South African Tour of India 2010

[khalek]

And Duminy keeps failing.

Fantastic atmosphere at the Eden Gardens, they really should be hosting more test matches. This really is classic Indian test cricket which was looking dead for a long time.

 

[Chetan0304]

Sorry but do you know the actual meaning of choking? Any tom, dick and harry come and call them chokers. South Africa is a good side and everytime they do badly they become chokers?

That guy is a legend. known mostly for his EPIC post's

he chokes


Harbhajan :cool:

 

[SaiSrini]

So far, its going on the lines of that Eden classic match in 2001 (Australia dominated sessions 1 and 2 of the opening day and spectacularly collapsed in session 3 and Hayden who played so well in that series just like Amla here was again threatening for a big one). A repeat of that game would be sensational.

Ha ha ha.... The '2001 Eden repeat' is almost there!! AMAZING!!! I gave up when SA were 218/1 at tea and hit the sack. Got up and was shocked to see the scoreline. But these are the shocks that my body wants so much to absorb:banana2:banana2 THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT KOLKATA THAT INSPIRES HARBHAJAN!! And mind you, this is just not the rank turner that all expected after the Nagpur defeat. Also for Laxman after that Amla drop, he seems to have made up for it with a blinder catch. I want to badly watch the highlights now! This could spur India a lot in this match. We are a 'confidence' team. When we are low, you can keep us down for long periods, but we get into that rhythm, we can be unstoppable.

SaiSrini added 5 Minutes and 20 Seconds later...

He doesnt have the movement or control for that. The only reason he was troubling Pontings was the pace plus bounce and a bit of movement (which probably comes only at that pace)

The boy has to be dropped for a long period of time. Thats how he can work out of form. He was dropped but he came back soon enough since Sree got injured. Ishant needs the time out to sort out his mind and be back. I still believe he can be a good bowler for India in the upcoming years.

SaiSrini added 4 Minutes and 26 Seconds later...

This is a classical Indian test match day. One moment it feels like you are cruising with the crowd all silent and suddenly a couple of wickets later, the crowd are all up and roaring and the game has turned.

This is why I keep asking for test matches to be scheduled at traditional test match venues. Test Cricket in India is dying, my foot.

Yeah adi, I was waiting for you to come and comment here about it. I also agree with the sentiment that test matches should now be scheduled only at the traditional test centres like Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, etc. The crowd today was amazing. 35,000 is big enough and had the original capacity of the Eden been there, we might have seen more.

SaiSrini added 3 Minutes and 54 Seconds later...

Classic post! I read it when you posted and thought 'you are dreaming mate'. I was wrong, what a collapse, exactly like 2001!

Thats the 'Eden' thing. Though it feels good when your instinct comes off right.

SaiSrini added 4 Minutes and 8 Seconds later...

Good day for us. I reckon Dhoni would've taken this if someone had told him this score at the toss. Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but if our bowling line up can do this to them on the first day of the Test Match, imagine what they could do to us later on in the Test Match. Although a lot of wickets were simply thrown away...

Yeah thats simple logic, but this is India and it doesnt necessarily work like that. The amount of confidence that we would have gained from this would be big. I dont think the wicket has changed too much and should still be good for batting. Gambhir must be hurting for the first test, Laxman is back and everyone would want to prove a point and now they have the backing of a very good bowling performance.

But yeah, last time we rocked Australia on Day 1 at the Eden but we gave away too many runs to Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie on day 2 and they ended up with 445 (after being 290 odd for 8 at the end of Day 1). We got to avoid that tomorrow and clean up the last batsman before 275.

SaiSrini added 3 Minutes and 12 Seconds later...

Luck favored us in the right time. Credits to Zaheer ALONE who was the lonely warrior today for the majority of today's sessions.

I would give some to Harbhajan too. He just looks a highly different bowler when he steps onto Eden. Even in the 2nd session the way he almost got Amla out nicking to Laxman, I sensed that this guy's holy place is going to be the 'Eden' and I was almost proved right by the end of the Day

 

[Cricketman]

This is how we do at the Eden.

Unfortunately, this one spell has probably guaranteed Bhaj a spot in the XI for the next year or so.

 

[rocky_g]

That guy is a legend. known mostly for his EPIC post's

he chokes


Harbhajan :cool:

:laugh:laugh Pwned him.

 

[shravi]

I know it's sort of knee-jerk but I'm willing to retract some of my earlier comments about Harbhajan. The reason he hasn't been bowling well is that he hasn't been taking wickets (duh). But there's more to it than that. Harbhajan doesn't usually start his spells all too well. He relies on his first wicket to spur him on and his rhythm just gets so much better after that as we saw today. After his first wicket he got drift and turn and was actually willing to flight the ball rather than throw darts at the batsmen. It was a very refreshing sight. It's not only an Eden thing. This was the confidence booster he needed I think and Eden was the perfect place to do it. He thrives on crowd support (or lack of in some cases).

Moving onto Ishant. He started poorly. However, he came back really strongly in his third and fourth spell. He was bowling with pace, bounce and a fair bit of venom. While Harbhajan may have been the one to take the wickets to cause the collapse, I think it was Ishant's 2 over burst to Amla that got the Indians going. He got the blood pumping, not only in himself, but in the other bowlers too with an aggressive spell of fast bowling. He isn't back, but his pace was certainly up during his third and fourth spell. Promising signs.

Watching the match was almost like being in the stadium itself. The crowd created a great atmosphere and I can only imagine how much better it would have been if it had been filled to full capacity (which it would have if not for the construction).

 

[Aoun13]

This is excellent comeback by India, Bhaji really bowl well.
Match is still evenly poison, Steyn and Harris will try to get India under this score.

 

[King Cricket]

I guess we all will have to retract the comments we made this morning about the Indian bowling lineup/Eden pitch. Amazing comeback by India! I'm really out of words.

King Cricket added 3 Minutes and 4 Seconds later...

Watching the match was almost like being in the stadium itself. The crowd created a great atmosphere and I can only imagine how much better it would have been if it had been filled to full capacity (which it would have if not for the construction).
__________________

He he! This is the thing which makes Eden Gardens so very special.

 

[Leggie]

Harbhajan's confidence being boosted by the crowd explains the ridiculous drift he was getting. The balls to Prince and Duminy were amazing.

 

[Amiya]

He he! This is the thing which makes Eden Gardens so very special.

Yeah man. I had gone to Eden Garden a long back in 1999 when i was 5 year old. Though it was empty that time, i still couldn't forget the scene. I will be going to Kolkata again in this April and would love to see this historic ground again.

 

[War]

Eventful day of cricket i must. Eden Gardens is one of my favourite grounds in the world, the atmosphere there is always brilliant.

 

[stefan]

Bad collapse from the boys. Seen this happen vs the poms and us losing the game but also seen this happen vs aus/mitch johnson at perth and us coming back to win the game. Tomorrow is crucial, need a big bowling performance.

 

[sohum]

Test cricket dying in India? Seemed pretty full to me.

 

[Valaskjalf]

Ridiculous....snatching defeat from the jaws of victory it seems.

Think im gonna have to investigate a bit and see just how many freekin times we've balls it up after an innings victory. I suspect its quite often that we win big only to crash down a week later - Steyn needs to bowl his socks off to keep us in the game. Seriously disappointing what the heck happened?

 

[pcfan123]

Do South Africa have to win 2-0 to be number 1?