India failed miserly in Batting power plays in this world cup

Even though in the end it turned out to be a comprehensive win for Team India against the West Indies on Sunday, seven for 50 to add to the seven for 33 and nine for 29 are figures that will haunt India as they fly into Ahmedabad to take on Australia in their quarter-final game on Thursday.

In their six league matches, India batted first on four occasions and only once managed to play out the full quota of 50 overs. The collapse in all these games came during the batting powerplay, where the Indian lineup looked like lambs to the slaughter.

Barring the game against Bangladesh, India's batsmen have struggled to cope with the batting powerplay. In the game against England, India managed 32 runs in the batting powerplay for the loss of one wicket, while against South Africa they scored 30 for the loss of four wickets and on Sunday against the Windies, they scored 28 runs for the loss of four wickets.

In fact, India's collapse in the latter stages of their innings has been absolutely inexplicable. Against England, they lost 7/33 to be bowled out in 49.5 overs. Against South Africa, they were bowled out in 48.4 overs with nine wickets tumbling for 29 runs. And on Sunday at Chennai, the hosts could only play 49.1 overs and lost seven wickets for 50 runs.

India don't seem to have learnt their lessons after the South Africa game last Saturday. The batting powerplay, taken between overs 39 and 43 in that game, was to be India's undoing as they lost four wickets for 30 runs, spiralling down into an abyss and they just didn't manage to recover after that.

Skipper MS Dhoni had then lashed out at his batsmen asking them not to play to the gallery going for the expansive shots, but even after Sunday's game against the West Indies, he pretty much had the same to say. And while one would have hoped for a better plan and a better execution as the team prepared for the business end of the tournament, the batting yet again just imploded during this period.

Surely the Aussies would have noticed that and how India manage the third powerplay at Ahmedabad could well be the deciding factor between dreaming about winning the World Cup and getting that one step closer to achieving it.