Sport is all about winning. If the outcome is otherwise, you observe despair. When it comes to the sport which was once referred to as the gentleman's game, a common sight after a loss is a sulking dressing room.
Sport is all about winning. If the outcome is otherwise, you observe despair. When it comes to the sport which was once referred to as the gentleman's game, a common sight after a loss is a sulking dressing room.
Last night could have been an exception. Despite a meek surrender to Delhi Daredevils on a wicket that could be termed "poor" for Twenty20 cricket in the last League stage game of the Champions League Twenty20, Cape Cobras would have been feeling rather relieved than being upset.
The reason: They are spared of playing their semi-final tie in New Delhi. The wicket is so low and slow that the ball probably comes on to the bat slower and lower than that on a typical Indian fourth day Test wicket. As a result, of the 14 innings played at the Daredevils' home ground, only two have seen totals in excess of 140.
And, four times the teams have failed to cross the 100-run mark.
Had Cobras defeated Daredevils, they would have topped their group and as a result, would have had to play tomorrow's semi-final tie against New South Wales. While the NSW played their first two matches at the Kotla, Cobras were experiencing the conditions for the first time yesterday.
No wonder then that in spite of moaning the loss, Cobras' skipper Andrew Puttick was a happy man. "It's good that we are playing in Hyderabad. The Delhi wicket is not a great spectacle. Twenty20 is all about fours and sixes. That's what the crowds want," Puttick said.
