The 'Defect' Game

I was taken back when I read the news today about India losing the 2nd Test against Australia. The match was equally poised and was heading for a draw before the final day of the match but a series of twists and turns had left everything in a melancholy state. I couldn't believe it! :( Although the inept batting by the Indians stay one side, the main thing to be noticed is the series of wrong decisions by the umpires. Steve Bucknor who is considered to be an umpiring veteran as well as the best in Cricketing arena, made himself a spoilsport in the recent match. As there is widespread news about sledging and non-sportsmanship of the Kangaroos on field, it's worth mentioning these four players (apart from the umpires) for being on the headlines - Punter (Ponting), Wickie Gilchrist, Clarke and Symonds.

I'll start in the reverse order - Symonds has filed a case against Bhaji for the clash of words between the two and he has claimed a racial abuse which has led to a hearing for Bhaji for his verbal dispute. Although we are not sure what both the players conveyed on field, we will have to see what the hearing reports have to say tomorrow.
Clarke - He is considered to be the forerunner for captaincy. Although he has the spirits to lift Aussies to record a straight 16th win in Tests, it's bad to see him claiming a wicket against Saurav after taking a catch when the ball touched the ground. I would say it was not Ponting's mistake when he asked Clarke to confirm whether he actually took the catch and Clarke nodded positively. Who knows? If it was not claimed and given out, Saurav would have taken India to an edge spoiling Aussies dream of making a record.
Gilchrist - He is called a Gentleman in the cricketing history for playing a Gentleman's game and walking away from the field when he felt he was out even before the umpire raised his fingers. This was few years back but he is no more into the 'Gentleman' category. It's because of his claim for a catch (and so did the bowler Clarke) against 'The Wall' Dravid when Dravid did not hit the ball with his bat. And eventually Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson gave out. People who know the nuances of cricket will know this - Only the wicketkeeper and the batsman knows better than anyone else whether the batsman hit the ball or not. When Gilli was claiming against Dravid and Dravid was seriously shaking his head saying 'No man, I didn't hit it!' and TV replays too show that Dravid did not hit the ball, it's bad to see Gilli erasing his 'Gentlemanship' name by making Dravid walking out with sigh :(
Ponting - Although I am a great fan of Punter for his skills and captaincy, I am disappointed to see Punter taking advantage of all the umpiring decisions and mainly on the agreement between Jumbo (Kumble) and him before the commencement of the game. The agreement was to go by the captain's decision (after the confirmation of player's claim for a wicket) before calling for a Third Umpire. Based on past history, I could see Jumbo had faith on players of both sides rather than on technology and came to such a consent with Punter. And he would have regretted later for doing so after seeing Ponting and his man taking that as an advantage. And Punter too joined the club of Gilli and Clarke when he had no hesitation claiming Dhoni against a catch when the ball had hit the ground.

Emotional outbursts are seen in the Indian Team when they could not take this series of 'defects'. As like any other cricket fanatic, am greatly disappointed for three reasons.
1. To see the umpires favoring one team and the lack of sportsmanship in the so called aggressive top team, the Australians
2. Jumbo standing in the ground with an unbeaten 45 looking for a partner on the other side to fight hard against the Aussies to prove them they are wrong but left behind without anyone helping him
3. Sachin hitting a ton in the first innings and dreaming of a great finish on SCG since it's his farewell game on his favourite ground but sitting out seeing a great devastation

It's a game of agressiveness, shame and hmm...what not? That's what these smileys in the above picture portray.

Although these things are hard to digest, I wish Indian team to come back with ease and destroy the Aussie attack atleast in the third test at Perth. It's good to know that the two umpires have been taken out of this whole Indie Aussie series. But I am sure there's gonna be a lot of hoopla around this. Let's wait and watch!