by The writing on the wall was clear. Srinath and Prasad who cost 63 runs
between them in the opening 8 overs gave away the match on a platter
to RSA. Indian batsmen had posted a very decent total of 280 for their
bowlers to put pressure on the South African batsmen. Those who are
blaming Sachin are equivalent to the people who called him a
despicable act of humanity after he came to India
on his father's death during WC 99. If you think reasonably, apart
from Sachin and Ganguly, no other Indian frontline batsmen could bat
well against the South African attack. Their individual efforts were
great. If your bowlers cannot take advantage of it, it says a lot
about the bowlers and not the batsmen. Bottomline is that India have a
very weak oneday bowling attack. A Zaheer Khan could have definitely
helped. Prasad should be kicked out as early as possible and replaced
by Harvinder against Kenya. It also tells a lot about the experienced
Indian bowlers who just can't make use of the pace of the pitch and
succumb to bowling short as the Karnataka pace duo proved again
yesterday.
Shridhar