*Official* Australia in India - ODIs

[R_D]

He looked a class above all the other bowlers to me yesterday. Also, I thought he had a lot more fight about him than the others.

If he wasn't going to well on that pitch than might as well stop bowling spin. Bit nit picking but his first 2 overs weren't too good.

As an Indian fan it is annoying to see Harbhajan put one decent bowling effort every now and than and retain his place in ODI team for god knows how many more ODI's... same goes for the test matches as well.

 

[Uppercut]

Indian fielding has been poor throughout. The match in question seems to stand out because of the four run outs. It is safer to put the direct hits to statistical chance rather than expect that someone like Nehra just improved his throwing over night. Even a poor fielder like Nehra will hit the stumps once in a while. I dont read too much into India's 'improved' fielding.

The taking of Robin Singh as a fielding coach and all that was made of it never cut much ice. The Indian cricketers, at least a large number of them, do not give much importance to fielding and coaches are not able to get the stars of India to go beyond the routine drills of fielding practice.

It was a really good performance in the field for sure. Even if you take out the four run-outs was an intensity there that could best be described as "Australian". Everyone was just that split-second sharper. On any other day, Nehra wouldn't have even thought about attempting that run-out, and there's no way anyone would have been backing up.

There's a good reason not to buy too much into it though. We've seen it all before and their fielding generally reverts to pot again before too long.

 

[inbox24]

The flak Harbhajan cops from Indians is way too much. The guy is still in the top 3 spinners in the world.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Not a chance

 

[asty80]

The flak Harbhajan cops from Indians is way too much. The guy is still in the top 3 spinners in the world.

Harbhajan's biggest talent is that he has managed to keep himself in the good books of Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni. That ensures his place in the team and also a pricey IPL contract.

Regarding his bowling, the less said the better. Bowlers with no reputation look more threatening than him 99% of the time on the same pitch.

 

[asty80]

In a way - this series reinforces my belief in the Indian team. We play best when we play against the best. With the Aussies losing 6( or was it 7? or 8?) players to their medical line up, it was never going to be a great side. You could actually see that over confidence in the Indian batting. They expected that once they had got over the hump (the Delhi match) by fighting hard, the Aussies should fall over and wave the white flag. It came back to bite them in each match.

The irony would be if Dravid is brought back just to reinforce the fighting attitute.

 

[asty80]

The other line of thought is that are the players creating an uprising against Dhoni's captaincy?
I know that Sehwag wants Gambhir or himself as captain.He has mentioned that enough times. Yuvi was always a sore loser since he was the heir apparent when Dhoni was annointed. Doesnt deserve to be captain but thinks he does.

It cant be just a coincidence that these 3 players failed in each of the last 3 matches.

 

[aussie]

In a way - this series reinforces my belief in the Indian team. We play best when we play against the best. With the Aussies losing 6( or was it 7? or 8?) players to their medical line up, it was never going to be a great side. You could actually see that over confidence in the Indian batting. They expected that once they had got over the hump (the Delhi match) by fighting hard, the Aussies should fall over and wave the white flag. It came back to bite them in each match.

The irony would be if Dravid is brought back just to reinforce the fighting attitute.

Cant agree with this reasoning. Its still AUS - the best team in the world, surely IND players would see this weakened AUS team has great chance to topple them, just like what South Africa did recently.

AUS just played the better cricket & it is not first time this has happened either. Back in 2003 a similar second string AUS bowling attack toppled IND at home.

 

[Burgey]

In a way - this series reinforces my belief in the Indian team. We play best when we play against the best. With the Aussies losing 6( or was it 7? or 8?) players to their medical line up, it was never going to be a great side. You could actually see that over confidence in the Indian batting. They expected that once they had got over the hump (the Delhi match) by fighting hard, the Aussies should fall over and wave the white flag. It came back to bite them in each match.

The irony would be if Dravid is brought back just to reinforce the fighting attitute.

Can't agree with that mate. If India (or any side for that matter) wants to be considered the best side in any format, then they should be thinking of burying weakened opposition. And really, I think they've done the best they could, they've been outlplayed in a few games is all, and in several of those the margins have been very, very tight.

Can't say I've seen much evidence of over-confidence from them tbh. They may well have been surprised by the performance of a number of the Aussie bowlers, but I don't know that this necessarily = over-confidence.

 

[R_D]

Can't agree with that mate. If India (or any side for that matter) wants to be considered the best side in any format, then they should be thinking of burying weakened opposition. And really, I think they've done the best they could, they've been outlplayed in a few games is all, and in several of those the margins have been very, very tight.

Can't say I've seen much evidence of over-confidence from them tbh. They may well have been surprised by the performance of a number of the Aussie bowlers, but I don't know that this necessarily = over-confidence.

I agree they have been outplayed.. especially in the last 2 matches but i think the 4th match where they were chasing 250 odd was lost partially due to bit of over-confidence and excellent fielding effort by Australians. The way Indian team was walking off the field after bowling the younger guys thought they have this game in the bag.... Just the way they were all smiles etc... it just seemed they thought they have this game in the bag.
Even the way they approached the small chase smacked of over-confidence with no batsman really willing to bid their time to stay in the middle.... I'm not trying to take away credit from Australian team... their bowling and fielding was superb but as Indian fan it did feel like they lost that match due to bit of over-confidence after walloping the aussies in 2 previous match.

 

[ret]

For the last ODI, I would go with the line up below:

- Tendulkar
- Sehwag
- Gambhir
- Dhoni
- Yuvi
- Kohli / Raina / Kartik
- Praveen
- Bhajji
- Mishra
- Tyagi
- Nehra

 

[bagapath]

The flak Harbhajan cops from Indians is way too much. The guy is still in the top 3 spinners in the world.

yeah??? just like qadir was the best spinner in the world in 80s simply because bedi, chandra and underwood had retired and warne and murali were school kids.

 

[four_or_six]

Watson and Johnson are resting, going home early. So a pretty good chance for India to strike back.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Just read on Cricinfo that Manou's partner is Tamsyn Lewis. Had no idea.

The poor bastard, hope he has earplugs.

 

[Notorious1]

The flak Harbhajan cops from Indians is way too much. The guy is still in the top 3 spinners in the world.

When there are spinners like Ojha and Mishra waiting in the wings, Harbhajan needs to perform in almost every match he plays in.

 

[Sanz]

Harbhajan needs to perform in almost every match he plays in.

Not that I favor Bhajji over anyone else but that is an aweful criteria.

 

[Pratters]

Agree with Sanz. I have been one of the critics of Harbhajan but he has done pretty well in this tournament so far.

 

[Notorious1]

Harbhajan has been doing quite well there is no doubt about that, but has not been consistent enough. Where there is tough competition for places this is what happens.

 

[Burgey]

I think he's been your best bowler this series by some margin tbh.

Welcome notorious. I'm expecting B.I.G things from you.

<Takes hat, leaves>

 

[silentstriker]

Harbhajan has been doing quite well there is no doubt about that, but has not been consistent enough. Where there is tough competition for places this is what happens.

That assumes that a replacement can be found that can perform in every single game. That is not going to happen.