All our batsmen (Kohli especially) did an outstanding job, but the bowlers basically gave it all away and we have to accept that. We lack speed, we lack sting and we lack the skill to "Bowl at Will". Just to put things in perspective for all readers, by "Bowl at Will", I mean- As a first class cricketer (Bowler here) playing at the International (the highest) level, a bowler is ideally expected to be able to pitch the ball where he wishes to, atleast 70% of the times.
All the Windies' players are physically very strong men- great height, broad shoulders and muscular build; and if the ball happens to middle their bats (by chance, since more than half of them do not have footwork or technique) when they mightily swing their bats (more often than not towards the Leg Side), there is very little chance of the ball not making it outside the fence.
The key to bowling to a West Indian batsman (inclusive of the likes of Gayle) is to attack their legs and target the Block Hole, which forces them to bend and dig out the ball or play clumsily to get the ball away from the pads, thereby increasing the chances of them chipping the ball in the air, or bowl wide outside the off stump, with fullish length, since they arent capable of scoring on the Off Side, in case you intend to save crucial runs, not really attempting to knock a wicket.
In the semis, we bowled short of good length when the wicket was not offering any bounce and the balls right at their waists, which made sixes and boundaries, easy pickings for them!
Kohli scored at a strike rate of nearly 190. How much more could he do? Only Andre Russel scored at a better rate and that too was due to shoddy Indian bowling. Just imagine if all other batsmen would have scored with same rate, India would have mounted 230 runs on the scoreboard. So one shouldn't say that running twos was Kohli's downfall. In fact he was the only saving grace for India in this match.
India defeated only one good team in Australia and they were without their best bowler starc, and it was all Kohli in the tournament who took India this far like Sachin did in 1996 world cup. Otherwise we might have lost to Pakistan as well. The win against Bangladesh was sheer luck and some mindless batting by the Bangladeshis.
Maybe we were lucky to go this far and we should accept that the hitters of West Indies are way more fierce than ours.We needed a Yusuf Pathan or a Yuvraj Singh as an equalizer but it was not to be. Maybe someone like Shami or a pace bowler instead of a batsman would have done the trick. Anyway,after the match every one is wise ,after looking at the results its very easy to point out what went wrong.I believe that with a misfiring majority ,the captain mobilized his resources very well.. he along with Virat and Nehra atleast , should be given a thumbs up if not the entire team.
All the Windies' players are physically very strong men- great height, broad shoulders and muscular build; and if the ball happens to middle their bats (by chance, since more than half of them do not have footwork or technique) when they mightily swing their bats (more often than not towards the Leg Side), there is very little chance of the ball not making it outside the fence.
The key to bowling to a West Indian batsman (inclusive of the likes of Gayle) is to attack their legs and target the Block Hole, which forces them to bend and dig out the ball or play clumsily to get the ball away from the pads, thereby increasing the chances of them chipping the ball in the air, or bowl wide outside the off stump, with fullish length, since they arent capable of scoring on the Off Side, in case you intend to save crucial runs, not really attempting to knock a wicket.
In the semis, we bowled short of good length when the wicket was not offering any bounce and the balls right at their waists, which made sixes and boundaries, easy pickings for them!
Kohli scored at a strike rate of nearly 190. How much more could he do? Only Andre Russel scored at a better rate and that too was due to shoddy Indian bowling. Just imagine if all other batsmen would have scored with same rate, India would have mounted 230 runs on the scoreboard. So one shouldn't say that running twos was Kohli's downfall. In fact he was the only saving grace for India in this match.
India defeated only one good team in Australia and they were without their best bowler starc, and it was all Kohli in the tournament who took India this far like Sachin did in 1996 world cup. Otherwise we might have lost to Pakistan as well. The win against Bangladesh was sheer luck and some mindless batting by the Bangladeshis.
Maybe we were lucky to go this far and we should accept that the hitters of West Indies are way more fierce than ours.We needed a Yusuf Pathan or a Yuvraj Singh as an equalizer but it was not to be. Maybe someone like Shami or a pace bowler instead of a batsman would have done the trick. Anyway,after the match every one is wise ,after looking at the results its very easy to point out what went wrong.I believe that with a misfiring majority ,the captain mobilized his resources very well.. he along with Virat and Nehra atleast , should be given a thumbs up if not the entire team.
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