aditya123
National Board President
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2003
- Location
- Mumbai
- Online Cricket Games Owned
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - Xbox 360
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - Xbox One
Seeing how both the sides would have played Australis home and away by the end of March 2009, we should have a fair indication as to which of the two is the real challenger to the throne or in an extreme case, both would topple Australia to the No.3 spot.The top 3 ranked nations have never been closer !
Let us look at the batting of the 2 sides first :
India seem to have a stronger,more glamorous batting lineup while SA have the more restrained conservative and steady lineup.
Gambhir v McKenzie
Sehwag v Smith
Dravid v Amla
Sachin v Kallis
Laxman v Duminy/Prince
Yuvraj v De Villiers
Dhoni v Boucher
Sehwag v Smith is the closest one to call.But if you look at the partnership as a whole,Gambhir and Sehwag would just clinch the batting honours for India though.However their partnership has not been tested a great deal in foreign conditions.India have Rohit Sharma,Raina,Badrinath,M Vijay waiting in the fringes while SA have Duminy.
Laxman v Prince is another close one but Laxman`s ability to churn out big innings under pressure against good attacks makes him a marginally better bet than Prince.Prince has been largely untested against Australia.
Sachin v Kallis ,leaving the bowling aspect aside is the comparision between the two most experienced batsmen.Tendulkar has had a solid year in test matches this year and has played many crucial pressure knocks whilst taking the monkey of the fourth innings run-chase of his back.Kallis has had a poor test match year while Tendulkar now looks a more solid batsman than what he was in the past while compromising on some of his strokeplay.
AB De Villiers and Yuvraj have very similar roles in their sides.The role of the attacking strokemaker in the middle-order.De Villiers has already established himself as a test batsman over the past year while Yuvraj is still trying to get a regular spot in the test match side after Ganguly`s exit from test cricket.
BOWLING :
Zaheer v Ntini
Sharma v Steyn
Harbhajan v Harris
Munaf/Sreesanth/Mishra v Morkel
On current form, Zaheer is a better bowler than Makhaya because of his ability to extract movement with both the old and the new ball.He is the best reverse swing bowler in the world.
Steyn has to be the better of the two due to Sharma being only in his first year in test match cricket.However,Sharma is fast catching up and making all the right moves towards becoming a leading fast bowler in world cricket.His ability to pick up big wickets and bowl crucial spells keeps him well in this race(read Perth 2008).
India obviously have the better spinners of the two sides but the ability of Harbhajan to be effective on foreign soil is debatable.
Coming to the third seamer, its even-stevens there. Munaf,Sreesanth,RP Singh are as effective on helpful wickets as Kallis,Morkel,Zondeki,Nel.
So bowling is that close with maybe SA clinching this one by a whisker.
FIELDING:
SA have the better fielding side of the two by miles.
CAPTAINCY:
Although early days in the captaincy career,Dhoni has come across as someone who makes the right noises and moves.Smith has had a successful run as well but Dhoni seems to have a midas touch going for him.In addition to this, Dhoni does not come across as an arrogant guy which many say Smith comes across as.If Dhoni`s ODI results are anythig to go by, India`s reins are in safe hands.Dhoni for me !
I still cannot make a call on which side is better equipped but I would go for India,just.The reason is that India have constantly challenged Australia at their prime,home and away and have a 7/7 head to head against Australia in their last 15 games.+India have not lost to Australia in their previous 6 meetings,2 of which were in Autralia.
Let us look at the batting of the 2 sides first :
India seem to have a stronger,more glamorous batting lineup while SA have the more restrained conservative and steady lineup.
Gambhir v McKenzie
Sehwag v Smith
Dravid v Amla
Sachin v Kallis
Laxman v Duminy/Prince
Yuvraj v De Villiers
Dhoni v Boucher
Sehwag v Smith is the closest one to call.But if you look at the partnership as a whole,Gambhir and Sehwag would just clinch the batting honours for India though.However their partnership has not been tested a great deal in foreign conditions.India have Rohit Sharma,Raina,Badrinath,M Vijay waiting in the fringes while SA have Duminy.
Laxman v Prince is another close one but Laxman`s ability to churn out big innings under pressure against good attacks makes him a marginally better bet than Prince.Prince has been largely untested against Australia.
Sachin v Kallis ,leaving the bowling aspect aside is the comparision between the two most experienced batsmen.Tendulkar has had a solid year in test matches this year and has played many crucial pressure knocks whilst taking the monkey of the fourth innings run-chase of his back.Kallis has had a poor test match year while Tendulkar now looks a more solid batsman than what he was in the past while compromising on some of his strokeplay.
AB De Villiers and Yuvraj have very similar roles in their sides.The role of the attacking strokemaker in the middle-order.De Villiers has already established himself as a test batsman over the past year while Yuvraj is still trying to get a regular spot in the test match side after Ganguly`s exit from test cricket.
BOWLING :
Zaheer v Ntini
Sharma v Steyn
Harbhajan v Harris
Munaf/Sreesanth/Mishra v Morkel
On current form, Zaheer is a better bowler than Makhaya because of his ability to extract movement with both the old and the new ball.He is the best reverse swing bowler in the world.
Steyn has to be the better of the two due to Sharma being only in his first year in test match cricket.However,Sharma is fast catching up and making all the right moves towards becoming a leading fast bowler in world cricket.His ability to pick up big wickets and bowl crucial spells keeps him well in this race(read Perth 2008).
India obviously have the better spinners of the two sides but the ability of Harbhajan to be effective on foreign soil is debatable.
Coming to the third seamer, its even-stevens there. Munaf,Sreesanth,RP Singh are as effective on helpful wickets as Kallis,Morkel,Zondeki,Nel.
So bowling is that close with maybe SA clinching this one by a whisker.
FIELDING:
SA have the better fielding side of the two by miles.
CAPTAINCY:
Although early days in the captaincy career,Dhoni has come across as someone who makes the right noises and moves.Smith has had a successful run as well but Dhoni seems to have a midas touch going for him.In addition to this, Dhoni does not come across as an arrogant guy which many say Smith comes across as.If Dhoni`s ODI results are anythig to go by, India`s reins are in safe hands.Dhoni for me !
I still cannot make a call on which side is better equipped but I would go for India,just.The reason is that India have constantly challenged Australia at their prime,home and away and have a 7/7 head to head against Australia in their last 15 games.+India have not lost to Australia in their previous 6 meetings,2 of which were in Autralia.
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