I get that India at home are a force to be reckoned with.
On their worst day, a home game against them is tough but on Virat's birthday, with the weight of expectation from the country based on the Indian teams performance thus far you're guaranteed they're going to come out fighting.
Our boys have had a pretty good run although not without issue. While the batters have done the work, the bowling has been weak.
We have not been able to clean out the lower order with deadly efficiency and have in a couple of games allowed the tail to wag.
The bowling department has also leaked free runs, giving away up to and over 30 runs a match!
If memory serves, we lost to SA B aka the Dutch by the same amount of extras that we bowled!
Against India, after taking the first two wickets and stemming the run-fest just a wee bit, the loose bowling allowed India to regain momentum and take the game by the horns.
The alarm bells should have been ringing after the match against Pakistan. We came unstuck batting second; almost as if according to script. Some fight from Kesh saved that game.
So, all of this to say is that going against India the boys should have known losing the toss would mean they're going to have to chase down a total. I mean, Rohit couldn't shout out his decision to bat fast enough after that coin hit the ground.
As a unit, they totally failed. It is also unacceptable for a team of this quality, coming off such a run of wins to fail so dramatically. They looked clueless with the ball and mimicked that with the bat.
I flipping hate that it comes down to "choking" but that's what the pundits have been alluding to before the tournament. Rest assured such a display does nothing to change that stigma.
One game left against Pakistan B aka Afghanistan. No use beating them by 200+ runs. The option should be to bat second no matter what and come out with a plan for how to go about a chase.
I wonder if Quinny feels all the pressure is on him to make a start seeing as there's no support from the other end of the pitch? Perhaps we need to bring Reeza back in and let Shamsi go practice bowling inside the lines for a bit?
Not a fair weather supporter here; but getting tired of this pattern of failure when it counts most; not from a country that once scored 438 chasing!
