South African Tour of India 2010

[pcfan123]

Each country can prepare a pitch they think gives them the best chance of winning. I got no problems with India making a pitch that will spin miles. Only problem I have is countries preparing really flat pitches which seems to be a trend these days.

This ^

If SA want to be number 1 then beating India at home on a rank turner should be part of the process.

 

[AngryPixel]

Each country can prepare a pitch they think gives them the best chance of winning. I got no problems with India making a pitch that will spin miles. Only problem I have is countries preparing really flat pitches which seems to be a trend these days.

Coudn't have said better myself.... Massive turners or Grassy pitches are way way better then flat beds we are accustomed to these days.

AngryPixel added 4 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...

This ^

If SA want to be number 1 then beating India at home on a rank turner should be part of the process.

It is hard to believe but i agree with you there

If SAF beat India on a dustbowl then i would gladly accept that they are the No.1 team in the world. Till then i would consider Saf and India equal. If India manages to beat SAF at home later this year than their would be no doubt who is number 1.

 

[TumTum]

Then there is the little matter of beating Australia

 

[Robelinda]

Australia gotto no.1 and stayed there for ages and never beat India on a dustbowl.

 

[shravi]

Australia gotto no.1 and stayed there for ages and never beat India on a dustbowl.

Yeah, but they beat India pretty convincingly (until the last match, that is) in a 4 match series. This is just 2 matches long. Unless one team wins 2-0, it doesn't prove all that much.

 

[yashwanth kumar]

But beating India seem to be easy job for SA since Bowling lacks a lot , and with most of the experienced batsmen are back in the squad for 2nd Test against SA batting looks ok , now it all depends on bowlers to perform well if India have to retain the NO-1 spot

 

[Valaskjalf]

:doh

TumTum added 5 Minutes and 2 Seconds later...

SAF would get eaten alive in a raging turner. It doesn't matter if India have lost some players, they are naturally gifted when playing spin, especially against a bowler like Harris.

However Harbhajan can cause real problems if the pitch starts gripping.

But even Harris caused more problems than both the Indian spinners so who knows? Maybe India will be stuffed if the ball turns so much...theyre hardly as good at spin as they were years ago and even Paul "Straight-One" Harris managed to tie them up and get them out on a pitch that wasnt a dustbowl.

 

[SaiSrini]

Harris was basically throwing it down there in the legside and was waiting for the Indian batsmen to give their wickets out of frustration. For me, even if the Indian spinners struggled in the first test, they were always far far better than what Harris did in the first test. I always support people who are up for the battle and those who dont find a spot where they are guaranteed 100% safety and keep bowling at that spot and wait until the batsmen self destructs.

Only ball where Harris caused problem was the Dhoni dismissal in the first innings. Apart from that, he did what I mentioned of him above.

 

[sohum]

It should be within reason, can't have a pitch that is unplayable where both teams only get 50. Don't mind if India produces those massive turners though, that is what they are known for, just keep very very far away from the roads we have been seeing.

Don't think I've seen a pitch like that... ever. The thing that comes close to that is that series in New Zealand before the WC where we saw the third innings of match start on Day 1 or something like that. Otherwise, it's a case of the batting team not adjusting to the conditions well enough (keeping in mind that they are likely to get dismissed for a low score, anyway).

Going back to that Mumbai game against Australia, both teams were playing comfortably in the first innings. The pitch didn't just change over a session--batsmen got a bit over-confident.

sohum added 5 Minutes and 35 Seconds later...

But even Harris caused more problems than both the Indian spinners so who knows? Maybe India will be stuffed if the ball turns so much...theyre hardly as good at spin as they were years ago and even Paul "Straight-One" Harris managed to tie them up and get them out on a pitch that wasnt a dustbowl.

I wouldn't say Harris "tied them up" and got them out. It would be more accurate to say he bored them out. His 4 wickets were all taken with balls that were down the leg side. In fact, about 95% of his balls were pitched outside the line of leg-stump.

The wicket he took in the first innings was a delivery that deceived Dhoni. His wickets in the second innings were:

Vijay: Inexperienced batsmen who got bored and top-edged a sweep shot
Tendulkar: Freak dismissal after going for a sweep shot
Dhoni: Inside edge of a defense of a ball outside leg-stump

It's not like Harris bowled unplayable deliveries. He deserved his wickets purely because he was able to keep bowling that nagging outside-leg-stump line without falling asleep.

 

[Annoyingdevil]

Well India didn't have a tight loora so thats why they didn't play well.
in the next test match india must make sure that they a a tight loora so they can doo well...Tendulkar loora is tight enough

 

[stefan]

Harris got the indian batsmen out because they couldn't score of him. He and the SA team knows the indian batsman want to dominate him so by bowling this line he makes it very hard for them. Pretty good strategy in my book considering he has a more than decent pace attack at the other end. Now its up to the indian batsmen they can either take risks against harris and his "negative line" or they can try and bash the likes of steyn.

People can have a go at harris if they want but he is doing his job in a team context.

 

[SaiSrini]

Yeah, his plan worked for his team (more so because India couldnt score easily off Steyn and Morkel and their main batsmen got out cheaply). But I wont rate his performance better than that of the Indian spinners (as the other guy 'Valaskjalf' said) just because the Indian spinners bowled lines where they ran the risk of being hit and so such spinners are always rated higher no matter what their figures at the end of the match are.

 

[sohum]

Harris got the indian batsmen out because they couldn't score of him. He and the SA team knows the indian batsman want to dominate him so by bowling this line he makes it very hard for them. Pretty good strategy in my book considering he has a more than decent pace attack at the other end. Now its up to the indian batsmen they can either take risks against harris and his "negative line" or they can try and bash the likes of steyn.

People can have a go at harris if they want but he is doing his job in a team context.

I'm not arguing that he is doing his job in the team. I'm just refuting the claim that was made that Harris will do even better if there is a spinning pitch on the basis of his performance in the first match, unless his role in the team changes spectacularly in the next two days.

Isn't there a restriction against negative bowling? From the ICC rulebook, Law 25.1:

For bowlers whom umpires consider to be bowling down the leg side as a negative tactic, the strict limited over wide interpretation shall be applied.

 

[TumTum]

Tendulkar's dismissal is hardly surprising.

He almost got bowled about 10 times by Shakib in the Bangladesh series playing exactly the same shot.

And in this Test, he was lucky to be out on his 4th or 5th failed attempt at that shot.

You really shouldn't be sweeping a spin bowler, that is spinning it back to your stumps. Out of all people, I thought Tendulkar would have learned this.

TumTum added 5 Minutes and 9 Seconds later...

Isn't there a restriction against negative bowling? From the ICC rulebook, Law 25.1:

Yep umpires should be doing that, I heard it on a commentary once.

But it doesn't count if the batsmen are padding it away. And in Harris's case, he was spinning the ball back onto the stumps anyway.

 

[aditya123]

Tendulkar's dismissal is hardly surprising.

He almost got bowled about 10 times by Shakib in the Bangladesh series playing exactly the same shot.

And in this Test, he was lucky to be out on his 4th or 5th failed attempt at that shot.

You really shouldn't be sweeping a spin bowler, that is spinning it back to your stumps. Out of all people, I thought Tendulkar would have learned this.

TumTum added 5 Minutes and 9 Seconds later...



Yep umpires should be doing that, I heard it on a commentary once.

But it doesn't count if the batsmen are padding it away. And in Harris's case, he was spinning the ball back onto the stumps anyway.

I`ve been watching Tendulkar bat ever since he started playing that paddle sweep of his and I had never seen him get out playing that shot ever before this game. It was pure bad luck. He has scored tons of runs playing the paddle sweep against better bowlers than Harris (a bowler with the name S.Warne for example).