DHONI183
A departed friend who will live in our memories fo
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
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Yup, I know the thread title sounds exaggerating, and it may still be the case, but there´re some interesting things to look at post that final, or including that.
In my years as a cricket fan, I´ve seen four kinds of an Indian team. One was the one of pre-Ganguly era. That team would hardly trouble much in ICC tournaments and be dependent on Tendulkar completely in any match or a tournament.
Then came the era under Ganguly. That team would do exceptionally well in most tournaments before going on to lose the final, sometimes one-sided games and sometimes would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Then came Dhoni, and under him India would either not make it to the knock-stage at all, or end up winning the tournament altogether.
Then came the World T20 Final 2014, a game that India should´ve won and were firm favourites to win.
Post that, this team has been defeated in two semi-finals and one final. Arguably, only in World Cup Semi-Final 2015 (against Australia) did they end up losing to a team much stronger than them. The semi-final last year and the final on Sunday were both lost to teams who weren´t quite the favourites and the Indian team was expected to win, on papers at least. On both occasions, India made some incredibly stupid mistakes (such as three dismissals off no-balls in both the matches combined, all three of the batsmen who´d end up being the Man of the Match, Lendl Simmons and Fakhar respectively), and some of their players have begun to go completely missing in knock-out matches against big teams.
Here´s another very interesting thing, since that final, India have won only two official knock-out matches, both of which have come against Bangladesh, World Cup Quarter-Final 2015 and the semi-final last Thursday respectively. Also, until that final in 2014, the Indian team had won 12 consecutive matches in ICC tournaments, a couple of those being semi-finals and one final. From thereon, as mentioned above and as is the whole point of this thread, they´ve been doing well in group matches until finally getting knocked out in the big games.
Could that particular final have broken India´s momentum in knock-out matches? I certainly have felt that on big occasions, their players don´t seem to display the confidence and the freedom that we´d seen in them in 2007, 2011 and 2013 respectively. The Sunday´s final brought back the memories of World Cup Final 2003 and all the players seemed to have surrendered like they back then use to do.
In my years as a cricket fan, I´ve seen four kinds of an Indian team. One was the one of pre-Ganguly era. That team would hardly trouble much in ICC tournaments and be dependent on Tendulkar completely in any match or a tournament.
Then came the era under Ganguly. That team would do exceptionally well in most tournaments before going on to lose the final, sometimes one-sided games and sometimes would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Then came Dhoni, and under him India would either not make it to the knock-stage at all, or end up winning the tournament altogether.
Then came the World T20 Final 2014, a game that India should´ve won and were firm favourites to win.
Post that, this team has been defeated in two semi-finals and one final. Arguably, only in World Cup Semi-Final 2015 (against Australia) did they end up losing to a team much stronger than them. The semi-final last year and the final on Sunday were both lost to teams who weren´t quite the favourites and the Indian team was expected to win, on papers at least. On both occasions, India made some incredibly stupid mistakes (such as three dismissals off no-balls in both the matches combined, all three of the batsmen who´d end up being the Man of the Match, Lendl Simmons and Fakhar respectively), and some of their players have begun to go completely missing in knock-out matches against big teams.
Here´s another very interesting thing, since that final, India have won only two official knock-out matches, both of which have come against Bangladesh, World Cup Quarter-Final 2015 and the semi-final last Thursday respectively. Also, until that final in 2014, the Indian team had won 12 consecutive matches in ICC tournaments, a couple of those being semi-finals and one final. From thereon, as mentioned above and as is the whole point of this thread, they´ve been doing well in group matches until finally getting knocked out in the big games.
Could that particular final have broken India´s momentum in knock-out matches? I certainly have felt that on big occasions, their players don´t seem to display the confidence and the freedom that we´d seen in them in 2007, 2011 and 2013 respectively. The Sunday´s final brought back the memories of World Cup Final 2003 and all the players seemed to have surrendered like they back then use to do.
