India Died virtually

It was a Do or Die battle yesterday for Indian cricket team in west Indies. Will India make itself to the super eight? The question was in the minds of all Indian cricket fans who are watching the game with more tensed situation.

India Met Sri Lanka in the final dual of droup B for India. It met with a situation of Do or Die and Indian cricket fans said Do it there to come to India or Die there in West Indies itself. India won the Toss and elected to field first as India's strength lies in Batting line up and can chase any target.

The Indian think tanks believed India can chase a total well than setting a target. It looked like Rahul Dravid took a corret decision when Zaheer Khan took a brilliant catch in the deep of Sanath Jayasuriya. Sri Lanka lost its early wickets faster but the middle order bulit a partnership where the runs came in regular run rate. The partnership created a solid base for Srilanka which marched to its 50th over with 254 runs.

India team fielding looked improved with most of the players contributing to stop the ball. The classic was from harbajan singh who never fields in the ground was found rolling all over the field. Mahendra Singh Dhoni took a classic catch behind the stumps.

By Restricting Sri Lanka to 254/6 India had a better chance to win the game since the required run rate is just 5.2 and there is a depth in the batting line up with more experienced batsman in the world. When India took the crease with Sourav Ganguly and Robin Uthappa, it was a bright day with dry outfield than the sri lankan innings. First Over with all full length delivaries with various variation of bounce made Robin to play carefully. First over of the match went to maiden.

Sourav Ganguly who was in tremendous form this world cup went to a hit of easy two runs in the second ball of second over and the game looked promising. There were some good shots from Robin uthappa who took 18 with 3 fours. It is during 6th over when robin lost his patience and started to bat in air. the first ball of the over went to murali which was tougher to take and it was a well try from murali. at third ball Robin again hitted the ball in the hand and it was a caught and bowled by Vaas who took a fantastic catch in the reflex itself. First wicket for sri lanka. Sehwag the centurion against bermuda came to the crease and looked promising for some time.

The bowlers of Sri Lanka bowled their best in line attacking stumps always. This made ganguly to lose his patience and stated to attack the bowler. When he started playing in air he lost his wicket and india lost its second Wicket. Sachin Tendulkar the highest run scorer in world cups came to bat at 2 down. he was welcomed with a inside edge from mallinga and lost his wicket for zero. It was an unfortunate event for Both indian team and for Tendulkar on whom the hops of billion is riding.

From then due to the pressure India started to do mistakes as yuvraj singh got run out for a run which cannot be made. and the tail enders completed their parade at regular intervals. Thus India lost all its wickets within 43.3 overs and lost to Sir Lanka by 69 runs. This loss made India to go down and is now virtually eliminated from entering into super eight.

Still India has a chance to enter super eight if bermuda beats Bangladesh. But if India enters into super eight in this way it is a shame for all Indians.