India NZ match crucial for Lankans
The match between India and New Zealand to be played at Dambulla on 25th August 2010 has been billed as a semi final match. Calling a match a semifinal and that too in a triangular series is nothing but a hype but one thing is for sure the match has more significance to India and Sri Lanka than for New Zealand.
While Indian team members would be focused on the match, millions of Indians and Sri Lankans would be watching the match with great interest. While Indian fans obviously want their team to win Sri Lankans would want India to lose so that they can point a finger at Indians especially for the punishment meted out to Suraj Randiv and Tilakratne Dilshan in the Sehwag controversy. Sri Lankan cricketers especailly their skipper Sangakkara would be watching the match very closely and an New Zealand win would be a perfect platform for Sangakkara to launch a verbal assault on the Indians saying that Indians are not good enough to win matches and they simply blow things out of proportion.
While Sri Lankan fans would still get an opportunity to have a crack at Indians should India win their match against New Zealand, Indian team are under real pressure because they have to win first against New Zealand and then beat Sri Lanka in the final to have a go at them. Mahendra Singh Dhoni had found himself in pressure situations on many a occasions in his tenure as skipper, but here he finds himself in a different sort of pressure and would be hoping that he would be able to take his team to final and then prove a point of two by winning against Sri Lankans.
If one were to go by past records of M S Dhoni and skipper then in all probability Dhoni may have the last laugh though he has a formidable task at hand. While Dhoni's task is difficult considering the fact that his team has lost two of the 3 matches by being bowled by 88 and 103, the much hyped youngsters in the team for a change have been under the scanner by the media and rightly so and that makes Dhonis task even more difficult as they will be playing under pressure.
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