Grounded!
Abhijit Chatterjee

Making excuses will not help. The dismal show by Dhoni & Co in the Twenty20 World Cup calls for plenty of soul searching

Indian batsmen just didn’t match up to (R) Chris Gayle’s impressive innings in the Super 8 match against the West Indies Photo: AP/PTI

It was an all too familiar story as India suffered three back-to-back humiliating defeats, first at the hands of Australia, then against hosts West Indies and finally, against neighbours Sri Lanka, to signal their exit from the T20 World Cup yet again after their poor showing in the previous edition in England. And these defeats came after they performed so brilliantly in their group match against South Africa.

What exactly went wrong with the performance of the Indians? If one were to give it in simple terms, it would be under-performance, especially by the much-talked about Indian batting line-up. In their match against the West Indies, India's batsmen, like in their previous match against Australia, floundered yet again against the short ball as they faced a total which seemed getable, even after the brilliant hitting by Chris Gayle, who seemed to be on course of hitting back-to-back centuries in the World Cup before he was run out.

In the last do-or die match against neighbours Sri Lanka, India squandered initial advantages to eventually lose not only their match but also whatever chance they had of entering the semi-finals. Needing 164 to win, Sri Lanka won with five wickets to spare. With three runs required from the last ball, Kapugedera hit Nehra off the ground for a huge six to take them to the semifinals. At the end of the game one thought that India had posted about 20 to 30 runs less with only Suresh Raina showing the grit and determination needed in such a crucial match.

As for the match with the West Indies, Chris Gayle must have read all Indian bowlers with extreme keenness during his stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders, where he scored a fair amount of runs. And in the World Cup match, after Gayle's slap-bang innings, in which almost all his runs came on the leg side, India's top order weren't given anything to drive by the new-ball bowlers of the hosts of this year’s tournament. The Indians faced the barrage of bouncers promised before the match, and even the short deliveries of the gentle medium-pacers Darren Sammy and Dwayne Bravo discomfited them initially and by the time they had settled in, the match had slipped from their hands.

The fielding of the West Indies also improved dramatically with Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard being exceptional. India's batting slide started with an athletic forward-diving catch by Pollard at square leg to dismiss opener M. Vijay, who again failed to replicate his IPL form on the more demanding tracks in the Caribbean. Gautam Gambhir was also having a tough time, and just after edging a bouncer from Kemar Roach in the fifth over between slip and the keeper, he failed to evade a scorching short ball to glove to Denesh Ramdin. And with the dismissal of Rohit Sharma (who also had had a wonderful run with the bat in IPL 3), the only batsman to enhance his reputation in the pasting by Australia, two overs later in a rather controversial manner with the ball lobbing off his arm to the keeper, which led to a referral by Billy Bowden to the third umpire India had all but lost the match.

In both matches, first against Australia and again West Indies, it was seen that the totals put up by the team batting first was much less than what one had seen in the IPL, still the Indian team finished second on both occasions.

Unlike the West Indies, the Indian fielding, usually a barometer of their performance, was shoddy, spilling two chances, one of which proved extremely expensive --- Dhoni and Pathan colliding into each other as they went for a skier near square leg when Gayle was on 47, after which he blasted 51 off 26 deliveries, thereby effectively sealing the match for his side.

This defeat should be seen in proper prospective. There is no denying the fact that all the players barring Ravindra Jadeja, who looked extremely rusty and out of sorts in the West Indies, were extremely tired and jaded after the hectic schedule of the IPL and did not have the enthusiasm shown by the other teams. For the records, India were probably the only team which went into the tournament without any practice match and that was probably their undoing. From the flat tracks in India to the extremely bouncy and pacy strips in the West Indies was something all Indian players, specially the batsmen, had not been able to sort out. And that led them to their doom.

India have a lot of cricket coming up and the national selectors have decided well to field a second-string combination, under the leadership of Suresh Raina (Dhoni’s deputy in the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL) in their next outing, a tour of Zimbabwe, where Sri Lanka is the third team to take part in the triangle T20 series. Some of the players who will tour Zimbabwe did deserve a look-in even in the team for the T20 World Cup and this could well be their opportunity to perform and make the national selectors sit up and take note of their performance.

Pathan plunder, paused

He has been identified as a specialist T20 player who can rip apart any bowling right from the word go. And ever since he started playing for India, much after younger brother Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan has done reasonably well. But in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies he seemed a pale shadow, not being able to deliver in any of the games India played.

Following his impressive performances in the 2007 Deodhar Trophy and the Inter-state domestic Twenty20 competition held in April 2007, Yusuf Pathan was made a part of the Indian squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, held in South Africa in September 2007. He made his Twenty20 international debut in the final against Pakistan. He opened the batting for India in the match, and scored 15 runs in the process. This was a tournament which India won and the game became a craze in the country. In the 2008 IPL season, playing for Rajasthan Royals, he scored 435 runs and took eight wickets.

He recorded the season's fastest half century (from 21 balls) against the Deccan Chargers, and was also the Man of the Match in the final against the Chennai Super Kings. Even though Pathan could not repeat his first IPL performance in the second season, played in South Africa, he was selected in the Indian team to play the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 championships in England. On March 13, 2010, Pathan scored a century off 37 balls, in an IPL match against Mumbai Indians. The innings also included record 11 consecutive hits to the boundary (6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4).

But Yusaf has failed miserably in the 2010 T20 World Cup, with scores of 17 against the West Indies, one against Australia, 13 against Sri Lanka (India lost all matches) and 11 against South Africa in a match which India won. — AC

Fitness mantra
Liquid Diet
Ratna Bose

As the summer gets more and more intense, people get more prone to diarrhoea and gastro-intestinal tract infections. When summer diarrhoea occurs, a person experiences cramps, abdominal pain, bloating, and nausea and sometimes it may be accompanied by mild fever or bloody stools.

Causes of diarrhoea:

The summer temperature is optimum for the growth and multiplication of bacteria, which further causes rapid contamination of food and water.

During summer, the water supply may be unhygienic, promoting microbial growth which may further lead to summer diarrhoea.

The causative organisms of diarrhoea can also be viruses, which can cause gastro- intestinal infections.

Summer diarrhoea can be prevented to an extent by taking the following measures:

Be wary of water:

Avoid drinking outside water eg from water pouches, bisleri, local bisleri bottles or garden taps. Whenever you travel or go outside, take your own water or drink boiled water.

Mind the milk:

Avoid drinking milk and milk products such as shakes from outside. Instead, prefer pasteurised or boiled milk at home.

Avoid eating ice creams from vendors and street hawkers.

Consume icecreams from only standard companies.

Avoid consumption of outside curd. Instead, consume homemade curd.

Stress on sanitation:

Summer diarrhoea is the most common amongst people living in unhygienic conditions. So, for proper sanitation wash hands 5-6 times in a day and also before eating. Avoid eating stale food. Keep the food covered Keep hydrated by consuming more of fluids such as coconut water, barley water, whey water, weak tea, pulses water. ORS (oral rehydration solution) salt-sugar solution should be consumed frequently.

Diarrhoea Deterrents

• While eating out, prefer well-cooked foods such as chapatti, dal and subji.

• While traveling, carry homemade snacks such as roasted chana, nuts, rice flakes etc.

• Consume more of fresh whole fruits such as apple, banana, orange, grapes etc. which you can cut and eat immediately.

• Lime juices and sharbats made at home must be preferred.

• Avoid meat, mutton, cut salads, soups from outside

• Avoid highly spicy, fried, snack foods and sweets.

• Avoid eating fruit and vegetable slices kept in the open as they may be contaminated.

• Avoid consumption of aerated drinks, as they can irritate the GIT and fresh fruit juices and sugarcane juice as they can be contaminated.

The writer is Chief Dietician, Department of Dietetics, PGI