South Africa's tour of India - October/December 2015

[stefan]

Im not writing Steyn off. I've said it for a while now that he has peaked and is starting to lose the plot. I feel he cant be in charge of our attack. He's still good enough to be in the side but he certainly isnt as good as he used to be.

I feel like you dont like Tahir. You have to understand the majority of his tests are in South Africa where he doesnt get any term and then becomes a medium pacer who drops a couple short. His average in the subcontinent is under 30 which is actually really good considering Smith used him as a holding spinner where he clearly isnt. Watch he will be our best bowler against India...

Steyn in the last 12 months average 22.42 per wicket, that is actually marginally better then his overall career average. Hardly the signs of a man on the way down. Think the perception has to do with how steyn does in odi's, he has never been great in them tbh.

On contrary Tahir is one of my favorite crickets, always had a soft spot for leggies. Yes smith has probably not used him correctly but he still should done better. In tests he bowls too many lose balls imho.

 

[Abhil]

We won the match.But i have to say that pitch was very bad.

 

[SaiSrini]

Good to see India win! And it was architected by Vijay and Pujara's sensible batting on this kind of a pitch. Both batted brilliantly on this pitch, and I would say both deserved that MoM award more than Jadeja. Its a batsman who should have got the MoM award in this game than a bowler. In 1996, when India were shot out for 100 and 96 in a test match against SA, did we cry that this is a spiteful green pitch and should not be used at all? We have played at gardens in New Zealand where both teams barely made it to 100. Where was the hue and cry from these people who cry buckets when they see a turning pitch on which this match ended in 3 days in the home team's favor? With all these legends like Amla, DeVilliers, Du Plessis, etc., why were Vijay and Pujara able to outbat them on a pitch like this?

I want more turning tracks like this for this series (hopefully where games last 4-5 days but with a result other than draw). Test SAF out! I dont mind if we lose the toss and let SAF choose what they want to do. I dont think toss made any difference to the result in this test. India's spinners were just better than their counterparts and SAF's batsmen batted much worser than their counterparts.

Mum 407/4 (88.0 ov, RG Sharma 110*, SD Lad 12*, PP Chawla 0/74) - Stumps | Live Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Rohit made a century for Mumbai and Bhuvi picked up to wickets in this Mumbai vs UP game.Good to see them playing Ranji although they are in the test squad.

Sadly I dont see Rohit coming back in the XI yet. If at all Dhawan is dropped, Rahul should be in his place. In test cricket especially for the opening spot, it should always be specialists if they are available. Only in the case of non-availability of specialists should the makeshift option even be considered. My team for the second test would be:

M Vijay
KL Rahul
C Pujara
V Kohli
A Rahane
W Saha
R Jadeja
R Ashwin
A Mishra
I Sharma
V Aaron

I picked Aaron over Yadav because Aaron had decent to good control in whatever overs he bowled this test, and also picked up the lone wicket that was picked by a seamer for India. Yadav is almost as good enough, but purely for the wicket he took, I favor Aaron over Yadav. If Bangalore turns out more pacier than Mohali, then drop Mishra for that extra seamer.

 

[War]

1st test review thoughts

South Africa

Well like most the previous IND tours I've seen with SA during their # 1 rein in 2008 & 2010, they obviously knew they were going to get a real turning IND pitch at some point - arguably more so in this test series since that's the only way IND were going to stay competitive with them.

For like 80% of this match - up to about early parts of SA 2nd innings, this game was like de ja vu to that Mumbai 2000 test between these two teams - 1st Test: India v South Africa at Mumbai, Feb 24-26, 2000 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - just that nobody for SA played Kallis/Boucher type inning's this time around like in 2000.

I found SA test selection after they Duminy & M Morkel were ruled out injured very surprising. I'm also certain that since re-admission SA have never played a test match with so much spin options & from a historical context you would probably have to go back to the early 1900s when SA had Aubrey Faulkner, Bert Vogler & R Schwarz in the same team - so highlight how weird of an occurrence this was for SA.

Surely they should have played that guy Bavuma for extra batting security, especially are Duminy was ruled out. I've heard some SA fans outside these parts suggest he is around the squad mainly as a quota player & a better option from SA domestic cricket may have been picking a pure opener like Andrew Puttick or Reeza Hendricks & letting S Van Zyl bat down the order.

Still think SA have what it takes to win the serious overall & come back just like England did in 2012 once Duminy/M Morkel are fit & Steyn recovers from groin strain. Just go back to 6 bats + Vilas + 3 quicks + 1 spinner.

Will be interesting to see who SA leave out between Morkel/Philander/Rabada though. Certainly think Tahir should play over Harmer - especially with Duminy/Elgar being more than capable supporting spinners.

India

Nothing much to say, prepared a turning pitch to support their strengths like they have done many times before & won. Would be surprised if Dhawan is not dropped however & Saha looks way out of place @ # 6 at test level.

 

[Aalay]

I have never seen Saha as an international wicket keeper because he is just not good enough. He is supposed to be the best keeper in the country but his keeping sucks. Whever I have watched him, he is either dropping a catch or missing a stumping. His batting is no where near international level. Then again, who are the options for India in keeping department? I know Ojha is there but he is even older than Saha. Is there any young keeper out there performing in Ranji trophy? I don't think Sanju Samson is quite ready yet for International cricket. I have heard name of Uday Kaul but he doesn't look too convincing. We are really lacking a good keeper right now, even a decent keeper.

 

[War]

Where does Denesh Karthik rate these days?

 

[Aalay]

Well he certainly is the best batsmen in the current lot of wicket keepers but again, his keeping is not great. As I said though, we don't have many choices right now in that department. So I guess we can have anyone until Sanju Samson gets ready to enter the international cricket.

 

[shravi]

I have never seen Saha as an international wicket keeper because he is just not good enough. He is supposed to be the best keeper in the country but his keeping sucks. Whever I have watched him, he is either dropping a catch or missing a stumping. His batting is no where near international level. Then again, who are the options for India in keeping department? I know Ojha is there but he is even older than Saha. Is there any young keeper out there performing in Ranji trophy? I don't think Sanju Samson is quite ready yet for International cricket. I have heard name of Uday Kaul but he doesn't look too convincing. We are really lacking a good keeper right now, even a decent keeper.

I don't think Uday Kaul keeps anymore. If Kohli is to persist with this 5 bowler strategy, he has to bring in either Rahul or Karthik to keep, I feel.

 

[namin96]

We won the match.But i have to say that pitch was very bad.

No the pitch was good our batting sucked. If we can't bat on our home pitch then that's pretty sad. We should have just scored 400 in the first innings and won easily. Instead we had to have our bowlers do the whole job for us. Lack of application and patience was why SA was in the match till the end. Kohli needs to step up with the bat and show more responsibility as a captain, he played out the first hour nicely on day 3 and then went for an unnecessary cover drive which was pretty tough to play on this type of a pitch and he got a nick. What happened afterwards? 8 wickets for like 39 runs, India all out.

 

[namin96]

1st test review thoughts

South Africa

Well like most the previous IND tours I've seen with SA during their # 1 rein in 2008 & 2010, they obviously knew they were going to get a real turning IND pitch at some point - arguably more so in this test series since that's the only way IND were going to stay competitive with them.

For like 80% of this match - up to about early parts of SA 2nd innings, this game was like de ja vu to that Mumbai 2000 test between these two teams - 1st Test: India v South Africa at Mumbai, Feb 24-26, 2000 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - just that nobody for SA played Kallis/Boucher type inning's this time around like in 2000.

I found SA test selection after they Duminy & M Morkel were ruled out injured very surprising. I'm also certain that since re-admission SA have never played a test match with so much spin options & from a historical context you would probably have to go back to the early 1900s when SA had Aubrey Faulkner, Bert Vogler & R Schwarz in the same team - so highlight how weird of an occurrence this was for SA.

Surely they should have played that guy Bavuma for extra batting security, especially are Duminy was ruled out. I've heard some SA fans outside these parts suggest he is around the squad mainly as a quota player & a better option from SA domestic cricket may have been picking a pure opener like Andrew Puttick or Reeza Hendricks & letting S Van Zyl bat down the order.

Still think SA have what it takes to win the serious overall & come back just like England did in 2012 once Duminy/M Morkel are fit & Steyn recovers from groin strain. Just go back to 6 bats + Vilas + 3 quicks + 1 spinner.

Will be interesting to see who SA leave out between Morkel/Philander/Rabada though. Certainly think Tahir should play over Harmer - especially with Duminy/Elgar being more than capable supporting spinners.

India

Nothing much to say, prepared a turning pitch to support their strengths like they have done many times before & won. Would be surprised if Dhawan is not dropped however & Saha looks way out of place @ # 6 at test level.

Why do you and many others think that India needed to make a really bad turning pitch just to stay competitive with SA? Honestly, I think our batsman have shown that they can perform on pacy and bouncy pitches in the past two years. Also, what do we get when we go to England, Australia, and South Africa? They all make pitches based on their strengths, so stop saying that India needed a pitch to their liking just to stay competitive. That is basically the whole point of an away test series, if South Africa want to remain #1 then they have to beat us in our conditions which are turning pitches not freaking pacy pitches. Every other nation does it so what's the issue with India doing it? If you're playing cricket then be ready to face challenges.

 

[namin96]

I think this was an interesting test match. Its not often that a side will dominate day 1, and then lose inside three days.

Also I think the result is a little bit deceptive. If SA had batted first and India were batting 4th here, then the result would most likely have been SA winning.

So despite a seemingly easy win for India, there is a lot that doesn't quite meet the eye.

India must enjoy the victory, but when the second test starts, they must remember that.

I do not think that the toss impacted the result. India won because our batsman played just a little better than SA batsman. SA will come hard at us in the 2nd test. I think all pitches should be like this Mohali pitch.

 

[namin96]

Who Amla, are u kididng. Have you forgotten his never ending 253* on the previous SA tour to India.

I think we just have better spin bowlers now which is troubling Amla. To me it looks as if Amla has issues against quality spinners like Ashwin and Jadeja.

 

[namin96]

I don't think Uday Kaul keeps anymore. If Kohli is to persist with this 5 bowler strategy, he has to bring in either Rahul or Karthik to keep, I feel.

I really don't think we need to play 5 bowlers in India. Outside of India, 5 bowlers is needed. However when you have turning pitches like the Mohali pitch, Kohli should have just had Ashwin, Jadeja, Mishra, and either Aaron or Yadav. He could have had KL Rahul or Rohit Sharma play with a 4 bowler attack.

 

[Aalay]

I don't think Uday Kaul keeps anymore. If Kohli is to persist with this 5 bowler strategy, he has to bring in either Rahul or Karthik to keep, I feel.

Yes, you are right. I just checked his Cricinfo profile and he is playing as a batsman for Punjab. And yeh, I forgot about KL Rahul. I haven't seen his keeping so I don't know how good he is as a keeper. The thing about Saha is Ravi Shastri and Kohli praised him so much before the Australia tour and said he is a very good player of spin and then he comes out and plays the most ridiculous shot against Nathan Lyon in that first test where we had a real chance of winning the test match. Rahul is definitely a good shout though.

 

[shravi]

Yes, you are right. I just checked his Cricinfo profile and he is playing as a batsman for Punjab. And yeh, I forgot about KL Rahul. I haven't seen his keeping so I don't know how good he is as a keeper. The thing about Saha is Ravi Shastri and Kohli praised him so much before the Australia tour and said he is a very good player of spin and then he comes out and plays the most ridiculous shot against Nathan Lyon in that first test where we had a real chance of winning the test match. Rahul is definitely a good shout though.

His keeping isn't great from what I saw in Sri Lanka, but your keeper has to be more of a batsman than a keeper if you are playing 5 bowlers. You can escuse Saha's batting in a 4-man attack, however.