that history is written by the victors?
Its a canard, if one has to go by the Cricinfo report of the India Australia game for the third spot in the ICC Womens World Cup ( reproduced below in full)
India beat Australia for the second time in the tournament to take third place and relegate the highly fancied hosts to a disappointing fourth. Australia struggled to 142 in their first innings at Bankstown Oval, but fought back to have India 7 for 104 before failing to shut down the innings.
The captain Jhulan Goswami and Rumeli Dhar showed no nerves in the tense finish to register the success with 13 balls to spare. They needed 16 from the final four overs in the batting Powerplay and made it with Goswami's boundary to midwicket off Ellyse Perry. Goswami finished with 18 while Dhar collected 24 off 27 deliveries.
Australia struck twice through Erin Osborne, who bowled the opener Anjum Chopra for 15 and then trapped Anagha Deshpande for 18, but India kept moving forward and were cruising at 2 for 72. However, Lisa Sthalekar (3 for 27) stepped in to have Mithali Raj (15) stumped and quickly picked up another key breakthrough when Sulakshana Naik was caught slogging to deep midwicket on 28.
More trouble came as Sthalekar removed Thirush Kamini caught behind, and Perry chipped in with two wickets before the stunning Goswami-Dhar revival. India were responsible for knocking Australia out of contention for the World Cup final with their victory in the Super Six stage last Saturday and the repeat performance ensured they ended the event on a high.
Australia struggled for most of the match and started poorly, dropping to 2 for 8 after losing both openers. Their innings was interrupted in the 14th over by a lengthy rain delay that chopped the match to 46 overs a side and they lost key wickets after the break. Alex Blackwell (19), Jodie Fields (6) and Jess Cameron (7) departed in quick time as Australia slumped to 5 for 63 before a couple of senior players mounted a rescue.
Captain Karen Rolton and Sthalekar dragged Australia ahead with a 60-run stand, with Rolton striking 52 from 93 balls and Sthalekar picking up 30. The slow outfield contributed to Rolton finding only one four, but she did clear the boundary with a drive to long-on off Gouher Sultana.
Australia's hopes lifted while the pair was at the crease, but they both fell in the same over from Priyanka Roy and could not recover. Rolton hit to midwicket before Sthalekar was caught behind and Perry was soon run-out for 2.
The innings ended when Goswami, who started the day by bowling Leah Poulton with the fourth ball, hit the off stump of Rene Farrell (9) with Australia eight balls short of their allotted overs. Goswami returned 2 for 21 off 9.4 overs while Dhar, Sultana and Roy also collected two victims each.
Rolton felt the defending champions failed to put up a challenging total. "We let a few overs slip through without scoring too many runs," she said. "Maybe another 20 or 30 runs would have made the difference today.
"It's disappointing to go from No. 1 to No. 4 but we can't change it now. We've lost twice to India now after we had a good series against them last November. We just have to look forward now to the Twenty20 World Cup and the tour to England."
She also pointed out that the Australian bowling had not been "spot on" during the tournament. "The best we bowled was the game against England." Rolton said. "Every now and then we probably struggled with our batting for someone to go through and get a good score. We've still got a lot of things to work on but we've got some really good players in our team who are only going to get better.
"We've got a lot of young players and it's been pretty tough for everyone, but probably more so for them. They're only going to get better from it though."
So, now we know how Australia batted, Australia bowled and the Australian captain's opinions post match. We also know that the hosts were "highly fancied".
But,
didn't India win?
This narrative would not be out of place for a news paper like the Australian, given that it has to cater to local taste. But for it to be carried in the self proclaimed "Home Of Cricket", this is a disgrace!
7 comments:
Disgrace indeed.
People would surely want to know more about the role India played in that game (!) and what Jhulan had to say...
You would have thought that Leela. Pity the "Cricinfo staff" think otherwise.
Cheers,
Homer, could it be that the Indian staff in cricinfo are not interested in women's cricket? Perhaps you or other bloggers who saw the match could give their views.
Leela, if you did get to see the match could you post your views on your blog? Unless you were busy with your exams of course!
Adverbin, I did not get the opportunity to see the match :-(
I surely would've written something if I had.
:-)
The self-styled Home of Cricket has gone the sensex way, plunging every day. The aura has been punctured by too many bloopers.
Adverbin,
If the Indian staffers at Cricinfo were not interested, the "match report" could have been presented as the Australian view and I couldn't have cared less.
But when a "match report" is slanted to represent the goings on of only one side, how does that remain a "match report" any more?
Also, I would have reported on the match if I had seen it.
Willow TV did not offer the Women's World Cup as part of its package. And whatever little I saw was thanks to the Sky Sports feed on Willow that broadcast part of the match in the lead up to the India NZ ODIs.
Unfortunately, the start of the India NZ test match overlapped the India Australia game and with Cricinfo not doing a ball by ball commentary, I was left to the tried and tested formula of Ctrl-R.
Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog
Cheers :),
I agree Som.. There seems to be an unhealthy desire for eyeballs, facts be damned.
Cheers,
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