SA or India : The Real Challengers To Australia`s Throne.

[Shri]

Just some side info. In August 2009 Imran Tahir, the pakistani leg spinner, qualifies to play for SA so that will give SA some extra firepower when touring the sub-continent. He has been very successful in SA franchise cricket. Here's his career stats:

Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10
First-class 77 94 14340 7507 297 8/76 25.27 3.14 48.2 18 4

Cricinfo - Players and Officials - Imran Tahir

Looks like a fairly decent spinner. But we have seen time and again that spinners need that extra bit of X-Factor when bowling to Indian batsmen.

Mendis, Murali etc have that. You never know, he might be good or he might be decent. You can't predict stuff before they happen.

 

[tech.007]

Real test of india will be when it goes overseas but while comparing two teams you need to compare the struggle faced by the indian cricketers like terrorism and media pressure ..........in my pont of view India leads the batting ..and bowling(zaheer and sharma) while south africa are a much more athletic and fitter side on the field...

 

[deerkick]

Yeah Indian fans having been saying how ridiculously good we are now, but know that we tend to perform horribly outside the subcontinent. Aside from the CB series victory, all of our victories have been in India/Sri Lanka/Pakistan. Tie against Saffers? In India. Victory against Aussies? In India. Now against England? In India. In fact, if we are so good, why did we lose so badly to the Sri Lankans in tests when Aussies dominated them just a short while ago?

And I'm not gonna put Sehwag and Gambhir up there just yet since they have yet to be tested outside of India. It is a widely known fact that Sehwag is a flat track bully and does not do too well outside India. I'm not too convinced on Sehwag until we face Australia, England, South Africa, etc outside India, where the pitch provides major assistance to the bowlers.

As for India vs South Africa, I feel this new Indian team is still very untested whilst the South African team has already settled down. They have had successes overseas in England and now in Australia, so I believe they hold the advantage at the moment. South Africa also has the better pace bowlers IMO while India obviously has the better spinners.

 

[sohum]

In fact, if we are so good, why did we lose so badly to the Sri Lankans in tests when Aussies dominated them just a short while ago?

Mendis.

I'm not too convinced on Sehwag until we face Australia, England, South Africa, etc outside India, where the pitch provides major assistance to the bowlers.

Looks like you're really giving him a lose-lose situation. If the pitch provides "major assistance to the bowlers" a lot of the batsman's success becomes about being lucky enough to miss the edge.

Sehwag has scored a century in every Test playing nation except Bangladesh, New Zealand and Zimbabwe, having played one 2-test series in each place. New Zealand was absolutely horrible conditions for batsmen and batsmen from each side failed consistently, so it would be unfair to judge Sehwag there. Also, he was the only batsmen from both sides to score a century in the duration of the series (2 tests and 7 ODI's), and he scored 2 of them there in the ODIs, so it seemed as if he was beginning to adapt.

If you look at Sehwag's career breakdown, the place he has really failed is South Africa (though he scored a century in his debut Test in that country). In England, his average is a touch under 40, but is still good enough to warrant a place as an opener.

You're right in saying Sehwag hasn't been tested as much out of the subcontinent, given that he's played 42 of his 66 matches in Asia. But I think he's tightened up his game a lot and has also got back into form. This is only Sehwag's second calendar year that he has scored more than 1000 runs, but I think there's a lot more to come.

But I agree with your final analysis that South Africa is the better team at the moment. They've hit the Aussies with the first punch, which is what most touring teams don't do. Successful touring teams in Australia usually fightback to draw the series, whereas South Africa have set themselves up perfectly for a chance to get an extremely elusive series win in Australia.

 

[mdoggie]

The thing is when India play South Africa, they never really perform. They have never won in South Africa showing that they don't have the fire power in the pace bowling. There to main fast bowlers are both players who swing the ball and in South Africa, hitting the deck hard and using the seam is more useful. In India, South Africa have one draw, one win and one loss (Series), not the best record for a team with no quality spinner.

India have not got a set side yet with constant speculation of retiring players. both Tendulkar and Dravid have pasted there prime and don't carry the same fear they use to but it will ot be easy to replace them as it will unsettle the team. If India can beat SA at home then they will truly be the best side in the world.

 

[SaiSrini]

So much bias in this its not funny... not even worth my time reading

Did you even read this? He has shown as much non-partiality possible.

saisrini80 added 4 Minutes and 3 Seconds later...

Munaf, Sree, RP --- lethal? in getting smashed? I feel Ganguly/Tendulkar/Sehwag better than slow lifeless Munaf, aggressive for nothing, Sreesanth, Getting smashed bowler, RPSingh.

Oh well.. I am not a fan of Indian bowling attack.. SA do have a quality bowling attack which was well observed when We went to SA last time.. how our players struggled to reach even 200 in ODIs and how they(SA) got runs with ease which inturn explains our bowling attack.

You forgot Pathan? Who is another rusting bowler we have in our list. Only bowler who has impressed me is Ishant Sharma. I don't consider our Indian bowling line-up to be a dependable one even if it is a 300+ defending one.

Not quite true. Our bowling attack is a pretty impressive one. Harbhajan has been in good form this season, although he seems to have lost a little due to these England tests (he himself acknowledges). Mishra is a growing guy and has shown lot of promise. Ishant and Zaheer can probably compete for the best new ball pair at the moment. Sreesanth has not played for a long time now but he is a dependable test bowler. Irfan is right now in very good form in domestic cricket and looks like he might comeback. Munaf has picked up his pace and his slackiness seems to have disappeared (as far as what I saw of his last few matches for India).

So we do have a good bowling attack with good backup

saisrini80 added 2 Minutes and 6 Seconds later...

Dhoni is nowhere near as good as Boucher. Boucher wins that hands down. Boucher is one of the best keepers ever.

As far as keeping goes, I dont think the gap is too wide between Dhoni and Boucher. Dhoni has turned into one of the most reliable keepers in international cricket. Initially he struggled, but has improved very impressively (rather dramatic if you can say). Dhoni can do the same diving saves and catches (although it might not look as attractive as Boucher). I still agree Boucher wins on keeping, but its not 'hands down'

saisrini80 added 5 Minutes and 23 Seconds later...

Laxman is a far superior batsman then Prince, i'm surprised that people are even questioning it.

I think an India - SA series right now would be the best cricket that we've seen in a long long time.

In South Africa. Indian pitches are quite bad these days (with no proper turn and bounce). All slow almost lifeless pitches being dished out these days.

 

[aussie_ben91]

All I can say is...

Dale Steyn, 5-23 against India in India - First innings of the Test Match

India got pwned.

 

[aditya123]

Yeah Indian fans having been saying how ridiculously good we are now, but know that we tend to perform horribly outside the subcontinent. Aside from the CB series victory, all of our victories have been in India/Sri Lanka/Pakistan. Tie against Saffers? In India. Victory against Aussies? In India. Now against England? In India. In fact, if we are so good, why did we lose so badly to the Sri Lankans in tests when Aussies dominated them just a short while ago?

And I'm not gonna put Sehwag and Gambhir up there just yet since they have yet to be tested outside of India. It is a widely known fact that Sehwag is a flat track bully and does not do too well outside India. I'm not too convinced on Sehwag until we face Australia, England, South Africa, etc outside India, where the pitch provides major assistance to the bowlers.

As for India vs South Africa, I feel this new Indian team is still very untested whilst the South African team has already settled down. They have had successes overseas in England and now in Australia, so I believe they hold the advantage at the moment. South Africa also has the better pace bowlers IMO while India obviously has the better spinners.

Sehwag has been very successful in Australia in his past couple of series there.You don`t average 50 in International cricket by just scoring runs in India.

aditya123 added 1 Minutes and 57 Seconds later...

Did you even read this? He has shown as much non-partiality possible.

Sai, from all the posts that I have read in this thread so far, I feel bias if any is towards SA and not India !

 

[deerkick]

Hmmm when's the last time India played in South Africa? I would like a full tour against them, 4 tests and 5 ODIs to settle the score!!!

 

[sohum]

Hmmm when's the last time India played in South Africa? I would like a full tour against them, 4 tests and 5 ODIs to settle the score!!!

It was in 2006/07. I think we had our first Test match win in South Africa in a long time, or something.

 

[Neo95]

It was in 2006/07. I think we had our first Test match win in South Africa in a long time, or something.

For the 1st time.At the moment I can say SA is looking better.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Sehwag has been very successful in Australia in his past couple of series there.You don`t average 50 in International cricket by just scoring runs in India.

I reckon Chris Gayle would average 50 or close to it if Gayle got to bat on Indian pitches with the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman.

 

[Highlander999]

Sai, from all the posts that I have read in this thread so far, I feel bias if any is towards SA and not India !

Reading that did make me choke in surprise

 

[shubhrayu]

prince should be there vs ?

and you should do a poll thingi. "Next Super Power: Indian or RSA?"
and i would rather see RSA on Top, because indian already have the MONEY power, and if they get to be #1 then they will be over the mood...(again)

Ahh!!!I doubt you understand Cricket...Indians never beat Australia using money.....

They never won the 2007 npower Test series using money
They did'nt win the the CB series using money
They did'nt wipe out England 5-0 using money

So how the **** money comes here ..Talk of Cricket not politics

 

[Gurjot95]

India is now in no.2 in Test after winning from England so I think India can give real challenge to australia