South African Tour of India 2010

[.Mob]

As much I love the guy, I fear he'll get roasted at Test level. Not a test batsmen, nor a test bowler. He bowls from 70-75mph mostly and will hardly get good batsmen out.

Now for him to get picked and prove me wrong.

 

[Cricketman]

What about Nayar? He's in pretty good form. And just out of curiosity, I was wondering how fast Nayar bowls, I know he's a medium pacer but dunno how fast exactly.

Not fast at at all. 125kmph, pretty run of the mill.

He's a top class batter though

 

[aditya123]

In all honesty why will you want Saha in test side?

What are you going on and on about. Saha just played his FIRST international game. He looked decent in the second inning and was out to a fiery Dale Steyn in the first. Was it his fault that he was picked as a specialist batsman? It was just a matter of bad luck that the backup batsman for VVS got injured on the morning of the test.
Saha is the best gloveman in India and he was just picked as a backup keeper in the original squad. Just because we did not pick up enough batsmen in the squad, we had to play him as a specialist batsman and even then he showed promise in the second inning. The guy does not deserve all the flak that he is getting from people like you, nor do Badri and Vijay.

How the fearsome tweak do you judge whether a player would be a prolific scorer once the legends retire by looking at just a single game! On one hadn you are so quick to write off these youngsters and on the otehr hand you talk of building a team for the future. These guys are all supremely talented and I can see them fitting into Dravid or VVS`s place in the coming years. We also have Pandey, Pujara and Kohli as the next line of batsmen. Can`t understand all the pessimism about the future of our batting based on one failure.

Once these guys get the taste of international cricket, I`m pretty optimistic that they`ll do good but it won`t be without a few defeaths which we`ll have to accept while we blood them in. Sorry, this is not the way you support your team.

 

[mdoggie]

Brilliant play by South Africa, really dominated for all 4 days. Good to see Parnell get a few wickets, can only help his confidence and once again Harris comes in and does his job, removing some dangerous players. Steyn and Morkel could become one of the great fast bowling partnerships in a few years.

Steyn is 5 aways from 200 wickets, and if he get's thos he will be second on the list of fastest to 200, tie with Lillee and Waqar, pretty good for an era with flat pitches

 

[King Cricket]

What are you going on and on about. Saha just played his FIRST international game. He looked decent in the second inning and was out to a fiery Dale Steyn in the first. Was it his fault that he was picked as a specialist batsman? It was just a matter of bad luck that the backup batsman for VVS got injured on the morning of the test.
Saha is the best gloveman in India and he was just picked as a backup keeper in the original squad. Just because we did not pick up enough batsmen in the squad, we had to play him as a specialist batsman and even then he showed promise in the second inning. The guy does not deserve all the flak that he is getting from people like you, nor do Badri and Vijay.

Exactly. Saha did pretty well if I take into account that it was his first ever Test. In fact, his collective score in the two innings of the match is actually higher than the combined scores of giants like Dhoni and Gambhir. In a game where proven superstars fared so badly, you shouldn't really be expecting a debutant to set the stage on fire. But still, everyone has jumped on the Saha bashwagon and is hurling all sorts of criticisms at him. :sarcasm

 

[aditya123]

Recently SL beat Ind twice with their Inexperience Players in ODI's.

Taking nothing away from the Sri Lankan win in that `Nondescript Cup` in Bangladesh, they`ve been pretty pathetic against India in ODIs for a few years now except for a couple of games here and there.
ODIs are a different kettle of fish. We are talking of test cricket here. If you are talking ODIs, the Indian ODI side has been without senior players like Dravid for sometime now and we have been pretty prolific as an ODI side leaving aside a few blips.

We beat Australia in Australia, NZ in NZ, SL in SL (twice), WI in WI, ENG at home since Dravid and Ganguly did not get picked for the ODIs in Australia. We have gone about blooding in the youngsters in the ODI side very well and most of them have fit in well. Except for Sachin, the rest of the players in the ODI scheme of things will play for quite sometime after the 2011 WC. I don`t know what you are on about there.

Its far more difficult managing the same in tests because we play so few of those. People have to understand that while we would all like to give the next crop of cricketers the chance in test cricket, there are not a lot of test matches that we play each year. At least with sides like Aus, England, NZ and SA they have their quota 6-7 of home test matches which they play each year. In India`s case however, we are not even guaranteed our share of home tests becasue of some pathetic BCCI scheduling. Also, whenever India tour SA, AUS or NZ, we lose out on our home season. Its a lot more difficult blooding in youngsters in test match cricket than you think.

aditya123 added 2 Minutes and 46 Seconds later...

Exactly. Saha did pretty well if I take into account that it was his first ever Test. In fact, his collective score in the two innings of the match is actually higher than the combined scores of giants like Dhoni and Gambhir. In a game where proven superstars fared so badly, you shouldn't really be expecting a debutant to set the stage on fire. But still, everyone has jumped on the Saha bashwagon and is hurling all sorts of criticisms at him. :sarcasm

We`ve got to be able to deal with a few losses if we want to start giving these youngsters a chance. To be fair to young Indian batsmen, most of them have been pretty quick in establishing themselves (be it ODIs or tests) whenever they`ve got an opportunity, except a few like Nohit Sharma who I still feel is a special talent who should still be groomed.

 

[McLOVIN]

SA needs to come in harder on the 2nd test. B/c Sehwag and GG will be up on their toes, itching to get back!!

 

[Amiya]

Saha looked good, but the Selectors will always prefer a pure bowler or batsman over a reserve wicket keeper batsman.

 

[yashwanth kumar]

Saha out and Sree in for match 2 , it was MSD's foolishness to pick 2 fast bowlers and 2 spinners which cost them the match

 

[SaiSrini]

SA needs to come in harder on the 2nd test. B/c Sehwag and GG will be up on their toes, itching to get back!!

Yeah, thats a known fact. Any team that has just beaten one of the top teams in world cricket in such a humiliating fashion will have to know that the wounded team would want to prove a point that they are still good enough and so the intensity for the 2nd game is going to be double from them.

 

[stefan]

4. I was disappointed with the way Harris approached his task yesterday. While he can't be faulted since it worked to perfection, I'd have liked to see Smith attack with him a bit more rather than just wait for the wickets to fall. Ah well, can't fault his strategy for winning.

That's not his role. His role is to tie up an end and give the three quicks the chance to attack from the other end. He fullfills this role wel 90% of the time.

 

[AngryPixel]

Thank god this is not a 3 test series, otherwise poor Dravid would be forced to play with plaster on his jaw

AngryPixel added 7 Minutes and 38 Seconds later...

What the flip are the coaches in India teaching the bowlers. They came in strong and bowl above 140 KMPH. Then their speed decreases gradually instead of increasing. This has been true in case of Irfan,Ishant,Sreesanth, Munaf etc. I know speed isn't everthing but good line with pace can cause more trouble than just good line. Look how threatening saffers were on this dead track.

Funny thing is, noone in indian team bowls anywhere above 135KMPH while that veteran Kallis scores 170 odd runs and still got enuff in him to come in and bowl above 145 KMPH consistently.

 

[SaiSrini]

If we had to do it, we could have done it for the upcoming 2nd test at Kolkata. Even if there was a third test, Dravid would only come if he is fully fit. The selectors and board cant force Dravid (he has legendary status in India) and Dravid will only play when he feels he is fully fit.

Dravid should feel really happy now. The team is missing him. There was one point where they completely forgot him and threw all sorts of abuses on him for being a slow scorer, boring, etc. Now his value is completely realized. We need to groom Badrinath or Pujara in Dravid's mould because we need such a shock absorber/rebuilder if we have to do well in tests

 

[AngryPixel]

i was joking mate... thats what the smiley was for

 

[SaiSrini]

Good news for SA fans and true test cricket lovers
I've been requested to prepare a turner - Kolkata curator | Cricket News | India v South Africa 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

I also agree with it. I wont mind a repeat of the pitch where India won against Australia in 2001. That was by no means an under-prepared pitch like the one in Kanpur in 2008. That was a perfect Indian subcontinent wicket which was superb for batting in the first two days and it gradually favored spin a lot in the last two days. If the pitch at Kolkata can mirror that one of 2001, I would be very happy. If India are good enough, they will win on the type of pitch produced for the Kolkata test.