Rain Rain Go Away . . .

As NOT predicted, India was saved in the last test match by the skin of their teeth as rightly said by Harsha Bhogle. How lucky can you get ?? :) But some of us might hv wished at the end of the day that England should win. Man, how many matches can you win by luck ? The bowlers fared well, but our famed batting line-up once again let us down. I can forgive the batsmen, for they are out-foxed by the superior bowling performance by the english. But how can you forgive the drooping shoulders, escorting the ball to the boundary line attitude of the fielders ? It was more evident in the second innings when pieterson was on his way to his century, and the match was slipping away from our hands (It was never in the bag at the first place!!) When things dont go your way, you just not wait for things to happen , You have to make it happen, and that includes not only the captain but also the fielders.

I was seeing a SA vs Aus match yday, and SA needed 6-7 runs from arnd 35-40 balls with 6 wickets remaining, but still the fielders where agile, no drooping shoulders, the body language was excellent, some field changes even at this point, trying to make things happen. Batsmen gets more confident to play his shots when seeing an Indian fielding rather than Australian or even SA fielding. The laziness or the casual attitude of the fielders does no good for the bowling side, even denting the bowlers confidence. This is suicidal when meeting truly professional teams like the Proteas or the Aussies.

and what bt the unimaginative captaincy ? I am reminded of Mark Taylor, who had an unusual field position for a batsmen when he was going gr8 guns, which made way for he getting out getting bowled!!! After the match he was asked why was the fielder kept in that position. His answer was "for no apparent reason", just to create a doubt in the batsman's mind as to why the fielder was there at the first place, and what sort of ball the bowler would ball to make him get out at that position. True greatness!! That was some captaincy!!! Dravid needs to learn some more lessons in making things happen even with his fast bowlers, let alone Kumble.

Anyways today the 2nd test starts in an hours time. Hope some constructive strict words were said in the team meetings and hope there is a positive response from the team, and by that a positive result.

This time wishing for the rains to keep away...