New Zealand Tour of India, November 2010/11

[SaiSrini]

Bhajji my boy! If he gets his second consecutive hundred tomorrow, Mark is going to go red faced .

Super knock. Its not as if NZ is making Bhajji look like an allrounder. Australia and other bigger teams have already made him look like that (if you feel he is not really that talented to be an allrounder himself). He took 4 wkts this game and now this 85, wonder whats more in store. A 10 wicket haul maybe in this test and/or the next test? A record 3 centuries on the trot? Come on Bhajji, Chak de Phatte (Hit it boy)! Dhoni needs to look into his batting big time. He is very very ordinary in tests. He is going to be embarassed when he visits SA, England and Australia in the next year.

 

[Cricketman]

Now everyone is going to hail Bhaj as an allrounder, play him at number 7 etc etc... he should be dropped.

 

[pcfan123]

Bhaji batting is only good for non-India fans, that means he will be kept in the team longer despite his bowling getting weaker and weaker.

Also getting really tired of the lack of UDRS in India matches.

 

[subversive]

Bhajji definitely deservesa promotion in the batting order, he should bat above Dhoni on current form.

On current form, he should open with Sehwag

Bhajji's just 1 or 2 runs short of being the highest scorer in the series...

 

[SaiSrini]

Bhaji batting is only good for non-India fans, that means he will be kept in the team longer despite his bowling getting weaker and weaker.

Also getting really tired of the lack of UDRS in India matches.

Cant blame his bowling too in this match. He got 4 wickets and was instrumental in NZ being kept to just 350. On flat pancake wickets, even Warne or Muralitharan will look pathetic. Bhajji is not a legend or anything, but I guess sometimes the criticism on him might be a lil' too harsh.

 

[Left_Hander]

Harbhajan's batting is becoming a real nuisance. It's good to watch but I feel sorry for New Zealand, they could of gone in with a small deficit. I guess they just lost the plot.

 

[deepuparayil]

Dhoni's batting performances are going downhill after his marriage, may be he can't concentrate anymore.

 

[SaiSrini]

Dhoni's batting performances are going downhill after his marriage, may be he can't concentrate anymore.

He he he... That was a funny one! But Dhoni's batting in tests has always been like this. But we have a problem - we dont have a replacement for Dhoni, the skipper. Sehwag is trash, Gambhir is the same, Harbhajan cant even be thought of, Yuvraj is not even in the team, we saw Raina's captaincy in the IPL, etc. I guess Zaheer is the only guy who has the brains for captaincy but he is injury prone. So the options left are Laxman, Sachin and Dravid. Sachin and Dravid are not ready to take it back, and all three are counting days for their end of careers.

 

[Iridium]

Typical that it's NZ that lets a No. 8 score back-to-back centuries. They manage to dismiss some of the best batsmen in the world. They all play pretty defensively and then Harbhajan comes out and smacks a ton.

 

[SaiSrini]

Harbhajan!!!! WHAT A KNOCK!!! He came in at a point where India were almost in danger of conceding a lead (we were 326/6, I guess) and he has now taken us to a very safe lead of 100+. 25 more runs will be real handy, but I am guessing this should be enough.

We will need Bhaj to repeat his heroics with the ball in 2nd innings. He got 4 in first, maybe a 7 in the second?

 

[Sahil 7]

harbhajan 2 back to back hundreds turning on to an perfect all rounder for india

 

[AbhishekS]

What a super knock by Harbhajan. Back to back hundreds for a number 8 batsman is brilliant. Sreesanth would have been under more pressure as if he would lose his wicket before Harbhajan reaching the three figures, he would have had one more tight one from Bhajji.

Harbhajan is beginning to look really good in batting. Surely, he bats well than Dhoni in the test format. If he manages to continue his form and scores 40s-50s in South Africa, he will be rated as a perfect all-rounder for us.

Just hoping he doesn't go the Irfan Pathan way, who begun concentrating more on his batting and less on bowling. His pace reduced, swing is still intact, but he is not that lethal now. I personally feel Pathan still deserves a chance in the side.

Yudi added 0 Minutes and 47 Seconds later...

Martin is awesome!

If we let Habhajan score anything above 20 I'll be pretty pissed.

He almost scored 120.

 

[shravi]

Irfan's swing is nowhere near intact. He no longer has the banana swing that left armers crave for. To think that came naturally to him at one point... While I am saddened by Ishant's decline I think it was always bound to happen as he is so fragile (physically), but also because his bowling is a little one dimensional. He bowls from wide of the crease and angles it into the right hander which basically negates any movement in the other direction. He can only (in theory) get it to straighten but he struggles to do so. Irfan had it all and he could have gotten faster over time and swung it at a higher pace, which would have made him a real force to be reckoned with. Alas...

 

[Chewie]

This is some great batting from the Mac Attack. We have a tendency to collapse in the second innings, but we're ahead of India's first innings score now, without a loss of wicket.

This is the first century opening partnership for NZ since 2004 (Richardson & Vincent), and only the seventh since 2000. Partnership records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

And McIntosh is just out as I type

 

[aussie1st]

Exciting times for cricket atm with all these aggressive openers. Got Sehwag, Gayle, Dilshan and now McCullum all opening. Unlucky for McIntosh but hes secured his spot for a few more matches.