Lessons from Hyderabad : Part 2

When Ashish Nehra bowled the last over at Rajkot, with Lanka needing 11 runs, every Indian fan would have been praying for an Indian victory, except Sehwag. Or so he said during the post match presentation. In the end ,India clinched the game by a mere 3 runs, the margin of victory perhaps underlining the manner of the win.

The end result definitely resembled the high scoring Hyderabad horror. Yes, the Sachin marathon of 175. Whilst it is very easy to get carried away by yesterday's result, it would be suicidal to forget the shabbiness of the victory.

1. I think people will most probably remember the Indian catching , or rather the lack of it. Against the Lankan team , three drop catches did not prove costly , but it would be foolish to assume similar against teams outside the subcontinent.

2. Barring perhaps the final over , Ashish Nehra and the rest of the Indian bowling was literally all over the place , with only Bhajji managing an economy rate that would have been ok with Dr. Manmohan Singh. While it is easy to blame the surface and the size of the ground, the approach from the bowling unit could have been better. Hardly did we get to see change in pace, if there were they were off Dilshan's bat and of course Sanga's.

3. Probably the best thing the Lankans can do at this point of time would be to fetch the video tape of the Hyderabad horror only to console themselves.

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