Defending Champions India were stunned by Sri Lanka in their 2nd group match yesterday. Now they are going to face South Africa in their next match which is a Knockout game for both the teams. The winner makes it to the semifinals and the loser goes home. India failed to defend a ‘Par score’ of 321 versus the Sri Lankans.
The Lankan youngsters Kusal Mendis & Danushka Gunathilaka played the innings of their lives and bewildered the defending champions and helped their team in registering one of the finest wins in recent teams and also recording the highest chase in the history of Champions trophy. So, where did it exactly go wrong for Indian team?? Yes, there is no use of doing a ‘Post-mortem’ after every defeat and blame the players who had a rare bad day at the office? But it is important to learn from the mistakes and make sure you don’t repeat it again. So, here is a take on where it went wrong for team India.
After losing the toss and put into bat, India got off to a ‘Steady’ start. Openers Shikhar Dhawan & Rohit Sharma started slowly which has been their hallmark ever since they started opening together. The duo put on 48 in the first 10 overs. As always after getting set, one of them started hitting boundaries, the last match it was Dhawan and this time it was Rohit’s turn. As a result, Dhawan was keener on giving the strike back to the Mumbai lad. Soon the partnership reached 100 off 19.2 overs and it ended with Rohit getting out on 78 off 79 to Malinga, being caught at the boundary.
The openers added 138 off 24.5 overs, in what seemed an attractive opening stand. India lost Kohli for a duck and were 169/2 at the end of 30th over. The modern day cricket equation would say India should’ve scored 340 from that position, that is, doubling the scores after the 30th over. But India managed to get only 321. And that too after scoring 103 of the last 10 overs. So, they managed only 49 off the 10 overs between overs 30-40. Asela Gunaratne, Sri Lanka’s part-timer, bowled 3 overs between 30-40 overs and went for only 7 and picked up the crucial wicket of Yuvraj Singh.
With the latest changes in the field restrictions allowing a maximum of 5 fielders outside the 30m circle after the 40th over and only 4 between 10-40 overs, teams should make the most out of the 30-40 overs. At least 3-4 overs in this period will also be bowled by the 5th bowler as it happened in India versus Sri Lanka. Team India managed 152 of the last 20 overs, which is nowhere near a par score for a T20I on a flat deck, with having 8 wickets in hand.
Though surprisingly, bowling like never before, has been considered as India’s main strength coming into the tournament. Some experts have also rated the bowling attack as the best in the world. But they performed way below their standards against Sri Lanka, especially Jadeja. Being the one who India banks on to keep the middle overs tight, he had an off day and went for plenty which made it really easy for Sri Lankans. Credit must be given to Dhanushka & Mendis for the way they played Jadeja though.
But, it’s quite amusing to see a lot of people on social media blaming Rohit – Dhawan for Playing ‘slow’ during the power play, which is the reason according to them for India’s loss, instead of appreciating them for the Solid platform laid for the middle order. They have added 138 runs off 24.5 overs which is brilliant even by the so called “Modern Cricket” Standards.
Adding to that, this is also their 4th 100 run partnership in Champions trophy in just 7 innings together. No other pair has more than 2. They have shown temperament on the biggest stage, unlike many other world class batting pairs. Adding to that, this is also the first time India has lost an ODI after Rohit-Dhawan has put together a century partnership.
Fun Fact is that the average opening partnership in this year’s Champions Trophy, excluding Rohit- Dhawan pair, is 34. Yes, you read that right. It’s 34 and there have been only 2 50+ partnerships so far with the highest being 69. Whereas this pair has added 100+ in the both the innings. In the 2 innings, they’ve added 136 & 138 at an average of 137.