Captain Crucifixion

India have been unceremoniously bounced out of yet another Twenty20 world cup and there is a lot of blame going around and most of it is gonna be at the feet of India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Being the captain of Indian cricket team is one of the hardest jobs in sports, as the Indian media and fans deal only in extremes – in praise and in condemnation.The demands of the job have consumed some of the best players the game as seen, from Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar, and from Kapil Dev to Rahul Dravid. Now, MS Dhoni is getting a taste of it.

When Dhoni took over the captaincy of the Twenty20 team in 2007, because the senior players had made themselves unavailable, he led a team of mostly young, still fresh on the international scene players to a world cup win. Within a year of that victory, he had become the captain of the Indian team in all 3 formats of the game and has done a wonderful job of it. He has beaten Australia in a test series, in a ODI tournament (in Australia), drew a test series against South Africa and beaten the daylights out of a Sri Lanka team etc., and all this while being named the best ODI cricketer in the world. He has not let the burden of captaincy affect his form with the bat or the gloves, unlike say, Tendulkar.

Do-or-Die Update

Mid way through the India-Sri Lanka match, India have made 163 in 20 overs. So, if Sri Lanka make 144, India are out of the tournament (that is still assuming Australia beat west Indies).

Rather strange inning it was. Initially, there was plenty of scoring and India got to 90 of 10 overs but managed only 70+ in the second half, even with the batting depth they have. Possibly due to slow pitch. From the looks of it, its a pitch where as the ball gets old, stroke making is difficult.

Key to India, early wickets and put pressure on Sri Lanka and make the 144 run chase seem like 180. As I write this, SL’s form batsman Jayawardana is out in the firs over. Hmm.. 1 down, 9 to go.