Information Madness

It looks like the honeymoon for the Indian Cricket Team is over after the World Cup Championship three months ago. The reality hit them at Trent Bridge yesterday. The match was over in four days. The West Indian test series may have been won but there were signs of indifference and complacency even there. India is limping back into their old ways again.

Maybe, this is an overreaction but the English series is turning into a nightmare already. They may not be able to hold on to their top place in test cricket once the series is over. England is well on their way to overtake South Africa and India.

The scores of 285,261,288 and 158 in the last four innings do not speak highly of a champion batting side. Are Anderson, Tremlett, Bresnan and Broad that lethal? Defeat does sting a cricketer’s pride but Trent Bridge could be worse than Lord’s. India began the game dictating their terms. They won the toss and bowled in conditions that were tough for the batsmen. By tea on the first day, they had the match in their pockets when England was 124/8. Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann fought with will power and strong resilience to take the English score to 221. Even then, with Dravid’s thirty fourth century, things were very much in control for India at 267/3 in the first innings. 288 all out is a sign that India can crumble like a pack of cards giving Stuart Broad a hat trick in the bargain. They equal Pakistan in their unpredictability. Who could have known at tea on the first day that India would be knocked off the test match in less than four days?