Ganguly's quote "the Indian Captain (MS Dhoni) may be quite mature but sometimes he makes immature comments." This was definitely one of those moments.

This was an opportunity for India to humiliate South Africa - the title favorites by defeating them by a huge margin and dent their confidence so much that they may never recover in this world cup. The Indian batsmen tried to do just that and in the process lost their wickets. Even great teams at times have unforeseen batting collapses and there is nothing anybody can do about that. It's part and parcel of the game. But for the captain to unload his frustration on the team could do more bad than good for the team.

The team that seizes it's moments is the team that is going to win the world cup. The more I see of India, the less I feel they are going to win the world cup. My heart wants India to win, I just hope they come out with something special.

This cricket world cup, I just feel it could be one of the unfancied teams that might produce something special. It could be New Zealand or Pakistan or even England. These teams were struggling just before the world cup, New Zealand lost a ODI series 4-0 to Bangladesh and again 5-0 to India, Pakistan with all it's fixing scandals and England had a 6-1 series loss to Australia, one of these teams might wake up one day and say enough is enough, let's make something of it, lets take some risks and do something special. I have a good feeling about New Zealand, they seem to want it really bad, the turn-around might just be around the corner for them. And, don't forget they have a coach (John Wright) who has a great track record, he took India to the 2003 world cup finals. He might want to go one-up here. Not to mention Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum, if it is their day, they could win a match single-handidly.

Let's see how the world cup pans out... Good luck to all the teams.