India v England 2008

[Geekery]

Congrats to India and their fans, hard luck England, it wasn't all that bad!

 

[Yogy]

A rather boring end to what has otherwise been an enthralling series. India batted on far too long this morning but it was of no avail as both Gambhir and Yuvraj fell short of their hundreds. England were left with the improbable target of 402 from 43 overs and the result was quite certain by then.

A good series overall, in fact we were lucky to have any cricket after the attacks in Mumbai. India came out on top and have ended the year on a high. They've got a few months off which will allow their players to participate in the domestic competition while the England players will have enough time to relax and recuperate before they head to the Caribbean in late January.

 

[nikhil_99]

I guess close to 50-70 overs were gone due to bad light and fog,it was almost a 4 day test match.Now Pak tour is cancelled therefore, until India tour New Zealand from March 6, there's absolutely no international commitment under the ICC's Future Tours Programme.So these players will get enough rest now.

 

[karnog]

Welcome rest though. I doubt Dhoni, Gambhir and Sehwag would be complaining too much. Any word from Dravid on how long he wants to play? Another year or two...

 

[.Mob]

They'll have Ranji matches though, well, except Dhoni.

 

[aditya123]

Welcome rest though. I doubt Dhoni, Gambhir and Sehwag would be complaining too much. Any word from Dravid on how long he wants to play? Another year or two...

Could be a double-edged sword though.They will get some much needed rest but getting back into the groove very quickly will be a real challenge as we have a reputation of being slow starters.

 

[SaiSrini]

Welcome rest though. I doubt Dhoni, Gambhir and Sehwag would be complaining too much. Any word from Dravid on how long he wants to play? Another year or two...

He has got into some sort of nick, and with the series against New Zealand coming up (a real test for this team captained by Dhoni), he will be needed there. Let him play for sometime. This one hundred has proved that he can continue for a while.

saisrini80 added 1 Minutes and 34 Seconds later...

Jeez, why can't people just be content with a series win? There was no way even if we had declared going Lunch that we would have won on that pitch.

Right! There was no way we could have won even if we had declared earlier. Either we might have lost, or it would have again be the same boring draw. Dhoni knew how the pitch played and how the weather turned out, and did accordingly.

saisrini80 added 2 Minutes and 32 Seconds later...

It did turn out to be an absolute farce of a day to end what has been a really successful home season starting from the Bangalore test match.It has been our best year for quite sometime.To England`s credit,bigger crowds turned up at both Mohali and the Chennai test was watched by about 100,000 people over the 5 days.Full credit to the Englishmen for returning to India and of course playing a big part in that classic at Chennai.

India will end the year at No.2 after starting the year at No.2 as well.So life has come a full circle.The whole team has contributed to the side`s success .Four batsmen (Sehwag,Sachin,VVS and Gambhir) scored over 1000 runs this year and that would mostly indicate that the side is having a decent time.Our pacemen were good as well and it may not reflect in their stats but they played a major part by picking up the big wickets at the right times.Harbhajan had a better year and Mishra has been quite a find.

India`s big challenge will be to carry this into the next season and top it up with another successful season.From what I see, we do not have a lot of test cricket lined up next year.So our quest for being No.1 in tests will have to wait.The NZ series is actually quite a while away! What will we fans do till then ? We`ll be starved of cricket Naa, the Aus-SA series will keep us busy.A tour to Pakistan would`ve been good for the side to keep the momentum going.Its a pity that has been called off.Still hoping for some series to be scheduled in the meantime.

I think we need some T20 cricket now to get our excitement more on the upwards. Hope the Champions League gets scheduled during this break so that we can watch some T20 electrifying action. But yeah, with India not playing, it will be a starving period for Indian fans.

 

[.Mob]

The Champion's League for this season was basically cancelled, and the first season will be in Oct '09, so the team will probably be different than what was expected.

 

[Cricketman]

Hopefully the Ranji stuff will be aired, and we can all watch some of the young stars play.

 

[karnog]

I don't mind Dravid continueing to play but a transition period is coming and we're going to play the "lesser sides" so its the right time to blood in a few players (ie Tendulkar given a rest). Dravid hasn't proven he's in form as of yet so i don't think he'll be given any rest and Laxman doesn't play ODIs so its a must he has to play... yeah we are terrible starters but i think that's slowly disappearing from Indian cricket... i might be wrong

 

[sohum]

Hopefully the Ranji stuff will be aired, and we can all watch some of the young stars play.

The Ranji Trophy is going to be aired on Neo Cricket, starting with the quarterfinals on Friday.