Looks like my predictions may come true. No host has yet won the World Cup and South Africa seems to be finding it difficult to ward off this curse. Otherwise, after scoring 306 runs, they had no business to lose to the Black Caps so tamely.Fortunes seemed to have changed hands after the interval. Till then, the South Africans were cruising smoothly despite some funny and irrational changes in the batting order. It was a brilliant century from Herschelle Gibbs. The wicket was also a beauty, fit to execute all the strokes in and outside the book too.The capacity crowd that came to the Wanderers to cheer their local heroes watched the Kiwi captain, Stephen Flaming in absolute silence when he started thrashing the South African attack all over the place. What a captain’s knock he played! He slowly maneuvered to get out of his bad form. When he regained his confidence, he exhibited his repertoire of the strokes to leg in particular with able support from Macmillan and Nathan Astle.Perhaps the turning point of the game was that crucial catch he offered to Boucher behind the wicket when he had scored just 53 runs. However, it is apparent that South Africa’s support bowlers — Donald, Klusener, Boje — have either slowed down considerably or are just no good on good batting tracks. Also, their fielding looked quite patchy, as there was no Jonty Rhodes on the field to motivate them.The running between the wickets was excellent for both the teams. The scoreboard was kept moving all the time. The strike was given to the batsman who’d been in for longer and was better settled. Most importantly, the will to win was quite evident in both the teams. That kind of application and determination is simply lacking in the Indian camp.What should the Indian team should pick up from this game for its do or die match against Zimbabwe? First, the captain should lead from the front. He need not be sulking all the time even if his form is pretty bad. If he comes out with a knock like Fleming, nothing like it! One would see the immediate transformation in the attitude of his colleagues. It is the captain who has to direct the rudderless ship like the present Indian team through stormy waters.Though sad, it is the same old story with our cricket crazy public. They worship the players if they are winning, creating much hype before such events that the players start believing that nobody on Earth can come in their way to the top. And when the Indian team loses, and that too against the best team in the world, they feel as if the whole sky has come down.So, what do they do? Pelt the players’ homes, burn their effigies, come out with big banners abusing, condemning one and all in the team. Whatever the player has done in the past is just written off with one bad performance. That’s very sad.
