India have only themselves to blame

there are two kinds of people in this world. basically. one, the kind that will blame the weather at the end of the day. the kind that will talk about racism. the kind that will look at the pitch suspiciously. the kind that will look within suspiciously. the kind that will blame the conditions. the kind that india did not want to be. not after the way they started the day. no, definitely not after the way they started the day. look now, somebody has to blamed for this.

a better captain than kumble would have made sure the two decisions that went against india went away the ball after they came their way. good captains must be able to forget things like that and make their team do the same. it's the only way forward in life. and in cricket. if you're going to mope about how ill-endowed you are in the luck department, you're going to end up a very miserable man. a la warney according to murali.

people might say it's hard being a bowler, but the great bowlers know and keep reminding themselves that it only takes one delivery to dismiss a batsman. but to get that delivery, one needs to concentrate. the mind cannot wander with fear. fear of failure. fear of poor umpires. fear of symonds. fear of not being able to bowl on one side of the wicket. fear of living up to a great morning performance. fear of all the intangibles that india let get in the way of what should have been a 150/0 for india at the end of day 1. after having dismissed the hosts for a demoralising 175/200 score in the first innings.

if only.

now what? now, we're back to the boring business of the usual. the australian juggernaut marching on to a record equalling sequence of test victories. the 'unlucky' indians fighting to save yet another test match. the incompetent umpires reminding us time and again why the icc needs to introduce a retirement age for umpires. and the retirement age is howmanyeverdamn years steve bucknor is!

and then, there's the other kind of person. australian.