Crucket

A 97-run defeat is pretty damn disappointing (though not as devastating as Jamie Alter wants to make out: “any self-belief that lingered after the Tests [has] now vanished“). Remarkably however, this has been the best result for a team batting second at the R. Premadasa Stadium for the 2009 season. In two attempts in August, Sri Lanka was not able to get within 130 runs of Pakistan’s totals.

I was disappointed when the tour schedule was changed from 5 ODIs against Sri Lanka to a miniature tri-series with India, but considering how one-sided games in Colombo have been, cutting the number of ODIs featuring NZ from 5 to a likely 2 seems a blessing.

It is important in sport to be realistic about what is likely to not go your way; so e.g. when one of the top 6 scores heavily against you, you don’t despondent, you just factor it in. Just because Tendulkar scores 160, you shouldn’t then let your shoulders droop and allow the tail to score 80-odd.

This applies not just within a match, but also to bigger pictures. Currently, the Black Caps are 166 runs behind with 7 wickets in hand. Pretty discouraging for the first match in the series. However, if you recall that we generally lose a match by an innings in every series, things don’t look any worse than usual. We’re not really doing that bad.

A day later and the disappointment of the test result has faded.

So the test series was drawn. But as that is the best result the Windies have had against us for over 10 years, it feels like a loss.

However, in the last test we were always in front – and it is not inconveivable that with a little luck we might have pulled off one of the most audacious chases in test  history. The Windies’ huge 375 in the third innings, with Gayle’s 197, was the biggest effort of the test, but it was their effort to force a draw, not a victory. And that feels like a win.