Is it the PAWN or THE KING?

After the Epic battle of the two Giants INDIA and SOUTH AFRICA the only two names that we constantly keep hearing are NEHRA and DHONI.This match has again given the Indian public their favorite time pass i.e. to play the BLAME GAME and the worst thing about this is that most of us are analyzing the game only on its Face value and cursing Ashsih Nehra for the loss!!! First of all Dhoni was the one who ignored the most obvious choice to bowl the last over i.e. The Turbanator ‘Harbhajan Singh’ and gave it to Ashish Nehra who hadn’t been playing till the last game!!! And then when asked about the rationale behind the decision Dhoni said that Nehra has been the best bowler for India in past one and a half years!!! So what was this best Indian bowler doing warming up the benches during the previous matches!!! No doubt Ashish Nehra did bowl the wrong lengths for the last over but don’t forget that one of the fours was of the Inside edge and that was a the type of luck that used to go in Dhoni’s favour till now!! The times are changing and the Chokers are now for a change performing under pressure and more importantly Dhoni’s Midas touch with his last over gambles is not paying off!!! And once has the Gamble not paid off for our Captain cool, he has turned to some of the lousiest and lamest excuse ever given by any captain in the history of cricket! His Statement that WE DON’T PLAY FOR THE PUBLIC BUT WE PLAY FOR THE COUNTRY was uncalled for and a bit out of the blue!!! If the crowd was demanding for sixes it was due to their ever so comfortable position that they were placed in before the procession began!!! It seemed like the TOP 3 of the Indian batting line up have taken the full onus of winning the World Cup for the Nation and all the others were against them!!! At 267 for 1 at the end of 40 overs any spectator or any Captain in that matter would have expected their team to go all out for the last ten overs. Indians should take a leaf out of the New Zealanders books and learn how to approach the last ten overs as the Kiwis have been now successful in scoring 130+ and 120+ in their last two games in the last ten overs!! And this was not due to no crowd pressure but proper shot selection and correct approach unlike the Indian players!! And finally no excuse can ever justify a procession of losing 9 wickets for 29 runs!!!!
Again Dhoni should be under the scanner for the type of game that he played in the match as to first of all he was too slow which increased the pressure on the new batsmen and over and above how can a captain be so irresponsible to take a single on the first ball of the death overs against a quality pace bowler like dale steyn and give strike to tale-enders like nehra and munaf!!! Shouldn’t he have protected the tale-enders and gone for the big shots himselves!!! Another inexplicable strategic move was to play 3 pace bowlers and just one specialist spinner against a team that loves pace whereas the Africans themselves went in with 2 specialist spinners. I have always said that India’s strength lies in its spin bowling and with these subcontinent pitches if we don’t take advantage of it then it would be the biggest blunder. It would even be great if we can go in with 3 spinners or even 2 spinners but with 5 specialist bowling options!!! India still no doubt is the Biggest contender to Win the WORLD CUP and I am backing them to pull of this amazing feat this time round!!! The only thing that would be holding them back would be their own strategies and I wish they realize it soon before its too late!!!!
Data Courtesy - castrolcricket.com