You can divide the English Cricket Season in two parts. First part is always going to be difficult, especially for the teams from sub continent. The second part is relatively warm. If you go by the history, you can see most of the Asian teams succeeded in later part. When India last toured it was the later one.
Coming to Belfast, In the last match, Sachin showed that he is still among runs but the pace by which he scored was not up to his Standard. Strike rate of 69.23 is an average in test matches now a days. But given the conditions it was a great effort by Master. Dravid showed why he is the best Indian player abroad with his marvelous 74(93). Lower order was unable to excel at death, but we cannot blame. Thou Karthik played a cameo 19(10) but Indians were restricted to 242.
Then came the reply from Cricket Giants Africans. The RSA team proved why they are so dangerous. After a good start, the wickets fell at regular intervals. Relatively young and inexperienced Indian bowling attack did its best to throw the Africans on backfoot, but the Old War Horse Jaquas Kalis pulled RSA out of the blues to give them a last over 4 wickets victory over fighting Indian.
Thou the scorecard suggest a close match, the Zing was missing in the Indian Team. The team is also effected due to many of the players on the tour are having health issues in alien conditions.
If a solution (even not perfect) is working for you, why do we go for ideal solutions. This is an era of innovation. This applies on sports also. The team with innovative ideas are always successful. There are ample examples for that. Newzealand in 1992 WC came up with Mark Greatbatch as an Opener and Deepak Patel Bowling the 1st over for them. They succeeded. In 1996 WC, SriLanka decided to use the deadly combo Jayasuriya-Kaluwitharana , they succeeded. Ganguly’s Indian team has often played with four bowlers and the results are much better than what it is with 5 bowlers. The teams must go by their strength rather than just going by the books. Current Australian team has no Allrounder, all of them are make-shift allrounders. But they dont go with two allrounders just for the sake that they need allrounders. Often we see that even we are playing with Five bowlers in an ODI we are using our 6th and 7th bowlers. The Five Bowler theory is good for Test Cricket, but I'm least convinced with the current team having five bowlers. You must need 5 World Class performers Inform to go in with 5 bowlers. Given the current Indian side which is in search for a replacement of "Sachin", 5 bowlers may not work.
This is probably the last tour of Sachin to England. The pleasure and joy he has offered to us is incomparable. He is a gem of Indian Sports History. It is a privilege that we born in an era when Sachin played. Every good thing comes to an end and so will Sachin's Innings. He may have failed in his later part of career but the commitment and the enthusiasm he plays with is something that infuses energy to others. Playing for 18 years for any team in world means a lot. Criticizing and questioning one’s capabilities by people who know little about game is meaningless. But yes it’s the people who make these Heroes so they too have a part to play. Probably this is the cost Real Life Heroes have to pay.
We at least thank Sachin for the moments he gave us right through his shining career. Sharjah Glory, infact the whole 1998 was truly memorable one. Not only Indians but the World will miss the "Master Blaster" .......
Sincerely
"Akhil"
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