Group E - England, India, New Zealand, South Africa

[sohum]

When India outfield you by miles, you don't deserve the plane ride home. You should walk.

We've got at least three quality fielders in:
1. Gambhir -- very quick fielder
2. Karthik -- quick mover, brilliant catcher as long as it is difficult
3. Sharma -- brilliant fielder

Our only liability in the field is Sehwag because all our pace bowlers can get around the boundary line pretty quickly. In contrast, South Africa have AB De Villiers who is a brilliant fielder and then...? Phillander for one is easily the worst fielder of the two sides today. But apart from that there is no one really standing out.

I think without Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar this fielding team is far more mobile and just the tag "India" shouldn't be used to determine how they will field.

I know the Aussies will be laughing their heads off cause India shouldn't even be there, Pakistan will have money on themselves losing and the Kiwis have already overachieved. Believe me there is a sense of who gives a toss when playing any of these teams cause even if they do beat Australia no one can argue that it was just a fluke...the saffas are the only team who have the quality to argue that they could be better than Australia, but they are already out.

Man, you are really in a bubble. I wonder what logic it is that allows you to claim that India don't deserve to be there when they didn't (a) play any practice matches, (b) play against Scotland, (c) have only lost to new zealand and (d) thumped South Africa. And yet claim that South Africa deserve to be there. Oh well, hope there is enough oxygen up there.

And finally, this is another example of a curator's pitch backfiring on the home team. The Indian bowlers have showed time and again in the recent past (for example in the test matches in England and in the Ireland series, just to mention a few) that they can be dangerous in helpful conditions. No longer can you prepare a green, bouncy track and then relax and watch your players win the game for you against the Indian team.

 

[Helpman]

I find it a little bit ridiculous that South Africa lost one game and got knocked out of the tournament but I guess that’s just the nature of T20 cricket, hit and miss! I'm backing Australia to win this now. Heck, they win everything else.

 

[The_gas]

I'm glad India beat South Africa, i would much rather cheer on the Indian team than any south african one. I had a good laugh when i heard the result.

Great performance from RP Singh

 

[Leggie]

brilliant reuslt for india!. india have found a new talent in rohit sharma with his batting and fielding, RP sing bowled some beautys, karthik possibly took catch of the year and i never thought i'd say this, but INDIA outfielded south africa. the fielding was magnificent!

 

[harishankar]

I find it a little bit ridiculous that South Africa lost one game and got knocked out of the tournament but I guess that’s just the nature of T20 cricket, hit and miss! I'm backing Australia to win this now. Heck, they win everything else.

It's not ridiculous. If you noticed carefully, India also lost just one match in the tournament and by a much lesser margin too to NZ.

In fact in this super 8 group E three teams lost one match (except England which lost everything ), the one with the lowest NRR got knocked out.

SA didn't have to lose so badly, they could have still made it by losing, but they messed it up in the end and have themselves to blame for not even getting to 126.

India also didn't lose a single match in the group stages. They lost just the one match in the super 8 to NZ and that too by just 10 runs.

People saying that it's not fair that SA got knocked out is being unfair to India who performed quite well and in fact got better and better each game.

 

[Leggie]

In this group all three teams lost one match (except England which lost everything ), the one with the lowest NRR got knocked out.

SA didn't have to lose so badly, they could have still made it by losing, but they messed it up in the end and have themselves to blame for not even getting to 126.

India also didn't lose a single match in the group stages. They lost just the one match in the super 8 to NZ and that too by just 10 runs.

yeah they really needed to go after harbhajan and joginder, but full credit to bhajji and joggy, they bowled well in tight situations

 

[harishankar]

I still consider Joginder the weak link in the attack at the moment, but if he continues to develop his bouncer and slower ball (which he showed signs of using in this match against SA) he could be useful in conditions which are helpful to bowling.

On flatter pitches, he will go for a lot of runs since oppositions will keep targetting him. He just doesn't have the pace and unlike Ganguly doesn't seem capable of getting natural swing. He needs the conditions to suit his bowling and luckily it did at Durban.

 

[Leggie]

I still consider Joginder the weak link in the attack at the moment, but if he continues to develop his bouncer and slower ball (which he showed signs of using in this match against SA) he could be useful in conditions which are helpful to bowling.

On flatter pitches, he will go for a lot of runs since oppositions will keep targetting him. He just doesn't have the pace and unlike Ganguly doesn't seem capable of getting natural swing. He needs the conditions to suit his bowling and luckily it did at Durban.

yes but i don't think we need joginder in the side, we have yuvraj and viru, they are perfectly capable of fitting in a few overs, if he plays on saturday the aussies will murder him...

 

[harishankar]

I agree with you entirely. The Aussies will murder his kind of bowling and we cannot afford extra runs being given against them.

But it looks like Dhoni might stick to the "winning combination". I hope he doesn't. He's shown innovation and some out-of-the-box thinking as a captain so he should play the best side possible. Having both Yuvraj and DInesh Karthik would also strengthen the batting and some part-time spin is a better gamble than slow medium pace when Aussies are on the attack.

 

[Leggie]

and plus i don't think he offers that much with the bat, also yesterday the conditions were ideal for the seamers and joginder went for 6 an over, on a flat track he will go for at least 10 an over

 

[Will_NA]

http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/showpost.php?p=815280&postcount=49

http://stats.cricinfo.com/twenty20w...g_bowling.html?id=3115;team=1;type=tournament



This has to be the worst prediction ever! :laugh

 

[Leggie]

i find it quite amusing that england brought all these twenty20 specialists to this tournament such as kirtley, schofield and maddy. yet england didnt manage to get anywhere winning only one match against zimbabwe. then you have the likes of pakistan and india who have just brought a bunch of youngsters and have made it to the final, doesnt anyone find this the leas bit amusing?

 

[Will_NA]

i find it quite amusing that england brought all these twenty20 specialists to this tournament such as kirtley, schofield and maddy. yet england didnt manage to get anywhere winning only one match against zimbabwe. then you have the likes of pakistan and india who have just brought a bunch of youngsters and have made it to the final, doesnt anyone find this the leas bit amusing?

Yes, we did get close to winning actually against NZ and SA.We just threw it away. Dropped catches, poor last few overs with bat and ball. Snape bowled one over in one match, got dropped twice and then got dropped himself. Solanki did well and so did Maddy in getting us off to good starts.

So don't say we didn't get close to winning when all we needed to do was maintain it for 20 overs instead of 10-15.

 

[Sureshot]

We didn't have the energy, almost all our players had either had a full domestic/international season with perhaps Schofield playing the least cricket over the summer, granted India had a busy tour with us but they could call on fresh players. We looked like we lacked energy. I still don't think the tournament was as disastrous for England as everyone is making out. I think Schofield bowled well, I think Colly learnt alot as a captain and I was pleased with how Solanki played in his two games.

 

[irottev]

So thats your big excuse then? Maybe England just wern't good enough. I would have thought being so experienced in Twenty/20 you guys had the advantage.