If you ever wanted to master that art - see the Indian cricket team playing a few matches. If Rahul Dravid or any of his teammates write a book on - How to loose a match? - it would become an instant success in India. Well, sometimes I feel - they would be better off, if they start doing that only.
I didn't see India bowling, but I heard that it was good. Australia were less then 100 for 5. Good early wickets.Yet they were able to score more then 200. Its something that keeps happening with fair regularity. We getting a excellent bowling start - knock of almost half the team in less then 20 overs and yet after that the grip is lost and the opponent is allowed to recover to the maximum extent. Well, something about Indians having a big heart comes into play I suppose. They can't crush anyone ruthlessly, without mercy.

In India's batting - top order was gone even before the spectators could blink their eyes. It was again left to the likes of Dhoni, Mongia and Raina to atleast provide some decency to the scorecard, forget about winning. They did a good job at that too - but they have many things lacking. Both of them(Suresh and Dhoni) threw away their wickets in a reckless manner. I didn't see Suresh getting out, but yes Dhoni lost his head after getting a few deliveries above shoulder height and the end result - he packed himself up back to the pavillion - exactly what the Australians wanted. Mongia was the lone fiigher, who did give a great performance but eventually he was left alone, without any partners at the other end. I feel, when India were 8 down - he made a big mistake by taking singles and letting the tailenders get the strike. He should have himself taken all the strike - should have taken only 2 runs or tried to get boundries and taken single in the second last or last ball only. There were plenty of overs left and it could have been easily done. There is an interview with Mongia in TOI today in which he is saying that he had faith in the tailenders. I disagree wth him.Would he have done the same thing if that was a World Cup final match? Imagine a heart surgeon letting an intern handle a major complication while performing a heart surgery, just because he had faith in him?
Oh yes, Why am I being so harsh on the Indian team? - afterall they are human - everyone makes mistakes. It is easy to say things sitting here - but it would have been very difficult to face the pressure and be in the middle of things.
That argument was totally banished by my mind, firstly because they are professionals not some street cricket playing team - they have been trained to handle pressure and play at world class level. Secondly, once in a while - some mistakes are acceptable, but this is happening with fair regularity now.
I had stopped seeing cricket matches for quite a while now - saw this one after a long time and sadly it turned out to be a big disappointment. Well! I should have expected that only.