South Africa in India

[aussie1st]

Not for one game where India need to win. He hasn't faced international bowlers for sometime now. Too risky IMO to throw him in the deep end. Also India have way too many batters as it is. If you add Ganguly who would you drop? He could solve the opening worries but Tendulkar could also do that. He is a class player.

 

[irottev]

Toss dominated. Again I will bitch about the supersub rule because in occurances like this the losing team needs no mroe disadvantages. Don't take that wrong though. It didn't matter one bit here.

Thats a real thrashing. It isn't easy to beat a great side after losing the toss like that and South Africa took full advantage.

 

[Gilchrist]

Yes, its a bit like England in the one day games.

 

[siddharth2002]

LOl, "ausie1st", Winters in North India are worse than here in NZ. My place which is near New Delhi goes to 1-2 degrees celcius without any snowfall. Sometimes the Fog is so thick that you don't even get to see the sun for a week. Thats why this series has got no matches in Northern part right now. Don't know about test matches though, one looks to be rained-off to me already.

 

[sachinisgod2]

toss led to Indian defeat I think.

 

[prarara]

Fantastic and on the point! India dont deserve brickbats just because of one failure. They have played so well in the past 9 games. If they continue performing badly in another 3-4 games or so, then yeah, you are justified in criticising them and saying 'they suck'!

I want Tendulkar to fire at Mumbai and put the South Africans in their place! He is a great batsman and cant keep away from scoring for long. The thing that he can do now is, pick out Shaun Pollock for special attention! Remember once Henry Olonga rattled Tendulkar and got him out and led Zimbabwe to an upset win in a Sharjah Cup tri series. India and Zimbabwe then again met in the finals (Sri Lanka lost out to Zimbabwe in the finals!) and Tendulkar's blistering attack on Olonga still remains a historical moment for all us Indians! Olonga himself has admitted that Tendulkar tore into him.

Shaun Pollock is the weapon that Tendulkar has to diffuse. The thing is, surprise him by smashing him all over the place! If he loses his line, well its great news. Not only will he lose his line but it would put enormous pressure on the other bowlers to take up his role of containing and the others might not be as skilled as him to do that job! Its all down to Tendulkar and Sehwag. They have to open next match! If the wicket is again assisting fast bowlers, then we should have JP Yadav instead of Kartik as the Super Sub.

Its a 100% no-no for Ganguly to come in for Mumbai's game! The team was selected for the last two ODI's and Ganguly was not in it. So he cant play! He is not needed at the moment! One defeat wont change my stance! We have the required resources!

On the Pollock note, I agree wholeheartedly. If you remember the second match, Tendulkar was particularly brutal to Vaas, and even a bit to Muralitharan. If he can rattle him just for a bit, then the bowler will start to loose confidence and then form.

I also agree on Ganguly not being included, he is good, but it just would ruin the team chemistry to introduce him at the momment.

LOl, "ausie1st", Winters in North India are worse than here in NZ. My place which is near New Delhi goes to 1-2 degrees celcius without any snowfall. Sometimes the Fog is so thick that you don't even get to see the sun for a week. Thats why this series has got no matches in Northern part right now. Don't know about test matches though, one looks to be rained-off to me already.

lol, here in Minnesota, 5-10 F weather is a warm day in winter.

 

[aditya123]

from what I`ve observed in the past 2 days, there is very little or no dew here in Mumbai . Definitely good news and I hope it stays for the next couple of days . I do not think that the toss will be as vital at Mumbai . The curator has said that it will be a 240-250 wicket !

 

[aussie1st]

Thats good to see, it would be good to get a game which is fair to both sides and not so dependent on the toss. 240-250 wicket doesn't sound like a flat batting wicket but still better than the previous ones we have had.

 

[Gibbsrules]

On the Pollock note, I agree wholeheartedly. If you remember the second match, Tendulkar was particularly brutal to Vaas, and even a bit to Muralitharan. If he can rattle him just for a bit, then the bowler will start to loose confidence and then form.

Yes,but there is still Ntini,Langeveld,Hall and Nel to sort it out.I remember the one match where Astle got stuck into Ntini and Polly,but the other bowlers came and fixed things up.

 

[aussie1st]

Langeveld was expensive against the Kiwis. They really took it to him in that series. Nel and Hall would be the guys to clean things up. Hall has really impressed me. 2 games he plays (only 1 this series) and he has done very well with the ball. Not to bad with the bat in the 2nd ODI either. He seems to be reaching his potential now.

 

[prarara]

Yes,but there is still Ntini,Langeveld,Hall and Nel to sort it out.I remember the one match where Astle got stuck into Ntini and Polly,but the other bowlers came and fixed things up.

I suppose. Well India will just have to be play well against all of them-perhaps having a stellar opening...

Here's something of interest:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/4475506.stm

Thoughts?

 

[SaiSrini]

Oh man! Boucher plays with the row that the Indians dont want to remember about! Ok, it can either work to his advantage or it might just burst upon them! I am waiting to see it burst upon them!

 

[aussie1st]

India are more than experienced to cope with sledging. They have gone through the best in Australia so SA will be nothing!

Here is the likely teams and a bit of extra info from cricinfo.

Teams

India (likely) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Yuvraj Singh, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Murali Kartik, 11 RP Singh, Supersub: Gautam Gambhir.

South Africa (likely) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Andrew Hall, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Ashwell Prince, 5 Justin Kemp, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Andre Nel, 10 Charl Langeveldt, 11 Makhaya Ntini, Supersub: Justin Ontong

The undisclosed XIs

Both camps refused to divulge any details about their playing XIs and Boucher was confident that Makhaya Ntini, who missed the previous game owing to illness, would return. After his fine allround performance at Kolkata, Andrew Hall should retain his spot while Justin Ontong, an asset with his electric presence in the field, was likely to be utilised as the Supersub. Rahul Dravid hinted at the difficulties of chasing on this ground, under lights with the dew causing problems, and might decide to go in with the extra batting option, Gautam Gambhir, as the Supersub.

Pitched battles

Natural elements have played their part in this series and it's tough to discount the nature of the pitches while analysing the scoreline. As well as they have played, South Africa undoubtedly had the better of the conditions at Hyderabad and Kolkata while India thrived on a slow turner at Bangalore. A smattering of grass could be seen on the pitch at the ****hede and both camps predicted that it to be a good, firm track with Boucher adding, "There's a little bit of grass on, which we weren't really expecting." When queried about the grassy pitch offered at Kolkata, Dravid insisted that the batsmen had let themselves down and felt that the better team would win the game, irrespective of the nature of the surface.

http://content-nz.cricinfo.com/indvrsa/content/story/227413.html

I wonder if what Dravid said about the diffculties chasing under light might make India bat first on this wicket or just take a supersub batsmen.

 

[SaiSrini]

If India lose the toss and bat first, a score of 260 should be their target to challenge South Africa! They should go in with Yadav as the Super Sub leaving out either Murali Kartik or RP Singh! Yadav can negate any disadvantage that India have with the Super Sub rule!

 

[ashu2411]

India will surely win toss this time and will bat second.