Luckless Indians surrender without a fight

Sure thing, except Azhar has been luckless in the field otherwise. But then, as the old saw goes, you create your own luck.

An opening attack that was expected to the best India had has in many years has bowled poorly. Rigor mortis has overcome the batsmen. Suddenly, the Indian team is unrecognisable from the one which won most games in its wake over the last few months includingthe first match of this contest.

But as coach Anshuman Gaekwad and Azhar said on Saturday after the Indian side went down like the Titanic the ship, not the movie, when things click everyone is all praise. When they go badly, the captain holds the can.

Critics say its not so much losing the game as the manner of loss that rankles and needless to say, most critics don8217;t play cricket at this level. Indians either win by a mile or lose by a mile, particularly here in Toronto. No game has been close this year. And in the last three games, the margins of defeat has become progressively bigger. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned heart-stoppers that India and Pakistan were famous for?

To return to Azhar8217;s decision to put Pakistan in each time, here8217;s a brief insight into the previous 11 Sahara Cup games one abandoned before this tournament. India has never chased 250 plus on this ground and won. Pakistan has done it twice. But to be fair on Azhar, his bowling attack has let him down badly.

Whateverhappened to Agarkar, who came here with the reputation of being a fearsome strike bowler? The pilots of Air Canada have called off their strike, but the Indian ace is still having landing problems. Add to that Venkatesh Prasad whose bowling has been far less whimsical than the way the selectors treat him. Speaking of which, the selectors can take a fair share of the blame for yesterday8217;s pasting. Their sense of timing, not to speak of their judgment, is simply appalling. Two of the four frontline bowlers Prasad and Joshi were told they had been dropped for the Zimbabwe tour just before the crucial fourth game. Thank you, good morning, now go out and bowl well.

The fact remains though Indians are poor chasers of large totals 8212; especially without a ballistic start to bring the asking rate down 8212; and winning one in 300 games chasing big targets is not going to change that record very much. As someone joked, how do you shake up 5000 years of inertia?

After allowing Pakistan to make a three-tonner onSaturday, India faded out within the first 15 overs, when the asking rate had climbed to around seven. Navjot Singh Sidhu, who top scored, got to his 50 in the 25th over. Shahid Afridi had made his hundred at the same point when Pakistan batted. After that it was a no contest. With Ganguly8217;s luck having suddenly gone down the Niagara, Azhar8217;s abiding faith in Nayan Mongia as a top of the board accelerator which worked only modestly in Colombo misfired again. Azhar himself failed to provide any impetus. And poor Rahul Dravid is sleepwalking his way through some dark and morbid Shakespeare play.

As if all the old theories about luck needing any proving, Dravid was cruelly run out. Guess by who Afridi, who may have in turn usurped Ganguly8217;s luck. Rahul Dravid will just have to ride this out. May be keep reading the horoscope to see if Saturn has moved out Jupiter or some baloney like that. Its just one of those phases and he8217;s too good to be in the doghouse long.

SCOREBOARD

Pakistan: 316-650 overs

India: Saurav Ganguly b Mahmood 10, Navjot Sidhu st M Khan b Sohail 62, Nayan Mongia c Inzamam b Javed 4, Mohammad Azharuddin c Javed b Sohail 40, Ajay Jadeja b Saqlain 15, Rahul Dravid run out 1, Hrishikesh Kanitkar run out 1, Ajit Agarkar c Mahmood b Saqlain 21, Sunil Joshi lbw Malik 15, Javagal Srinath lbw Saqlain 2, Venkatesh Prasad not out 2;

Extras lb4, w3, nb2: 9.

Total all out in 46.3 overs: 182

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-32, 3-110, 4-131, 5-135, 6-136, 7-143, 8-173, 9-176.

Bowling: Javed 7-1-23-1, Mahmood 8-1-28-1, Zahid 3-0-25-0, Saqlain 9-2-20-3, Malik 3.3-0-10-1, Sohail 10-0-38-2, Afridi 6-0-34-0.

Result: Pakistan beat India by 134 runs.