Indians not playing to their potential

The newspaper headline says it all: ``India hopes for an Australian win''. So now the Indian team has been reduced to expecting favours from other teams in the competition. Australia must keep winning and Pakistan must keep losing for India to qualify for the final of the Carlton & United Series. Whatever happened to winning on our own steam?

Amazingly enough, as the one day series enters the ``home stretch'' India, despite playing pretty deplorable cricket, still has a chance to make the title round. Of course it depends on various permutations and combinations. Like India must win all their four remaining games and Pakistan must lose both their remaining matches - interestingly enough to be played against India.

Australia did India a world of good by beating Pakistan on January 19. They extended the favour by getting the better of Pakistan on January 23. How many more favours does India expect? Is it not time for India to show that they can go ahead with depending on extraneous results?

Theoretically, India's slim chances of making the final can still fructify. After all, while it may be difficult it is not impossible to win four matches in a row. Why, in this very series, Australia have scored five straight wins after the reverse in their opening match against Pakistan to already make sure of a berth in the final.

On paper, India are certainly a better side than the results suggest. With the batting and bowling at their command, it is at times difficult to believe that they could lose four straight games. Even in 1980-81, when they were comparative rookies in the field of one day cricket, they did not perform so badly. And in 1985-86 and 1991-92, they were always front runners to make the final, though they lost in the title round to Australia both times.

This time, if one takes a closer look, India have not exactly been outplayed. They have run the opponents close only to falter at the all important end. The fact remains that they have not been playing up to potential. Otherwise there is no reason why the Indians should have lost four straight matches. If only they play up to their full potential, they could win four games in a row and yet make the final of the competition. It is a tall order, but not an impossible task. Pakistan, like India, lost the three Test series 3-0 but have bounced back with a fine performance in the one day games. If nothing else, this could inspire the Indians to lift their game a couple of notches in the present crunch situation.