Australia's Tour Of India - 2008

[Yogy]

He has captained the team for just 3 test matches!

That is more than enough. He got a hattrick wins straight away.

 

[tassietiger]

I'm not taking anything away from his performance. But giving the man of the match to a player from a team who lost the game pretty convincingly doesn't make a lot of sense. I guess him being a debutant justified it a bit.

Other candidates were Tendulkar (for getting a century when Australia picked up quick wickets in the first session of the match), Sehwag for dominating the bowlers with 2 fifties, Dhoni for two well-timed half-centuries and leading well (for the most part) and even Bhajji for a really helpful 50 and getting important wickets today.

Krezja kept us in the match. Mishra should probably have gotten it for putting us out of the match by running out Ponting. He was our one real chance and he screwed it up with a stupid run on who he thought was a weak fielder.

 

[RoboRocks]

I think if you take 12 wickets in your debut test, then you deserve man of the match regardless of whether he's on the winning team or not. Although Harbhajan made a 50 and took 7 wickets.

 

[SciD]

Thank you Greg Chappel for giving Aussies tips on how to play in India.

 

[nikhil_99]

Congrats India on winning 2-0,it was a good gesture that Dhoni allowed Kumble to come forward and share trophy.

nikhil_99 added 1 Minutes and 34 Seconds later...

Thank you Greg Chappel for giving Aussies tips on how to play in India.

Ya i was going to say that,but somehow forgot to thanks Greg Chappel,he actually wanted to give back to Indian team,but instead he once again was proved wrong.

 

[SciD]

What did Kumble do for that. Honestly the two wins came under Dhoni and we almost lost both Delhi and Banglore test matches.

scion_sid added 0 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

Ya i was going to say that,but somehow forgot to thanks Greg Chappel,he actually wanted to give back to Indian team,but instead he once again was proved wrong.

This was his way of Thanking India.

 

[.Mob]

What did Kumble do for that. Honestly the two wins came under Dhoni and we almost lost both Delhi and Banglore test matches.

Exactly what I was thinking. To all the people who supported Kumble: do you honestly think we would have won this series if he had been captaining in all the matches?

 

[Leggie]

Yes! We won!!! Ok I'm a bit late but I just got back from school...

This proves we can beat anyone in the world

 

[Arunava]

ya agree with you but i think we shouldn't talk about kumble's captaincy now, we won and great players bid adieu to the game with immense respect that they always deserved . thanks to them for serving india for more than a decade

 

[cricketfrantic]

Congratulations to India and commiseration to Australia.

It has been a great series. India comprehensively defeated the World Champions Australia and were the deserving winners. 2-0 result fairly reflected that as has been admitted by the Ricky Ponting captain of Australia. There is no doubt though that the series has been a heart fought involving all the emotions and drama that we are used to now between these Two Cricketing Giants.

Both India & Australia now head to play england and newzealand respectively on their home turfs.
Australia will certainly make mends to make sure their stay at the top extend though they surely have been stripped of their Undisputed Champions tag.

India on the other hand buoyed by this triumph take on the resurgent england team under the inspiring captaincy of Kevin Pieterson to keep their winning momentum going. For India to star a new world order they have to guard against the complacency which usually creeps into their game and maintain consistency.

Thanks to Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble for the wonderful memories and their contributions to Indian Team for taking India thus far.

 

[SaiSrini]

Congratulations to India for winning the match and series.

Ganguly has retired in a fitting end. And his place in the team will probably be taken by Yuvraj Singh.

Maybe Gambhir will come back in Ganguly's place with M Vijay retaining his place. He has been great in this match with his batting and fielding. He seems a better close in fielder than Gambhir.

saisrini80 added 1 Minutes and 12 Seconds later...

Badrinath should be the man that gets in, but I imagine it'll be Murali Vijay considering he took his chance pretty well. I'd say that Badrinath should be the next guy in the hot seat, he's got a tremendous FC record, and I'm amazed he's not been given a chance in the side as of yet. Get him in, he's like an Indian version of Dave Hussey or Owais Shah.

Agree. Badri is also in with a good shot, but I feel M Vijay could be persisted with. He has a very sound technique and has the potential to succeed even in tough conditions abroad. And he is a brilliant fielder too!

saisrini80 added 1 Minutes and 18 Seconds later...

India has not lost a single test match under Dhoni's captaincy.

Ganguly was a good captain, but he also had big slices of luck. Same with Dhoni, who is a good captain and is also helped by luck. As Dada said "Captaincy is about a lot of luck and Dhoni seems to be blessed with it". And as they say, fortune favors the brave

saisrini80 added 1 Minutes and 25 Seconds later...

Thank you Greg Chappel for giving Aussies tips on how to play in India.

Wonder what greg's reaction was to Ganguly's retirement??

but i would say that after greg went, his policies bore fruit for india (the youth brigade slowly got the results). its just that he is a big chunk of bad omen with the team that he stays.

saisrini80 added 4 Minutes and 12 Seconds later...

Congratulations to India and commiseration to Australia.

Both India & Australia now head to play england and newzealand respectively on their home turfs.
Australia will certainly make mends to make sure their stay at the top extend though they surely have been stripped of their Undisputed Champions tag.

India on the other hand buoyed by this triumph take on the resurgent england team under the inspiring captaincy of Kevin Pieterson to keep their winning momentum going. For India to star a new world order they have to guard against the complacency which usually creeps into their game and maintain consistency.

Poor New Zealand might have to bear Australia's burning desire to prove to the world that they are still the best. I think NZ will be thumped badly, and Lee is going to be the wrecker-in-chief. And I think next time when Lee comes to India, he will come a better bowler. This was his first series, and he clearly looked so out of shape. Its just so much fun when we play Australia.

And on Ganguly, I honestly had tears when Dhoni gave him the captaincy for a few overs. When Ganguly was seen marshalling his resources, he brought back memories of those heydays (India-Australia 2001, WC 2003, India-Australia 2003-04). Very well done MSD. Thats a big slap on the faces of those who said you dont respect your seniors. He carried Kumble on his shoulders after Delhi, and now this gesture.

 

[sifter132]

Exactly what I was thinking. To all the people who supported Kumble: do you honestly think we would have won this series if he had been captaining in all the matches?

Yes I do. Dhoni is a good captain, but he is not THAT much better than Kumble. It might only have been 1-0 though, dunno.

People really need to stop overrating captaincy. The media fawned over Stephen Fleming's captaincy, yet where did he ever take New Zealand?? TO a couple of world cup semi finals. Their test cricket was always pretty poor.

No, cricket is about the battle between batsman and bowler, sure captains can influence a game but Australia isn't going into a game thinking geez, we better watch for Dhoni's captaincy!! No they are thinking about Mishra's variations, or Ishant and Zaheer's reverse or how to get out Laxman once he gets past 20 or 30...

 

[irottev]

Poor New Zealand might have to bear Australia's burning desire to prove to the world that they are still the best. I think NZ will be thumped badly, and Lee is going to be the wrecker-in-chief. And I think next time when Lee comes to India, he will come a better bowler. This was his first series, and he clearly looked so out of shape. Its just so much fun when we play Australia.

That's always the danger. Australia will come back stronger then they normally would since they lost. Most of the Aussie batsmen should still be high on confidence since they all made scores at some point, same with the bowlers (who will enjoy bowling at home) so it's not such a great thing for us that the Aussies won.

In saying that, we of course have a chance. If you compare our side to Australia, we're lacking players such as Matthew Hayden but advantages we hold over Australia is a much better wicket keeper, a world class spinner (Some may say Aussies found Krejza but he's had 1 game on a spinning wicket, he won't be so great in Australia. Our side's just been in Bangladesh facing spinners for 3/4 of the overs so they should be good at it by now) and a bunch of new players the Aussies don't know a lot about - O'Brien, Elliot, Ryder, Redmond etc.

I'm concerned about our ability on fast wickets against pace and bounce since Johnson and Lee are pretty quick. I'm also concerned about our top-order batting but i've been concerned about that for a few years now.

I don't think we'll get thrashed as bad as everyone thinks. This is the weakest Aussie side in probably a decade so if we ever had a chance it's gotta be now.

 

[sohum]

Krezja kept us in the match. Mishra should probably have gotten it for putting us out of the match by running out Ponting. He was our one real chance and he screwed it up with a stupid run on who he thought was a weak fielder.

He kept you in the match as much as he kept you out of it, though. The runs he gave away came far too easily. And as already mentioned, more than a few of his dismissals came because of complacency.

If the match had been closer (within 75-80 runs of the target) then I would have given it to Krejza undoubtedly. But leaking that many runs in Test cricket that quickly is not good enough for a MoM in my book.

sohum added 3 Minutes and 31 Seconds later...

No, cricket is about the battle between batsman and bowler, sure captains can influence a game but Australia isn't going into a game thinking geez, we better watch for Dhoni's captaincy!! No they are thinking about Mishra's variations, or Ishant and Zaheer's reverse or how to get out Laxman once he gets past 20 or 30...

You would have been right if Ponting didn't just lose a series because of very sub-par captaincy. Starting from team selections, to marshalling his bowlers to attacking and defending at the right times. The captain's role is also very important from a mental point of view. Good captains get the best out of their players.

 

[McLOVIN]

Poor OZ they lost. its only because lack of experience. And i sow lot of ppl bash bangladesh cricket board from bringing in new young players. but looks like thats ALMOST the right thing to do, but doing it like BCCI way is perfect.

OZ played all the OLD & EXPERIENCED players all their life, didnt let any new players come in. now old players are leaving and the team is gona be full of new guys pretty soon. and they would pretty much suck against good teams.

After India lost to Bangladesh in WC07, they never had to look back again, they dropped those "Experienced" players, who sucks, their bat/ball isnt talking. didnt keep them in the team just because they are legend, and let the new kids come in to gain some experience.
doing it like BCCI is the right thing.

and Now India is a great balanced team with legends and pretty experienced new kids...and OZ's time up (?) India the new super power (?)