Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the return to form of West Indies and how Australia looked flat.
Funny how much can change in a day. Bowled out by Sri Lanka for about two dollars and fifty cents, Brian Lara and his boys were supposed to be the easybeats. Beating them was the banker.
Not that a defeat in a single one-day match played on a pitch held together by a mysterious plastic substance need provoke too many long faces. Still, the fact remains that Australia must win their next two matches or catch an early flight home ...
If excuses are wanted, then at least one finger can be pointed at a pitch that, like many an ageing lover, did not quite last the night. Moreover, a light evening breeze blew over Mumbai, causing the dew to seek calmer pastures.
When you are ranked No.1 but get beaten by a qualifier who made 80 in their previous match, whose top scorer made the world's slowest duck against you last time out, who needed a local fieldsman to fill in because they were down to 11 men, and who sealed the win with a hat-trick, you'd have to start wondering if you were cursed.
