Prasad should have bowled his quota

India lost the final while batting and the middle and lower middle-order should take the blame as the team fell short by 35 to 40 runs. New Zealand, with such depth in its batting line-up, was always in with a chance from that point of time.

What went wrong? First, the run-outs of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Skipper Sourav Ganguly indecisive ways were responsible for both dismissals and gave a chance for the Kiwis to claw back into the game. The lower order batsmen then ran out of ideas against a persistent attack.

Ganguly was in imperious form and Tendulkar stroked the ball majestically, but the line-up appeared distinctly top- heavy.

Since the start was so good, the Indian thinktank should have sent the in-form Yuveraj Singh at No. 3 to provide more time and overs to play his big shots, especially since Rahul Dravid has a tendency to get bogged down. The batting order should always be flexible.

Chris Cairns, making light of an injured knee, bowled a nagging line, and Nathan Astle, with his slow medium pace, revealed again that one-day bowling is all about common sense.

When the Kiwis chased, Ganguly blundered in not giving Venkatesh Prasad, India's best bowler on the day, his full quota of overs. Prasad provided India the early breakthroughs and ended up bowling just seven overs. In a close finish, the extra three overs from him could have made all the difference.

Zaheer Khan is promising, but his lack of experience showed in the final. It is a learning process for him though. On the other hand, Ajit Agarkar, on whom the thinktank seems to have so much faith, was ineffective again.

But let's not take away any credit from Chris Cairns and Chris Harris, who picked their runs intelligently, while also preserving wickets.

It was a heroic display from Cairns, a world class allrounder. With booming shots in his repertoire, the big-built Kiwi was always confident he would get the runs, and not bothered by the mounting run-rate.

However, one did get the impression that Cairns and Harris were not attacked enough in the initial phase of their partnership, even as the game gradually slipped from India.

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Section  : Sport
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