India tour of New Zealand - March 2009

[Cricketman]

Its funny because every time he seems to play Australia in Australia he smashes a 195 odd in two sessions or so...


And I think we are truly the best in the world. Bring on the Saffers, bring on the Aussies. Get rid of Yuvraj and bring in a guy like Badri and we'll be set.

 

[shravi]

Its funny because every time he seems to play Australia in Australia he smashes a 195 odd in two sessions or so...


And I think we are truly the best in the world. Bring on the Saffers, bring on the Aussies. Get rid of Yuvraj and bring in a guy like Badri and we'll be set.

I think Raina will be given a try before Badrinath. It's unfortunate but true.

 

[Amiya]

LOL @ Sehwag

Comes into the series in astonishingly good form from the ODI's and then produces a mediocre series in bowler-friendly conditions. One must beg the question, how much more poorly would've Sehwag done if he came into the series in bad form? He probably would've averaged under 5.

After 13 innings in South African & New Zealand conditions as an opener, Sehwag has failed to go past 50 once! He has only scored just over 200 runs at an average of 15.69.

Just one more failure from Sehwag and his average will drop below 50!!! :happy:hpraise

The sad thing is that he'll probably go back to the subcontient and smash a double-hundred against the West Indies or New Zealand in lifeless conditions for bowlers, which will furthermore inflate his batting average and prevent his averaging from dropping below 50 for a few more matches. But anyways...

Virender Sehwag - You are a hack!

You mean to say Australia lost 2-0 to India on a life less track even with HAYDEN in the squad? Where was the Australian greatness gone?

Amiya added 0 Minutes and 40 Seconds later...

A middle finger by a bowler can't let you win a match.

 

[Cricketman]

Raina needs to tighten up his defense. He'll get pwnt in Tests tbh.

 

[SaiSrini]

No, it's just ridiculous how 3-4 players can average over 50 with the bat and yet their team isn't even the best in the world.

Right now going by form, India are the best in the world. South Africa could have staked claim but they lost to Australia in SA. Australia are still blowing hot and cold ATM (the series loss in their home grounds were hugely deflating).

Did we ask the pitches to be batting friendly? Having 3-4 players with 50+ averages means that the pitches in the world are turning to be batter friendly? And its not necessary that the team should be the best with such players.

saisrini80 added 2 Minutes and 9 Seconds later...

I think Raina will be given a try before Badrinath. It's unfortunate but true.

I wish not! Badri deserves more of a chance than Raina. Or for that matter, Pujara. Both are domestic batting run machines.

 

[Dare]

so how many runs does Dhoni want? The lead is 600+, declare already.


great catch by Dravid, congrats on the record:happy:hpraise. Legend.

 

[irottev]

Well done to Dravid! McIntosh out in the same way as usual. If he can his technique out he could be a good player. He doesn't play silly shots and can bat a long time. Just needs to fix technique.

 

[aussie_ben91]

I don't think you can rule out India in calling as best team? Can you? Considering that Aussies during Waugh period itself, have had a great gap between no 1 spot and no 2 spot and now, that gap have just gone down to reachable heights of just 10 points.

Who knows, next year by this time we could be number 1 as well.

It's just stupid to tell that India is not best in their business. The way they played in Australia(inspite of many controversies and loss), and the way they played in NZ, it's just so stupid and silly to tell that India are not best in their business.

I do agree that India have had a poor overseas tour( struggling especially in SA and NZ and Aus), but a new revolution has begun. Especially you can never underestimate Dhoni and his team men. If you do, its not our problem as well because we know what we are capable of.

Now, I am only waiting for SA tour(if any), because if Dhoni's men can win in SA, it will be a turning point in our bad historic overseas record. We have done well in Aus.. We are doing well in NZ... We always do well in England.. We did well in Caribbean and only place we keep failing is SA..

Only the real dominant teams should have a few batsman averaging over 50. India isn't a real dominant team, nor are they close to it. Being the best team in the world means clearly being the best team in the world.

Not at all ridiculous. Pitches have been flatter this decade than in the 90s, 80s or 70s and subcontinental pitches tend to be, but are not always, the flattest in the world. However, this is not to say that Sehwag is a flat track bully, but someone who favours the subcontinent. He has scored runs on troubling pitches in Asia and Australia and so you are doing him a disservice to reduce him to someone who can not score runs when the pitch offers assistance to the bowlers and it'd be a gross oversimplification.

As for the other two averaging over 50 - well, I'm not sure even you would disagree with Tendulkar and Dravid being in the pantheon of the top batsmen of this generation. The former is obvious but Dravid has strung together an extremely long period of form from 1997-2006, scoring runs all over the world, on flat pitches and lively pitches.

Yeah, it's ridiculous because of how flat the pitches are these days.

 

[SaiSrini]

Taylor escaped that catch by Gambhir (it was clearly off the ground) but he has been put into battle by Harbhajan Singh who is bowling superbly. And at the other end, Zak is looking to hunt down batsmen. AWESOME COMBO! NZ really under the pump

Congrats Dravid for the record. And fittingly, it was a very good low catch

 

[mrtwisties]

Why are people asking India to declare? You play until you are all out in such a situation to totaly allay any possibility of New Zealand victory. I know they won't reach the total but even then, draw first, win later. No risks even if it is so very minimal.

Sigh... "draw first, win later" is the mentality that's killing Test cricket. I much prefer teams who approach matches from a "win first, draw later" perspective.

mrtwisties added 5 Minutes and 45 Seconds later...

Just 534 runs to go...

 

[SaiSrini]

Sigh... "draw first, win later" is the mentality that's killing Test cricket. I much prefer teams who approach matches from a "win first, draw later" perspective.

mrtwisties added 5 Minutes and 45 Seconds later...

Just 534 runs to go...

With more than 5 sessions to go, India have all the chances of winning it with a session to spare. And looking at the way we are bowling right now, we might win with a DAY TO SPARE!

A bold declaration that leads to a loss invites quite a lot of criticism from the media and the fans, especially if its India (and to an extent, Pakistan also)

 

[Ari]

With more than 5 sessions to go, India have all the chances of winning it with a session to spare. And looking at the way we are bowling right now, we might win with a DAY TO SPARE!

Looking at the forecast I think they might have to do it today looks like it will be raining in Wellington tomorrow. With the way we are batting today they should do it easily.

 

[mrtwisties]

It's sure hard to imagine Franklin and Taylor carrying NZ to victory. As has been said a bunch of times, Taylor is just too unreliable with the bat.

mrtwisties added 0 Minutes and 55 Seconds later...

(or to a draw, I hasten to add)

Fair point re Indian media criticism, too. But it still detracts from the game. I miss the days when you'd get sporting declarations to force a result.

 

[SaiSrini]

Looking at the forecast I think they might have to do it today looks like it will be raining in Wellington tomorrow. With the way we are batting today they should do it easily.

Yeah just heard that. Quite confident Zaheer and Bhajji can do it.

 

[King Cricket]

India isn't a dominant team

Then who's dominant? Your Australian side? LOL LOL LOL. They, even after having great Matthew Hayden in the team got thrashed by India when they last came here, in those "so called flat pitches" and they are getting thrashed everyday in SA. Funny how you still say this, even after we winning each and every ODI series starting from early 2008 till now, and each and every test series except for the Sri Lanka one. May I know what's the definition of the word "dominant"? Beating Australia in Australia, beating Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka two times, whitewashing NZ in NZ, still we are "not even close to dominant". LOL. And oh, another stat, last year, not a single team could win a test series in India in those "so called flat pitches." And another stat, except for beating England in England, WI in WI, and SA in SA- MSD's team has thrashed all the other cricketing superpowers in their homegrounds. Still we are not even close to dominant, even after remaining unbeaten in 13 test matches= LOL.