The dream run of India finally ended on Thursday when Australia thrashed it on way to the World Cup final against New Zealand. The outcome of the match was not surprising, though nationalistic emotion was in clear conflict with the cricketing mind when every Indian hoped against hope that we would somehow get the better of the Aussies. Indian cricket fans ought to know that we did not enter the World Cup as favourites, having lost the stalwarts of the 2011 World Cup and yet, to come up with equally reliable replacements in the newly-grouped eleven. Yet, the Indians did creditably, reaching the semis, when even hardcore fans had entertained doubts about our standing up to the newly assertive Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Indeed, the last three teams were billed high in this competition, a fact borne out when New Zealand edged past South Africa by a sheer whisker to make it an all-Pacific Ocean final. The semi-final on Thursday did come as a bit of an anticlimax, when we allowed the Australian tail to plunder at least 50 additional runs and when our top-order batsmen, especially Virat Kohli, failed to click. Yet, the team did click as a unit, with M S Dhoni once again establishing his competence as a captain. Given the sordid state of affairs in the BCCI, with factionalism detracting from the task of harnessing talent at the school and university levels, the performance of the national team was reasonably good. We lost to a better side. And there is nothing to be ashamed about it. Though everyone will look forward to the Cup final, the New Zealand-South Africa match was the template for the 2015 Cup — unless New Zealand and Australia can better that nailbiting finish when both sides seemed equally matched in all departments of the sport and either side could have won.
