Virat Kohli and millions of cricket fans were left scratching the heads after another thrashing at the T20 World Cup in the UAE left India on the brink of an early exit.
India were stunned at the start of their campaign last week as a charged-up Pakistan team registered their first ever win in a World Cup match against their rivals - and that too by 10 wickets.
India's next match was on Sunday - seven days later. By that time, Pakistan and England had already registered three wins out of three in their respective groups.
Their match against New Zealand had 'do-or-die' written all over it. But Kohli's team, incredibly, capitulated even more spectacularly to lose by eight wickets and more than five overs to spare, all but ending any hopes of making it to the semi-finals.
Mathematically, India are still not out of the tournament yet. First they need to win all their remaining matches - one of them against an in-form Afghanistan - by big margins. And then hope New Zealand and Afghanistan do them a favour by not having more wins, in order to force a tie on net run rate. Which is another way to say that India are on their way out, if not already there.
Captain Kohli tried to remain optimistic, though. "There's only one way to play T20 cricket - you have to be optimistic, you have to be positive, and take calculated risks. That's what this format is all about," the star batsman said.
"I think we'll be fine. There's a lot of cricket in this tournament and something that we all must look forward to. Certainly the team must look forward to and go with a positive frame of mind."
Those words lacked any real weight behind them. As Kohli himself admitted, India's approach as a whole was bizarre, with the body language of players particularly alarming.
"I thought we were to be very brutal upfront. I don't think we were brave enough with the bat or ball," he said.
"With the ball obviously we didn't have much to play with. But we were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field.
"New Zealand had that intensity in their body language and they created pressure on us from the first over onwards and continued that through the innings."
India's bowling has lacked any bite while their batsmen, who did at least score 151 against Pakistan, fell apart against a New Zealand attack that has become a nightmare for them at ICC events. That the Indians did not hit a boundary between the sixth and the 17 over against the Kiwis, or that they took a total of two wickets in two games shows how far behind the game India had fallen.
India's next match is against Afghanistan on Wednesday. And given the scare they gave Pakistan, the Afghans start just ahead of India in terms of bowling resources and batting form. All of this after two 20-over matches.
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
