I am sure alot of people were glued to their television sets last evening to watch the final overs of the India vs South Africa cricket match. I was also among those and started pacing up and down the room during the final moments of the match. One of the biggest reasons I wanted our team to win was because Sachin had scored a century and given all he had during India's batting while the others (barring Sehwag and Gambhir) had completely failed to do their job. They bowled very well for a change and made it look as though it will be very easy for them to win this one. Dhoni sahab is known to maintain his cool during crunch moments and he did that but giving once he handed over Nehra the ball to bowl the last over, it felt as though while trying to maintain his "cool" he had lost his sense of decision making. After we lost, there was no stopping me from abusing the team's performance. But then came the twist, thinking to myself, I realized that this was only a group stage match and the Indian team could learn alot from their mistakes before they go in for the quarter finals. Who doesn't lose a match! The best cricketing teams of the world have lost matches against menial teams. I guess it all boils down to what you can take out of what you did and come out better and stronger. They (Indian team) realized their weakness in the bowling and fielding departments and they made good efforts yesterday to rectify their mistakes. Fielding was very good, they tried their level best to stop every run and made sure they got a few run outs too. I was impressed seeing that.
I hope they can take alot from their last match and not make the same mistakes in the next one. It makes me sad whenever we lose out on a chance to win the cup again especially after knowing that we have the potential to beat any team in the world.
