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

[Cricketman]

Don't expect much. Apperantly the 3rd best seamer the worlds best team can produce is this guy:

Why oh why do we throw our young quicks into the deep end so quickly? He's gonna get eaten alive by the Smith's, Kallis's, and Amla's of this world. Hope he proves me wrong...

 

[aditya123]

Shravi what was your reasoning for India to win the 2nd test? Just wondering since you are usually spot on with these things

We very often do badly in the first test of a series. We did that in England in 2007 and ended up winning the series. I remember everyone writing us off after just one innings of the MCG test in 2007 and we came back strongly after that, piling up the runs and bowling superbly. We got thrashed in SL in the first test and came back to beath them by a huge margin at Galle in 2008. That happened again against SA at home this year. I can point out a lot of such occasions.

This is hardly surprising. Heck, we even managed to make a mess of our first innings of the first test in Bangladesh earlier this year. That is why I feel this side has a lot more to offer than what we saw yesterday. Be rest assured that they`ll not get rolled over easily.

aditya123 added 4 Minutes and 15 Seconds later...

Don't expect much. Apperantly the 3rd best seamer the worlds best team can produce is this guy:

Why oh why do we throw our young quicks into the deep end so quickly? He's gonna get eaten alive by the Smith's, Kallis's, and Amla's of this world. Hope he proves me wrong...

Yadav would have been a handful on this track. I think we missed a trick by playing Unadkat ahead of him, simply because of the fact that he is a left-armer.

 

[SaiSrini]

Its still about winning the series. One innings doesnt make us an "undeserved No.1".

 

[aditya123]

Its still about winning the series. One innings doesnt make us an "undeserved No.1".

I can see some people being so desperate to bring the undeserved No.1 point at the slightest opportunity they get.

 

[angryangy]

I don't think Unadkat is a bad selection and there are worse places to debut, even against a top team. If you want ideal debuts, you have to control the situation and pre-empt such surprises as a tour of South Africa.

The series against NZ would have been more ideal for it, had there been pitches that would have favoured more adventurous selections. A lively turning pitch helped India on the short term, but they were playing two spinners all series and didn't need to know anything about them. Going forward, they could name 3 quicks they were confident enough in, but that's the minimum for probably most Test conditions in the world and definitely not enough for a touring party.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Can't say this collapse was totally unexpected. Viru got out playing the way he was playing, Gambhir's return to 'form' was against NZ so that wouldn't have counted for much. Dravid and Sachin got good deliveries, Laxman inexplicably missed a straight one, Raina struggled, and the tail folded.

Sachin was playing with the right mindsight on this wicket, attacking from the start. On this sort of surface you are bounce to get an unplayable delivery now and then, you might as well score as much as you can while you're in there. Dravid was playing his natural game and got a good one.

This is why Viru will be so crucial, as will Laxman. They score quickly while they're in. Dravid might underperform, and I expect Gambhir and Raina to struggle a lot. Hopefully they won't.

We might need to get Pujara in for the next match

And Unadkat playing...sigh. We do love ruining young fast bowling talent, don't we. Here's praying he bowls well and comes out of this test match without any mental scars.

Also...Sreesanth and Ishant need to click from ball one. Can't afford them bowling one of their rubbish spells till they find their radar if we're going to win or draw this.

Bhajji will like the bounce on offer.

 

[Slowcoach]

I just find it funny that some people are so fanatically loyal that they are delusional enough to think India had a chance on these pitches.
The reason people start flailing around trying to defend India's number one status is that deep down they know the criticism of their inability to perform outside the subcontinent is true.
The truth hurts, India is a team of flat track bullies, and don't bring up Dravid's stats, I really don't care.
And scoring runs on Australia's flat pitches against McGrath and Warneless attacks is pretty meaningless.
Check the stats, Australian pitches are the flattest in the world, yes, there are odd exceptions, but the stats support that this is true.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

India were never in this once Zak got injured and Raina was played over Pujara IMO.

Gambhir being in poor form hasn't helped either.


Even at 'full' strength, South Africa were strong favourites. I mean, c'mon, no warmups and almost a whole year playing on flat tracks? They were bound to struggle, it would have been a miracle if they didn't.

ZoraxDoom added 2 Minutes and 22 Seconds later...

That took the whole of 3 deliveries to end.

136 a/o.

Advantage - South Africa

 

[McLOVIN]

haha.

Well bowled MM.

Finally!! Some action going on, allll around the world. Batsmen being pushed around. None of that flat fat bullies!

 

[relentless_rock]

Seeing the highlights package, unrelenting short-pitched bowling in practice perhaps was overdone and backfired. Laxman, Tendulkar, Raina missed straight ones and were all cought on crease.

 

[deepuparayil]

All our three pace bowlers are crap till now.

 

[Adarsh]

Typical vegetarian bowling from Unakdat.

 

[SaiSrini]

Switching off the game right now. No movement for us whatsoever, Unadkat's pace is baffling (> 130kph, seriously?). Lost interest in the game. Just pray something good happens and India can live to fight as long as possible.

SaiSrini added 0 Minutes and 56 Seconds later...

Typical vegetarian bowling from Unakdat.

He is a vegetarian too. His bowling looks more like Prasad's. I know its too early, but I wonder what Akram saw in him.

 

[relentless_rock]

Indian pace attack is yet to bowl a single bouncer .. in abt 10 overs but Dhoni still thinks its right strategy to have 2 men on boundary at deep midwicket and deep fine leg.

 

[Slowcoach]

Switching off the game right now. No movement for us whatsoever, Unadkat's pace is baffling (> 130kph, seriously?). Lost interest in the game. Just pray something good happens and India can live to fight as long as possible.

SaiSrini added 0 Minutes and 56 Seconds later...



He is a vegetarian too. His bowling looks more like Prasad's. I know its too early, but I wonder what Akram saw in him.

Akram saw a young guy holding the ball in his left hand, that's what, that's all it takes to impress Wasim.