Musings post India’s loss in the Champions Trophy…

stadium-580364_640In the 1983 World Cup final, we made just 183 runs in 60 overs.
We shouldn’t have won that.
The West Indies batting line-up was the most powerful in the world.
In the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final, we made just 129 runs in 20 overs.
We shouldn’t have won that.
England were former T20 World Champions too and were further playing on home soil.
In the 2000 ICC KnockOut final, we beat the best teams of the tournament—Australia and South Africa—and yet lost to a much weaker New Zealand team and till date that remains their only ICC tournament title.
In the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final, India was a vastly superior team.
Yet Pakistan gave the vastly superior performance both in batting and bowling.
I guess it all evens out in the end.

We lost to England in the 1987 ODI World Cup semi-final.
We lost to New Zealand in the 2000 ICC KnockOut final.
We lost to Australia in the 2003 ODI World Cup final.
We lost to Sri Lanka in the 2014 T20 World Cup final.
We lost to West Indies in the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final.
We lost to Pakistan in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final.
No team is our bogey.
We are our own bogies.
If we don’t show up on that day, we lose miserably.

After playing brilliant cricket throughout the tournament, India choked in the finals of the 2014 T20 World Cup and the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy along with the semis of the 2015 ODI World Cup.
After this dastardly performance, whenever we enter the finals, we can’t be called the favourites but will always be the underdogs.
The glorious golden 2007-13 MS Dhoni era is well and truly over.

After the Sri Lankan team attack in 2009 when Pakistan is facing a virtual home boycott, it won its first T20 World Cup the same year, its first Asia Cup in 12 years in 2012 and its first ICC Champions Trophy in 2017.
Amazing how it keeps coming out with a superlative performance once in a while with all the turmoil and chaos compared to the solidity and stability of say a South Africa!