Asia Cup 2014

[Lebanna]

Afridi just booked his place in the team for another 50 ODIs

Afridi deserves his spot in the team due to his bowling alone. Anything he does with the bat is a bonus nowadays.

 

[GlitchInTheMatrix]

Well, this was one of the greatest cricket matches i've ever seen.. Full of climax.

 

[asprin]

On current form, I wouldn't be surprised if Afghan beat India. Our batting isn't clicking (only individual performances instead of team effort), the less said about bowling the better, and the fielding (barring just the 3 guys on the field) is of pathetic level.

So that's THE 3 areas in which we are lacking at the moment and I really can't see how this team will improve.

 

[icyman]

Ashwin may be part of the problem, but then what about our seamers? The truth is the bowlers seem incapable of bowling a side out in either Test or ODI cricket at the moment.

I agree with you. Ashwin is a part of the problem. Not only is our spin department poor also our 'fast' bowling is horrible.

On current form; rather on our form since 2011, our bowling has been incapable of bowling out the opposition.

 

[Aalay]

A tight slap on the faces of people who thought Karthik would be able to replace Dhoni. That guy alone lost the Asia cup for us. He missed Sangakara's stumping when Sanga was on 31 and we lost that game and yesterday again, missed the stumping of Maqsood at a crucial time. Also had a brainfart every time he went out to bat. I am not gonna be too harsh on his batting because I know it's not good to judge him based on two games but his keeping is absolutely horrible. For god' sake how can you miss those stumpings when you are a regular keeper. He also dropped the catch of Nassir Hossain in the Bangladesh game but it did not cost us much because he got out quickly again but other 2 costed us the Asia Cup. As I said before, even though Dhoni is not a good test batsman overseas, he is still our best option because there is absolutely nobody right now in the domestic circuit who can match his keeping skills along with batting. Saying that I would really like to look at someone like Uday Kaul of Punjab who has a pretty good average in FC but I am not sure about his keeping because i haven't seen him keep.

Also it was good to see Mishra finally getting a chance and he proved that is he still good enough by bowling beautifully. Ashwin was decent but Mishra was much better than him in yesterday's game. If Ashwin is struggling with the form, I think Mishra should replace him straight away. I also think we just have found our bowling combination for T20 WC. Dhoni is likely to go with 3 spinners in Ashwin, Mishra and Jadeja and2 fast bowlers.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Thats the only reason im batting for ashwin, i wouldnt put him the same list as rohit or Ishant , they never delivered while this guy was pretty good in SC in a lot of matches atleast before entering this defensive mode, even after another 100 innnings both rohit and ishant will never change anything, whereas this guy is already trying to change stuff for better or worse, all im saying is he is not hopeless like rohit or ishant, based on current form he should be dropped given time off-field to get his stuff right, meanwhile a better spinner like ojha or mishra or rasool should be given chance.

I think you are right about not putting Ashwin in the same category as rohit/ishant. That was a bit harsh. But he is out of form and needs time off like you said

A tight slap on the faces of people who thought Karthik would be able to replace Dhoni. That guy alone lost the Asia cup for us.

So true. He made two critical errors, and those chances were "dollies" and should have been taken even at club level. Dhoni is difficult to replace in Tests (just as a keeper/batsman) and impossible to replace in ODIs

 

[icyman]

Agreed that KKD has missed and we probably lost cause of that. But that still does not take away the fact that our bowlers serve up dollies to the batsmen. When KKD joined the team initially, he had effected and displayed classic work behind the stumps. I still remember the stumping of Micheal Vaughan right before the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004 in England.

Back to the Asia Cup- SRL has cruised to yet another Final. Remains to be seen if they can cross the final hurdle this time round atleast or not. The only opportunity for India to remotely reach the finals is win with a bonus point versus the Afghans and hope for BD to thrash SRL & Pak.

 

[harishankar]

Agreed that KKD has missed and we probably lost cause of that. But that still does not take away the fact that our bowlers serve up dollies to the batsmen. When KKD joined the team initially, he had effected and displayed classic work behind the stumps. I still remember the stumping of Micheal Vaughan right before the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004 in England.

Back to the Asia Cup- SRL has cruised to yet another Final. Remains to be seen if they can cross the final hurdle this time round atleast or not. The only opportunity for India to remotely reach the finals is win with a bonus point versus the Afghans and hope for BD to thrash SRL & Pak.

So practically India are out of it. No comebacks here.

 

[Lebanna]

Back to the Asia Cup- SRL has cruised to yet another Final. Remains to be seen if they can cross the final hurdle this time round atleast or not. The only opportunity for India to remotely reach the finals is win with a bonus point versus the Afghans and hope for BD to thrash SRL & Pak.

Without being too picky, if you want India to Qualify you must get the bonus point as you said BUT you don't need BD to thrash SL. In fact it would be better if they lost to SL then they couldn't qualify ahead of you by accident!

Potential scenarios (all presuming Ind get the bonus point coz if they don't its a moot point)

BD beat Pak & SL with a bonus point in each match:
SL - 13 pts
BD - 10 pts
Pak - 9 pts
Ind - 9 pts
Afg - 4 pts

BD beat Pak & Sl with a bonus point in one match:
SL - 13 pts
BD - 9 pts
Ind - 9 pts
Pak - 9 pts
Afg - 4 pts

It will depend on RR which Italicised team goes through

BD beat Pak and SL with no bonus points
SL: 13 pts
Pak: 9 pts
Ind: 9 pts
BD: 8 pts
Afg: 4 pts

Pak go through because they beat Ind

BD beat Pak but lose to SL
SL - 17/18 pts
Pak - 9 pts
Ind - 9 pts
BD - 4/5 pts
Afg - 4 pts

Pak go through because they beat Ind

BD lose to Pak but beat SL
Pak - 13/14 pts
SL - 13 pts
Ind - 9 pts
BD - 4/5 pts
Afg - 4 pts

BD lose both matches
SL - 17/18 pts
Pak - 13/14 pts
Ind - 9 pts
Afg - 4 pts
BD - 0 pts

I think this is all the ways the teams can qualify. For Afg just swap Ind with Afg.

Key thing to note is that there is a 0.465 RR gap between Pak and Ind and a 1.165 RR gap between Pak and Afg.

TLDR: SL are through. Pak are through if Ind/Afg don't get a bonus point. They are also through if they get any points from the BD game.

 

[abhi_jacko]

^^If that covers all the scenarios, then India is definitely out. Because in all the cases that India and Pak tie for points, Pak will go through as they beat us. Right ?

 

[Lebanna]

^^If that covers all the scenarios, then India is definitely out. Because in all the cases that India and Pak tie for points, Pak will go through as they beat us. Right ?

Yup you're right I didn't notice that - going to edit the original post to reflect that!

 

[playkid12]

It is very simple, Ashwin is our specialist bowler while Jadeja is not. As a skipper, its worth to invest the trust on Ashwin & question him if he doesnt go well rather than gambling with Jadeja & letting him go. That's it, I really don't care what statsguru in cricinfo says.

Dhoni has said countless times that he views Jadeja as a specialist bowler that can also bat a bit. Also, I was at Ashwin's throat for quite some time now. However, you can't really blame him for those two sixes. The boundaries were really far in, and it's hard to contain as a spinner. That being said, Ashwin out, Mishra in - for now. Mishra looked way too good to be ignored. Jadeja should obviously be retained over Ashwin. I don't think many people will argue against that.

What annoys me is that although Bhuvaneshwar learns to keep it full at the death almost every match, he always starts bowling line and length at the death the next match until he gets tonked for 6ers and then realizes to keep it full.

Mohd. Shami as usual bowled his heart out. I'm glad India have at least discovered him. But they desperately need to try Aaron, Yadav, and Pandey as options.

 

[icyman]

India has only one chance to go through. BD needs to win both matches+ 1 bonus point. In case Bd gets 2 bonus points, India will be out.

If BD gets one bouns point, there is a 3-way tie between India ,Bd & Pak, in which case India goes through to the final.

 

[abhi_jacko]

In a 3 way tie between India, BD, Pak - Pak goes through since we lost to Pak

 

[aditya123]

In a 3 way tie between India, BD, Pak - Pak goes through since we lost to Pak

No, thats in case of a 2-way tie between Ind and Pak.