Wednesday, January 02, 2008

And they will continue winning ...

Why not? The Australians are on the verge of a spectacular recovery from 134-6 in the ongoing Sydney Test and Andrew Symonds is closing onto 150 in his third stint this innings. Let me make it clear that the Australian side is a superior side but certainly not unbeatable. Time and again, we have seen that some umpiring decisions at crucial junctures in a match/series have gone their way. This has been happening over the years. Just in the recently concluded series against the Lankans, Sangakarra was given out after a breathtaking 192. Not that he would have one the game but he atleast had a chance as SL lost only by 90 runs chasing 500. Tendulkar had a horrid time in 2000 series in Australia and lot of the times he was leading a recovery. Come on Aussies, you don't need umpiring assistance to notch 16 wins in a row. Let the weaker teams get some reprive atleast. If a batsman gets three lifelines, I am sure someone like Tendulkar or Dravid averaging 55 and above will notch up 150's consistently (simple math).
Anyways, coming to the point, we (India) have suffered such distinctions (thanks many a times to the Football referee turned umpire Steve Bucknor) and the water has risen over the head now. Without Zaheer Khan, this attack is already weak and you don't want to take 13 wickets every innings to bowl out the opposition when you are struggling to take 10. I don't see how India will win this test , a position they would have been in by this time. Forget a comeback at Perth with inadequate fast bowling resources even if they manage to draw this one. Winning the series is a very distant dream.

No comments: