Quote:
Originally Posted by ganeshran
Nah, that was a disappointing performance but Australia were clearly the better side and a one side game wasnt entirely unexpected, even though not the way it eventually folded out. Still wont call it a choke though.
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Perhaps you are right. Leaving aside the fact that India were comprehensively outplayed, wouldn't you agree it was more than a little bizzare that they all seemed to collectively lose the plot so spectacularly? It wasn't merely a case of a better team winning if you ask me, which that Australian side undoubtedly was. Every team that loses, be it from a winning position or by a big margin, can be said to have been outplayed. You lose, you're outplayed, simples. Say a team is chasing 200 to win and they go on to lose from 190/1; wouldn't you say they were outplayed, too? Sure they choked in that they should have won from the position they were in; but they were also outplayed because the other team did not play well enough to spark such a collapse. Basically what I'm saying is, the classification of whether a loss was down to a team choking or it being outplayed is purely arbitrary. In many cases, if not most, they're one and the same.
Zaheer's first over was utter bollocks and purely down to nerves, I'd say. It wasn't just him, the rest of the side was just as bad. Compare and contrast that to how the same blokes performed in the final last year and you'll definitely see a difference.
As aforesaid I'm not sure if this can be termed a 'choke'. In my dictionary completely losing your heads in a WC final is the equivalent of choking.