India in South Africa

[ZexyZahid]

For whoever was waiting for the Fantasy Cricket game of the 3rd Test, look here: http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/fantasy-cricket.php?do=viewgame&id=121

And for such an importance match today, I would have dropped Sehwag. Good thing for India is that Patel is back. And good thing for South Africa is that Kallis is back. He has a batting average of 70 at his home ground.

 

[Cricket_god]

Sehwag can still bat but he's in one of those bad trots that every batsman goes through (except Hussey) but i'd suggets that he be moved into the middle order and away from the new ball until his form takes a turn for the better. You can't drop a player of Sehwag's class. Open with Dravid and Gambhir and both Sehwag and India will be better off.

There is no place for him in the middle order he has been one of the best openning batsman india has produced he has gone through such trots as he is a attacking player and attacks the new ball so they have to live with it and he has scored runs all over the world also no matter how good a batsman is time will come when he is sorted out.

 

[Adarsh]

India are doing pretty well at lunch. India 61/0 (28.0 ov)
Dinesh Karthik opening seems to have paid off. It's been a good start. Hopefully they'll start accelerating soon.

 

[aditya123]

125/0 now . 30 minutes to go for tea.
India need to start accelerating.
But I guess with Sehwag,Sachin,Dravid,Ganguly,Laxman to follow , we`ll be looking at some serious acceleration .
We may finally be looking at a big total for India to start 2007.

I`d be snding Sehwag at No.3 having got the big start.

 

[Adarsh]

Well, Karthik has gone. He played his part in the opening position though. It will be interesting to see what happens when Dhoni gets back! India should really accelerate now, with 9 wickets in hand. 400 should be the absolute minimum from here on. Hopefully, the score will be 500+.

 

[pal]

Karthik and Jaffer did an excellent job laying a solid foundation for India to work on, despite their slow run rate. Now, even if we have a mini-collapse going for the big shots, the effects won't be too bad. I hope Karthik's performance here justifies a position in the team for him, atleast in the tests.

 

[Adarsh]

If Sehwag fails here, then I think Dhoni would play as a specialist batsman. Question is - is he good enough, looking at all the other batsmen India have got, to play as a specialist batsman?

 

[ZoraxDoom]

DDK. DDK. What did I say?
Dinesh kaarthik over Dhoni! WHOOO!
Only for Tests though, but the second Dhoni hits a bad patch, I'm rooting for DDK in the ODI team
Dravid out to Pollock for 29. Caught behind fishing at a delivery. Very un-Dravid. Sachin in, India 20/2.
No, wait, that's 203/2!!


Did anyone else see DDK's dismissal? Not out at all, even Amla knew that! I'm sure Boucher knew, and he appealed anyways. Poor stuff from RSA, can't earn a wicket so try and grab one from somewhere...credits to Harris though, he seems a very good, tidy, little SLA bowler. Though why isn't Botha being given a chance?

 

[SaiSrini]

Wow. So far, the batting for India has been excellent. Yes, the run rate has been a little slow today, but we havent seen this type of batting for a long time.

Sachin has to accelerate from now on. We need a minimum of 400 on this wicket to have a chance of winning. I would go for 500 (and even more if we can score those runs faster). Dinesh Karthick has been a revelation this tour. Dhoni has some dangerous competition. I prefer Karthick ahead of Dhoni for the test matches. In the ODI's, Karthick can play if some one is injured!

Normally, when one area succeeds, the other fails. The batsmen are doing well here. Hope the bowlers dont fluff it up with an ordinary display here. We need to create history at Cape Town this time. We have to do it!

 

[aussie_ben91]

I don't see why India have to really accelerate, especially if you've got Sehwag coming in soon. They could bat on for the rest of tomorrow and for some time on the 3rd day, post 600-700 and bowl South Africa out twice.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Jaffer falls for 116. Good knock, Laxman in. Viru and Dada left.

Irfan watch: Baroda vs. UP, 2/108 in 22 overs. Economy of 4.9.
Kaif made 25, Chawla 11 and didn't bowl. Raina looked good in 72 off 165, with 2 sixes and 7 fours.

 

[Cricket_god]

i think the match is set up for shewag and dada to score fast hundreds and kumble and company to bowl india to a historic series win .i

 

[SaiSrini]

I think Sachin is due for a hundred tomorrow. The wicket is absolutely to his liking, and he should thrive in on this type of wicket!

I want Dada to score tomorrow and cash in on this wicket. If we can score 600, we can think of bowling SA out twice in this match. We have Kumble with Sehwag and Sachin as backups!

Jaffer has reposed the faith on him by the management. I wish he now tries and makes good contributions on wickets that have some life for the bowlers!

 

[borncricketer]

I think Sachin is due for a hundred tomorrow. The wicket is absolutely to his liking, and he should thrive in on this type of wicket!

thats exactly what i was thinking about, he looks in good nick and should be able to score a century, unless he gives it away with a stupid shot

Jaffer did well today and he showed that all the faith the team had in him was not useless.

Dhoni sitting out Karthik did well today, good to see that we have a good back up keeper, if Karthik wasnt in the team would Dravid keep?

Would be good to see Sehwag come tomorrow and may be score some quick runs and may be we could reach to 550+

On a lighter note: When Sachin Tendulkar was on 10, Jaffer was on 110: Tendulkar had 10600 Test runs and Jaffer had 1060.

something to celebrate about8-) :happy

 

[sohum]

Good batting display from the openers (finally, and about time). KKD and Jaffer showing Sehwag how its supposed to be done. Sehwag shouldn't lose hope though, because he did make his first century as a middle order batsman in South Africa, right? It's set up nicely for him to refresh his career and get a new life.

I liked this article on Cricinfo, especially the end. In the Sydney test that Australia managed to draw to hold on to 1-1 in 2003, India were 284/3 with Sachin and Laxman at the crease at the end of day 1. The story is almost identical here--hopefully we can win this one.