Those 3 hours...

The last 3 days, 13th, 14th and 15th of June were amongst the best days in life. A trip to Coorg with 13 mates from school, whose company you can't fail to enjoy, there was not much one could ask for.

Except for those hours when even the best of times turn out to be sour, for everyone in the group is enveloped by a sombre mood. There were 3 such dreadful hours during this trip of ours, which left everyone awake lamenting into the night.

No, it has nothing to do with anything that happened to any one of us (not even the dog licked face!) in particular, for though there might be one suffering in every incident, it always is hilarious to the rest of the group. What I'm refering to is something that left everyone of us, without any exceptions, in a gloomy state.

It is the India vs England Super 8 T20 World Cup game that I have been building up to. A must win game, we all believed India would go all out to clinch the match and hence stay alive in terms of the tournament. It was not to be!

The chase was abominable! Having restricted England to 153, even if it was never to be a cake walk, we could have easily got there. But there was no sense of emergency to speak of. Be it the detestable misfield by our vice captain Yuvi making what would have been a wide+single a wide+four (making all the difference - 3 runs!); the unfathomable decision to send in an inexperienced Jadeja at number 4 ahead of the in form Yuvi at a crucial juncture; our beloved Dhoni ("Captain Cool") tapping and picking the singles, never even lofting over the infield (except the last ball!); running only a single of the penultimate ball, when a double would have atleast left us with a chance to tie the game off a last ball six; it was all as if we'd resigned to the fact of being defeated throughout, with no intention to win, ever!

Defeat is acceptable, but not in this fashion.

And now, to add insult to injury, the best batting line up and the best batsmen of spin have been brushed away by a modest total of 130 by the South Africans; now on par with Ireland as the only team to have lost all 3 Super 8 games; leaving us to nurse lost pride.

We know it is impossible to win always; that our cricketing team is most strained, physically and mentally; but what we except is a certain degree of respectability, even at the face of defeat.