World Cup 2011 - India vs Netherlands

India vs Netherlands

“Piyush Chawla needs some practice before he is a weak bowler.” These were the sentiments with which Dhoni had started this match or probably the world cup campaign itself. I agree fully. He is not a match fit bowler purely for the fact that he has never played an ODI match in India before the worldcup, and his last ODI matches were far off in 2008 and he was always cocky and less assuring at least than Ashwin. So, the question arises again why he was even selected in the first place. Dhoni is doing a good job not exposing Ashwin early, like he did for Praveen Kumar in the 2008. And since it was a match against Netherlands, it was okay to give another chance to him. And no doubt he failed. Will Dhoni keep persisting with him, is a question that will be answered only in the coming matches.

We bowled very well in this match, exactly like we should against an associate nation. Zaheer Khan bowled to his best. Nehra was a little rusty, only a little. Nothing more needs to be written against Piyush Chawla. Harbhajan, though he was extremely economical, did not take wickets. Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj did a decent job as fifth bowlers. All in all, an okayish performance with the ball to restrict Netherlands to 189. The runs let off to Peter Borren and Bukhari were crimes, for which someone’s head is needed.

We did a good job with the batting. Sehwag and Sachin played their shots, always a treat. It was fun seeing Sehwag match Sachin shot by shot and showing intent to score big. They were out trying to hit the ball out of the park in fairly comfortable situations, and that’s all right. Yusuf Pathan was unable to carry on, and Gambhir showed his class scoring a quick 28. Yuvraj Singh thought it is a good opportunity to hide his inability to score freely behind the fact that runs were required. Very Smart. It might have won him the man of the match, but I tell you, this stuff is not going to last against the South Africans and against the Australians. He needs to get back to his hitting form soon, and considering that now he has spent more than 200 minutes and 140 balls, he should be match fit and everything else. He better put an improved performance or it is not going to be very good for the team. Yeah, we won this match, but not in the style we should have. Still there are a lot of positives to be taken from this match. The batting is in good shape, and the bowling is getting there. However, a real test beckons on Saturday against South Africa. The result of the Saturday’s match does not matter, but the attitude does.