“Depleted” Australia still scalp India

Irrespective of the outcome of the last ODI in Mumbai next week, the Australian cricket team has won the series.

What makes the win remarkable is that Australia were without many of their “big guns” – Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin etc. A spate of injuries in the first 3 matches saw Tim Paine (Haddin’s replacement), Brett Lee, Moises Henriques and Peter Siddle too returning home to Australia, further depleting the visitors.

India, on the other hand, were without Zaheer (and of course, Sehwag and Gambhir were unfit for a couple of games). They were playing at home, in familiar conditions and in front of an unabashedly partisan crowd. But I am unable to fathom why our top-order batsmen consistently failed to perform. Sachin was brilliant in Hyderabad and single-handedly scored half of the runs needed. But the remaining 10 players were unable to score the balance 50%- and we lost. In sport, there will always be winners and losers; ending up on the losing side is fine if the contest is well-matched. Admittedly, a  couple of games in the series were close, but clearly, our cricketing demi-gods have not delivered.

Indeed, cricket is a mind-game and the result proves how true this is. Perhaps lack of familiarity with some of the members of their “B team” did us in or maybe we can blame some of the many poor umpiring decisions. But how does one honestly respond to the question “if we lost to their B team, how would we fare against a full-strength Australia?”

Well played, Australia! The better team has indeed won.