One failure and this was what the entire media was waiting for. For far too long the media could not carry bad stories on Dhoni and they had enough writing about the Mr. Unflappable, cool, level headed blah blah. Now the media gets a chance to poke the Mr. Unflappable and they do so when it really hurts :). You can read some junk
here,
here and
here.
First for a few things, any one who still keeps saying that India does not play bounce has been in a coma for the last 5 years or so. So where was this theory when India had success in Perth, West Indies and even New Zealand? Suddenly the reports claimed that those pitches were batter friendly. No, India has won in far too many places to put that claim just because of one failure (The correct thing would be Jadeja did not play bounce well enough).
Secondly, I don't understand why people pick on Dhoni on his selection. I think he is good. People ask why Ojha was dropped? Irfan was not performing well and he must be dropped. People need to understand a few fundamental things. You have to drop a player to pick another since a squad can have only 11 players (elementary!). India's problem was the 3rd seamer in the form of Pathan was not playing well.
So most brainless people will think replacing Irfan with RPSingh was the solution. But that is not it, India HAVE to bat deep. The theory of "what can a 6th batsman do if 5 batsmen could not do it?" is rubbish. Take the last world cup where we simply won because of a partnership on the 6th wicket. It would be stupid according to me to swap RP with Irfan. To combat a loss in batting quality, the swap of RP - Irfan was compensated by Jadeja (better batter, lesser bowler than) - Ojha swap. On paper, Jadeja was an untested in international level but a decent spinner. I think Dhoni got his squad right !!
Thirdly, sending Jadeja at number 4 was not that bad a decision. You want some one to amble along just to neutralise the momentum which was ok. So what was wrong?
One, I think Jadeja should have taken some risks a little earlier, should have maintained a run a ball rate. If you cannot maintain that after 20 balls then try and get yourself OUT. This is the key in 20-20 ! Jadeja made 25 off 35 balls and the deficit of 10 balls was more than what India needed in the end.
Second and the most unpardonable offence that Dhoni/Yusuf made was giving up. India needed 9 off the 2 balls and the commentator announced that India needed every ball to cross the boundary here on (Could he be any more wrong?). And the moment Yusuf hit the ball along the ground straight to long on they ambled across for a single giving up that India could not get out of defeat. If only Yusuf tried hard and ran a TWO on that prefinal ball (let us say he had a 40% chance of completing the second run), then we needed 7 off the last ball and a six would still bring a TIE, and we could still be alive in the tournament.
I think Dhoni (as well as the commentator) lost this plot and both Dhoni and Yusuf ran along the ground for a single in an unhurried fashion. They certainly missed the fact that they could still tie had they run harder or atleast they could have stayed alive for atleast one more ball ? (What if the last ball that dhoni hit had travelled 2 inches further?)
To me, I think most of 20-20 is impulse and momentum. But you need to do the right/sensible bits. I don't think the problem was with the squad selection or batting order. The problem was common-sense. Giving up early and failing to see oppurtunities. If my crisis man Steve Waugh had been there he could have easily spotted this chance of a 2 run in the last but one ball keeping the match afloat !!
