Sport Today

When India lost 0-4 to Australia, a lot of noise was made about the outfielding being substandard. It's amazing how the outfielding has obviously improved, right? I mean, Ashwin, Ojha, Ishant, the 40-year-old, the pot-bellied opening bat for the first 2 tests, the fellow with only 1 good knee, all lightning quick as compared to 15 months back!

In fact, I was the one who said that the outfielding doesn't have that much to do with test cricket, when folks were ridiculously opining that it was the #1 thing wrong with a team that couldn't bowl or bat.

You need to take your catches, field well close-in. If you keep letting ones become twos in the deep... it is actually the fault of the bowler for letting the batsman hit freely into the deep!!

In fact, all that junk about outfielding was media-initiated. At Delhi, Australia conceded 40 extras in a low-scoring game, gave no fewer than 15 (!) runs off overthrows, and dropped a couple of sitters in a tight run-chase. Not a peep about their fielding. Why, I wonder? Is it because their batting and bowling was so ***that their outfielding didn't matter?

-Samarth.