India vs Australia
Was it a mental game or a game of probable statistics? Did the location have an influence? Normally it has the opposite effect when playing India in India… Australia always has the psychological edge over any team as they tend to be overconfident. Many other teams are stoic and reserved when fielding for example, but if you have a large group of Australian Cricketers together they can easily seem larger than life. Does the team with the best stats win or does the team with the best self-confidence get the bigger score? I feel that yesterday’s match was a lesson in sport psychology more than statistics. India performed poorly as a team and no individual had the courage to give us a miracle six or a great catch. So, did their inferior performance allow the Australian team to go bigger or did Australia just bull doze India because they are the better team? Was it a one-time fluke or has India lost their winning streak over Australia? The gentleman’s game has a way of keeping you on the edge of your seat until the last ball of the last over.
We all like to support secondary teams when our primary team is not playing. We also like to see what other teams are up to before they play against our National team. So, when India took Australia for 9 wickets we all thought that the next game was in the bag for India. They had after all won seven out of ten games against Australia in the past year. Statistically, teams batting second have the better chance of winning. There is an old saying though, ‘They already have it, we still have to GET it’ and it basically means that you can always count on a good bowler to finish the match in your favour.
Normally not much happens during the first over of any set but yesterday’s game was a rollercoaster ride, at least the moment India took to batting. Rohit graced us with four fours in the first over after changing places. Berhendorff went from disaster in the first over to being crowned man of the match. Hence, you cannot tell who is going to win until someone loses in Cricket. Whatever went wrong in that over, Australia quickly fought back with a top fit team. They have shown a level of maturity that has me excited for the future of cricket.
In conclusion, India may have just had a bad patch yesterday. If you take into consideration their steady winning streak in the past year over Australia, they may well be on top again very soon. They have seen Behrendorff in action and I believe they will be ready for him. Australia cannot rely on just one person and I am sorry to say but they have just lost the element of surprise. Time will tell if the Australian team can keep on playing mature cricket and on Friday the thirteenth we will all be on the edge of our seats. We’ll see if luck or patterns and statistics will prevail in the deciding match.
