India's loss to Australia at Kochi
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:43 pmAfter the 17 consecutive wins while chasing - which created a new world record by mid 2006 - India now finds itself faltering in the wake of a big total.
The last 22 times they have chased since their run was broken, they won nine times while eleven losses have reared in their face. Two matches out of those won were against Bangladesh and Ireland while four yielded no result.
From completely dominating when batting second, this team has now sunk to more than 50% loss rate within just over a year.
In the end, India were outplayed in just about every department, but as so often happens when the team that wins the toss goes on to lose, questions have been asked about Dhoni's decision to field first.
There have also been voices stating that India should have batted first simply because they are better at doing this, regardless of the conditions.
Certainly, choosing to bat first at the World Twenty20, while every other team seemed to believe chasing offered the best chance of victory, was a tactic that paid off. A
dded to this the fact that India is a team heavy on batting talent, setting a huge target for the bowlers to defend is always a tempting proposition.
The last 22 times they have chased since their run was broken, they won nine times while eleven losses have reared in their face. Two matches out of those won were against Bangladesh and Ireland while four yielded no result.
From completely dominating when batting second, this team has now sunk to more than 50% loss rate within just over a year.
In the end, India were outplayed in just about every department, but as so often happens when the team that wins the toss goes on to lose, questions have been asked about Dhoni's decision to field first.
There have also been voices stating that India should have batted first simply because they are better at doing this, regardless of the conditions.
Certainly, choosing to bat first at the World Twenty20, while every other team seemed to believe chasing offered the best chance of victory, was a tactic that paid off. A
dded to this the fact that India is a team heavy on batting talent, setting a huge target for the bowlers to defend is always a tempting proposition.