India won the semi final but our heart goes out to Afridi's men
By moksha09
@moksha09 (467)
India
March 30, 2011 9:57pm CST
A good coach can make all the difference. Look at what Moody and Kirsten have done for SriLanka and India respectively.
The omission of Ashwin was a blunder and Dhoni admitted that but why was Ashwin removed in the first place? Obviously to accommodate the more experienced Bhajji. Ashwin is the best slow bowler in the country, hope he recovers well from this shock omission. It is likely he will now focus on the IPL and the money there will kill all the motivation to turn out for the country. What I see is not professionalism but corporate culture in cricket and players will have to rise through the ranks and talent and performance may not accelerate your growth inclusion in the side. One feels uneasy at this development.
One can see that certain players enjoy the confidence of a syndicate that is calling the shots in Indian cricket.These protected players are not not performing better than the aspirants and yet they continue to play for the country.
Let us win the world cup and bid good bye to Sachin.Lot of younger players are not graduating to higher levels thanks to the protection enjoyed by the experienced but not necessarily deserving players in this team.
What has happened to RP Singh,Kaif,Manish Pandey,Uthappa, Manoj Tiwari, Ishant Sharma? We will see them in the IPL but IPL will ruin their promising careers.
Why has Rohit Sharma not realized his potential?
When Sachin retires the vaccum that will be created will be hard to fill and India will slip very quickly in the rankings.
It is strange to see that Sachin and Sehwag are not bowling and even Raina did not bowl? Is it because they will pick up wickets and thereby expose the likes of Bhajji, Nehra and Yuvi?
Ever since the success of IPL the spirit of cricket has suffered a blow I feel this will corporatize the game and kill whatever charm that remains.
I don't know about you all but suddenly I have lost interest in the game. Is it because spinners are opening the bowling attack? Is it because host nations are preparing and scheduling the game heavily in favor of host nations. What will be this game without the menacing fast bowlers?
The images that linger are despair on the face of a shocked Ashwin and the gloom on the face of the gallant Afridi. It would have been interesting to see if Sachin had scored another 15 runs, would he have lifted his bat in triumph?
He is at the peak of his prowess but it was not nice to see him struggling to pick Ajmal and I will not be surprised to see him announce his retirement after this world cup.
Sachin is great, no he is the greatest but we would like the Ashwins, the Wahabs and the Umar Akmals play this great game.
1 person likes this
9 responses
@vandana7 (98963)
• India
31 Mar 11
Now I am convinced you are who you are. :) My bro is a die hard fan of Sachin and would have him play the game till none of his teeth remained in his buccal cavity. 
I think Raina is a good fielder. Might I say slightly better than Yuvi. In the absence of Ashwin, Dhoni needed better fielders. Pulling away Raina to bowl meant depriving himself of one of the better fielders. That is the reason in all probability, Dhoni didn't give the ball to Raina. As to Sehwag and Sachin.. it hardly mattered who it was..whether it was Yuvi, Sachin, or Sehwag, results would have been quite similar. At least, he could get Yuvi a little bit more practice against what he was expecting to be an explosive batting line up.
Sachin fumbling is indeed something unusual, and though I do believe he needs to hang his boots sooner than later, that one flaw is forgivable, because everybody young or old makes mistakes. It was a tense match, isn't it?
I think Raina is a good fielder. Might I say slightly better than Yuvi. In the absence of Ashwin, Dhoni needed better fielders. Pulling away Raina to bowl meant depriving himself of one of the better fielders. That is the reason in all probability, Dhoni didn't give the ball to Raina. As to Sehwag and Sachin.. it hardly mattered who it was..whether it was Yuvi, Sachin, or Sehwag, results would have been quite similar. At least, he could get Yuvi a little bit more practice against what he was expecting to be an explosive batting line up.
Sachin fumbling is indeed something unusual, and though I do believe he needs to hang his boots sooner than later, that one flaw is forgivable, because everybody young or old makes mistakes. It was a tense match, isn't it? @moksha09 (467)
• India
31 Mar 11
That brother of yours is indeed lucky to have a sister like you, what devotion...
People retire and fade away and die but this guy is going on and on. I am not convinced about the quality of the opposition bowling and that is the only reason.
Its all very nice for those who hanker after records to see him score those runs but where is the daring quality that we saw him display ten years back. To clarify let us take an example.
Jaya Prada is the prettiest actress we have ever seen, in the Madhubala class but can we tolerate her in the heroine's role? We don't but we see an old and infirm Rajini,Kamal, Aamir , Salman, Dutt prance around trees with girls young enough to be their daughters and grand daughters. Yes that is what comes to mind when you see ashwin sitting in the stands whereas oldies like Younis Khan, Razzack, Misbah and Sachin playing more from experience than skill.Also you can compare with the politicians who are going strong in their 80s and nineties.
Its time for Sachin to move on or else he will be responsible for brief careers of some promising talent in this country. The spirit of the game is suffering and it is becoming unbearable.
@sameer_1984 (215)
• India
31 Mar 11
Oh moksha,
How can you forget that Sachin is one of the leading run scorer in the series .I accept that he was struggling yesterday and his luck survives him upto 85 but my friend this is how the game of cricket and even Afridi and akmal got one survival but they couldn't utilies it.I really don't agree that youngsters are not getting enough chance.They should proov themself whenever got chance.Do you really think that Sachin is playing on his experiance? and he don't have skills anymore.
@vijayroy (212)
• India
31 Mar 11
Hi I didnt understand why you have lost interest on cricket. But it is very interesting to watch the spinners opening the bowling attack, we have to think in cricketers point of view. Like ipl there are more commercial leagues to earn money for franchisees but players has to improve their performances. Why these players didnt get in team? obviously they didnt perform well in previous matches for example rohit sharma, he is an excellent player but he failed in previous games. I also shocked when Ashwin got out of team yesterday, luckily nehra performed well.
In yesterday's match the pich was converted to bowling pich from batting pich, the ball didnt come nicely onto bat, what can suchin tendulkar do if pich is like that, he tried his best. In the end we clearly understood about yesterdays game. Ofcourse wahab bowled well. Hope Ashwin will be playing in the final.
@moksha09 (467)
• India
31 Mar 11
You know the standard of the game has gone down dramatically in the recent past. There are very few skilled players. The fast bowler is a disappearing species. Where are the great all rounders. Even the best Kallis cannot hold a canle to someone like Imran, Botham or a Kapil dev. I am not talking stats here, mind you.
I cannot imagine bowlers like Holding, Clarke, IMran, Marshall, Garner,Thomson.. allowing a 38 year old veteran to score at will. That he is able to flourish at his age is reflection on the poor standards in international bowling standards. You may not agree but I was suddenly aware yesterday that the cricket standards have dipped rather alarmingly in the recent past
@vijayroy (212)
• India
31 Mar 11
If 38 year old vetaran scores well, then it is not a bowlers fault, I am not agree with you fast bowler is not a disappearing species because every cricket team had greate fast bowlers but not india (I am talking about fast not about talent), even kapil dev also medium fast bowler. Coming to allrounders, they are playing very key roll in matches, all rounders like Yuvi, raina, irfan pathan, hussey brothers like. Please tell me in which point of view you are thinking that cricket standards have dipped.
@krajibg (11923)
• Guwahati, India
31 Mar 11
Hi moksha,
Neither Bradman nor Gavaskar remained for good. When they thought time was ripe they had retired the did. The gap was filled up and things moved on.
YOU are putting more emphasis on Tendulkar and his likes occupying the seats and depriving a chance for a spinner like Aswin. Why, Had Tendulkar dropped his solder? He is after all a man like you and me and prone to all mistakes and pick ups. Almost all expected that he would or should strike a century specially against the arch rival Pakistan.Failed but the man of the match award went to him.
Why not Yuvi scored at least a fifty? What happened the run machine Pathan? You are just getting emotional that the your talents are not getting place in the main team to shine and gain.
Next thing is Afridy. Well, he is a different captain that Pakistan had so far. He never showed ill feeling towards India neither in his facial expression and body language and other members too were not hostile. I too appreciate them but would not let the Cup taken by them.
Would you?
@sameer_1984 (215)
• India
31 Mar 11
Hi moksha,
I really don't agree with you.Reason is simlpe we play for winning the game.And for winning one team should have perfect combination.If you observed wicket is not at all helping for spinners.Think if ashwin played yesterdays game and if his bowling was shattered by pakistani batsman it will be more harming for his career as it was not only important but also prestigeous game for country and I hope ashwin have realise it.
All the other player you are mentioned got enough apportunities too.
@sameer_1984 (215)
• India
31 Mar 11
I also think that youngsters should closely follow thier seniors.As yuvraj follows Sachin and Sehwag,Harbhajan follows Kumble,Dhoni follows Ganguly for captaincy.Don't you think so.I won't surprised if Aswin plays final against Srilanka as it is a part of game.
By the way yesterdays match was full of entertaiment and definately final will be more entertaining than this game.
@moksha09 (467)
• India
31 Mar 11
Hi Sameer
You don't have to agree with me but I am sharing what I feel and believe me the feeling is despair and alarm.I am sure Warne and McGrath even today can play and pick up wickets but they have chosen to gracefully quit the game. It was painful to watch the shocked Ashwin sitting in the stands whereas old veterans were fumbling in the middle.Ashwin has looked the best bowler in the side and when they could not damage Yuvi and Bhajji how could they do any damage to Ashwin? He could have learnt so much more by playing yesterday.
If Sachin had got out early the blunder would have been exposed but it was India's lucky day yesterday.
The bright spots were Wahab's bowling, Sehwag's blitz and Raina's spirited batting.
I am afraid the rot has set in and in the not so distant future one will see the demise of cricket as a game and the emergence of a corporate orgainized shadow of the game that was.You may even see 45 year olds batting and then substitutes fielding for them and runners running their singles. There will be no spectators but the viewer-ship would be sold and bought to keep it viable and profitable. Yes you will see cricket as a business venture.
@Hafeez_sameel (107)
• India
2 Apr 11
India played a better game in this match ,so a team which played a better game must win, that is a natural truth. Any way i too feel a bit disappointment the way Pakistan team approached the game, their fielding was terrible.
@ashish3090 (254)
• India
31 Mar 11
Lets see who is going to win this world cup and in the semi final between Ind & Pak both the teams tried to put up his best performance but unfortunately the luck was with India so India is the winner....
@krajibg (11923)
• Guwahati, India
31 Mar 11
Hi ashish,
Now only one match is left. That is the final. Almost all expected that SL would defeat NZ but were not sure if Pak would do INd. Therefore yesterday;s game was like a final game.
Even I feel tomorrow would not be as exciting as it was yesterday.
@besthope44 (12123)
• India
31 Mar 11
Well said! That was a big match and very unfortunate for Sachin to miss century and much pressure on him! It stopped my heartbeat on every missed catch. I accept Raina is cool player, with wonderful fielding, focussed batting and his good catch. Probably he may turn as a all-rounder too? Do you agree? But I thought Nehra will stop the victory of India, when Ashwin was removed. But surprisingly Nehra delivered wonderfully. A pleasant shock to Indians. Have you checked the score board? You can see all 11 players contributed some way or other. Sachin with runs and catch, Dhoni with catch, all the 5 bowlers each 2 wickets, Yuvaraj though no runs, got 2 important wickets, Kohli not steady batting, but got a catch..not a good fielding by virat Kohli:(. Pakistan except for Afridi statment, I did like the Asiz, a dangerous man with great bowling strength taking all wickets. They would have deserved a win, if they would have taken Sachin early and made a power batting? Am I right?
@vinothkumaran (4)
• Poland
31 Mar 11
ya india played well.but i want more like this after world cup
