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

[Adarsh]

Why not replace Ishant with Ojha, if the conditions won't be as heavily tilted in favour of pacers. I won't bank on our pace bowling reserves. What I have come to like about left arm spinners, is they could be annoyingly difficult to score runs of, which will be very handy if SA come out aggressive with bat in 3rd Test.

No way. You need 3 fast bowlers in SA. Two maybe an outside shot if you had two good fast men but Sreesanth will inevitably fail, and then you'll be left with Zak as the only fast bowler.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

is there any need to put ojha in ahead of sharma?

sure, you would consider it if you had a production line of excellent spinners and only average quicks to choose from (a bit like sri lanka, especially when murali was amongst the crop) but india are not producing spinners of that quality. Ojha versus Ishant Sharma purely as bowlers is a pretty even-run match up, with arguably Sharma the better of the two.

 

[Highlander999]

Meh, anyone can beat South Africa Everyone knows the real number 1 team is England anyway, just for the fact that the team did the Sprinkler dance to celebrate winning. TBF, India played well and proved me wrong (I'm not delusional I will admit when I'm wrong )

What I am looking forward to seeing though is India in England. Whoever wins that I think has a good unofficial claim (or official in India's case ) to being number 1.

 

[shravi]

Damn sohum, looks like the prediction I made before the series started is on track. Although India didn't destroy South Africa as I said they would, they did still win fairly comfortably. Hopefully my last prediction that South Africa would win the last test will be wrong though.

 

[mohit_dude10]

When Harbhajan gets assistance he becomes a different bowler totally, it just shows how flat Sub continent wickets have become and no wonder his bowling average has gone up because the past year he has been bowling in sub-continent only.

Addition of Zak to side changed the bowling unit completely, they were a lot more aggressive and supported each other with good spells. Wonder what would happen after Zak goes.

 

[War]

Well done India. That Sreesanth ball to Kallis was one the best i've seen in a while.

SA obviously lost this test with that 1st innings batting capitulation. On these kind of bowler friendly pitches. Giving up such a big deal was the turning point. So once they collapse like that again, they should win in Capetown - although IND now would have regained alot of confidence.

 

[aditya123]

Damn sohum, looks like the prediction I made before the series started is on track. Although India didn't destroy South Africa as I said they would, they did still win fairly comfortably. Hopefully my last prediction that South Africa would win the last test will be wrong though.

SA should realize that their best chance of beating India is on a flat track. We saw how helpless our attack was at Centurion when it was flat.

 

[Aditya]

Series levelled and both the teams will go to the 3rd test with their confidence high. After a good performance from the Indian bowlers I am expecting Indian batsman's to do well in the 3rd test.

 

[War]

SA should realize that their best chance of beating India is on a flat track. We saw how helpless our attack was at Centurion when it was flat.

Nah a flat sub-continent like track & its advantage IND & that would expose Tsotsobe if IND can survive the new-ball spells of Steyn/Morkel. Plus most dangeroulsy, could even make Sehwag get going again

Regardless of what happened in this test, SA should clearly keep preparing seaming tracks. They just have to back their batsmen to not collapse like they did in the 1st innings - which i dont think they would.

 

[used2bcool]

Meh, anyone can beat South Africa Everyone knows the real number 1 team is England anyway, just for the fact that the team did the Sprinkler dance to celebrate winning. TBF, India played well and proved me wrong (I'm not delusional I will admit when I'm wrong )

What I am looking forward to seeing though is India in England. Whoever wins that I think has a good unofficial claim (or official in India's case ) to being number 1.

Oh man, yes. I just saw the video of that. I think England should be the honorary No. 1 Test Team in the world for a day, just for that dance. That was epic. I think even Mushtaq Ahmed was doing his own little rendition there in the back.

 

[Highlander999]

If you want to see them doing it some more, go to the ecb website and look at Swann's Ashes Video Diary, there is an episode where they all do it and then the next one after that, people send in their own versions of it. Hilarious

 

[mohit_dude10]

SA should realize that their best chance of beating India is on a flat track. We saw how helpless our attack was at Centurion when it was flat.

But also India did pile up 450+ batting 4th and 5th day. So if they go with flat track and India bat first it will be very tough for them.

 

[aditya123]

I still feel that on a flat track, the Indian seamers will have no venom while Steyn and Morkel would still be as likely to get wickets cheaper. The Sehwag factor would exist irrespective of the track they are playing on. He got hundreds in an ODI series in NZ where everyone else was struggling to get to two figures.

In all probability, we will see a flatter track at Newlands than the one we saw at Kingsmead.

 

[War]

I still feel that on a flat track, the Indian seamers will have no venom while Steyn and Morkel would still be as likely to get wickets cheaper. The Sehwag factor would exist irrespective of the track they are playing on. He got hundreds in an ODI series in NZ where everyone else was struggling to get to two figures.

In all probability, we will see a flatter track at Newlands than the one we saw at Kingsmead.

Sreesatnh & Ishant migh lack venom. But Zaheer is proven flat track bowler, with his mastery of reverse swing.

Steyn/Morkel will still be able to bowl well. But as India showed in the 2nd innings @ Centurion. On such a surface, their batting will be able to stand up more on such a surface.

The Sehwag will continue to be nullfied on a seaming wicket. Quoting his ODI form in ODI series in NZ in 2002 to show he play the moving ball in tests doesn't make any sense. Esepcially when he has consistent test career of failures/struggles on pace bowler friendly pitches.

Capetown last year vs ENG was seamer friendly for 1st 3 days then flattened out.

 

[sohum]

Damn sohum, looks like the prediction I made before the series started is on track. Although India didn't destroy South Africa as I said they would, they did still win fairly comfortably. Hopefully my last prediction that South Africa would win the last test will be wrong though.

Hehe, that was my prediction, too. Although I didn't predict margins of victories. I had the Saffers winning the 1st and 3rd and India winning in Durban. Remember some guy coming out here and telling me that Durban was India's lowest chance of a victory--obviously he hasn't been watching our bowlers on helpful tracks.

I, too, hope that my prediction for the third test is incorrect. And I just have a feeling that the Dhonster may win the toss this time.

Now, just to keep Zaheer Khan healthy.

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Wonder what would happen after Zak goes.

Hmm, he's 32 right now so he's still got a couple of good years in him if he can keep himself healthy. I see him going into wily veteran mode after that, along the lines of what Pollock did for South Africa.

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They just have to back their batsmen to not collapse like they did in the 1st innings - which i dont think they would.

You keep talking about collapsing in the 1st innings, but Saffers didn't do too flash in the second innings, either. No fifties in this match for them (highest was Ashwell's 39 not out) and we were into the lower order/tail after just 42 overs.

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South Africa should go with a true pitch with good carry and rely on Steyn and Morkel to get the batsmen out. Steyn and Morkel are good enough to keep India <400 on a good track and the Indian bowling is bad enough for the Saffers to be able to put up >400 in most innings'.

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But also India did pile up 450+ batting 4th and 5th day. So if they go with flat track and India bat first it will be very tough for them.

We'd only get to bat first if Dhoni wins a damn toss. Which isn't about to happen any time soon.

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Dudes, more than anything I'm just happy that this Indian team is finally good enough to compete abroad. It wasn't very long ago where tours to countries like Australia and South Africa were hopeless endeavors of survival. Heck, we even struggled beating teams like Zimbabwe, West Indies and New Zealand in their backyards. So much has changed now that we can actually go into a game in South Africa with a decent chance of winning it before the coin has been tossed.