You’re forgiven for wondering how it went so horribly wrong. Things were swimmingly good. We were among the form teams of the tournaments. No, scratch that. We were the team of the tournament. Took all the wickets we could. All our batsmen in the best of form. Our derided bowlers suddenly looking menacing. What the hell happened?
The long and short of it: unlike the other games, we just weren’t good enough in this one. At stages, we did well, clawed back and stayed stubborn. But in the long haul, we weren’t good enough. We couldn’t carry on our momentum. Australia were determined. They never let it go too far away from them. They snatched it back. We just couldn’t dominate the game at any stage of the innings.
We had our opportunities though. Warner’s early dismissal was the kind of break that should have set us on to greater glory. Finch looked horrible – he scratched around, played and missed but just stubbornly refused to get out. He carried on.
There was no hope of getting Smith; he looked like he was in a different planet. Between them, they carried the game on their shoulders to a kind of position where Warne in commentary was confidently predicting 400.
And then we clawed back. We were great in the last 15 overs. Picking up key wickets. Never letting anyone hit the big ones. But we weren’t exceptional. We didn’t close it down. Maxwell, Watson and Johnson – none of them took it away from us. But none of them failed as well; all of them made handy contributions. Was that where we lost it?
When we batted, it was the same script. Dhawan and Rohit Sharma got off well. But, unlike McCullum’s blitzkrieg in the first semi, they never got to a position where the pressure eased. Australia stayed calm. They knew the wickets would come. And once we lost our top three in quick succession, India never really came back into the equation.
It would be too simplistic to find a villain. That is the common thing to do in big-ticket defeats. Already, there is an outpouring of anger over Kohli’s shot to get dismissed. Criticism at Rahane’s innings and his soft dismissal. Even murmurs of dissent at Dhoni’s approach, waiting till the very end and letting the required run rate jump up to superhuman territory.
This Indian team created staggering expectations. Against Pakistan and South Africa, we dominated key portions in the games and came out comfortable victors. Australia just repeated the same script on India, allowing them to compete at key portions of the game but never really letting them dominate it completely.
India played wonderfully well in the last few matches ensuring that they were ahead of other teams at key portions. In this match, India weren’t bad, just not good enough. Australia had an answer for everything Dhoni tried. In the end, they won by 95 runs, as India's batting failed to reach the total of 328 set by the Aussies.
Coming into this match, India looked the stronger team. They had played their percentages and come out shining in each and every match. Australia, on the other hand, looked a shade weaker. This match though, both teams did not perform as per reputation.
Australia looked to impose themselves on the game and drag it by the scruff of its neck. India looked hesitant at times, and seemed unsure on whether to go for the kill or play the waiting game.
This is a loss that will hurt, especially after the run we arrived from. It is eerily similar to the 2003 World Cup Final. There also, we seemed to forget the things that gone right for us in the previous games and tried to play differently in the final.
It took Dhoni eight long years to redeem the defeat of 2003. For the Indian fan’s sake, let’s hope that redemption for this loss comes much sooner.
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