England in India

[aditya123]

Sachin will truely be back and silence his critics.

He went through a similar lean patch i 2002 getting scores of 2,0,2,4, against the Windies in the caribbean and failed in the first test against England at Lords and all this crap we`re seeing now was spokn then as well .
The great man came back with superb scores of 93(Trent Bridge -- saved the game),193(a matchwinning knock at Leeds), 55 at the Oval and silenced the critic.
Now do not bring the argumnt that Dravid scored runs in the series as well because Iam not at any point comparing the 2 greats.

Sachin was and will remain a legend and Dravid will as well !
We are privileged to have 2 of the finest batsmen of our era in the same side.

Iam pissed of by the comments that `If Ganguly was dropped, so should Sachin` !
My reply, Ganguly`s last hundred came in Dec 2003 -- a good 3 years have passed but Tendulkar`s last century has come just a series or two ago.
He has hit a lean patch which most people will have in a career spanning 17 years.
Tendulkar has scored 10,000+ runs , 74 Intl. hundreds and Ganguly just has a decent avg of 40 with 5000 runs in trest cricket.
Tendulkar has been in sparkling form in the ODIs in Pakistan after a quiet test series and he will sort his problems out soon.
Booing such a great player can never be justified as a right thing.


Even Dravid has gone through such patches early in his career and will at some point in the future.
Will you guys talk about dropping him if he fails for 2 series in a row ?
I will say that give him another series and reassess after that.
He is a sort of player who will bow out himself when he feels he is finished.

Dravid has hit a purple patch and is in sublime form but that does not mak Tendulkar a bad player. Stop comparing 2 great men. It is not fair to either of them.

Coming back to this game, I expect Dravid and Yuvraj along with Dhoni and Pathan to get us out of this mess.

 

[prarara]

[prarararant]
My GAWD what is Tendulkar doing? Does he think he can just sit by and not produce? He needs to start scoring again...idiot!*[/prarararant]

*these claims are in no way representative of prarara or his or her affiliations.

I believe in Tendulkar, but I only hope that the team management can stick with him.

 

[m_vaughan]

Well I think we should leave Tendulkar alone. Maybe it is his end, maybe its not. Only time will tell.

But one thing is certain. Rahul Dravid is India's most reliable and consistent player in the past few years. No one comes anywhere near him during that period.

 

[varunvgiri]

Only one lean period in a career spanning 17 years is amazing. Just coz dravid or Ponting is in better form, you cant say they are better than him. They have and will defenitely go through lean periods in their careers too.

Brian Lara was also in terrible form during this age period(31-34) but came back to terrific form which included scoring that superb 400*.

So it is by no means the end of Tendulkar.I'm sure he will hit excellent form soon..

 

[sohum]

I think the Indian fans need to calm down a bit. Going by the flight of suggestions here, we will become the Pakistan team of the previous decade--where a different team comprised every game! (exaggeration, of course) Hasty decisions do not need to be taken. I think most of this is generated by the fact that England have taken the first 2 days of this test match.

I don't think that should be so worrying, because you need to play good cricket for 5 days to win a test match--and there's still 3 days to go. So... calm down and watch the cricket.

 

[RoboRocks]

Yeah, India have batting to come.
Dhoni, Pathan, Kumble, Harbajan
all can bat.
Partnerships can get them back into this test.

 

[newzolt]

The match is currently tilted in England's favour.Indian tail has again been overburdened with the batting expectations.....England have a chance to level the series but getting Indians out twice in the hot and humid conditions will be a test for them.
Flintoff needs to be complimented from the way he handled his bowlers.
Dravid has room for improvement in this respect.
Anyways may the team which plays better win this game.It looks like the match will last the full 5 days and some interesting moments might be in store especially monty and udal on 5th day!

 

[SaiSrini]

Good partnership from Yuvraj and Dravid. They are settled in and looking very good. Both have to stay around for a very long time for India to come back in this match! 311 is a huge lead. But India are not out of the match!

Sachin fails yet again?? He is under immense pressure here! Nothing seems going right for him. But these failures doesnt make a less best batsman in the world. He is still one of the top batsmen in the world. I think he will come back soon! Sehwag is different. His attitude is questionable at times. But not Sachin.

I feel Sachin has to take the bull by its horn and get back to his natural attacking game that made him the best batsman in the world. He is very good only when he is attacking! He has attack!

The match is currently tilted in England's favour.Indian tail has again been overburdened with the batting expectations.....England have a chance to level the series but getting Indians out twice in the hot and humid conditions will be a test for them.
Flintoff needs to be complimented from the way he handled his bowlers.
Dravid has room for improvement in this respect.
Anyways may the team which plays better win this game.It looks like the match will last the full 5 days and some interesting moments might be in store especially monty and udal on 5th day!

If Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan contribute well tomorrow,India can get really close to England's total and may be even overhaul it! Kumble can bat well, Harbhajan can bat and so India are not out of it yet. Our lower order has always been our savior

 

[Sureshot]

That I agree. But they were losing away tours quite badly long time ago. But the past few years, it has changed and the overseas record has improved quite well. Pakistan on the other hand were thrashed 3-0 in Australia where India last time drew them 1-1 which is a huge achievement.

Not many teams will beat Australia in Australia.

To be No 2 in the world (excuse the ICC rankings they don't work completely imo) you need a decent away record, even if it's only beating South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand away, like England have done.

India need to do it off the sub continent too.

Really interesting 18 months in Cricket though, everyone will agree.

Anderson called for running on the pitch. This is my worry with Anderson. He bowls great, he get's called for running on the pitch and then his action falls apart.

Line still as good after that.

Brian Lara is definetly NOT one of the three greatest batsmen in this era. He is so inconsistent and extremely easy to get out. There have been a lot of posts about Lara not being THAT great.

He is deteroriating a bit now, still a great of that era though, with Sachin, Dravid, Inzi, Ponting and Hayden.

Easy to get out?

400*
375

?

Did you guys hear the booing in the ground when Tendulkar was out? If that was absolutely disgraceful. It's not the way to treat such a great player who's going through a lean patch. I bet the fans will be cheering for him again and calling him God if he scores a 100 in the second innings.

In this series I have a sense of plastic fans in India, they go to watch a player, when he gets out, boom their off.

No offence meant to the lads on here, don't take it the wrong way.

Hoggys 2 wickets were ones that were supposed to be bouncers, now that's funny

 

[newzolt]

The fans in the sub continent do put a lot of pressure on their players.After all they should remember that it's only a game and that the players are also humans.They should try and enjoy the game and appreciate good cricket.

 

[Adarsh]

Re: Indian fans- That's not just this series, it happens every series.

 

[sohum]

Its just that most Indian fans have no patience and expect perfection. This is probably because cricket (along with kabbadi) is about the only sport we can play to a classy level in the world.

 

[newzolt]

Its just that most Indian fans have no patience and expect perfection. This is probably because cricket (along with kabbadi) is about the only sport we can play to a classy level in the world.

Exactly! and this just adds to the dissapointment.And if we go by the same logic we should also know that as kabbadi is to Indians cricket is to Brits who had developed this game!

Re: Indian fans- That's not just this series, it happens every series.

compare the present Indian team to the previous Indian teams and not many have fared better than the present one.The comparable ones include 83' world cup team and the team under Ganguly.
Also remember the fact that this team is presently in a transition phase and you'd be seeing the results in 2007 world cup.So the fans need to be patient and support the team in their good as well as not so good times.
Incidences like booing on the home ground just nullifies the home advantage..it may be for whatever reason..The recent eg. was against S.Africa at Eden Gardens.These things are just increasing the adverse conditions for the players.

 

[siddharth2002]

In this series I have a sense of plastic fans in India, they go to watch a player, when he gets out, boom their off.

No offence meant to the lads on here, don't take it the wrong way.

Hoggys 2 wickets were ones that were supposed to be bouncers, now that's funny

They don't boo someone straight-away especially at Mumbai which can die for Sachin any given day. They'd expect at least something, even a 10 off 10 balls would have earned him respect,but not the pussy like way of getting out.

 

[newzolt]

They don't boo someone straight-away especially at Mumbai which can die for Sachin any given day. They'd expect at least something, even a 10 off 10 balls would have earned him respect,but not the pussy like way of getting out.

Doesn't that sound a bit harsh on Sachin considering the situation of the match and he was just trying to set himself in.Let's not forget that this is a test match and you can't expect a new batsman at crease to take risks in the begining when there is no need to do so.If he gets going he always increases the rate of scoring in the later part of his innings and that is absolutely correct in a test match.
I am not defending his present performance but then we do not have a player to replace Sachin as yet.Do we?