So, World Cup is over, everybody knew India is gonna rock, they did, Australia was always a case study, lost Ashes at home, and then not able to make it to finals, the team was awesome when they had Gilly and Warney, the mind blowing openers are now missing and its always Watso scoring runs and getting wickets, the speed less 'wider' Tait and non effective Binga cant help the team.
Reason?
The captain himself is unable to perform, what is he supposed to tell his team? "Go get 300" Or "Go bowl out Indians for 200"
He cant! Because a team can only perform when captain does.
Lets have a look at all teams making it to quarters
Pakistan - Afridi get a lot many wickets
India - Everybody batted so well that Dhoni never needed to score century! He saved his best for final though...
Australia - Ponting was out of form all this while and scored when it mattered the most, but he was lone warrior for his team at the end. The bowlers just gave the game away, or maybe due?
Windies - Like England, they were always clueless!
England - They seemed drunk to me... I cant figure out what they were doing all the tourney, winning toughest matches and losing easiest ones!
South Africa- Well they topped the group, won every match they could and lost most important one! Yup, my favourite team kicked them out, and the tag 'chokers' remains. What went wrong? They were 'emotionally stressed' or took opposition to lightly!
Last but not the least, BLACKCAPS - That is, Team New Zealand, according to rankings they should have only made it to quarters, 7 out of 10 were sure SA would break that chekrs tag and defeat Nz, they didnt, and the question, was it Nz winning or SA losing?
BOTH!
Nz believed they can defend 221
SA believed they will choke once they were 5 down for 100!
Moral of story - A team can play good when captain leads from front!
You CAN if you BELIEVE
Never underestimate, No.1 ODI team SA lost to No.7/8 team not because they were short of runs, but because they were short of confidence!
