Saturday, January 06, 2007

Final word

All the Indians in the top order (barring Dravid) - Jaffer, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman, and Ganguly - batted as if there was an axe hovering over their necks should they fail.

I was sorely disappointed with the way in which they batted, especially, Tendulkar and Laxman. For extended periods of time there seemed to be no intent to score runs, as if survival alone would do the trick. Buck's comment - Sachin seems to be sleepwalking, playing shots from memory, and defending like a madman when awake - is a perfect description of the fall from grace of a once-great batsman.

If I were the captain of ANY team that next faces Sachin, I would immediately operate with a left-arm bowler from over the wicket, target his leg-stump, and taunt/sledge him endlessly to do something about it. Maybe Greg Chappell should do it repeatedly in the nets until he breaks out of his slumber. If that fails, drop the guy from the Test team. At least in ODI's the rules are designed to prevent teams from doing just that.

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