Fans shouldn't lose hope after India's demoralising defeat to New Zealand.
India were pitted as the favourites at the World T20 even before the tournament had begun, however with the embarrassing 47-run defeat to Kiwis at a square turning Nagpur pitch, quite a few pundits have become sceptical about India's chances of reaching the last four stage.
The New Zealand team management played a master stroke by leaving out star pacers Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Mitchell McClenaghan while fielding three spinners— Nathan McCullum, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner. Spin is not their strength but the bold decision was taken as the visitors wanted to play according to the nature of the pitch. Two hours into the game, the hosts realised that they had been caught in their own trap. The Kiwi spin trio were doing what Shane Warne used to do on unresponsive pitches of Australia and South Africa. That fact that the ball was stopping before coming on to the bat made life difficult for the Yuvrajs and Jadejas.
Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were the only players who tried to bide their time in the middle. But when a star-studded batting line-up crumbles like a pack of cards on a difficult pitch, it becomes an uphill task to win a game. Thus, the jinx remains intact. India will have to wait for their next chance to get the better of the Black Caps.
However, all is not lost. If we look back on the 2007 edition of the World T20, we'll see that India had lost just a single game in the whole tourney and that was against the Kiwis in the Super 10 stage. New Zealand had notched a mammoth total of 190 with Brendon McCullum (45), Craig McMillan (44) and Jacob Oram (35) doing the bulk of the scoring. In response, Indians batted out of their skins but fell short by 10 runs. Smarting from that reverse, the Men in Blue defeated England, South Africa, Australia and Pakistan on the trot to lift the inaugural World Cup.
Now fast forward to 2011, Dhoni's men, having won three and tied one game of the 50-over extravaganza, set foot on Nagpur to take on South Africa. Sachin Tendulkar (111) and Virender Sehwag (79) lit up the Jamtha pitch only to have the late order batsmen meekly surrender the game. The hosts inexplicably fell short of the 300-run mark by four runs and then some wayward bowling helped the Proteas reach the target with two balls to spare. Undeterred by disappointment, India beat West Indies in the last group game and then edged out Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to win their second World Cup trophy.
India's present situation is exactly similar to the above two instances, they have plenty of games in their hand to turn it around. Also, the remaining games of the hosts will be played on batsman-friendly pitches, which will give them maximum opportunity to showcase the power of their batting order. So the scenario isn't as bad as it looks.
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