All of us were happy when we got to know Proteas knocked out Australia. This defeat bought Aussies to the No 2 position in the table. And that made India to face New Zealand instead of England and we were to play on Thursday at Edbaston 11th July. Many cricket buffs had also booked well in advanced their tickets to watch this match. People had to change their plans as our match got advanced as we were to play the Kiwis in the first Semis.
We were the favorites as New Zealand had lost all their last three matches. And their wins with other team was also not so convincing. But we cannot forget we lost to them in the first practice match. The toss was vital but we lost the toss and had to bowl first. We bowled well and restricted to them to achievable total in spite of not having Shami in the eleven.
When our innings started there was always fear of Boult and Henry getting advantage of the over cast skies and the assistance the wicket will be for the first 10 overs. As it happened they bowled well and ripped us apart with the cream returning to the dug out in no time. As a team we could have taken some bold decision by not exposing Virat and also sending Dhoni early to stem the rot but the think tank thought the conservative way and we finally had to fight very hard before we lost the match for 18 runs as MSD ran out of partners and the run rate just shot up.
A great world cup campaign ended in a sad note as we exited the semi finals. A favorite right from the beginning of the tournament had to bow down after a great world cup campaign. There are several learning's from this world cup and we need to a close introspection and get our act together for the next tournament.
