It was great effort marred by atrocious umpiring decisions!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Great Test match marred by controversial decisions and over the top Aussie behavior. Seeing so many incidents of plumb lbws, caught behinds and bump balls induced all of us to push the idea of enhancing the role of technology in the game not only to improve the quality of competition but also to reduce the people’s anxiety about errors in the game which most of the time concluded in spoiling the even contests.

Australia is the giant of a team that cannot be easily beaten under any kind of conditions, circumstances or surfaces and it becomes doubly difficult when umpiring decisions also play their role in shaping up their level of convenience. Andrew Symonds’ innings in the first innings nearly batted India out of the match if Sachin and Laxman had not got lead for India in result of some scintillating batting display. Aussies are famous for not giving their wickets away easily and when umpire start saying that he can’t hear the heavy chunk of the bat then it would be like fighting with swords against nuclear power. Umpires are also human beings and they are bound to make errors but there should be genuine effort on the part of cricket governing authority to make the game as fair as possible when opportunities are available and you just need to find ways to do it.

All in all, Indian effort from the very first day of the match was commendable except the way some of them batted on the last day of the match when they just had to spend two and half sessions to resurrect themselves for the rest of the series which would be hugely tough for them now after Aussies already secure their invincibility.

Indian bowling was good and could have been lot better if Symonds had got out when he was on 30 and India could have even won the match. But still it was an effort which should be praised with open hearts because it came at the time when their number one seamer Zaheer Khan went back to India to nurse an injury. Batting was also showed an excellent fight even though they were without any support from their opener Wasim Jaffer and from non-existent lower middle order. Dravid was nowhere near his best but still propelled Indian boat in the way that made them fought hard in the match. His somewhat lethargic effort at least made Laxman confident enough to play his shots. Dravid’s presence on the crease in itself was an asset. But it was Laxman and Tendulkar who stole the show for the Indians. Their sterling knocks at the time when their team needed it most almost shook Aussie killer instinct severely.

It was the things that you cannot control in the game that came in the way of respectable draw or convincing victory for Indians but apart from that it was great effort by Indian unit to show what they are made of. I am still hoping to see an Indian victory at least in one match definitely. It would be good for the game especially the way Aussies are getting arrogant after their winning streak.