Sehwag started India's rot by giving away his wicket right after the first few powerplays were done. After scoring 70 scorching runs, he could be forgiven for thinking that he'd laid the platform for others to carry on. Tendulkar and Gambhir motored on and did great until they decided to chance it with a powerplay. Soon the team teetered on the brink of doom.
Sachin holed out in a bid to move it along when there appeared to be no real need to rush any more than the rate at which they were going. He too could be forgiven for thinking that he'd done enough by scoring more than a 100. In walked Yusuf Pathan in what can only be described as a desire to get all the golden eggs from the duck at once.
Gambhir forgot his role and tried hard about 3 times to lose his wicket before he finally manufactured some madness. The rest of the story is too bizarre to recount. As I had said in an earlier post, Virat Kohli's destruction is complete. He is like that promising young soldier who is sent to the war front to protect the senior generals. Much like Abhimanyu was sent to break into the formation for the rest of the senior pandavas to follow. Crazy analogy perhaps, but this is a sad story in the making.
In order to let Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni and Gambhir have the best overs, Kohli is jokered around the batting order. The poor kid is not old enough to adapt - as hard as he might try. It appears that Dhoni and others have successfully killed this goose that would have laid golden eggs for a long time. He might want to seek out Irfan Pathan in the "what-could-have-been" closet.
For a while, it appeared that Amla and Kallis were readying South Africa for another choke. They refused to move it along in spite of clear indications that it could get harder towards the end. But South Africa seems inflexible enough that they believe it's De Villiers and Duminy's job to accelerate and they simply will not do it before that.
Well De Villiers, Duminy, Du Plessis and Botha kept SA in the hunt and Dhoni gifted the game by bringing Nehra in to bowl the last over. De Villiers, especially, is in a run of form that's awesome. Duminy was motoring along fine too. It took two smart Harbhajans to get rid of them. But the Saffers have depth and it was used to good effect here, unlike India's depth which was related to sinking.
India might crash out of the quarter-finals if they don't fine tune their strategy. Unfortunately, it appears that Kohli may need to warm the benches now for Raina. Ashwin needs to come in for Nehra. Hopefully, Dhoni realizes that there is no need to send Pathan higher anymore given Yuvraj and Dhoni's ability to play in multiple gears.
All isn't lost, but India's old ghost of choking is not exorcised yet.
