Whitewash!
It was a touted as revenge series and the scoreline did read 5-0, as India crucified a hapless and definitely hopeless England in the final ODI on the eve of Diwali at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
Revenge is a dish that necessarily needs to be served cold, and M.S. Dhoni’s men did just that on a night that was on the cooler side. The Indian skipper first dished out an authoritative show with the willow with a fantabulous 75 not out, and then led the team well to script a 95 run thumping to complete the rout.
The last few months have been torrid for all Indian fans as they have seen their famous super stars bite the dust in Old Blighty, and then to have dusted that and exact revenge in style at home was something which would have pleased everyone. Also, we conveniently tend to forget the absence of injured match-winners in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. This victory, in the absence of top-performers, would do a world of good for the young brigade who would be riding high on confidence.
What this series did was to expose the myth of the ‘new-age’ English supremacy. While they are the No.1 Test ranked side, but to call them an all-conquering outfit would be a far-fetched thought, especially after their annihilation at the hands of the Men in Blue.
Interestingly, the so-called guardians of cricket—Ian Botham and Nasser Hussain who were pretty vocal about India’s ordinary show on their tour to England—have been mum on their side’s sorry show in the sub-continent. Time for Sir Ian to light up a thoughtful cigar? Perhaps, yes.
As far as Nasser goes, it’s time he wakes up and smells the coffee. England have fielded like ‘donkeys’ in this particular series. While Dhoni’s men took it on their chin during their tour of England, enduring one defeat after another, their counterparts came across as an arrogant bunch that have been brought to earth with a thud. Arrogance is always an offshoot of performance notched over a period of few years, not a few series. It is time the Englishmen learnt that lesson and play with humbleness as sport, much like life, is a great leveller.
Without sounding pompous, Dhoni, in his post-match press conference said, “I don’t want to sound rude. But if you see the records of England it would be 16:1 or so. It’s not about revenge. In sport, you don’t go for revenge. We are a good side. For us, it’s about to do well but not setting examples.”
After Cook’s men arrived in Hyderabad, over a week-and-half before the start of the first ODI, in order to get themselves acclimatised with the conditions, a tough series was being predicted. Going by the result, England will definitely need some serious soul-searching to be done as the talk has already begun for the 2015 World Cup to be held Down Under.
If England doesn’t wake up now, then ‘Cookie’s men will definitely crumble under the heat of expectations.
