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Indian Batting Crumbles Yet Again; Lose 3rd ODI And Series
South Africans AB de Villiers, Makhaya Ntini and Herschelle Gibbs celebrate the team’s 80-run win over India in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday. Gibbs, who scored an unbeaten 93, was Man of the Match
India, frantically looking for a solution to their batting disorder, went in with three ‘openers’ in the fourth Oneday game here on Wednesday evening. Yet, they failed to make any impact, losing all of them even before many dinners could settle down in the stadium.
By the 16th over, in fact, they were staring so hard at another defeat that even defeat itself would hide in shame. The two wicket-keepers (Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni) and allrounder (Irfan Pathan), made a bold play at counter-attack but it was too good to last. Wickets tumbled at the rate of lightning and the end came in the 39th over itself.
Squarely blaming Team India for the dismal performance in South Africa, Shiv Sena chief Bal T hackeray has come to the rescue of coach Greg Chappell.In a statement on Wednesday, Thackeray said it was pointless to blame Chappell as the Indian players had exhibited poor skills on the field.â€Indian cricketers are an unreliable lot. They play all over the world and are at most times defeated. How can Chappell extract a good performance from such players?’’ the Sena chief asked.
Referring to a mediaeval legend that tells the tale of Maharashtra’s saint-poet Jnaneshwar cajoling a buffalo into reciting Vedas, Thackeray said, “The saint-poet’s feat could well be repeated today. But making our cricketers play a good game of cricket is a tough task. There is no use pointing an accusing finger at Chappell,’’ he added, referring to the former Australian captain as ‘guruji.’