Indian tour of South Africa, December-January 2010/11

[AkshayS]

fearsome tweak off, India is going to lose this, they can't even have a control on RR forget the wickets.

 

[relentless_rock]

Very painful performance this. Well may be we'll see Ishant's best in IPL!!
Sehwag has a bad shoulder, so he can't bowl. Gambhir is in dressing room with a plaster on .. Zak is strolling in bowling @ 115 kph and Sree has issues with the crowd. BCCI should call off the tour tonight ..

On afterthought... Cheteshwar Pujara seems to be the only 100% totally fit player in this playing XI.

Infact it will be a very dicey situation for many a players in Indian team. If they do perform in World Cup and end up reaching the finals, God forbid what will happen if someone gets injured. IPL is to start in just 2 days gap. And supposedly India is touted as the most likely team to win the Cup

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Munaf is our best third seamer option. He can hold up an end at 130ks. And if the pitch has any movement in it, he'll exploit it. He won't be lethal and run through sides, but atleast he builds the pressure from one end. That compliments Sreesanth from the other end.

As for youngsters, Mithun keeps things tight enough. Unadkat did not impress at all, Yadav has pace but that doesn't matter in India, he'll lose it eventually.

Nehra is too fragile for Tests, Praveen Kumar might be worth a go. The thing is, Sreesanth bowls very, very well even at 130ks, because he extracts whatever the pitch or conditions have to offer. He can get the ball to bounce awkwardly, swing, seam off the pitch. And he can get reverse swing. And at the peak of his spells and rhythm he does crank it up to 85 MPH or just under.

If Praveen can do all that, or something similar, then there's no harm in giving him a few games.

RP's form is crap, he's been doing nothing of note in domestic cricket, and was terrible in his last few international outings. I'd love to see him back, but not until he gets some form back.

Irfan's injured. I do pray he comes back bowling mid 130s with swing and stuff, but what he was doing pre-injury was medium pace cutters with MSD standing up to the stumps. Useful to hold up an end in ODIs, but he probably won't have much effectiveness at test level.


Munaf is the best option to replace Ishant tho. And the best thing for Ishant atm would be to be dropped, have some time to find some rhythm and work on his clunky action. Send him to England even, it worked for Zak.

India will be chasing 300, if not more.

If they bat to their full ability, they can get there.

MSD's captaincy hasn't been so bad. His hand was forced really - he was bowling Sree and Bhajji into the ground, Zak was off injured for a while, he had to have Ishant bowl to conserve the energy of the other two.

Harbhajan's bowled pretty decently all day, even when he wasn't taking wickets. Kallis was handling him excellently. If anything, MSD was a bit defensive with his fields, and could have crowded the bat a bit more.

Ishant was poor. Just poor. I've been waiting for his one good sharp spell this series, it hasn't come. Sree on the other hand, has exceeded expectations. Which makes his bad spells all the more annoying.


Gambhir not being able to bat will suck.

Zak's fitness issues are expected when he's been bowled into the ground across the year like he is.

How I pray for Dravid to return to form, just for the one game.

 

[sohum]

Too many runs. And apparently both Sehwag and Gambhir are injured?

For any chance at victory, we need a knock like Sehwag played against England (how many overs are left today, anyway?) where he put the English on the back foot going into the last day.

It's not going to happen, though. Just hope we don't get bowled out cheaply and at least make it seem close.

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How good is Kallis, btw? Ball's back in Sachin's court to keep the pre-series centuries margin even.

 

[relentless_rock]

TODAY... Every SA tailender will score.

In background Smith looks so convinced hes got nough on board already. Just wants some batting practice for Morkel and Tostsobe in middle.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Kallis is epic, Ishant is rubbish.

Feel sorry for MSD, not much you can do with these bowling stocks. He's doing the best he can with what the selectors have given him, I almost feel he's trying to make a point - by bowling Ishant so much he's probably trying to highlight how much he sucks.

 

[mohit_dude10]

This is absolutely BS, we seem to give away all the advantage whenever we get it, whether it be bowlers or batsman.. I doubt if India can survive even if they have to bat just tomorrow.

Predicting India to lose 2-3 wickets today and then get bowled out under 150 tomorrow before tea.

 

[sohum]

Feel sorry for MSD, not much you can do with these bowling stocks. He's doing the best he can with what the selectors have given him, I almost feel he's trying to make a point - by bowling Ishant so much he's probably trying to highlight how much he sucks.

Sounds very Ponting-esque.

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At this stage, I hope the Saffers just play the day out. How's the light look, for anyone watching the game?

 

[mohit_dude10]

Munaf is our best third seamer option.

The problem with Munaf is not his bowling but his fitness and his fielding. Even if he gives less runs he leaks more with his fielding, and he is not fit enough to bowl in test match i feel. Last time he played in SA he couldn't even bowl in 2nd innings.

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We seriously need to build a good fast bowling unit in coming years. I doubt if zaheer can hang around long enough with injuries coming after every 2nd game. Whats with them anyway? For gods sake even afridi bowls at 135s sometimes and zaheer was going around bowling 115 expecting to create troubles.

 

[relentless_rock]

Feel sorry for MSD, not much you can do with these bowling stocks. He's doing the best he can with what the selectors have given him, I almost feel he's trying to make a point - by bowling Ishant so much he's probably trying to highlight how much he sucks.

Well today atleast in post-match interviews he can't say Zaheer's absence hurt. Bowlers didnt have Plan B when Plan A didn't work n blah blah!!

He was a good captain. WAS! With cool/calm approach and fresh ideas. Now... he is just a substandard captain, living solely on reputation of win/loss ratio with aid of one of the best Indian batting line-up in Indian cricket history.

 

[mohit_dude10]

Dhoni seems to have injured his left hand while taking that bouncer. He is going to some treatment.

Ah not good signs for India.. after zak,sehwag,gamby now dhoni.

 

[sohum]

Also interesting to note, India has already bowled 20 no balls in this game. South Africa bowled just 1 in the first innings.

 

[AkshayS]

India to lose this test by getting bundled out below 120.

 

[mohit_dude10]

Quite surprised Smith hasn't declared yet, less than 10 overs to go today. Might wanna keep the ball new for tomorrow morning.

 

[P Squared]

Neo Cricket is the shittest broadcaster I have seen in a while. Honestly, I was watching the last T20 game between Pak and Nzl and whenever their was wicket or so, the ads would start. No replays, until the end of the game.

Ten Cricket doesn't even show the complete ball(last ball of the over obviously).