A Poor Show.

It was a truly pathetic loss to SriLanka on Friday. Let's not use euphemisms. It was terrible. They bowled reasonably well and 254 was a gettable score. A very gettable score. But they collapsed early and didn't keep wickets in hand. The batting line up, which looks awesome on paper, just didn't perform when they had to. That's the long and the short of it. No point blaming the captain or the coach or individual players. It's the whole team which is at fault. The team as a unit, not individuals.

Yeah sure, I’m disappointed, just like any other fan of any other sporting team. But I guess the important thing to keep in mind here is that cricket is a game, like any other. There has to be a winner and a loser. India played badly, they lost. Like Dravid said, they deserved to lose. They would have gotten trashed if they had played like that in the Super8s anyway. There’s no point in throwing stones at their houses like those mad Indian “fans” do. I hope they don’t harm the players or the management in any way, that’s all. I’m more worried than angry or upset.

Let’s take this as a blessing. This will prompt them to rethink their system and their strategies. Maybe there’ll be a new coach. Maybe there’ll be new players. Maybe Indian cricket will take a turn for the better from this trashing. You never know. Staying positive is the key :)

Indian cricket will live through this; it’s been in this situation before. We know how they are, their form seesaws wildly and unpredictably. So we Indian fans should be resilient and stick by the team. Shame on you if you don’t, that’s not being a true Indian fan.

Let's leave them alone for a while, give them their time to reflect upon what went wrong, and what they should have done. Let the Indian cricket board have time to make some selection changes and some adjustments to the system. And let’s hope they come back into action in the next tournament as more mature, thinking cricketers.

For now, I'm keenly following the reports on Bob Woolmer's death. It's a sad, sad event and a great loss to the cricketing world. And the fact that it was murder is just plain vile. How could anyone be so heartless? Nothing justifies taking someone's life. So I'm keenly following the case, hoping daily that they would have nabbed the murderer(s).

I think Woolmer's death is a very timely lesson for all Indian fans. There are bigger things happening out there. A cricket match result is not as important as life. It's not the end of the world if they get kicked out of the World Cup. Let's hope the rioters in India realise that.

And that's really all I'm going to say about that match. All credit to SL for doing well. They deserved the win.