India’s T20 World Cup ouster: Did they try hard enough?

Yes, I am disappointed like we all are by the fact that we are no longer in the contention of that World Cup Trophy, but what’s more heart breaking is the way it happened.

I’ll put simple facts here. Dhoni said in the presentation that we missed some opportunities to score more runs but I say that the real opportunity missed was during the second half of the match.

We did quite well to take early wickets but when the South Africans tried to stabilize and were nearing hundred, no special effort was seen on Dhoni’s part to stop those easy flowing singles. Those runs really took the chance away from us. While the commentators kept on saying that he should bring more fielders into the ring, nothing of that sort was going into Dhoni’s mind.

It was make or break time. We were all clear while watching the match that India should play for qualification. A victory without that is of no significance. If you have seen those overs when South Africa was nearing their hundred, you will agree that it did not seem like India was playing with the target of 121 in mind.

Now, this world cup journey might very well look close to satisfactory on papers, as we only lost to Australia and it required a bit of luck to enter the semis, but those who have witnessed the live action would know that more could have done.

Now, Dhoni always has his excuses with him. Right after he lost the toss, he said he would have also fielded first as it’s good to have a target in front for the qualification perspective. That’s correct but that does not mean it’s the only way out. The aim was to achieve the target, which today was to qualify for semis, not just to give a decent performance.

We live the game here in India; it’s not taken as just a sport here. The fans, even today, modify their ongoing routine to watch India play and while doing that they do not expect anything less than 100% from the team. Those who say, “it’s just a sport”, should keep this in mind.

I hope the Indian captain will understand it soon enough and he’ll stop thinking that “enjoying in the field irrespective of win or loss” is enough!