I just had to log in to check this thread coz i knew it would be a nice timepass. :P
First let me clear my self, I am one of those people who support underdogs and love to see them knocking some big names. We all love all time greatest fictious underdog "ROCKY", the senegal upsetting france in WC,zim beating aus in T20 etc.....
But i am a Indian fan too thus in this match i wont be rooting for Bengal Tigers to win. But i would still like to see them putting up a fight and force India to earn this victory/draw. An boy i am impressed by what i have seen thus far.
To Indian Fans: Rather than defending Sehwag and co, simply accept that they flipped up in this innings. Had sehwag been doing as much practise as he would have done for his english for press conferences then he might have played a better.
(just a joke guys dont flame me
). All the Indian batsman played poor shots rather than unplayable deliveries. Here is my review of dismissals of top order:
Sehwag: There is a fielder in cover. Firstly you shouldnt be cover driving if there is a fielder there and secondly if you do play there then you dont play it in the air, you play it along the ground. Had the shot been along the ground, was he expecting the ball to go through the legs of fielder.??
Gambhir: Hesitant cut on a wide delivery. You either play a full blodded cut/slash, cut along the ground or you leave it. If you a nowhere shot between any of these three shots you would be in trouble. That is what gambhir did. He wa niether keeping it on the ground nor in the air
Dravid the wall. WTF was that dravid. You were supposed to play by rotating strike and build the innings. Leave the striking the unthinkable fours and sixes to the more capable man(read Sachin). It was a full yorker on the off stump. Should have been defended or played straight back to bowler, could be played through cover. Anywher except square leg or mid on. Even if you wanna play a drive through mid-on on a off stumpish ball, you should move across the stumps first to cover the line then you play. ITs the basics mr dravid the wall. Even a club level player like me knows that.:doh
Yuvi yuvi yuvi, the king of fail
I guess less i say better it would be. Even i can get him out with my extremely fast deliveries at 25MPH
. So it wasnt a surprise to see him getting out in that fashion. We are just tired yuvi. Murali Vijay is an amazing player and you are holding his place. Dont take your place for granted as thee is another kid on the block besides vijay. That is Kohli. I would be tempted to give even raina a chance in tests as his defense and game against spinners is far more superior than that of Yuvraj.
Karthik: He played the same shot couple of times in ODIs but got away. Wide ball,rash shot, just clearing fielder for four and commentators applauded him for great placement. Had they bashed him for played such a bad shot then he might not tried it today. Similar shot but Sakib got his man on the right place this time.
Laxman: Didnt saw his dismissal,(was busy playing L4d2 with my friends
). I read on cricinfo that he wa unlucky to got out so i cant comment on this one.
Tail:Amit and Zaheer tried their best, Hell they played more balls that some of top order batsmen
. Couldnt have asked for a better performance from them.
AS you can see, all of the batsman got out to pretty ordinary balls. I dont wanna take anything away from Bengal tiger's performance. Thye were brilliant in the field, were bowling with a lot of heart and the field placings from sakib were great.(except the fact that he used two fielders on the deep square and deep fine leg when india were down on the mat. Sachin would never pull if there are 2 fielders to catch it. They should have them at square leg and short fine leg but a few yards outside the circle. That would tempt the sachin to go for pull.)
So summary is, Sehwag-Gambhir-yuvi-wall-karthik played worse shots rather than the ball being unplayable. If amit mishra can play out 42 balls then there are surely no demons in the pitch.
To Bengal tigers and Other fans(underdog fans :P):
IT aint over untill it is over. Tomorrow morning, first hour would be crucial period for this match. If they can get Sachin out then they are in with a chance but if master doesnt get out then things would turn out to be bad for Bengal Tigers. Remember 2004 series?? when sachin scored 248notout against bangladesh, he had a partnership of over hundred run for last wicket with zaheer who scored 75
in that match. So anything is possible in this match.
Personally i want people,media etc flame sehwag as much as possible in next 24 hours. Coz i wanna to see him angry. Everyone knows what a angry Sehwag capable of:banana2 . He is not one of those who would eat his words back. He would be feeling utterly humiliated. Thats why Sachin was at the post stumps press conference. Media would have bombed sehwag. So he would be on a mission in second innings. He would be trying to correct it. Concentrated sehwag+ Angry Sehwag = Bowlers Murder
India cannot loose this match. Why?
Wall is only vulnerable as long as it had to score runs. ?If you tell dravid to just stay on the crease and play out the whole day. Boy he would do that with eyes closed. Thats is flipping natural game :P
Add a defensive gambhir to that and you got a drawn match.
