India tour of South Africa

[Bigby Wolf]

Talk about gifting wickets just poor cricket here from India.

 

[aditya123]

Talk about gifting wickets just poor cricket here from India.

The two runouts cancel each other. We had to get 400+ in order to have a chance in this game. Even if Kohli plays out of his skin, we will hardly get to 300 here and even if the first innings end up cancelling each other, our bowling will find it hard to contain SA in the second innings. I don`t see us getting gifts like those run out again. Test matches are won by capitalising on the opposition's mistakes and here we are making elementary ones of our own. We have been in with a fighting chance in this series but made mistakes selection-wise and followed that up with messing up the big moments. That Pandya run out was pure arrogance. Its okay to show swagger but this is pure carelessness.

 

[Villain]

On what basis should Kohli quit test captaincy? Because he lost 1 match overseas and made some poor team selections and has preferred Rohit over Rahane?

He isn't a great captain to start off and I feel India can still survive without him as a skipper especially since that has a huge impact on him as a player; more and more pressure. Team selection hasn't been good either, it seems like it's solely based upon his friendship with other players. We all want him as a batsman, and I feel his batting might take a hit due to captaincy pressure. Honestly, I don't think we'd be dropping him as a captain till 2019 WC.

Well who is the other candidate to captain then? Rahane? The vice captain who has been left out of the series by the current captain suggesting that no one wanted him before the start of the series.
Barring Kohli none of the other players place fixed in the current lineup so in any foreseeable future there is hardly any one who can replace Kohli if even India loses all the overseas test matches in the coming year or so

Rahane/Vijay in Tests, Rohit in ODI/T20s. No chance of dropping Rohit Sharma in limited overs cricket while Vijay has been picked consistently as well.

 

[abhi_jacko]

He isn't a great captain to start off and I feel India can still survive without him as a skipper especially since that has a huge impact on him as a player; more and more pressure. Team selection hasn't been good either, it seems like it's solely based upon his friendship with other players. We all want him as a batsman, and I feel his batting might take a hit due to captaincy pressure. Honestly, I don't think we'd be dropping him as a captain till 2019 WC.

Plenty of assumptions and presumptions here. There really is no proof to suggest that captaincy is taking a toll on his batting. If anything, he has piled up runs in a much more ruthless manner post captaincy, playing many long innings as well. Regarding team selection, barring maybe Nohit Sharma, I don't see any other proof of friendship based selection. And mind you, he is not the one who sings praises about Nohit. Nohit gets praise from everywhere not just Kohli. And Tactically, he might not have been perfect, but he hasn't been too bad either. Here is hoping, he will only learn from his mistakes.

So there really is NO CASE against Kohli's captaincy.[DOUBLEPOST=1516007857][/DOUBLEPOST]And you guys tend to forget one thing, even the benched players sing praises of Kohli the captain. That shows he has gained the respect of the team (including MSD) with his work and his attitude. Its not easy to gain respect of a diverse group of players.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Extremely impressed with Rabada. Nothing in the pitch whatsoever for fast bowlers and he has charged in relentlessly. This is the kind of pitch which every batsman dreams about, looks more Chennai than Centurion, and he has bowled his heart out here. Superb performance.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

This is turning out to be a great test match so far if you're watching from a neutral point of view. Just when you think that one team is having their noses ahead something happens - be it a run out or a wicket all of a sudden.
Ashwin dominated in the 60 odd partnership between him and Kohli before eventually succumbing in attempt to play an expansive drive straightaway to Philander in the very first over of the new ball. Any lead on this wicket (48 currently) could be handy for South Africa with a little of uneven bounce witnessed today in the first session and batting 4th will be one heck of a challenge to the fragile looking Indian batting order.

 

[CerealKiller]

It shows that it's this curator's first Test pitch. Looks like an Asian pitch.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

WOW!
Kohli's Stat :
First 11 100s: Dismissed below 150 nine times
Next 10 100s: Never dismissed below 150

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Faf might have missed a trick persisting with Morkel for so long. Should've brought in Ngidi or Rabada earlier while bowling to Ishant.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

28 runs lead for South Africa puts them marginally ahead right now. Need to score 270+ to put themselves in the driver's seat this game.

 

[AliB]

Any target of 220 will be well and truly SA's game.

 

[aditya123]

India have missed out on a real opportunity to put SA under real pressure by scoring 500-odd. The wicket was ideal for us to just bat once in this game. By having to do work in the final innings, we are on the backfoot. I won't be surprised if this game is decided by when Faf declares. Its been a massive effort from Kohli but there is only that much that he can do on his own. If only we had a decent No.5 batsman to absorb pressure, we could`ve pushed on to 400 at least.

 

[aditya123]

A 100 run lead would've made it our game but now with us 30 behind, we cannot attack for too long and are prone to one counter attacking innings by of SA's batsmen. Im predicting QDk or AB to play a matchwinning knock here.

 

[Gaurav_7]

It is very difficult not to appreciate ABD despite being in the opposition! He is taking this game away from us and quickly too.

 

[aditya123]

We will be chasing leather for a long time if Shami does not turn up in this innings.