India tour of New Zealand - Jan to Feb 2014

[grkrama]

^ what about this seems to be around the 20$ mark
BLACKCAPS Priority Ticketing

 

[CG123]

Is cricket not popular in New Zealand? or is it only test cricket that people don't watch ... stadium was empty even on saturday and sunday and I think most of the people that were on the stadium were Indians .

(Reiterating what others have said)

There's just so much other sport on atm and coming up, with the Rugby and League seasons just around the corner. We had our annual soccer game at Eden Park last weekend and the inaugural League Nines is next weekend which is sold out.

The prices were a bit of problem, but like I said before I paid $50 for an adult match pass so NZC did give people the opportunity to get cheap tickets by buying a month in advance. $40 at the gate is pretty stupid though, considering they should be trying to get as many people through the gate as possible while the team is doing good to get people on board for the future.

On your last point no, there were more New Zealanders than Indians throughout the Test, however for the ODI at least half of the 30,000 were Indians. I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more Indians there, after the amount that turned out for the ODI.

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Hopefully we get a game half as good here in Wellington, was your match pass really $50?

$45 plus $5 in fees, they were only that cheap for a couple of days when they first came on sale though.

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Couple that with Aucklanders consistently being shit supporters of Test Cricket in NZ the crowd was about what could be expected. You'll get a great crowd at the Basin and I would dare say Auckland is probably in it's last throws as a test venue, but i've said that before. Shameless showing by cricket fans in Auckland, but that has plenty to do with the pricing just being a bit silly for test cricket in NZ...

Tbh the numbers will be about the same in Wellington, there have been some Tests in Napier and Dunedin over the years that Auckland haven't had Tests where they've got around 500 people in a day. It was definitely poor though, I was expecting 10,000ish on Waitangi day and the weekend.

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It wasn't really all that close. Our tail enders are notorious for their poor skills with the bat. Once Jadeja was out with more than 80 runs to get, it was going to be hard, hard work for Dhoni and Zaheer didn't really inspire confidence, even though he flailed the bat a few times to get boundaries.

In limited overs terms no, but 40 runs in a Test is very close, I would say that at most only 5% of games would be less than 50 runs/a couple of wickets.

 

[vaibhavtewatia]

The crowds at the Basin this week should be really good though.

The Basin Reserve looks beautiful even on the TV. Serene. My absolute favorite.

 

[scratch978]

Dhoni can be happy that they have not disgraced themselves even though they lost the test match. Overall their showing was good and in the end any team can win.
If not for a few unlucky decisions they might have even won the test match.
Hope they do well in the second test match.

 

[dwaynemarley]

Ashamed that Indian supporters can't take the fact that they were beaten by the better side on the day, and stop giving NZ the credit they deserve for a great performance after almost losing it. Boult, Southee and Wagner are up there with the best bowling attacks in the world, and the batting is beginning to look a lot better. There are still question marks over the openers and Sodhi, but I think Sodhi and Rutherford have a lot of potential. Fulton needs to go, he doesn't move his feet at all, I would prefer to see Latham play the second test.

Also, the crowd at Auckland wasn't great, but it was still better than many others around the world- it would look a lot better in a proper cricket ground like the Basin rather than a massive stadium- creates a better atmosphere. Is there any chance of Auckland getting an actual cricket ground to play tests at, while still playing ODIs at Eden Park?

 

[Paree]

Yes there were some bad decisions given by the umpire like Rahane's LBW.But the huge dent was when Dhoni was given out of a backfoot noball. Surely these decisions changed the game.But at the end of the day we should take out positives out of this loss.It may be Ishant's 9 wickets or Dhawan coming back to form.Or Kohli-Dhawan's partnership which made us think that we have a chance.So let us hope that India wins second test match.

 

[Adarsh]

Fact Checks for you Mega; India in their last 10 away test series have not won a single match. Not one.

For the record, I think you mean matches not series. In their last 10 away test series India have won a few matches, including against West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand.

 

[Epic]

I've said it way back in 2012 that Dhoni doesn't cut it as Test captain. Proof my blog post here: Hari's Corner - Indian Cricket needs a passionate Test captain

Fact is even when Dhoni was the most hyped up persona in limited overs cricket, many of us recognized his shortcomings in the longer format. And it was about a home series I was writing about... not overseas...

You were quite late to the party there, the loss in the home series vs England followed the 0-8 loss away to England and Australia, when our side was in transition, not exactly a period when Dhoni was the most loved person in Indian cricket.

 

[Aalay]

I do see Epic's point that just because India doesn't have DRS doesn't mean India deserves to have decisions go against them. However, at the same time, not as many decisions would go against them if they just accepted DRS. It is not a perfect system, but it is statistically, and objectively proven to be more accurate than a non-DRS system.

This point need to be highlighted more.

Another downside is our fielding. With our bowling attack, we need to catch every opportunity that we get. I feel that in the first inning, our fielding was horrible and those 3 dropped catches also played a big part. Dhoni needs to choose some fielders and give them a constant go in the slips rather than trying different people. I saw Dhawan in the slip cordon in the first inning which came as a surprise because he does not field in the slip and dropped the first catch that went to him. I have seen Kohli, Rahane, Rohit, Vijay and Ashwin(when he is in the team) in the slip so Dhoni need to stick with them rather than trying everybody in there. They all need to improve especially Vijay because he has dropped some easiest catches in there but these experience will be really helpful for him and all other.

It is good to see Dhawan among runs again. A rare failure for Pujara but I am sure he will do well in the second test. Our bowler also needs to be consistent with their performance. Hopefully we will get over the line in the second test.

 

[Samuels]

Interesting test match this. India obviously started off favorites despite their 3-0 drubbing in the ODIs but they definitely had the better team on paper as compared to the 'second tier' team. That said, the stats show that both teams have been scratchy. India had not won a single series overseas against a top test team in last 7 years! The last series they won was under Rahul Dravid by 1-0 in 2007. Even their last series win was against West Indies in 2011 which they won by not so handsome 1-0 margin. That was some 958 days back and it is not that they doing great at home of late either. The record in the last 13 tests for India is: LLDLLLLLLLLDD. That is a shameful record to say the least who is one of the top ranked test nation. Yes, I know the rankings are not trustworthy but still that is too bad a record for a top nation. On the other hand, NZ have done extraordinarily well losing just 1 series in the recent past that against Bangladesh and this team does look to have hunger to win unlike the teams of 2 years back or so. For the record, this was NZ first win against India in 12 long years!

I can point out a number of factors responsible for India's defeat.

1. That batsmen should have shown a bit more resistance; they seemed like they wanted to finish the game in a jiffy.

2. Dhoni's captaincy has never been great, particularly in the test matches outside India but in this test match, the point when India had NZ well under control in the 2nd innings and that is when the Mahendra Singh's ham-fisted way of captaincy was seen. Why in the world would you hand over the ball to a chap like Rohit Sharma when you could have finished things off and not the let the other team's lead cross the psychological barrier of 400 runs?

It is not that Dhoni's batting form is good either. Lets take a look at the records.

Last 10 Test Innings:

Player | Runs | 50s | 100s Virender Sehwag |280|0|1
Gautam Gambhir |312|2|0
Mahendra Singh Dhoni |218|0|0

And all this when I can think of at least 3 gloveman good enough to represent India. As far is his captaincy is concerned, I think it has taken a huge dip, particularly overseas. It is frustrating to see a skipper have long off and long on in place in the first session of play of a test match. Such defensive captaincy will do no good. I know the bowlers are not that good but you got to be attacking as I captain. I thought Anil Kumble made a good attacking skipper but shame he had not many years of cricket left by the time the captaincy chance came his way. Coming back to Dhoni, if anyone wants to make a shout that he is 4th on the list of most wins as skipper in international matches with 135 games then let me inform you that he is 3rd on the most matches lost list too with 90 matches. So, my question is why are fingers not raised against Dhoni when you have dropped players with better record than him, and when you have players who can take his place in the team. Is it that India still think of Dhoni as their midas touch man or are they not courageous enough to appoint another skipper whilst continuing with Dhoni in the team just to get the alarm bells ringing for him? Or is it because of his great friend's influence in the board? If you know what I mean.

 

[SaiSrini]

Dhoni (or probably BCCI) believe in this "one captain for all formats" policy. Thats why when Dhoni was asked recently if he was thinking of stepping down from one format to concentrate on the WC, he said "I can't do that right now, because it would be a lot of pressure on the new captain with the World Cup just a year away". With the WC being an ODI tournament, you would think what has it got to do with a new guy taking up test captaincy? But the indirect message given was that we are not open to multiple captains for multiple formats.

Which means, when Dhoni steps down, it will be Virat Kohli taking over for all formats.

 

[asprin]

^ Virat is proving to be good batsman, but I don't think he should be given a chance to lead the national team, at least not yet. His attitude/temperament is not captain material.

 

[Biggs]

We don't count the Bangladesh series in NZ because we sent a bit of a B team and... because, Bangladesh.

Heh.

Anyone from India this morning want to see the headlines? Won - Nil. But hey, you control World Cricket now, so money is the winner on the day. Sad day for cricket, can't wait for more back to back Ashes series.... Zzzzzzznore.

 

[grkrama]

^ if my team had won today , i would have been a happy person and been talking of how well the players of my team did, enjoy your teams victory, if you are going to crib about how money minded BCCi is the only solution is to start supporting ur team more.

 

[Biggs]

Well, news from down-under is... you didn't win.

Superb argument to make, when NZ"s population is mere fraction of that of India... Ridiculous assertion that if "I support cricket moar" NZ gets more television revenue against a country in the billions of people. Hilarious.

Facts are: India were supposed to have a full tour of NZ including 3 T20's 5 ODI's and 4 Tests. Instead, they shortened it because they wanted more money elsewhere... If you think the BCCI isn't about making money and not about improving the sport, you're kidding yourself.

Good news, as you point out, that the better side with less population, less money and less influence in world cricket won the match and is crushing the cashed up show ponies you put on the field. Wonderful day for the sport...