Yet another crusade of the Kiwis has failed. They have reached the Semi-finals of the World cup five times (1975, 1979, 1992, 1999 and 2007), but never managed to breach the wall to the Finals. And they have almost always managed to make their defeat look tragic. Their fate seems so similar to Karna in the Mahabharata...the chariot wheel gets stuck just when it matters the most.
Yesterday, Shane Bond failed to deliver. For a bowler whose ODI record is the best ever in the world, this does not happen every day. But it happened in the semi-final. In 1992, all was going well for NZ till a young Inzimam came along. The entire spin-pace juggernaut of NZ, which was so meticulously steered by Martin Crowe, was thrashed against the rocks. In 1979, they lost to England by a margin of 9 runs, which could have been easily avoided had John Wright been a little more enterprising. His 69 came in 137 balls.
They had their share of bad luck in 2007 too. First, Lou Vincent gets injured. He top scored against Sri Lanka in the warm-up matches. Then Styris, the leading scorer for NZ in the World Cup, injures himself and comes to the semi-final with his right hand taped like a mummy. Bond, on the other hand, is unable to play in the match preceding the semi-final. This, according to a commentator, could be a reason why he lost his rhythm. Finally, the pitch was bouncy when the last match was played. This could have helped NZ who prefer to play on such tracks. Yesterday, it was the dry pitch so typical of the Indian sub-continent. Probably, like Karna, Kiwis too are jinxed.
No comments:
Post a Comment