i am from baroda and have played cricket a bit...i saw the last couple of wickets fall (of baroda) which gave the victory to mumbai. i think mumbai bowlers had nothing to do except land it in the line of the stumps, the way genuine all rounder like rakesh patel heaved at the abll, inspite of knowing the target (which was very acheivable) and panchals eventual heave, it just shows that theres something terribly wrong with either ashok mankads methods of coaching or the baroda lads. the wicket was a plumb batting track, infact my team just played a loacal league match on the same wicket two weeks back. there seemed no application of mind, techinique whatsoever. and its very funny the way press sometimes projects people like patel as india prosopects, they should have seen the way he got out. in the next season even if he gets a resounding hundred, no sleector would ever forget the way he got out, in semi finals, imagine toiling in the sun for a full season and then such rashness. imagine the efforts of all team mates the whole bloody season and this, and he was not alone. after haviong dismissed the haloed 5 wikets of mumbai batting top order for zero runs this kind of loss should automatically earn baroda a place in the plate division. this was cricket basics at its worst, and i assumed at mumbai 5 down for zero, must have prompted jacob martin to over bowl the wicket takeers , thus ensuring that mumbai batters like samant get to face tired droopy bowlers, thus enabling to a bigger lead. bad captaincy,,,,bad bowling and worst batting.... williams, martin, etc are now drifters in the team with no higher aspiration,,,,please make way for someone who atleast aspires to play for higher goals. mr mankad if you are to continue, please make a note of this. or else give me a call on 9824048087,,,,,will be more than happy to turn out, for a exibit of what sterner stuff looks like.... sangram
