Dubai: India’s win at the ICC Champions Trophy was a bittersweet moment for fans of the game, with some ecstatic at a “deserved” win while others were sceptical because of the recent spot-fixing scandal.
Gulf News spoke to readers about their reaction to the match on Sunday between hosts England and world champions India.
Avnish Gupta, a 28-year-old health-care consultant in Dubai, felt India were deserved winners, having performed consistently throughout the 18-day tournament.
“Looking at the weather conditions on Sunday, it was a very good performance by India. England’s bowling was absolutely brilliant. Restricting the target to 129 was a very good job, but their top batting order struggled a bit. I would have to give credit to the Indian bowlers Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma for their performance in the last four overs,” he said
However, the spot-fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket in May seems to have influenced the perception of a few cricket lovers.
Charmaine Fernandez, a 22-year-old business graduate, was sceptical about the team’s consistently good performances.
“I am obviously happy that the Indian team won, but I think there is a certain feeling you get when you see them winning the past few international tournaments. With all the recent scandals going on, it seems too good to be true. How many teams do you find with all the cups from the major ICC [International Cricket Council] tournaments with them at the same time? There has to be some catch to it.”
But that did not stop Fernandez from enjoying the performances by the young Indian players, who have replaced senior names in the team.
“If they are really working as a team and performing well, kudos to them. Some of the players like Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli have put in their efforts to push the team forward, which is good,” the Abu Dhabi resident said.
English cricket supporter David Woodward was all praise for the Indian team. “It’s a shame the rain interfered with the match. Had the match not been reduced to 20 overs each, India would have trounced England,” the 59-year-old marketing consultant said.
“The match was quite close, the pitch just favoured the spinners and India made runs at a fantastic rate.”
Asked when England would be able to win a major 50-over tournament, he said: “England don’t have a very good tradition of playing one-day cricket. They do not have a team that is well put together. They keep making changes and don’t work as a team. The entire selection process is to be blamed along with the playing calendar — England don’t get to play and perform as a team for long enough.”
He added that teams like Australia, who dominated world cricket in the past, and current world champions India performed well when their teams stayed unchanged. “Chopping and changing [the team] never works,” Woodward said.
