India Out of Champions Trophy

Another ICC event. Another first round exit.

Its sort of becoming a normal thing. Apart from the first World T20 and 03 World Cup, India has fared badly in almost all multi-nation events. And coming to this season, which started brilliantly with a "historic" win over Newzealand in their own backyard, has been like a roller-coaster ride with pitiable defeats in World T20 , Champs Trophy and a face saving win in SriLanka.

Mahendra Dhoni s honeymoon with the Indian team is over long back. Somehow the "Midas Touch" he had seems to be vanishing. But you cannot completely blame him as India entered South Africa with an injury hit team. Adding to the woes, the stylish left hander Yuvraj Singh injured his finger. May be he took the advise of coach Gary Kirsten very seriously!!!! So it all depended on the stalwarts Sachin and Dravid to anchor the Indian ship. But thanks to the hapless bowling performance against Pakistan, they had a heavy load on their shoulders, of chasing 300+ under lights. Unfortunately Sachin got a beauty of a delivery from Mohammad Amir and Dravid tried to stay there till the end(he had to, because he ran out Gambhir who was in a good form), it was all in vain. Had Raina stayed for some more time, things would have been very different. But thats what cricket is. There is no room for if s and but s. And Pakistan also played their best cricket. They were deserving winners.

Also this Champs Trophy threw a strange situation, where India needed Pakistan to win against Australia, so that the former could have a chance to make it to the semis. Even though Pakistan tried their best to loose, somehow they managed to take the match till the last ball. And at last they succeeded in keeping India away from the final four.

So this is really a testing time for all the youngsters, who were just few months ago,"young stars". Raina, Ishanth, RP have a long way to go before they cement their places in the team. Even Dravid needs to improve his strike rate.

This loss is not that hurting, atleast to the fans. As we all knew India had very little chance because of the injuries. The only positive thing is we now dont have to waste another day of our life, yawning and watching the semifinal in empty stadiums of SA.