India's Historic Cricket Series Win Against New Zealand, But...

Indian cricket team has made history against New Zealand in Test Series win. They have won a series there after long 41 years. Tremendous achievement indeed. India also scored high points in batting and bowling too. But somehow the zing of the win is missing thanks to the drawn third test at Wellington. They have won 1-0. The margin could very well have been 2-0. If India wants to rise to the top position in team ranking the margin does matter. They should have or could have won the third test within four days.

Team India lost valuable time. Weather condition is something you must take into account. In the third day at Wellington India acquired a massive lead of over 500 runs and they did not put New Zealand in for the last overs of the day. Not only that, they continued batting on the fourth morning too thus missing the early morning swing with the new ball. Was that the result of 'old Indian cricketing habits die hard' syndrome despite Dhoni's positive energy? Of course, there were a few factors in favor of Dhoni;s decision.

• First priority was ensuring the historic series win as India had an unassailable lead of 1-0.
• New Zealand pitches were playing fine even in the last two days. In the second test at Napier India, following on and facing innings defeat, continued batting for more than two days scoring nearly 500 hundred runs losing only five wickets.
• Lot of time was left to get New Zealand out.
• Unpredictability of the Indian bowlers. Sometimes they bowl consistently erratic allowing opposition to score at will.
• A classic dilemma of enough not being enough.

Allowing for all these Dhoni still should have gone for the kill sooner-at least on the fourth morning. You must give confidence to your bowlers to attack. Then, the weather was a crucial factor with forecast for the fifth day. Weather had been interfering now and then in all the games and so it had to be taken into account to calculate the available playing time.

The Wellington test would remain for India not as a frustrating game of cricket. It would remain as a case of missed opportunity.

Anyway, it's celebration time for the historic series win in India.