A tale of three teams

This is a tale of three teams. Australia, England and India. At first sight - the champions, the downtrodden and the middle ground?

A week back - Australia were invincible, England could do no right and India were back on the ascendancy. 11 February 2007, the stakes have changed. These three teams are all at their own crossroads - to ponder their future and take a path that will decide their fate at the World Cup in the West Indies.

Australia last lost a best of three finals in 1992-93. To lose to England today would be nothing short of a miracle. To have lost three consecutive matches to England is something Ricky Ponting wouldnt have thought of in his worst nightmare. But that non-existent nightmare has become a reality. Usually one would have expected Australia to look at the loss in the first final grimly, tighten their belt, summon all their brutal energies and crush England and crush them convincingly. After all the Aussies would want to punish England for making them play a third final. But England pulled one out of that hat and rode to a victory - a thumping one at that.

A victory that has brought both teams to unfamiliar territory. The victory possibly will bring England to face a pleasant fact - that their team is not really all that bad and perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to really try hard for the World Cup. Its not the serious five day game but really after the 5-0 Ashes loss - lets look at this shorter game a little more seriously huh? They can treat this victory as a launching pad and go for it all. Or in typical English style - they could have several pints of warm beer - talk about the victory for ages and forget about winning any further matches.

Australia on the other hand seem to have taken Symond's loss pretty badly. For a side that has a bench strength good enough to beat most other first sides - its fairly surprising. To lose 3 matches on a trot to England is a shocker. Having failed to crush England after the first final - one wonders how Australia will take this defeat. What looked like an unneccessary 3 match series against New Zealand has suddenly become crucial. New Zealand can either bury Aussie confidence - or more likely you might find the Aussies shrugging off the final loss to England, chewing gum, gulping Fosters and resume regular business just as if nothing really happened.

The most intriguing side though has to be India. Its been a long journey for them. Great run - win 17 matches on a trot chasing and then that 4-1 loss in Windies and India were on a bad patch continuing up to the South African series where they lost 4-0. Coming back to the Indian pitches, they played strongly to win the series against the Windies. Until today. They exercised that card which they know best - To lose a match that was as good as won. The last time they lost a match that went this close was in West Indies when Dwayne Bravo bowled that slower one to Yuvraj Singh. The result was a string of losses after that. And that makes this close loss to Sri Lanka even more worrying. India is yet again on the crossroads. They could shrug it off and go on to win the next 2 matches and still be contenders in the World Cup or they could go on the path they know best - downhill.

A week back - Australia were invincible, India were on their way up and England were finding a way to dig deeper. Today Australia are bewildered, England ecstatic and India devastated. Whoever will want to question cricket being a funny game?

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You can also read this on Sportsnob here and a much watered down version on Sportingo here