There is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. Indian supporters had a first hand experience of the meaning of this proverb as they saw what looked like an almost certain slot for qualification slip from there grasp and smash into smithereens yesterday.
On the encouraging side, the ladies put on another sterling performance yesterday to achieve their best performance in the Venice cup in a long long time.
The seniors also put up a good show on the last day to finish respectably while the mixed team had a mixed day.
This is the last in our series of articles on Marrakesh and we hope you have enjoyed reading them.
India started the day with a difficult task at hand seeming to need about 25 VPs from 2 rounds. They managed to win their match against Australia narrow after which it seemed even a draw would have been sufficient to qualify. In the post mortem it turns out that even 7 VPs would have been enough.
But alas! It was not to be as the Norwegians Thorred their way through the Indian team to whitewash them and push them down to tenth place.
A shocked band of Indian supporters rallied round the Indian team to console them on their loss and take solace from the fact that this has been the best performance by a Bermuda Bowl team in a long long time.
After this expression of solidarity came a search for gremlins. Were there director errors against India (nobody who was at the scene or part of the deliberations being made believe there were)? Did we err in our line ups on the last day? What was the coach doing? And stuff like that.
I think we should acknowledge that the Indian team did the best they could. And they came up short. Presumably they will have lots of learnings from this event to stand the country in good stead for the future.
Well fought India!
A few days ago, I had a word with Anal Shah, the NPC and Coach of the Venice Cup team. At that time, he had acknowledged that India were out of the qualification race and hoped for a decent place between 9th and 14th which he expected to be closer to 14th.
The Indian team did their NPC and coach proud with two creditable victories over Germany (44-36) and a strong Israel (48-11) to end the league in an impressive 11th place.
They have won the hearts of the entire country with their grit and performance. We hope they go on from strength to strength.
d'Orsi Trophy (Seniors)
The senior teams performance ended their campaign with two strong victories over France (46-25) and Hong Kong China (70-25) to finish 14th.
After the performance of the senior teams in the past two edition of the d'Orsi Trophy, this was certainly a huge let down.
The mixed team's finished their campaign with a thumping 51-8 win over Canada. However, in the previous round, they lost 25-47 to Poland.
They ended up in 16th position, one which we are sure they would be disappointed with themselves, leave alone the spectators.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
I think the Indian team did very well. It’s not right to find scapegoats. There are some days when nothing goes right and you’ve got to take it on the chin.
I would say, Well done, Team India. It was a great learning experience.
Dear Nerio,
Thanks for writing in.
I agree with you and have said as much in the post.
Why Raju & Ajay not played last 2 rounds
This was a decision taken by the team.
Nothing out of the ordinary about it.