Poor Umpiring and worser performance at Brisbane - India loses !

What is this all about ? –  Was it an ugly demonstration of Indian skipper MS Dhoni at Woolloongabba, Brisbane in ODI no. 3244 today… no far from that !!

They are respected and paid a lot.  Besides the onfield representatives, sits another – whose only job is to keep watching the match on TV, aided by so many electronic gadgets.  He has only two buttons to press and he fumbled with that !!

Another loss for India – nothing new these days – but the margin is disturbing – pounded and rattled – Aussies made 288 for 5 aided by fifties by Hussey and Forrest and India replied with a paltry 178.   Strange are the ways of Indian selection.  At a faster pitch we played with 2 medium pacers and today  it was 4 pacers !!  - Zaheer, Vinay, Irfan Pathan and Umesh Yadav.  The fastest among them got the ball very late and was given only 7 overs; the so called all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja did not bowl a single over.  Raina bowled 10 and Rohit Sharma 3.  Umesh milked 46; Zahir gave 46; Vinay kumar was looted for 60; while Irfan who also got 3 bowling 5 wides gave away 61. 

Batting seeming came apart with Indians with the old masters Ricky Ponting and Sachin struggling to make runs again.  The much touted rotation policy is not in place as Sehwag is on the injured list.

Bruce Oxenford with Billy 

You may not have heard of Bruce Nicholas James Oxenford – he played  first grade cricket with University of Queensland, and with Gold Coast and appeared for Queensland in first-class cricket as a lower-order right-hand batsman and leg break and googly bowler before commencing umpiring.  In 2008  he made his debut officiating in a match between India and Sri Lanka.  It was 29th over – 3rd ball of the over - Billy Bowden and SJ Davis  were the ones on field. 

Suresh Raina from round the wicket to MEK Hussey – misses, off goes the bails and there is an appeal for Stumping.  Dhoni is confident – it does appear that Hussey has dragged his back foot back in time.  The screen goes ‘Out” – Hussey starts walking, Billy Bowden goes running after him, recalling him.  He explains that the Third Umpire has told him that it was not out but had pressed the wrong button – Was it a wrong technology or incapacity to do the simplest task.

What would be the reaction of Foreign Press, if it had happened in the Sub-continent or if the Umpires involved were to be Asians – just imagine ? 

In the end, Ben Hilfenhaus on a comeback and Brett Lee tore through the Indian line up completing a 110 wicket victory at Gabba.  That Indian bowlers performed poorly on a hard fast pitch is another matter of concern.  Hilfenhaus was playing his first ODI since November 2009, in place of the ill Clint McKay.    Tendulkar played another scratchy innings at a time, when more are speaking on timing his retirement  - but whoever invented this rotation policy and trying to chop the opening slot between Gambhir, Sachin and Sehwag will have a lot to explain.  This is how Indian batsmen have performed: -

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave
G Gambhir	4	4	0	193	92	48.25
MS Dhoni	5	5	2	191	58*	63.66
V Kohli	5	5	0	153	77	30.6
SK Raina	5	5	0	102	38	20.4
RG Sharma	5	5	0	79	33	15.8
RA Jadeja	5	5	1	76	24*	19
SR Tendulkar	4	4	0	68	48	17
R Ashwin	4	4	2	50	30*	25
V Sehwag	2	2	0	30	20	15

rotate who ???

The successful Virat Kohli has aggregated 153 in 5 innings at an average of 30.6, which itself is not worthy of a cemented place in middle order.  The other three have performed thus :  Raina 102 @ 20.4; Rohit Sharma 79 @ 15.8; and Jadeja 76 @ 19.  Sachin after that 48 has aggregated 68 @ 17 – Sehwag has 30 in 2 innings !!

So none of these players merit a place is what is revealed by statistics !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.