India tour of South Africa - 2013/14

[scratch978]

53 overs bowled by these three bowlers. Great fitness level. Still 20 overs left. From one end Dhoni should bowl 2,3 overs to give them a bit of rest. What a match. The taste of real cricket. Test matches are not going anywhere. We have Ashes and competition like SA v/s Ind. Superb !!

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This reminds me the Test at the same venue between Ind and SA back in 2006/07 season.
1st Innings - India - 249 , SA - 84
2nd Innings - India - 236, SA - 278
And India won

 

[SaiSrini]

India have lost their grip here. A lead is looking unlikely now. Ashwin is again disappointing overseas with his bowling.

 

[scratch978]

India have lost their grip here. A lead is looking unlikely now. Ashwin is again disappointing overseas with his bowling.

Hmm.. India must remember that Philander is no slouch with the bat. Apparently he used to open the batting for his club when he played at that level. With a bit of luck he can get 50, and at that the same time play a good supporting role to du Plessis, who is a very good batsman.

 

[SaiSrini]

53 overs bowled by these three bowlers. Great fitness level. Still 20 overs left. From one end Dhoni should bowl 2,3 overs to give them a bit of rest. What a match. The taste of real cricket. Test matches are not going anywhere. We have Ashes and competition like SA v/s Ind. Superb !!

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This reminds me the Test at the same venue between Ind and SA back in 2006/07 season.
1st Innings - India - 249 , SA - 84
2nd Innings - India - 236, SA - 278
And India won

You do see the difference between 84 and 207/6, right?

 

[scratch978]

Ashwin is again disappointing overseas with his bowling.

I think playing Ashwin is a good decision, given the fact that the pitch has cracks which are bound to widen up. He can be handy in the fourth innings, plus he is a good batsman down the order. South Africa are playing Tahir too, probably due to the cracks on the pitch.

 

[SaiSrini]

Holy crap! Rohit drops a sitter at slip! Where is Dravid when we need him?

 

[scratch978]

You do see the difference between 84 and 207/6, right?

Well, there was huge difference in the experience of the Indian team...

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Where is Dravid when we need him?

In the commentary box..

 

[Aalay]

Dropping simple chances at crucial times is not going to help. This is the second chance that has gone down.

 

[scratch978]

Dropping simple chances at crucial times is not going to help. This is the second chance that has gone down.

Just couldn't believe it.. That was a sitter and Rohit just spills it..

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India have lost their grip here. A lead is looking unlikely now. Ashwin is again disappointing overseas with his bowling.

This is the difference between Indian bowling attack and any other team's bowling attack. Only against Indian bowling attack the tail of any team would wag with so much of comfort and luxury. Just look at any other team. Even SA cleaned up our tail for 15 runs. When are we going to learn that art?

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Well the last over is done.. Has anyone got to say anything about the Indian performance today?

 

[SaiSrini]

Again, Day 2 ends with both teams on an even footing. Day 1 ended the same way, and Day 2 ends the same again. This is a fantastic advertisement though, for test cricket. And for India, so far they have exceeded expectations. People expected India to get rolled over, and at the end of Day 2 of this first test, they are still competing with SA in the game speaks volumes of the way they have played so far. Before if SA were 130/1 chasing 280, we would probably have seen them end the day with another 120-130 runs added for the loss for a maximum of one more wicket maybe. But India made a superb comeback and at one point, were looking at a 80-100 lead.

We still have a chance to get a lead if we start fresh and good tomorrow. If India can have another evenly matched day with SA, they should be in a better position to think of a win in this test. All depends on our bowlers tomorrow morning.

 

[scratch978]

Zaheer Khan and Shami Ahmed bowled well before Vernon Philander brought the hosts back with a gritty knock. He's on the verge of scoring his third Test match fifty and alongside Faf du Plessis, is looking very good to cut down on the deficit. A bit more luck and India could have had a few more wickets but they will have to blame themselves on a few occasions

So you can't really seperate the sides at the point. Probably we can say 51-49 to India but a lot depends on how this 7th wicket partnership pans out. Good day for Philander today. He bagged three wickets in the morning and has backed it up with 48 runs with the bat. For India to gain the upper hand, their bowlers will have to do really well to gain any sort of slender lead.

 

[used2bcool]

What's with all the bold sentences?

Anyway, I get the sinking feeling that that Rohit drop is coming back to bite us. I agree with Sai, Ashwin was pretty disappointing in the way he allowed easy runs. It wasn't that he was bowling the kind of rubbish that Tahir bowled, but Philander and Faf were able to get three or four singles an over without any risk at all, which has to be the worst possible result for a Test spinner. At least if someone's trying to hit you for six, they might miscue and sky one. Here the batters were just easily milking Ashwin for crucial runs.

This is such a typical Indian overseas test match! I go in with zero expectations, only to have them raised on day 1, then crushed in the first session of day 2, then raised again, and now regressing towards the mean. Yay for test cricket!

 

[Ohm]

Just a shock able performance by Indian bowlers. Even the current partnership is little bit barrier it seems. It always happens. Tail always bothering for Indians. By the way I could see much much more than what I expected to see from our team. I'm too happy for them.

 

[Cricketman]

I don't think we can be overly critical of India's performance with the ball today. Yeah, another wicket or two would have been nice, but I would take SA being 206/6 after being 130/1 any day of the week.

That being said, we have to take our catches! It is moments like these that need to click for us to win overseas.

First hour tomorrow will define the match. If we can get a small lead, even 15-20 runs, I think that would be more than enough to put some real pressure on SA who will be chasing this track. Got a feeling Dhawan will click, maybe play a Sehwag like innings to add a quick 50-60 runs and really hammer the advantage.

But first, these four wickets remain. Hopefully our bowlers can continue the good work from today and carry forward.

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I think this all can be credited to Zaheer. He contributes a lot more than his bowling. He guides these youngsters and also master at reverse swing. He's the one who must be maintaining the shine on the ball for reverse.

Agreed. I think his leadership makes a world of a difference.

However, I find it funny that Ishant Sharma's bowling average goes up (is that even possible?!) when Zaheer Khan is playing. Sharma averages 39 in matches involving Zak in comparison to 37, which is surprising because he does seem to do a lot better under his guidance.

I guess Sharma does in fact enjoy the responsibility of 'leading the attack'

For reference:
All-round records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[angryangy]

Wait, wait, wait. Did Ishant Sharma really bowl 3 balls at the stumps?