Darren Julius Garvey Sammy is no Clive Lloyd – he has
built the team from scratch and can be proud of featuring in today’s
finals. Remember Lloyd had an unending
supply of fast bowlers and on 25th June 1983, he had Andy Roberts,
Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding….
A file
photo of West Indies practicing in India in 1975.
Against Australia, Sammy had Badree the spinner opening
the attack alongside Marlon Samuels, the spinner who bowls fast – then turned
to mystery Sunil Naraine and the gentle Kieron Pollard, who had earlier
butchered the last over of Doherty.
A grand day in Colombo as all roads would lead the
Stadium for the finals between home country and West Indies. India is not there – it is reported that the
Indian coach had a mild interaction with the team after the loss – stating that
all did well – well, he is not paid for that – with Duncan Fletcher at the top,
we have lost 8 Test matches in a row in England and Australia and failed to
qualify in One day tournaments with the fall in T20 completing the
disgrace. Cricket is not only played on
the turf – but outside as well with strategy being so important……… Indians seem
to be bereft of this, despite spending crores on Coach and foreign aides. The team is unbalanced and the move to play 7
batsmen in a 120 ball game defies logic – so does continuance with Rohit Sharma
despite so many failures continuously.
In
fact, from the present tour – only Virat
Kohli, Raina, Yuvraj, Ashwin – deserve a place for the next match………. But sooner
there will the Champions League and all those who failed would be doing
something to earn more.. !! It is not
only failing to disqualify that rankled, but the blatant lack of strategy –
after scoring 152, India had to restrict SA to 121 but Rohit came on to bowl
and donated 13 runs. Don’t blame South Africa for spoiling the Indian party, it
was wrought upon themselves. Remember that
Pakistan used Mohammad Hafeez, Raja Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi for their
full quota + Shoaib Malik before turning on to Umar Gul who came on only for
the 18th over and bowled just 2 overs !!
Sad that India was so much of bereft of ideas and
players and crashed out of Super 8 without qualifying for the Semis.
Between Sri Lanka and resurgent West Indies – little to
decide – it is stated to be a game of Sri Lankan strategy against Gayle – but Windies
have shown that they are not over reliant on Gayle – the big six hitter, having
hit 16 in this tourney and 30 runs behind the leading run-getter, Shane Watson,
who scored 249. There is still Bravo, Charles, Samuels, Pollard and perhaps
Sammy himself and Ramdin to contribute………
Mahela Jayawardene has led Sri Lanka into the fourth
major limited-overs final of his career - now all he has to do is win one. Mahela revealed to be a master strategist
defending a not so high 140 against Pak – the selection and bowling of Ranganna
Herath was a revelation. Kumar
Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lasith Malinga have all been there for long and would like to be part
of the winning team. But still my heart
is with West Indies. It could be a match
where you see lot of spin in the form of Ajanta Mendis, Jeevan Mendis, Herath,m
Sunil Naraine, Badree and some more.. Lankans have a better batting line up but
West Indies can disarm them with their fielding and big hitting. West Indies are no longer the gladiators – no
longer West Indian bowlers are feared for life but they still provide wholesome
entertainment.
Chris Gayle will not find it easy against Malinga, Kula and
other spinners – Herath may not be easy meat as Doherty and if Akila Dananjayua plays as a special
strategy, there could be little clues….. West Indies could perhaps field the
same team.. a few hours more, we are all set to watch the finals of the T20 ICC
WC 2012.
photo courtesy : www.cricinfo.com
Don’t miss the fun of a Andre Russel leap,
Gayle dance or antics of Pollard !
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
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