Following the 'dead rubber' (DE DUDE certainly made it one in Wankhede) of Ind-SA Series, I have come to made peace with certain facts that would definitely accompany Team India for quite some time (hope they would prove me wrong as early as they could) in future. Here they are:
1) I'm proud of our cricket team and I'm not being sarcastic here. We are NOT the world's best team and with the limited resources (read bowling department), we have managed to achieve some extraordinary heights. In ODIs, we are the third best team in the world and in Tests, we are the fourth best behind AUS, SA and England (This is not per ICC ranking, it's an observation with which most of you agree). And till the time we remember these ranks and can be candid with it, there wouldn't be anything bothering us about our team's terrible performances.
2) Keeping the above ranking system in mind, I had already made peace with the fact that even if we go down in this series against SA by any margin, I wouldn't gush about it. But Indians went one better and could have won this series 4-1 had it been not for some brilliant SA bowling at the depth and our childish batting effort. Losing to a team which boasts off a 'formidable' record of 10 wins to 3 losses in bilateral series deciders and are obviously miles ahead off you in every department wasn't certainly bad and barring the last ODI, we were quite competitive in this series.
3) You might have heard about Wankhede's curator lodging an official complaint against Bharat Arum and Ravi Shastri for tormenting him for a terrible pitch. I wouldn't say that Ravi and Bharat have done the right thing. Their approach might be wrong but their intentions were right. Every team in this world looks for home advantage while playing in its backyard but Indians never ever get their wishes fulfilled. If we are bad at playing on bouncy and seeming tracks of WACA, Christchurch, Trent Bridge, Edgebaston, Durban, Capetown, Gabba etc. then teams from these places are worse off playing on our rank-turners. So if these teams can beat teams from subcontinent in their home with mischievous ease, where is the rush? Indians and Pakistanis do the same to them too here if given the much desired home advantage. I am very comfortable with the idea of Indians being the flat-track bullies for being that too demands for an exquisite skills-set. Australians of Steve Waugh era and West Indians under Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd were 'invincible' for they won almost everywhere and made suitable adjustments to their temperaments and playing techniques. But you will be lucky to witness a team performance of such magnitude again in your lifetimes for neither you get those players, nor the pitches (and home advantage) in this era of quick-fix Cricket.
4) Our bowling shall forever remain 'bad', so better control you blood-pressure by avoiding to talk about them. They are incorrigible and shall remain so in near future.
If I'm missing onto anything here, please feel free to fill me in.......#IAmDone........#TeamDistressed........#NakedEmotions
1) I'm proud of our cricket team and I'm not being sarcastic here. We are NOT the world's best team and with the limited resources (read bowling department), we have managed to achieve some extraordinary heights. In ODIs, we are the third best team in the world and in Tests, we are the fourth best behind AUS, SA and England (This is not per ICC ranking, it's an observation with which most of you agree). And till the time we remember these ranks and can be candid with it, there wouldn't be anything bothering us about our team's terrible performances.
2) Keeping the above ranking system in mind, I had already made peace with the fact that even if we go down in this series against SA by any margin, I wouldn't gush about it. But Indians went one better and could have won this series 4-1 had it been not for some brilliant SA bowling at the depth and our childish batting effort. Losing to a team which boasts off a 'formidable' record of 10 wins to 3 losses in bilateral series deciders and are obviously miles ahead off you in every department wasn't certainly bad and barring the last ODI, we were quite competitive in this series.
3) You might have heard about Wankhede's curator lodging an official complaint against Bharat Arum and Ravi Shastri for tormenting him for a terrible pitch. I wouldn't say that Ravi and Bharat have done the right thing. Their approach might be wrong but their intentions were right. Every team in this world looks for home advantage while playing in its backyard but Indians never ever get their wishes fulfilled. If we are bad at playing on bouncy and seeming tracks of WACA, Christchurch, Trent Bridge, Edgebaston, Durban, Capetown, Gabba etc. then teams from these places are worse off playing on our rank-turners. So if these teams can beat teams from subcontinent in their home with mischievous ease, where is the rush? Indians and Pakistanis do the same to them too here if given the much desired home advantage. I am very comfortable with the idea of Indians being the flat-track bullies for being that too demands for an exquisite skills-set. Australians of Steve Waugh era and West Indians under Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd were 'invincible' for they won almost everywhere and made suitable adjustments to their temperaments and playing techniques. But you will be lucky to witness a team performance of such magnitude again in your lifetimes for neither you get those players, nor the pitches (and home advantage) in this era of quick-fix Cricket.
4) Our bowling shall forever remain 'bad', so better control you blood-pressure by avoiding to talk about them. They are incorrigible and shall remain so in near future.
If I'm missing onto anything here, please feel free to fill me in.......#IAmDone........#TeamDistressed........#NakedEmotions
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