New England Patriots vs Australia

This is an interesting anology. Yesterday New England Patriots completed their perfect season (16-0) with a win over New York Giants. Two days ago, Australia beat India to stretch their winning streak to 15-0 and unless India come up with something special, the Aussies will make it 16-0.

India's loser attitude

Watching the last day of India Pak 3rd test in Bangalore was a deja vu for the Indian cricket fans. Recall the last day of the India England 3rd test at the Oval. India, who had a huge lead of 220 runs from the first innings batted on and on in their second innings without thinking about declaration at all. Rahul Dravid was at the helm of proceedings leading the way with a 96 ball-12 run innings, that all but killed the game. India was already leading the series 1-0 and played for the draw instead of going for the 2-0 result. Come Bangalore, India (read Dravid) showed their loser mindset once more. When the 5th day began, all India had to do was to score some quick runs and put Pakistan in to have any prospects of victory. But what do they do? Play for almost half day and leave Pakistan a laughably impossible target of 375 from 47 overs. Had they scored at a faster rate in the morning and left Pakistan 2 full sessions to survive, the result would have been different. But no one is complaining. Afterall, just like in England, India won the series 1-0.

This is the difference between Australia and other B-grade teams (I say including SA). True, Aussies' agressive mindset has backfired spectacularly at times (the famous Kolkata test in 2001, Adelaide test in 2003). But they have won far more tests with their winning attitude. Draw is the word they hate most (said Steve Waugh once). I wonder when other teams will take a leaf out of the Aussies' books and learn to play good, agressive cricket. Thats not only a winning attitude but also helps the test cricket win over some fans. But scoring at a strike rate of less than 30 is not going to help anyone.