India chokes in the finals

India choked in the finals. This time, it was again the old story of batting failure that undid India. The result was a sorry loss by 74 runs to Sri Lanka in the finals. The bowlers did well to check the run riot during the death overs, but not before Sri Lanka milked them for 299. The Indian chase never gathered steam as wickets started tumbling from the very first over. The game was as good as lost when Sehwag, the man in form for India was runout.

India choked in the finals. This time, it was again the old story of batting failure that undid India. The result was a sorry loss by 74 runs to Sri Lanka in the finals. The bowlers did well to check the run riot during the death overs, but not before Sri Lanka milked them for 299. The Indian chase never gathered steam as wickets started tumbling from the very first over. The game was as good as lost when Sehwag, the man in form for India was runout.

Team Royal Challengers’ Virat Kohli tried to play the anchorman, but mistimed a shot to spoon a catch at 37. Skipper MS Dhoni was left stranded in the middle without any partners as the Lankan bowlers ran havoc at the other through the Indian middle order. Yuvraj Singh showed some promises but the rest were not in their moods to spend time at the crease. Considering the fact that India went into the match with an extra specialist batsmen in Rohit Sharma, a move which could have been termed brilliant, had Rohit proved his class.

The misery conditions of the Indian batting line up would be the biggest lesson that India would like to take from the Sri Lankan tour. The bowlers did reasonably well then the batsmen on this tour. With the World Cup approaching, its high time India finds a stable middle order combination.