***Official*** Kitply Cup (India and Pakistan in Bangladesh)

[duffer]

Butt's been in great touch in the last 12 months, averaging well over 60 (65 against India in 7 matches).

Yeah, he looks a classy prospect (especially against us).

Encouraging for India in that they played quite horribly yet somehow got reasonably close in the end. Need to either use Yusuf more with the ball or go 5 bowlers for our big games, it really cost us today.

Congratulations to Pakistan too for turning it around so well.

 

[jeevan]

Fifth bowler is a missing piece.

Someone in the middle order with an ability to play an achoring innings may be another. Dhoni has kind of moderated his aggression, but today it was too little too late and his batting skills are definitely a limit on his effectiveness for him in this role

India's recent ODI batting recipe has been to expect a big one from the top order
(Tendulkar, Ganguly,Sehwag,Gambhir). There seem to have been very few character innings from the middle order (Yuvraj's ton against Australia is the one that comes to mind) but plenty of cameos and even a few cashing in on good top order builds.

 

[ret]

congrats to Pak for winning the title

clearly, playing with one bowler short cost Ind some runs .... one the four specialist bowler can have a bad day, which means that someone in the opposition is batting well, and then you have too much to cover up

 

[Jono]

Good win to Pakistan. Butt and Younis Khan in particular (who got them going) were superb from the sounds of it.

 

[Isura]

Butt's innings was basically chanceless. Younis played well (very aggressively), and it came off well today. India need to stop messing around with the batting lineup. Having Pathan come in at 4 early in a long run chase is a mistake. Especially with the volatile Sehwag, India needs to get that 3 and 4 spots right. Sharma and Yuvraj or even Yuvraj and Dhoni would be best IMO (Gambhir and Sharma when Sachin plays).

 

[honestbharani]

Ideally, Sharma and Yuvi should be batting 3 and 4 along with Dhoni at 5 no matter what. These guys have good talent and good skills for these roles and they should not be messing about their positions just because of one or two bad days. Sachin and Gambhir would be the best pair to open for India. The #6 will be a mystery but hopefully Raina or Uthappa or even Badrinath can do well and stake a claim for a long run in that slot.


I agree with one of the posters here in that it is good for India that they batted so bad and yet got reasonably close to the target. It was a classic case of almost all batsmen getting set, getting off to good starts in terms of runs and strike rate and still finding ways to get themselves out. The lack of mental discipline in some of these youngsters HAD to show up someday and I guess the team will get better for this experience. I mean, Sharma and Gambhir looked as much at ease (or even more, perhaps) as Butt and Younis and yet they didn't go on and the way they got out was so soft, it was disappointing as hell from a fan's PoV.


But fair play to Pak. Their earlier loss caused what I thought was too much unwarranted criticism with their Chairman talking about technical stuff etc. but it is good to see them gather around and hold their nerves and play this well on the big day. Winning the toss was a big help and Younis, with the way he played, made sure they had someone to seize the moment this time unlike earlier. Butt loves the Indian bowling and once he got through the early part, he made sure he made the Indians pay for that Sharma drop. Congrats to them for doing this well when people were giving them no hope.

 

[Lambu]

Clearly playing one bowler less cost us..also i feel Raina is wasted that lower down the order.He should bat at 3/4..i mean its definitely good to put a youngster that lower down the order unless he is in the team for his big hitting.The same thing happened with Raina last time around too, the guy is a fantastic talent and has the technique and aggression to come up the order..thats what we died in the CB series too,didn't we?Rohit was sent higher up the order,and finishing job must be left too Yuvraj,Dhoni and Irfan..Ideally,i would like to drop Yusuf for a regular bowler..i question the logic behind having another big hitter when the team is already loaded with big-hitters..fair enough if he can perform regularly with the ball(but sorry Yusuf doesn't convince me as a bowler).So my batting order would be:

Sehwag
Gambhir
Raina
Rohit
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Irfan
Chawla
Praveen
Ojha/RP
Ishant.

Though in defense of Dhoni, i think he had both Rohit and Raina padded up and sent them in depending on the batsman getting out to maintain right-left combination(we saw both of them padded up when the openers were batting).

Also, i would drop Sehwag when Sachin returns.

 

[Mard]

the quality of bowling was terrible from both sides.

 

[Perm]

Butt's been in great touch in the last 12 months, averaging well over 60 (65 against India in 7 matches).

I always knew there was something special about Salman Butt, been supporting him for years now. Good to see him finally starting to produce some consistent results.

Now he just needs to score runs against teams that aren't India or Bangladesh and he'll be set.

 

[Perm]

Gambhir was fantastic as ever.......

Gautam Gambhir has improved out of sight lately, ever since the Twenty20 World Cup where he was excellent. That form carried over to the CB series when he scored centuries against Sri Lanka and Australia before scoring plenty of runs in the IPL. I certainly hope he can continue doing this well in limited overs cricket, as he looks really good when in form.

 

[Perm]

Bangladesh never really offered much of a threat in this tournament, which was to be expected somewhat. The only real positive they can take out of the series is Raqibul Hasan, who batted beautifully for his 89 before cramping up near the end which may well have contributed to him not reaching triple figures.

Ashraful batted well in both games, but lacks the support to make much of a difference the way Shivnarine Chanderpaul does with the West Indies. It was good to see him taking some more responsibility though, long may it continue. We all know how exceptionally gifted he is with strokeplay and it was refreshing to see some maturity and application with his batting. Other than that, there isn't a great deal Jamie Siddons and Bangladesh can take out of the tournament. Abdur Razzak was a little more expensive than usual, but still the best of the bowlers.

I think it's becoming clear now what the crux of the Bangladesh XI should look like. After a reasonable amount of tinkering lately and the young age of most of these players, I'm actually looking forward to the future. Bangladesh do have talent, that's evident, they just need more consistency and time together as a team IMO. Just look at some of the returns their players have been getting in 2008. Tamim Iqbal averaging 35, Ashraful and Nafees almost 30, while two new guys in Raqibul and Mahmudullah have both done well so far. Mashrafe and Razzak still the leading lights in the bowling department, and that looks set to continue for as long as Syed Rasel is out of the side. The signs are there and the right group of players are coming together and you can build a team around them now. Exciting times for Bangladesh cricket as a whole.

 

[slowfinger]

I always knew there was something special about Salman Butt, been supporting him for years now. Good to see him finally starting to produce some consistent results.

Now he just needs to score runs against teams that aren't India or Bangladesh and he'll be set.

Aye, but don't doubt him.