New Zealand's Tour Of India Aug-Sep 2012

[icyman]

Hell, that idiot needs to learn mathematics ! What does he expect- Yuvraj to hit 6 sixes always.

MSD's tactics, captaincy need to be questioned seriously. If he is in the team to lessen our chances of winning, I'd rather see him go and try his hand elsewhere.

----------

Yeah, rather than blaming Dhoni, I believe both Oram and Franklin bowled really well. Yuvi scored most against other bowlers and he too struggled against these medium pacers. Virat I think didn't face them much.

Its been happening far too often. I dont see why we should stop blaming Dhoni for this defeat. Another early round exit and I really wish the new selection committee gives us a better captain.

 

[Prithvi]

Dhoni's tactics need to be questioned big time here. Today he lost the match for India out there. With Yuvraj not being in his fluent best (yes he stuck a few sixes, but still he was struggling to meddle the ball well for the most part and his fitness was suspect seeing the way he was running).

Dhoni ought to have taken the charge and kept India abreast... Inspite of a very good innings from Kohli and Yuvi, India lost the game primarily because of Dhoni.

It is all over confidence! Just because he has done it once in Australia (at Adelaide), he thinks he can do it everywhere and everytime.

NZ pull off a win out of nowhere. And they say, I'm pretty harsh at Dhoni.

48 were required off 40 balls for India and it seemed like a walk in the park for India but thats when Mr. legendary hitter walked into the middle. No doubt Oram and Franklin bowled beautifully but if Yuvraj Singh -- who has been away from cricket for long time and has just about regained the match fitness -- can hit the bowlers, why can't Dhoni?

Yea! I agree! Added to that, Mr. Legendary Hitter has kept himself away from stikre to give the blind fans a room that the scenario would have been different if Thala Dhoni would have been on strike.

Yeah, rather than blaming Dhoni, I believe both Oram and Franklin bowled really well. Yuvi scored most against other bowlers and he too struggled against these medium pacers. Virat I think didn't face them much.

I don't think that really mattered much. When all batsmen scored more than run a ball easily, why couldn't Dhoni?

Also, please don't call anything "luck"- it was Dhoni's over confidence, what is showed off in the form of luck. No one was lucky enough.

Our worry was how the wicket would behave in the second half. After the 10th or 12th over it got tough.

Then why the HELL did you take the match to 20th over by doing tuk tuk when all others were easily scoring more than run a ball?

 

[Epic]

Wov wov wov, going a bit far there, this is the 1st time I've seen this tactic of his fail.

 

[Bevab]

The previous times he got away with luck, it is hardly a good tactic, too much risky. Why on earth would you want to take such a poor risk? Because its just a small unnecessary T20?

 

[SaiSrini]

Back to the positives from the game, Kohli batted as brilliantly as he has been batting in recent times. And the way they promoted him to open today and he delivered is a very significant signal that India can probably use Virat Kohli as opener in T20 matches, or probably even in ODI's. Kohli is a solid batsman who can hold his own even in challenging overseas conditions. And we have had our best ODI batsman in history, Sachin Tendulkar open the innings for India since time immemorial. Maybe Kohli can also be used as such an option in the future to come. He is also a guy who takes time to get set, but once he is set, the bowlers better start wet'ting their pants...

Also Yuvraj's few strokes were as breathtaking as when he played in his prime. Those strokes reminded us of his vintage form. He needs more games to get into his groove. Today he was running slowly most of the time, but with more game time under his belt, he should return back to his yore days. I won't be surprised to see Yuvraj snatch Raina's place in the test side soon.

Irfan and Balaji bowled well today. Especially Irfan was excellent with his variations. Balaji for his first game performed decently well. Ashwin was highly off color today and that cost us the match.

P.s: Liked the comment from Manjrekar when he said "Its a co-incidence that India's No.4 always get this kind of a rousing reception from the crowd when they enter in to bat. First it was Tendulkar, now its Yuvraj". Today Yuvraj must have felt as if he was playing at Mohali. Such huge roar of emotional support for him. For a moment, my hairs stood on its end when I saw him entering the field.

 

[icyman]

Another thing- Rohit Sharma's presence was it justified ? Again, when we needed 5 runs off the last two, was it right in sending him to bat ?

 

[SaiSrini]

Another thing- Rohit Sharma's presence was it justified ? Again, when we needed 5 runs off the last two, was it right in sending him to bat ?

Not much difference between Rohit Sharma and Manoj Tiwary when it comes to clinching the game for India in the final over. Both haven't done it for India in ODI or T20 cricket. They have done it for their IPL teams though, but both of them have done it (Rohit Sharma with that last ball six in the IPL; and Tiwary with that final over win this year to win KKR the title).

Both Rohit and Tiwary were wasted today. We could have played Harbhajan in place of either one. Harbhajan can bat more than decent in ODI and T20 cricket and that too in the subcontinent.

 

[badvintage]

A thriller game to watch, I thought it was India's game when they got two quick wickets but McCullum is a beast, scoring 91 from 55 just amazing.

 

[Epic]

Another thing- Rohit Sharma's presence was it justified ? Again, when we needed 5 runs off the last two, was it right in sending him to bat ?

Should've sent in Irfan Pathan, better chance with him I think.

 

[SaiSrini]

Really would like to know why Zaheer Khan is being wasted in T20's. As one writer aptly put it today after the loss today, Zaheer was not part of the team which won the T20 World Cup in 2007. When did he become so indispensable as far as our T20 plans are concerned? When the aim is to preserve him for the South Africa tour of 2013 and beyond, he should not be picked for T20's at all. His batting and fielding have been nosediving consistently.

 

[sifter132]

Yeah, rather than blaming Dhoni, I believe both Oram and Franklin bowled really well. Yuvi scored most against other bowlers and he too struggled against these medium pacers. Virat I think didn't face them much.

Thank you! Everyone ramping on Dhoni is hilarious. Do you think he WANTS to have it come down to 13 off the last?? There's another team playing in the game, and they bowled quite well at the end.

I don't know about everytime but this time, its none other than Mr. Mahendra Dhoni to blame.

Yuvraj should hold his share of blame as well. Before Kohli got out, Yuvraj was 20 off 11 balls (India needing 48 off 40 after Kohli's wicket). But then for the next 32 balls, Yuvraj scored only 8 off 11, Dhoni 17 off 21. BOTH batsmen were not doing the job. You can say Dhoni had more strike and should have scored more. Fair enough. But I can reply and say that Yuvraj was the established batsman and should have been doing more as well, either to keep the strike or by scoring better off the balls he faced.

The fact that Yuvraj hit that 6 with 20 required off 8 makes his case better, but by that time India was behind. And then Yuvi's ugly swipe in the last over kind of cancels that out anyway.

Another thing- Rohit Sharma's presence was it justified ? Again, when we needed 5 runs off the last two, was it right in sending him to bat ?

If that first shot of Rohit's went a little wider, it's a match winner.

If you don't trust your batsman in that instance, he might as well not be playing. What a crushing message that would have been to Rohit if Irfan had gone instead. It would have basically said 'we dont believe in you'. The young man needs confidence and postivity, not people trying to tear him down.

 

[Epic]

I see what you're saying, but Irfan Pathan is like our Albie Morkel, a 'hitter'.

 

[SaiSrini]

Yuvraj should hold his share of blame as well. Before Kohli got out, Yuvraj was 20 off 11 balls (India needing 48 off 40 after Kohli's wicket). But then for the next 32 balls, Yuvraj scored only 8 off 11, Dhoni 17 off 21. BOTH batsmen were not doing the job. You can say Dhoni had more strike and should have scored more. Fair enough. But I can reply and say that Yuvraj was the established batsman and should have been doing more as well, either to keep the strike or by scoring better off the balls he faced.

The fact that Yuvraj hit that 6 with 20 required off 8 makes his case better, but by that time India was behind. And then Yuvi's ugly swipe in the last over kind of cancels that out anyway.


If that first shot of Rohit's went a little wider, it's a match winner.

If you don't trust your batsman in that instance, he might as well not be playing. What a crushing message that would have been to Rohit if Irfan had gone instead. It would have basically said 'we dont believe in you'. The young man needs confidence and postivity, not people trying to tear him down.

On that Yuvraj argument - he will be cut a lot of slack initially in his comeback trail. He is having a huge wave of sympathy and goodwill riding behind him for the way he has come back from that rare 'germ cell cancer' thing.

On the Rohit argument - I agree with you. Sending in Irfan when you have Rohit or Manoj would be gross injustice to them no matter what form they are in. Both are capable of putting in the big hits. Rohit almost won the game for us. If he had given a tiny bit more power on that final shot, it might have beaten the fielder. Even the ball before that comes under that same category. We just left it too late and NZ cashed into it by bowling some excellent tight overs (thru Franklin and Oram).

----------

I see what you're saying, but Irfan Pathan is like our Albie Morkel, a 'hitter'.

Irfan is not Albie. Irfan is a different kettle of fish. He is a better batsman than Albie, albeit not a better 'hitter'.

 

[Chewie]

Didn't think I'd see "franklin" and "bowled well" in the same sentence ever again.

 

[Aalay]

Didn't think I'd see "franklin" and "bowled well" in the same sentence ever again.

I was really surprised that Ross Taylor gave Frankin a chance at almost the end of the innings. I know he has been kind of hit or miss player for NZ but I think that was kind of an ideal pitch for him. Ball did not come on the bat easily and he picked that up pretty quickly. Oram did bowl at the start but I guess it was the new ball so it was coming very nicely onto the bat but as the ball got older, it started to be difficult for batsman to pick it up. Franklin bowled very well but Dhoni did slow us down after he came to bat. He got his tactics wrong for the first time otherwise he usually finishes it off in style but this time he got it wrong.