South Africa's tour of India - October/December 2015

[stefan]

also I know it doesnt matter but would Steyn fully fit would have mattered in this series?

Ofc he would he is the best in the world and an all time great,philander would have made a difference as well would have meant we batted deeper then we did. But those are just excuses the bowlers didn't do badly its the batsman that let the team down.

Lol maybe if your board actually consult the visiting team and finalise a viable itenary instead of going ahead and unilaterally publishing one that the visiting board never agreed to in the first place ... such issues will not occur.

but since bcci is involved the other side Is always the victim ... like if a car hits a pedestrian it's always the car driver's fault.

Even if CSA didn't follow the proper protocals from a cricket fans perspective there was no reason for BCCI then refuse to play the newlands test, it was politics then. India have played the Newlands countless times they were just upset at CSA for publishing ahead of time and wanted to punish lorgat...

Two wrongs does not make a right as the saying goes...

 

[PokerAce]

Ofc he would he is the best in the world and an all time great,philander would have made a difference as well would have meant we batted deeper then we did. But those are just excuses the bowlers didn't do badly its the batsman that let the team down.



Even if CSA didn't follow the proper protocals from a cricket fans perspective there was no reason for BCCI then refuse to play the newlands test, it was politics then. India have played the Newlands countless times they were just upset at CSA for publishing ahead of time and wanted to punish lorgat...

Two wrongs does not make a right as the saying goes...

India did play at the Newlands on the previous tour ... so India had no issue with Newland and did play there on previous tours.

The point is they may not have wanted to extend the tour into the new year for conflict of scheduling hence didn't want to play in new year. The tour finished on Dec 29. India were leaving for NZ soon afterwards.

Now CSA assumed the Newlands test would be in new year and announced it unilaterally. Now bcci could not have the tour extend into the new year so the Newland test was not held.

now if you think this is bcci pushing it's weight around then I think that's a little unreasonable. Had there been earlier proper communication instead of unilateral announcement... and CSA realised that a third test would conflict with india's tour to NZ ... then the whole thing would not have happened.

 

[stefan]

India headline tour for that year the headline is always expected to play the New year Newlands test and the Boxing day test at Kingsmead/PE similiar to how the headliner tour in Aus is expected to play Boxing day at MCG and New years at sydney. Yes CSA screwed up in announcing it before agreeing with India but should have and should have expected that they would have needed to play those historic fixtures...It was all about politics imho.

 

[PokerAce]

I think Ind will not push for an early declaration. Ind will look to bat till after lunch. Kohli and rahane looking good for three figures scores ... also kohli and rahane looked quite comfortable and sa afterall may bat well ... they cant bat worse than first innings ... so no point putting them in too early ... pleased with kohli getting runs ... he had had a really poor run for a while.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

To be honest if this was the general noise after the Nagpur test ... no one would go overboard with the pitch sarcasm. However the general noise was quite different.

Also no one will say that the Nagpur pitch was the greatest ever ... but the home side has a right to prepare whatever pitches they want ... We have always believed that .... India have toured abroad and played on terrible pitches and mostly have had a go at the batsmen for failing never the pitch.

Gangly once had a go at the pitch in a tour and everyone told him to shut up and play ... both sides play on that surface so what is he on about. If they can perform on that pitch why can't India.[DOUBLEPOST=1449305458][/DOUBLEPOST]

Oh dear ... oh dear delete this post before some selector reads it and gets ideas

I think @PokerAce has hit the nail on the head. Now, I've highlighted two parts in bold.

1) Like I have been harping on, it is now a given that the home side can prepare whatever they want. I think this is a very bad precedent. You're right that general trends seem to suggest this but I believe that wickets should be slightly helpful to the home team, but the balance in recent times has been appalling.

2) The main reason for the 'sarcasm' from India fans is because when we tour, people make pitches that are very 'Nagpur' in their own way and we have actually not brought the pitch up. We've looked to improve. This is why India fans are so disgruntled with the criticism of the wickets.

Personally, like I said I'd like to see a moderate pitch slightly favoring the home team. But, there's no question India has had it's share of 'Nagpur' while touring, specially against England. I still feel, we don't need to be part of this mob mentality.

 

[namin96]

I think today was another example of why Kohli is just better than De Villiers. The ball reversing and Kohli was still scoring at a pretty fast rate compared to all our other batsman. Every shot he played was very orthodox and classical. He relies on just timing the ball and placing it whereas De Villiers clobbers the ball and he's really good at it. I'm not saying De Villiers is not that great, but when I hear most of these commentators going crazy when De Villiers comes to bat it makes me wonder why they are so obsessed with him.

 

[grkrama]

what a champ rahanae is turning out to be!

 

[Markkkkk]

I think today was another example of why Kohli is just better than De Villiers.

Stopped reading after this. Yes I'm not the biggest AB fan but he is the best batsmen in the world and Kolhi is barely in the same league...

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I think today was another example of why Kohli is just better than De Villiers. The ball reversing and Kohli was still scoring at a pretty fast rate compared to all our other batsman. Every shot he played was very orthodox and classical. He relies on just timing the ball and placing it whereas De Villiers clobbers the ball and he's really good at it. I'm not saying De Villiers is not that great, but when I hear most of these commentators going crazy when De Villiers comes to bat it makes me wonder why they are so obsessed with him.

If their careers end now, Kohli isn't on the same planet as de Villiers. For me, numbers don't matter much. I think AB is a very versatile batsman. He can defend and attack. de Villiers only clobbers the ball at the fag end of a limited overs contest, better than Kohli and he can time the ball just as well. You've probably not seen him bat.

He's a game changer and he has built an aura around him. His charisma is undeniable and he is the best batsman of this generation.

Amla needs to be positive. His block to survive is a matter of time.

 

[RUDI]

Well played Rahane & Morkel! Judging South Africa's current form in India.. this is a mammoth total to try and chase.. I'm not optimistic of South Africa reaching this total, that being said ; I hope some individual batsman can do well.. (For them psychologically to move on and put this series in the back of their minds..)

 

[grkrama]

this is one heck of a blockathon

 

[PokerAce]

Posting on mobile is hard and ideally I wud have liked to reply to so many posts but I will do a summary post.

Whoever said Kohli is better than ABD is wrong and so is the bloke who said Kohli and ABD are not in the same league. Kohli had a poor tour to england but has scored runs everywhere else including SA. No one has challenged the Aus bowling line up australia like kohli did on the previous tour scoring 4 hundreds on one tour. Whoever thinks kohli cant score like the best of them has been living under a rock. However right now abd is better.

I wud rate kohli behind williamson ... abd ... root ... but not behind anyone else ... and definitely in the too class there is.

Sa have shown excellent application so far ... but this test shud really be a matter of time.

 

[RUDI]

This must be one of longest , unappreciated 10 runs in test match cricket... hard fought Amla!

 

[greymatter776]

Too bad we don't have a yawn emoji,it would have been easy to post that rather than writing what I am feeling watching this test.But its good to watch if you are a patient guy.

 

[Ohm]

Not sure if test cricket or 'tuk tuk' cricket