Monday, August 18, 2008

Akhil Kumar outboxed

Damn man! Akhil Kumar has lost in the quarter finals of the 54kg bantamweight class. He was beaten by Republic of Moldova's Veaceslav Gojan 10-3. I am no boxer but as early as the end of Round One I had the feeling that Akhil would lose.

The reason was quite obvious - the Moldovan was fighting a very tactical fight. Not allowing any of Akhil's punches to get through his defences and though our man tried valiantly to pierce it, it was to no avail. While the first two rounds were even-stevens the last two were almost boxing lessons for the young Indian boxer. It was not that he was punished by the referees, though the Indian coach did mention that a few of Akhil's punches were not registered. It was just that he lost to the boxer who was more prepared for the fight.

I do not know what kind of preparation is done in boxing but I wonder if the kind of analysis that is done in cricket these days is attempted. I mean in terms of studying the opponent and coming up with tactics to beat him. I say this because I feel that is what the Moldovan did. Figured out the way Akhil boxes and prepared a game plan accordingly.

Well anyway there still are another two boxers in contention. Hope we can get some medal from those two guys.

Oh! And talking of our heroes in Blue, they were yet again handed an abject lesson in cricket. The analysis etc that happens in cricket do not seem to have helped. They were pummeled by the Lankans. I have a feeling that this is going to be the trend in the entire series.

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