India in South Africa

[borncricketer]

WOW this is fun sreesath hits a 4 and Ntini looses his cool and says stuff to sreesath, perhaps saying if the light's soo bad how did u play that

Umpires talking to the 2 players, if they do get the light i am sure all the SA fans and the team it self will be sooo mad

OH NOOO Nel gets ZAK....wuts happening, wherez this bad light

 

[aussie_ben91]

Well SA got their man. The crowd was beginning to get rowdy at India aswell. Things could get hostile if India keep this up and the umpires call for light.

 

[borncricketer]

there it goes, sreesanth feels that he didnt hit that

:@:@ replays show that it hit his shirt yet another bad decisions, so 2 bad decisions this innings

SA win it, level the series 1 all. And thats yet another horrible score card to look at, as Ravi Shastri said "This win has set up the series beauifully, 1 win for India 1 win for South Africa"

Well now let the criticizm start
I think that we could have saved this test match if the top order played like the lower order did, take their time in the middle, get behind every ball, forgeting about the runs and just trying to spend time in the middle and Dhoni did this well and at one point he was 2 of 35 with a strike rate of 5. and then he started getting the runs and reached to 47 of 67(its a different story that he gave it away and lost his concentration at the end). So if everyone played like that i think we could have saved this test match.

The other thing that i dont understand is that how come the TOP order always fails and the lower order is always able to score most of the runs. Happened in this innings and it happened in the 1st innings, and it also happedned in the South African innnings. Is it just because the lower order doesnt care and jus plays but the top has many things to think about and have too much pressure on them, or is it just that the top order faces the new ball but the lower order faces a ball thats about 30 overs old and doesnt do as much?

 

[manee]

No critisism needed, India batted poor in the middle order, the tail batted well and showed fight. Dhoni batting supurbly as usual, Tendulkar once again bottling it in a big situation.

All level for the next match which is bound to be another cracker.

 

[surendar]

No critisism needed, India batted poor in the middle order, the tail batted well and showed fight. Dhoni batting supurbly as usual, Tendulkar once again bottling it in a big situation.

All level for the next match which is bound to be another cracker.

Even in the first innings, where he got splendid 60+ is also an big situation. But poor Sachin though to be dismissed in that manner today

I mentioned before, " Jaffer,Laxman and Dravid with support of Sachin n Sourav " are needed today but they failed.

As Shastri told, the match is beautifully placed with 1-1 Something has to be done to trigger Sehwag or someone has to teach him how to dance on the crease

With Munaf replacing VRV, it wud strengthen our bowling attack. But still Dravid and Sehwag are yet to come from their shells. I am missing Dravid's huge innings very much!

 

[manee]

Yes he has a massive average of 58, hopefully he will start showing it.

As for Tendulkar, that was his first international test fifty of the year in the first innings, and frankly in these past few years he has not been scoring high enough in test cricket for the class that he is.

 

[aussie_ben91]

I think Sehwag is troubled by a moving ball, swing or cut. He has no foot movement whatsoever and in that last innings of his he tried to get forward to the ball but really was just to slow to it and they even showed a replay where the ball was past him before he planted his front foot. I'm baffled as to how he got an average over 50 whilst opening the batting.

 

[manee]

Sehwag seems to be able to predict the line of the ball from where the ball pitches hence when it moves a tiny bit he edges it but when it doesn't - four runs!

On flat west indian pitches in the world cup he is going to be a beast, but now, he needs to etch out runs since these are hard conditions even for great batsman like Dravid and AB De Villiars (only SA name I could think of )

 

[RoboRocks]

I think Sehwag is troubled by a moving ball, swing or cut. He has no foot movement whatsoever and in that last innings of his he tried to get forward to the ball but really was just to slow to it and they even showed a replay where the ball was past him before he planted his front foot. I'm baffled as to how he got an average over 50 whilst opening the batting.

He has been playing mostly on dead pitches in India and Pakistan where you can just hit through the line.
When conditions are right for the seamers as you said he is troubled by the moving ball.
He should learn to see off the new ball before playing big booming strokes or he will continue to have low scores.

 

[aussie_ben91]

I don't know about predicting the line of the ball. I'm not quite sure anyone can predict where the bowler is going to bowl it all of the time.

Even on flat tracks, the ball is usually going to swing straight up. Maybe the Indians should open with Dravid, shift Tendulkar up to 3 & put Sehwag at 4?

 

[manee]

I don't know about predicting the line of the ball. I'm not quite sure anyone can predict where the bowler is going to bowl it all of the time.

Horribly phrased by me, I meant he can play through the line well.

Even on flat tracks, the ball is usually going to swing straight up. Maybe the Indians should open with Dravid, shift Tendulkar up to 3 & put Sehwag at 4?

Sehwag opens to get off to a quick start (like Hayden) and the new ball is hard and so if Sehwag edges one (which he does often) it will go fast.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Hmmm, I dunno, I don't think it matters if you get off to a quick start in a test-match. The main job of an opening batsman should be to see off the new ball and Sehwag's confindence is down and it even made him resort to play a forward defence shot and he knicked one to Graeme Smith.

One a side note, Hayden doesn't open to get off to a quick start. Quite oftenly in late times you'll see Langer get out at about 30-40 odd and Hayden will be on about 10 and then Ponting will come in and overtake him. In the second innings though, he might open the shoulders and play confindently if Australia are firmly in control but generally he'll have a look and play himself in. If we wanted a Sehwag like start we'd open with Gilchrist or Symonds.

 

[surendar]

Even on flat tracks, the ball is usually going to swing straight up. Maybe the Indians should open with Dravid, shift Tendulkar up to 3 & put Sehwag at 4?

no mate, Tendulkar is also a kind of player who finds himself comfortable when the shine is taken off from it... Thats the main reason we are still hoping on Sehwag... Sehwag has the tendency to take the shine off while Jaffer can spend time.... but its not clicking for us atm....

Dravid is very solid in no3 in both ODIs as well as in Tests.. thats y he's been rightly called as Mr.Dependable. But making him to open wud become a huge gamble.

The current batting line up is good.. what i feel is, its only a tough testing time for us atm... If Sehwag starts dancing, then whoever its is, Pollock or Nel or Ntini, shd keep their hands on their heads... lol i knw its a very optimisitic view on Sehwag But still.. expectations are alway high!

 

[manee]

One a side note, Hayden doesn't open to get off to a quick start. Quite oftenly in late times you'll see Langer get out at about 30-40 odd and Hayden will be on about 10 and then Ponting will come in and overtake him. In the second innings though, he might open the shoulders and play confindently if Australia are firmly in control but generally he'll have a look and play himself in. If we wanted a Sehwag like start we'd open with Gilchrist or Symonds.

If you wanted a Sehwag start, you'd open with Mcgrath

 

[aussie_ben91]

I don't see how Dravid opening would be a risk. His got a great techinque and has got all of the credentials to be one of the best openers in the world.