***Official*** New Zealand in Zimbabwe & Zimbabwe/New Zealand/India ODI Tri-Series

[Anil]

much better batting performance by india...a much needed win against a good team! well done kaif!

 

[Arjun]

Dumb decision by Fleming bowling Patel at the death as opposed to Cairns. Experienced world-class all-rounder or novice (and rather average) off-spinner? When he saw Patel get tonked for consecutive sixes by Dhoni, I think the answer probably became clear.

Cairns was off with a hamstring injury. They could have tried out Jacob Oram, though.

Good finish by Dhoni. This innings may not be another 50, but it's definitely one of the most relevant he's played. It now offers the team an option for the final overs attack, which they have often lacked. He may not have any technique, but he serves a purpose well. If only he can iron out those wicketkeeping flaws....

 

[Jono]

Hmm. I like Kaif, but that's only his second century in 95 matches. He's not exactly setting the world on fire enough to be considered the backbone of a batting lineup that includes Rahul Dravid...

I agree but I still think that Kaif's spot in the ODI batting order should be at 3. It allows him to build an innings, and as Arjun has pointed out, he's very good at building partnerships.

Dravid obviously is the backbone however.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Cairns was off with a hamstring injury. They could have tried out Jacob Oram, though.

Fair enough about Cairns, but you'd think he'd want anyone bowling at the death who isn't a) a spinner, or b) as inexperienced as Patel. Even Astle or someone would probably have done a better job.

 

[Jono]

Yeah I would have bowled Oram. Fleming probably wanted to see what Patel could do when the pressure was on.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Fleming probably wanted to see what Patel could do when the pressure was on.

Well now he knows!

Better to try it now than in the 2007 World Cup Semi-Final I guess - although that's a very optimistic way of looking at things.

 

[Deja moo]

How Ganguly managed 10,000 runs, I'll never know

 

[Anil]

How Ganguly managed 10,000 runs, I'll never know

well..to be fair to him,he used to be absolutely devastating as a one day opener for quite a long time especially when he was partnering tendulkar...now he seems to be a shadow of his former self...dunno when that is an issue of confidence or the bowlers having latched on to his flaws or just a question of luck...probably a combination of all three....

 

[marc71178]

Hmm. I like Kaif, but that's only his second century in 95 matches. He's not exactly setting the world on fire enough to be considered the backbone of a batting lineup that includes Rahul Dravid...

To be fair to him though - how often has he actually batted in the upper order?

 

[Blaze]

Fair enough about Cairns, but you'd think he'd want anyone bowling at the death who isn't a) a spinner, or b) as inexperienced as Patel. Even Astle or someone would probably have done a better job.

Patel was picked because of his ability to bowl at the death at domestic level. IMO it was a good experiment as we are already in the final and we wern't really playing for anything.

Although in saying that I don't actually agree with the way we look at things. I would rather us win the two round robin games against India and lose the final therefore winning the series 2-1. Who cares about winning some worthless trophey? It is more important to win more games than the opposition isn't it? I couldn't give a toss if we lost the tournament. It's not exactly a huge one is it? I would rather see us try to win each individual game. Fair enough resting Bond but Vettori should have played. We deserved to lose with the arrogance we showed.

 

[Lyell_Chris]

our death bowling is still a problem

cairns with his slower ball should partner bond in the last 6 overs

 

[sportychic33]

oram didn't bowl at the death because he has a slight hamstring niggle, although it isn't as bad as cairns.
oram's bowling is looking much better though, than it did in the previous games. hopefully he should be alright for the final. but it is unlikely that cairns will play

 

[Sir Redman]

Our bowling looked so tame without Bond and Vettori. Adams in particular was woeful, and in general we bowled far too many four-balls.

We sold ourselves a bit short in the batting too, we should really have made 290 or even 300. I think most of our guys are too locked into one way of slogging, where they are just trying to clear the leg and swing it over either mid-off or mid-on. The problem with that is that if the ball is not in the right place they inevitably sky it and get caught. We saw that with Oram and Styris last night. McCullum is IMO our best finisher since he tries different shots and hits over the infield to the fence rather than trying to clear the guys on the boundary.

Its easy to say that we were without Bond and Vettori and that they were the difference but the rest of our bowling lineup needs to stand up too.

 

[sportychic33]

it was good to see the partnership of fleming and astle back opening the innings - i don't understand why vincent was opening in the first place when the fleming and astle partnership is quite established.
hamish marshall has also had a disappointing tour, i don't know whether it is a drop in form , playing in zimbabwe away from home, or a bit of both. but hopefully he works on his batting before the black caps go to s.a. in october.
andre adams - back to normal standard, this game was a chance for him to stand up and make a difference but he was bowling balls all over the place and not bowling to the indians weakness.

 

[Prince EWS]

Patel bowled at the death over Oram because he has had success at domestic level doing so.

He sued very much in a Gayle-like role, and was basically picked in the NZ because of his ability to bowl at the death, so it was obvious that he would be bowling at the death if he was playing. The other option was Oram, and he is a horrible death bowler. He cant mix up his length properly, and he provides to much leverage. Patel was the better choice - it just turns out that it didnt work out.

 

[honestbharani]

Nice to see one of my long lasting wants of seeing Kaif bat at 3 for India work well. I have always believed that if he were to play in the side, he had to bat at 3. There is no other position that he can do well in, IMHO. Ganguly played a few good shots and then allowed the short ball to get the better of him again. But I am not optimistic about Sourav, Kaif and Dhoni against someone like Bond. I still think we are lucky that Bond and Vettori were both rested.

 

[SJS]

Nice to see one of my long lasting wants of seeing Kaif bat at 3 for India work well. I have always believed that if he were to play in the side, he had to bat at 3. There is no other position that he can do well in, IMHO. Ganguly played a few good shots and then allowed the short ball to get the better of him again. But I am not optimistic about Sourav, Kaif and Dhoni against someone like Bond. I still think we are lucky that Bond and Vettori were both rested.

Agree with everything.

Kaif might work at this position. I would like to see him, however, after the first wicket has fallen in the first over and a really fast bowler is operating. He may be found wanting.

I think two down suits him better. dravid with his technique should come at three.

Saurav is really struggling against the quick stuff. I dont think he should open any more. He is being obstinate and wants to score a couple of hundreds before sachin returns to continue the debate as to who should partner sehwag on sachin's return. He may score some against minnows but in the long run he is doing damage to the team and also his own cause.

So who should open till Sachin returns ? Well, someone has to put up thier hand and take the responsibilty. Stop worrying about the averages. Dravid is the best option since we havent taken Gambhir along.

We desperately need good starts to the innings. Yesterday the opening partnership, not because it was 9 runs per over but because it was 60+ made a difference. If Ganguly is staying there because no one else is willing to come up, its sad.

When Sachin returns, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Kaif, Yuvraj, Saurav, JP, Dhoni, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhjajan and Nehra

or

Sehwag, Gambhir, Sachin, Kaif, Dravid, Saurav, JP, Dhoni, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Nehra...this type of a line up may work.

This is not to suggest that these are the only players who can play. We may replace Harbhajan with Kumble, Nehra or Zaheer with another bowler, JP with another utility player (if we find one) and so on. This is just to suggest the type of batting order to fit the main stays.

Sachin may or may not want to open. This decision may best be left to him.

Yuvraj cant take his place for granted. Kaif is appearing more consistent of the two. We may be at a stage where one of the two will only play, particularly once Sachin returns and we keep the utility player in the side.

At present the vote would go to Kaif. Unless Yuvraj bowls more and is used as a utility player. but even against minnows we dont try him until his place in the team is threatened !!

 

[honestbharani]

Agree with everything.

Kaif might work at this position. I would like to see him, however, after the first wicket has fallen in the first over and a really fast bowler is operating. He may be found wanting.

I think two down suits him better. dravid with his technique should come at three.

Saurav is really struggling against the quick stuff. I dont think he should open any more. He is being obstinate and wants to score a couple of hundreds before sachin returns to continue the debate as to who should partner sehwag on sachin's return. He may score some against minnows but in the long run he is doing damage to the team and also his own cause.

So who should open till Sachin returns ? Well, someone has to put up thier hand and take the responsibilty. Stop worrying about the averages. Dravid is the best option since we havent taken Gambhir along.

We desperately need good starts to the innings. Yesterday the opening partnership, not because it was 9 runs per over but because it was 60+ made a difference. If Ganguly is staying there because no one else is willing to come up, its sad.

When Sachin returns, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Kaif, Yuvraj, Saurav, JP, Dhoni, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhjajan and Nehra

or

Sehwag, Gambhir, Sachin, Kaif, Dravid, Saurav, JP, Dhoni, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Nehra...this type of a line up may work.

This is not to suggest that these are the only players who can play. We may replace Harbhajan with Kumble, Nehra or Zaheer with another bowler, JP with another utility player (if we find one) and so on. This is just to suggest the type of batting order to fit the main stays.

Sachin may or may not want to open. This decision may best be left to him.

Yuvraj cant take his place for granted. Kaif is appearing more consistent of the two. We may be at a stage where one of the two will only play, particularly once Sachin returns and we keep the utility player in the side.

At present the vote would go to Kaif. Unless Yuvraj bowls more and is used as a utility player. but even against minnows we dont try him until his place in the team is threatened !!

Actually, I think Yuvraj is in pretty decent form and I still back him to score runs against someone like Bond more than Kaif. That said, I still think the best line up for India would be with Kaif at 3 (because it is good to have the insurance of Dravid at 4 or 5) and if India use the supersub rule well, they can use someone like Raina pretty well as well. But I have one question to the Indian think tank. Everytime Raina came in as a sub (normal sub), why was he fielding in the deep at thirdman etc..? He should have been there at square leg or point.

 

[Salamuddin]

Agree with everything.

Kaif might work at this position. I would like to see him, however, after the first wicket has fallen in the first over and a really fast bowler is operating. He may be found wanting.

I think two down suits him better. dravid with his technique should come at three.

Saurav is really struggling against the quick stuff. I dont think he should open any more. He is being obstinate and wants to score a couple of hundreds before sachin returns to continue the debate as to who should partner sehwag on sachin's return. He may score some against minnows but in the long run he is doing damage to the team and also his own cause.

So who should open till Sachin returns ? Well, someone has to put up thier hand and take the responsibilty. Stop worrying about the averages. Dravid is the best option since we havent taken Gambhir along.

We desperately need good starts to the innings. Yesterday the opening partnership, not because it was 9 runs per over but because it was 60+ made a difference. If Ganguly is staying there because no one else is willing to come up, its sad.

When Sachin returns, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Kaif, Yuvraj, Saurav, JP, Dhoni, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhjajan and Nehra

or

Sehwag, Gambhir, Sachin, Kaif, Dravid, Saurav, JP, Dhoni, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Nehra...this type of a line up may work.

This is not to suggest that these are the only players who can play. We may replace Harbhajan with Kumble, Nehra or Zaheer with another bowler, JP with another utility player (if we find one) and so on. This is just to suggest the type of batting order to fit the main stays.

Sachin may or may not want to open. This decision may best be left to him.

Yuvraj cant take his place for granted. Kaif is appearing more consistent of the two. We may be at a stage where one of the two will only play, particularly once Sachin returns and we keep the utility player in the side.

At present the vote would go to Kaif. Unless Yuvraj bowls more and is used as a utility player. but even against minnows we dont try him until his place in the team is threatened !!

I think Dravid's time to captain India has come. In that case, I would dump Ganguly from the test side and see whether he can score runs in ODIs without the pressure of captaincy. If he can't then its time to say goodbye.

Re: Sunday's game, I'd like India to give a chance to Murali Kartik. Hopefully he can perform weel and jolt Harbhajan out of his comfort zone.

 

[SJS]

Actually, I think Yuvraj is in pretty decent form and I still back him to score runs against someone like Bond more than Kaif. That said, I still think the best line up for India would be with Kaif at 3 (because it is good to have the insurance of Dravid at 4 or 5) and if India use the supersub rule well, they can use someone like Raina pretty well as well. But I have one question to the Indian think tank. Everytime Raina came in as a sub (normal sub), why was he fielding in the deep at thirdman etc..? He should have been there at square leg or point.

Kaif is very suspect to the away moving ball early in his innings. He stays rooted to his spot and feet dont move. He was looking terrible against Heath Streak the other day. More than a dozen deliveries could have had him caught at slips if he had been good enough to snick them. this problem will always bother him when facing a new ball early.

A number three has to be someone who has the technique of an opener after all he may have to face a delivery before the opener at the non-striker's end does.

He has to tighten his technique in this regard. That is why how a person scores at number three has always to be taken with a pinch of salt. To do so after a good opening partnership and/or against a moderate attack is one thing and to do it after one wicket has fallen for nothing against a good new ball attack is something else. We need to still see Kaif in this mode.

I have big reservations about Yuvraj as of now. He sweeps far too much. He plays either square to the cover fence or flicks off the toes to the on side. He seems reluctant(unable) to drive/play straight in the V often enough. Good bowlers wont allow him to get away.

His grip on the bat is loose. if you notice his driving closely, at the time of contact, the bat turns in his hands. I am not talking of a deliberate turning of the wrists but a failure to have a firm wrist so that the follow through is in the same direction as the stroke. This results in far too many drives not going exactly as intended and also in the air.

These are not defects which cant beironed out but knowing Yuvraj, I doubt he is likely to listen to anyone who tells him he has a flaw !!