The Little Master

What can I say about yesterday's game?

It was nostalgia. Sachin almost chased the whole game down by himself, only to fall down at the final hurdle and be let down by his team mates.

For somebody who started watching the game in the 2000s, this might not be a familiar story; but for the fans of the 90s, all of this is too familiar.

The fall of quick wickets, the lone man standing, the fall of wickets again, it was all ringing an alarm bell inside me. You cross your fingers and hope that this time, we might actually do it; but alas, it was not to happen.

Credit to Australia, they played remarkably well. Any other team would have collapsed under the display from the Great Sachin Tendulkar. The batting oozed class. Every shot was that of the highest order. To say that it was amazing is an understatement. The memories of Sharjah came right back when he danced down the track to loft Hauritz over the top of his head for a sensational six. Ofcourse the sight of Warney standing there holding his nose was no longer there, but this time it was replaced by a folded-arms Ponting. The fantastic cover drives, straight drives, beautifully lofted shots, even the cheeky lobs behind the keeper were a sight to see. The fact that this is a man who is on the top of his game was confirmed when Ponting put a short third man and backward point only for the ball to be guided cheekly between the narrow gap between the two.

But lets not take anything away from Australia. This is their second string team and they played wonderfully. Sean Marsh looks like a class act and Shane Watson a man rejuvenated. Our bowling and fielding leaves much to be considered. If we had been as sharp as the Australians in the field, we could have probably saved 20-30 runs. The bowling at the death is appalling. Australia scored 150 runs in the final 15 overs.

But the biggest issue is our batting lower down the order. Nehra was simply lost when holding the bat. Who knows? He might even be worse than Venkatesh Prasad and that really is saying something. The running between the wickets was as bad as it possibly could get with the tail enders. It should not have come to this, but just in case, maybe we should start teaching out tail enders the basics of batting. You know, at least to hold onto one end?

The series is very delicately poised right now with India needing to win the two remaining games. Lets hope the game on Sunday is a cracker as well! Only with us being at the winning end!!