Dhoni seems increasingly disinterested….India all out for 296 after being 267 for 1 !…and then Nehra ensures we lose to South Africa who successfully chase 13 in the first four balls of the last over

Methinks the whole Indian Team led by Captain Dhoni needs to go down on their knees and beg for forgiveness from Sachin Tendulkar,Virendra Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir !

…these three gave us a dream start…267 for 1 !…with Sachin blasting 111 of 101 balls,Sehwag a blistering 73 of 66 balls and Gambhir compiling a well made 69 of 75 balls

….and then a Cricket Tsunami….the last Nine Indian Wickets capitulated for just 29 runs in nine overs !..all out in the 49th over for 296 !…we did not even bat out the 50 overs !…our guys helped Dale Steyn get a fiver and Man of the Match award !

…the only thing that Dhoni won was the Toss !….he slammed the batsmen for playing to the galleries rather than displaying sound cricketing sense !….but he too scored just 12 of 21,albeit remaining not out…he needs to take the blame squarely for leading his side

What this result does is that with one match remaining against West Indies,India stands at 7 points and can at best get 9 if they win….we would have then tied one and lost one….South Africa with four matchs are at 6 points  and have two easy games left against Ireland and Bangladesh and can go to the top of the table with 10 points…they would have lost just one…this would place us at B 2 Ranking and in the Q F in Ahmedabad on March 24,2011 we will take on A 3 Ranker 

Yesterday’s Cricket World Cup B Group match of India v/s South Africa at Nagpur confirmed a few of my worries on Dhoni and his captaincy of late since the T 20 World Cup in May 2010

Refer to these previous blogs on this worry

Dhoni has become increasingly disinterested in match proceedings of late….one can see Sehwag or Sachin directing bowlers and field placings….happens often to those who have made so much monies in very little time…hundreds of crores in his case

….have been more than intrigued at many of his on field and off field decisions….like yesterday giving Nehra to bowl the last over instead of Harbhajan Singh who was bowling beautifully and had picked three wickets already… Dhoni missed a huge trick directing Nehra to bowl the last and 50th over…Nehra had opened the bowling with Zaheer Khan and had a 4 over spell..then immediately switched ends and bowled another 3 overs…so at the end of 15 overs he had already bowled 7 overs…..and then came back to bowl just one over the 37th…before being entrusted with the crucial 50th…so he had not bowled for 12 over in between his third and fourth spell ! ….Harbhajan Singh was bowling splendidly and had figures of 3 for 53 of 9 at the end of the 47th over…31 runs were needed of the last three and Munaf bowled the 48th over and leaked it for 14 runs…..with 17 needed of the last two rightly Zaheer bowled  the 49th and gave away just 4 runs !…so 13 needed of the last over…and Nehra ensured South Africa got this in the first four balls !

Tongue in Cheek I hope Dhoni has not played left R Ashwin yet in this World Cup because he’s his secret Weapon for the Q Fs !

As on this Sunday March 13,2011 this is how the table will look at the end of the day assuming NZ beat Canada and Australia knock off Kenya today

I have projected Final Rankings…in Group A,New Zealand and Pakistan will end up on 8 points each but NZ will outrank Pakistan on net run rate and also it beat it in the Preliminaries…in Group B West Indies will edge out Bangla Desh for the fourth ranking on the same basis to make the  Q Fs

So India as B 2 will play New Zealand as A 3 in the Q Fs at Ahmedabad on March 24,2011

Cheers !