Mar 24 - Australia v India (Quarter-Final 2)

[Atharv]

Excellent win by India .
Dhoni finally seems to be doing something right . His captaincy was good . Precise team selection, good bowling changes and excellent field placements. His luck is with him again

What a run out .



Dont want to see this in the semis .

 

[midgetwars]

Australia: White, Bowlers scrwed australia up.

 

[Will Browne]

He's fatter and there's no denying that, but I don't want him turning into a Misbah-Ul-Haq who did bat well but was never good in running between the wickets

You must mean Inzamam-Ul-Haq who averaged over 50 and made around 8000 runs in tests- saying that he batted well is an understatement.

 

[War]

Disappointed with the result, but no shame really. At the end of the day AUS historical weakness against quality spin (a weakness they did a very good job of eradicating during the glory years of 95-2006/07) affected their batting on these slow tournament wickets. Since i reckon if this was the AUS of 2003 & 2007 - they would have made 275+ - the batting today was understandably 1990s like tentative AUS vs spin.

Ponting innings almost made me cry ha. Never seen him more determined in 15+ years of watching cricket. Hopefully as journalist B Coverdale said, this innings could be a template for Ponting in his vintage days to bat like & he can have a revival like Tendulkar has done since 2007/08.

 

[Slowcoach]

Tentative is a good word...Australia's batting all tournament lacked intent, it seemed they would bat defensively to get themselves into a position to attack, then suddenly play a slog to the wrong ball because the score was 1-80 off 20 etc.
The openers should have attacked more from ball 1, and if they failed then relied on what is a pretty strong middle order to dig them out of trouble if it arose.

I know they collapsed against Pakistan, but you must remember the slow scoring and fear of failure came long before the collapse, and that is what heaped the pressure on themselves.

Attack, and then bat slow if you lose wickets, that is the formula that has worked in one day cricket for so long, and it's what they should have stuck to.

You should slog to try to dominate the opposition...NOT to dig yourself out of trouble when you have dug a hole for yourself.

With that bowling attack defending 260 was always going to be very difficult...but the problem was they never really looked like making any more than that...and never really looked like they were trying to make any more than that.

There are no scapegoats...the whole team is guilty of batting with a lack of intent and a fear of failure...you can't leave it all up to Watson to blaze 160 every game.

 

[SaiSrini]

Dhoni should be sacked as captain, irrespective of result of this match! Who, for life, asked him to drop Yusuf Pathan? Who wanted Munaf? The pitch curator clearly played some sorta tactic to save Team India from their bowling drawback.

Cricketing hell.... It was a masterstroke to drop Yusuf Pathan. DHONI FINALLY DID THE RIGHT THING!!

For once, stop this DHONI HATE!!! When Ganguly captained, he went through this period where he was called the "non playing captain". In fact at that time, Ganguly had a very clear and apparent weakness for the short ball and was even being made a joke out of it. Dhoni doesnt have any of that kind of weakness. A player has to go through highs and lows, and Dhoni is in his lows as far as batting goes. His captaincy has also gone through a roller coaster ride, but still he IS THE BEST FRIGGIN' CRICKETING OPTION FOR US!!!

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yuvraj providing some entertainment.......but wont be long till he throws his wicket away as well.

Sometimes I feel its better being optimistic and disappointed, than being as pessimistic as this!

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Wanted to add - felt bad for Binga when he bleeded and when he came out with his bandaged forehead, couldnt help but appreciate the commitment. Binga is one of the rare Aussie players that I applaud and support, so felt bad when he got hurt at that moment. Get well soon, Binga. Hope to see you around. See ya Punter, hope you retire soon and let Australia gain some more respect on the field. Johnson has the guts to instigate a batsman even after being hit for a crackling four? Jerk!!

Bring on India-Pakistan. Whoever wins, it has to be a tight tight game!

 

[sami ullah khan]

Ponting will score a blistering ton. You heard it first right here folks

I tuned out to be right but rest of Australian batting succumbed to spin and could not score 280+ to have any chance of stalling the mighty Indian batting line up. It will be cracking game at Mohali. Pakistanis play spin better. Its all about who handles pressure well.

 

[shravi]

Don't care what jkartik or binnu have to say about this but Dhoni's captaincy was absolutely superb today. He realized the limitations of his bowling attack and that he couldn't bowl Munaf for more than 3 overs at a stretch or the batsmen would really get into their groove. He also shuffled the bowlers excellently, especially the part-timers. I have always stood by Dhoni and will continue to do so. In MSD we (I) trust.

His batting will come good. Of that I have no doubt. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say it was a freak incident. Today was just that. Clarke took a blinder to dismiss him. That said, he didn't look too comfortable before that. However, I have full confidence that he can turn it around. He wasn't ranked #1 in the world for days on end for no reason. He earned it and he deserved it. He is that good and I don't understand all the Dhoni hatred. As a batsman, he's just going through a bad patch and he's good enough for us to stick by him. As a captain, he's been top class. One of our best captains ever. He's cool, calm and collected and has done so much with so little (bowling resources).

 

[Gurjot95]

Dhoni was excellent yesterday as captain. as shravi said, he shuffle the bowlers really well. Zaheer gave him breakthrough whenever he bring him into attack and removed Munaf from attack when he was going expensive. Field placements for brilliant, he sets them exactly to batsman weakness. But he was failure with bat though.

 

[aussie1st]

Dhoni field placings were top notch, so many times it looked like we hit a four only to see a fielder right in that spot keeping it down to a single. And he did the logical thing of going all out spin on the Aussies as there is no doubt that is their weakness even against the part timers.

 

[Slowcoach]

Dhoni is a great captain...look at his record...and also look at him as a person.
He is a LEADER, he commands respect and has integrity as a PERSON.
There is no other option.
Tendulkar is too quiet.
Laxman is too quiet.
Sehwag does not act responsibly and can not play under pressure on anything less than a flat pitch.
Gambhir has drive and focus and would be a good captain, but just needs to cool down his emotions a bit.
Yuvraj is still not settled enough as a person or a player.
The rest are either too young, or bowlers.
Bhajji is too hot headed.
Zaheer has a strong mind and good temperament but has been injured too often and can not handle the workload (no good having a captain if he is out for 6 months with injury or misses every ODI series).
There are no other options.

Dhoni makes mistakes sometimes, as all captains do, but he makes less mistakes than most others, and that makes him a good tactician.
Yes, he is occasionally defensive, but how often has it cost his team victory?
His team wins a lot of tests despite his "defensive" captaincy and "weak" bowling attack, so he must be doing something right.

Look at Strauss during the ashes. Australian commentators criticized him for being "too defensive", but England won 3-1.
Ponting on the other hand attacked with his ridiculous 8 short covers and 4 short midwickets and just looked like a fool.

Ian Chappell seems to think the more you need a wicket the more you should attack. Like sticking in an extra slip for every 25 runs a batsman scores.
Ridiculous.
Stopping runs is an important part of the game, because the team that scores the most runs wins. So stopping the opposition scoring is important.

Saying that being defensive is a fault is ridiculous, stopping the opposition scoring is important.
If stopping the opposition scoring was not important then teams would play soccer without a goal keeper.

Ridiculous, leave Dhoni alone.

Yeah, he made a mistake giving Nehra the last over, but how about praising the batsman for hitting the winning runs.
If Nehra had taken a hattrick people would be saying he and Dhoni was a genius.

All players fail sometimes, and sometimes they fail more regularly than they would like to, such is the nature of sport and it's random variables.

 

[jkartik]

i still stand by my views about dhoni's captaincy. dont care what others think.
we were lucky his "once in a blue moon" top notch captaincy paid off last night.
and am definitely not the type of person to change my mind based on just one performance.(contrary to my fellow indian members)

unfortunately, he is the best option we have right now, so am gonna have to make my peace with that!

he is in the side purely because of his captaincy otherwise he would've faced the yuvraj treatment long ago.

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Sometimes I feel its better being optimistic and disappointed, than being as pessimistic as this!

everyone has their own approach towards certain things. do you see me complaining or bitching about those who are / were optimistic about india's chances ?

 

[harishankar]

A great and excellent win for India. This has set up a potentially explosive semi-final with Pakistan at Mohali.

I still think Dhoni is still growing into the captaincy, but he now has the chance to do what other Indian captains in the past two decades haven't been able to do: win a World Cup.

I think Dhoni's thinking has got better as the tournament progressed. He has finally chosen the right combination of bowlers.

Ashwin's inclusion in the side has definitely given our bowling a slight edge, since he invariably picks up a wicket in his first spell. And he has covered the other seamer's inadequacy in the powerplay overs quite well.

I would prefer to see the energetic Sreesanth in the side though he can be a risky proposition. Munaf Patel looks lethargic and not consistent enough to pose a threat to the batsmen at his pace. And his fielding is awful and slow and his batting nil.

India could have easily lost this game against Australia, but I am glad it was a tough contest and puts the players in the right kind of mindset for the big semi-final. Pakistan knocking over the West Indies so easily could actually be a disadvantage for them since their batting wasn't tested at all.

 

[Kabooka]

Pakistanis play spin better. Its all about who handles pressure well.

No way! India are much better playing spin, in fact the best given the poor quality of spinners playing now.

But as you said, the match will be won by team who handles the pressure better.

 

[sami ullah khan]

^I meant Pakistan plays spin better than Aussies. Its a foregone conclusion that India batsman are much better than ours at playing spin or pace. However we do have an edge in bowling.