India tour of South Africa - 2013/14

[scratch978]

Always knew this was going to happen.
Rohit sometimes keeps his brain in the dressing room and comes to bat (or should I say often).
On the other hand Rahane's achievement is never highlighted. The way he played in the last Test was also commendable. I hope this bloke gets more such chances.

 

[aditya123]

Always knew this was going to happen.
Rohit sometimes keeps his brain in the dressing room and comes to bat (or should I say often).
On the other hand Rahane's achievement is never highlighted. The way he played in the last Test was also commendable. I hope this bloke gets more such chances.

You are constantly plagarizing comments from cricbuzz or cricinfo! Its not cool or correct to be copy pasting stuff from other sites. Either write them yourselves or don`t post at all. At least have the courtesy to acknowledge.

 

[Meet]

I don't know what were Indian batsmen trying to do.
Their worst performance in this series so far.
This will be a well deserved victory for SA though. Good job, a perfect farewell to the legendary Kallis.

 

[isrararrafi]

Wow. They pretty much gave up after the first two wickets by steyn today. Committing suicides out there now. 9 days of hard work being wasted here.

I expected more fights from them. This is terrible. Oh well, at least south africa is winning and kallis getting the farewell he deserves from his team at the least.

Ground is empty. South africa's greatest cricketer retiring and ground is empty. They should stop hosting matches in durban and stick to Johannesburg and cape town.

 

[scratch978]

What if this tail frustrate SA like Aussies/ ENG player have done in few occasions against India in India ?

 

[Meet]

At most, Sa will have 25-30 runs to chase. A real poor cricket from India. Terrible batting from captain throughout the series, Sharma failing in the given chances, Jadeja giving away his wicket easily are few let downs for India, which really needs to be taken care and taken into account for the coming tour to NZ. Jadeja is more turning into a bowler rather than all-rounder. His recent batting performance hasn't been good at all. And Ashwin has not been impressive with the ball, but with bat, he has been pretty good. Anyways, we still have some +ves from this tour. Pujara, Vijay, Kohli and Rahane showing their talent with bat while Shami, Ishant and Zak(to an extent) with ball.

 

[aditya123]

As an Indian supporter, I have seen what i wanted to from this young Indian side. The batting is pretty safe and not scared of fast bowling and bowler friendly conditions for the most part. Vijay, Rahane, Pujara and Kohli have been very solid throughout. Dhawan has to get his head sorted, otherwise he is`nt the worst when it comes to facing fast bowling. The bowling is something I cannot be harsh on. They were good at Jo`burg and the 150 overs of bowling on the last 2 days at Jo`burg surely showed when it came to the second test. The BCCI has to take some of the blame for making it such a condensed tour.

The SA side is vastly more experienced and has far more seasoned campaigners and India were`nt disgraced at all like many of SA`s recent opponents at home. I dare say that with more practice games and better scheduling India would`ve been a real tough challenge for SA during a full tour. I would still give them 6 out of 10 for the intent and quality of cricket. This side will be a real force in England come June, mark my words.

 

[harishankar]

As an Indian supporter, I have seen what i wanted to from this young Indian side. The batting is pretty safe and not scared of fast bowling and bowler friendly conditions for the most part. Vijay, Rahane, Pujara and Kohli have been very solid throughout. Dhawan has to get his head sorted, otherwise he is`nt the worst when it comes to facing fast bowling. The bowling is something I cannot be harsh on. They were good at Jo`burg and the 150 overs of bowling on the last 2 days at Jo`burg surely showed when it came to the second test. The BCCI has to take some of the blame for making it such a condensed tour.

The SA side is vastly more experienced and has far more seasoned campaigners and India were`nt disgraced at all like many of SA`s recent opponents at home. I dare say that with more practice games and better scheduling India would`ve been a real tough challenge for SA during a full tour. I would still give them 6 out of 10 for the intent and quality of cricket. This side will be a real force in England come June, mark my words.

Problem is, we always seem to be "almost there", when it comes to our batting. Even the combined batting might of Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Tendulkar haven't done enough to win Test series at SA. So yes, batting is part of the problem but hardly the main issue.

I think the fault lies with the bowling and Dhoni's negative captaincy on the field. However much we can appreciate Zaheer Khan's efforts, the problem is with his lack of pace and consistent swing. Dhoni used him more as a stock bowler than as an attacking guy. And Zaheer Khan hasn't looked good with the new ball also.

Zak would be good as a bowling mentor/coach on the next tour. I don't want to see him bowl an enormous number of overs, looking jaded and bowling straight balls around 125-128 kph. We simply haven't bowlers who can consistently make the oppposition batsman get hostile deliveries at high speeds.

As for Ishant Sharma, he needs to find a way to get wickets when he isn't getting seam movement.

The only bowler who looked consistently threatening on this tour was Shami. He is a great find and I hope he maintains his pace.

 

[asprin]

Ok. Just as I expected - a score of around 30-50 to chase. I reckon SA might even send Kallis as an opener to give him a final hurray.

I have to admit India made sure it wasn't a cake walk for SA. That is the biggest positive of the series. However, I do feel like a little more determination wold have helped a lot. 2 bad sessions = Another series lost.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

india's tail hasn't been great, it's a tricky problem because you can't pick your bowlers with your batting in mind but at the same time the non-batsmen are where india's weakness outside home conditions as been exposed.

their batting unit has been excellent, but in this test they went from 320-6 to 334 all out. in the first test they were 264-6 to 280 all out. They did do a little better in the 2nd innins with a decent 29 by zak but they had already decided they had enough by then and the pitch was flattening out.

south africa by contrast pretty much saved the 1st test with their tail. philander's 60 taking them from 146-6 to 244, it was the difference between being 36 behind and over 100 behind. here as well steyn and peterson have scored over 100 runs taking a good 50 run lead to an unbeatable one.

now, a lot of that is down to indian bowlers being a bit too toothless (and why yadav needs to play in future, blowing out the tail is worth it even if he's not taking out the top order), but their own tail hasn't done enough either. SAFs tail would probably set a 100 run target from here, and bat for another 20-30 overs which would make the match in the balance. India I don't see lasting that long nor making that many more runs.

 

[Meet]

now, a lot of that is down to indian bowlers being a bit too toothless (and why yadav needs to play in future, blowing out the tail is worth it even if he's not taking out the top order), but their own tail hasn't done enough either. SAFs tail would probably set a 100 run target from here, and bat for another 20-30 overs which would make the match in the balance. India I don't see lasting that long nor making that many more runs.

I see the innings getting wrapped up in 6-7 overs.

 

[Aalay]

So one bad day and it cost us the series. I also think that first inning collapse was the reason for this loss. As Stinky said that our tail does not have great batsman and that also makes us a bit vulnerable. I was hoping that if we can draw this than it will be great morale booster before going to New Zealand. However, I am still happy with our performance in tests. There were lots of positives including batting of Pujara, Kohli, Rahane and Vijay. Dhawan and Rohit really needs to improve their batting and I would still give them chance in New Zealand series. Our bowling wasn't wonderful but it was decent. Ashwin's overseas bowling is a real worry and hopefully he can improve on that.

 

[War]

From a larger world cricket perspective, IND batsmen showing as the AUS would say "some ticker" means that 2014 will essentially be a battle for the # 2 spot in test cricket between IND/AUS/ENG.

S Africa should still maintain their # 1 status despite Kallis retiring, however IND, AUS, ENG will be meeting next year & the potential improvement of IND/AUS & ENG ability to rebuild post Ashes - will be further tested.


Was particularly impressed with Rahane TBH. Before this series i pretty much always expected Pujara & Kohli to stand up to some degree - but Rahane IMO looks a bit more advanced in his game than Sharma, Vijay & Dhawan as a test player.

Seeing him in IPL & a few ODIs b4, was never sure what to make of him. But with his short stature & classy all-round game & tight technique - he is a bit reminiscent of Gundappa Viswanath.

 

[SaiSrini]

Disappointing defeat! India should kick themselves for folding up so quickly instead of pushing it towards the draw. The bowling started off superbly in the series, only to get back to its age old problems of not being able to take 20 wkts to win a test.

I am happily proved wrong by Rahane. I was pessimistic about him, because he was not taking his chances when given. I was fearing that he might turn out to be another Badrinath. But in this series, he has made a very good account of himself. So Pujara, Kohli and Rahane have come out of this series with their reputations enhanced. Vijay surprisingly comes out with no damage to reputation (though I wouldn't say he enhanced it, but no damage in itself is enhancement for him). Rohit and Dhawan come out of the series with question marks.

 

[surendar]

Rahane's outcome was really a surprise package to this tour. It's easy to build such reputations in Indian conditions but to utilize an abroad opportunity only for 2 test matches, it's really a fabulous show!

Anyway, disappointed with the loss. We could have batted easily for the whole day but we just gave up thinking too much about it. Yadav & Shami must really start getting a proper guidance as they are our future pace bowling prospects!

Oh well, I will still take this loss as I always wished to see Kallis going off with a win! What a classy player, now the last man standing is Mr.Chanderpaul.

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. Rohit and Dhawan come out of the series with question marks.

With Rahane looking solid in middle order, who knows Dhoni might go for having Jadeja in AR position with Ashwin back in the line up & with Rohit on bench.

Rohit was never a solid batsman anytime, when he got is 200 it only made me to raise my brow(huh, what?)! No matter how well they perform with surprise, players like Jadeja and Rohit Sharma are going to flop big most of the times.