Raina’s brilliance masks Indian deficiencies

What a great knock from Raina? I wasn't able to watch the whole game, but I was following the score on Cricinfo. And praying. Which is something when coming from an atheist. I wrote about Raina being a terrific prospect, and he's lived up to the expectations superbly.

But let's not forget that for the second game running, India needed some rescuing. Some awful fielding earlier had put India in that position. While Raina grassing Pietersen was a little more understandable (although not excusable), Powar dropping Strauss was not. Dhoni missed a tough stumping chance off Pietersen early in his knock as well. Other than the catching, the fielding errors could be attributed to uneven bounce in the outfield (which the Englishmen also struggled with).

Then came Dravid's run out. What in the world was he thinking? Perhaps he didn't notice the invisible Collingwood zoning in on the ball. That has got to be the worst run out in the history of the game (well, except perhaps, if simply for the occasion, the run out of Donald in that semi-final between Aus and SA). You could tell Dravid himself was fuming at his dismissal. And, at least partly, it came about because he was frustrated at the crease. He wasn't scoring any runs and constantly charging the bowler with little reward. Perhaps he needs to develop his game of going over the infield a bit more. If not, maybe he needs to drop down a spot in the batting and let somebody else who doesn't mind going over the top come in at number three. Otherwise, you can expect Flintoff to take the powerplays when Dravid's at the crease all the time. Dravid would want to forget this incident and move on. No harm done in the end, and I'll put this down to a rare lapse from the great man. What is more worrying here is the trend of Dravid getting run out a lot. No doubt he'll realize it and look to rectify that.