Brilliant in parts...

At last, a victory for India. The Bermuda team was never in a position to beat us at any point of the match. Our batting was near perfect with every batsmen clicking except Uthappa and that can be excused when the rest of the team played so well.

Our victory looked great on paper. We completely outplayed Bermuda. What concerns me is our bowling. The team was never aggressive enough. Now, mistakes may go unpunished against minnows like Bermuda, but no way against the top notch teams. Agarkar was deeply off colour and even Zaheer and Munaf were not up to the mark. It was like the bowlers and the fielders were waiting for the wickets to fall down instead of trying to force mistakes. Crucial attacking bowling changes were either made very late in the game or not made at all. It took Dravid 43 overs to decide to bring Sachin on to bowl who is a renowned partnership breaker. Overall, the team members were not looking inspired at all. They played as separate players and not as a team.


Ganguly who played a solid innings earlier in the day could have been asked to bowl. Though overall, his performance was good, one mistake was glaring. He didn't even try to catch a lofted ball off Ajit Agarkar which could have broken the 9'th wicket partnership earlier. This showed an extreme lethargy and a vacuum of the fighting spirit and the killer instinct in him.

The Bermuda team were not up to the standard of an international team in any department of the game. The only flash of brilliance was Hemp's classy innings against a lacklustre bowling attack. Their catching though was quite good with the big man Leverock picking up a beautiful one handed catch to dismiss Uthappa.


Team India must look to regroup in their next match. I wonder why Sreesanth is being kept out. He can be brought in and Kumble must be retained. One change could be to bring in Karthik in place of Uthappa. The players would do well to spend the next three days in introspection and give a stellar performance on the important day.