Surrender, not loss, leaves Motera crowd dejected

Darpan Singh. Ahmedabad

April 5
No rains, no batting miracle. Everything on Friday happened on the expected lines and the handful of cricket fans who made it to the Motera stadium hoping some kind of turnaround in India’s fortunes were a dejected lot.
Some booed the home team, others applauded the Proteas. But they were all hugely disappointed by the crushing defeat. A defeat on home soil in three days is something fans at Motera had not bargained for. As South Africa defeated India by an innings and 90 runs, registering their biggest win against India in India, there was anguish all around. And it was not for nothing. It's India's first innings defeat since the 2001 Colombo (SSC) Test against Sri Lanka.
“It was indeed a depressing spectacle that broke many a heart. Hats off to the Proteas for their convincing and clinical victory over India. It was a fantastic display of application and guts on their part,” said a fan. Bitter over India’s capitulation, he said, “When you are trailing by more than 400 runs, you have to bat session by session. You cannot save the match by hitting sixes in the first over itself.”
Raja Parekh, who came to the stadium all three days, said, “The shots that Laxman and Dhoni played were definitely not on. Team India’s fate was sealed when it was bowled out for a mere 76 in the first innings. What is really disappointed is the fact that they surrendered and never attempted a fight back.”
Incidentally, the Motera loss was also India's fourth-largest defeat at home (among innings defeats), and their worst in nearly 50 years - in 1959 Australia beat them by an innings and 127 runs in Delhi. A number of fans said the dismissal of Ganguly changed the course of the game as he and Dhoni were looking good, rekindling hopes of a Kolkata-like fight back and added the team would go into the Kanpur Test under a lot of pressure.
While leaving the ground in despair, fans also debated the appointment of Garry Kirsten as Team India coach. About a dozen cricket buffs DNA spoke to said the team was doing fairly well when Lalchand Rajput was looking after the job. They said, “We even defeated Australia in their own backyard with Rajput in charge. We fail to understand the purpose of paying so much money to foreigners when they cannot deliver the goods, especially when we already have competent people for the job.”
A bunch of youth, which was seen cheering for Kumble and Co. right from Day One, said, “If the wicket helped quickies, what were our bowlers doing? While the Proteas plundered runs at will, our batters struggled to put bat to ball. We were outplayed in all departments of the game.” However, soon after the match was over, Kumble sought to defend his bowlers, saying their effort was 100%."