*Official* Sri Lanka in India

[Uppercut]

Originally Posted by social

Hope your joking

Beating an injury-decimated NZ hardly makes up for being humiliated at 2 major tournaments, being beaten by a B team, seeing your mostpromising player go backwards and fielding an attack with less teeth than a gummy bear

Dhoni's never lost a test as captain, ftr.

[Anil]

Originally Posted by G.I.Joe

Its a second innings century, so it HAS to be more valuable than a first innings one!

even a 2nd innings century is valuable only if one remains unbeaten and saves/wins the match otherwise it is a serious manifestation of choking....as for 1st innings centuries, they are clearly a waste of time, shame on dravid and dhoni! to top that, dravid even "failed" in the 2nd innings...i say kick him out of the squad....

[Migara]

Originally Posted by metallics2006

If the curators prepare a result pitch, they are reported to be bad pitches to the ICC by the match referee. Then ICC comes out and reprimands the concerned people. How can we then expect the curators to prepare pitches as they should be prepared if the curators are punished for preparing a good pitch? Serves the morons in the ICC right for what they did.

Personally I enjoy seeing raging turners myself. Its quite funny sometimes to see the supposedly world's best batsmen hop all around the pitch having no clue of how to play Kumble and other sub-continental spinners.

No one reprimanded curators at Perth for having a hude 2cm wide crack out side off stump, or having near unplayable steep bounce, but comes with all weapons pointed when the ball spins and a team like Aus/ Eng / Saf gets rolled over for a low score. SC needs raging turners. Lara was so good because he could play on those. Greame Smith averages near that, but never played on pitches like those raging turners of 1990s other than in odd occasion. So let Perth and Jo'burg have their bounce. Headingly and Brisbane the seam. Indian pitches, spin. SL pitches slow turn, Pak pitches their belters, and Kandy the swing. No need to make them similar.

[Migara]

Originally Posted by Avada Kedavra

Zaheer and Ishant are easily better than Welagedara and Prasad. A greentop would have ended the game very quickly - in India's favor. You also have to consider that India's batsmen are far better on greentops than FTBs like Jayawardene and Samaraweera.

They didn't show that they were as such in 1st innings. And this is SLs third line bowling pair! Imagine what Thushara and Malinga would have done on the first morning. And BTW, And Guys like Sehwag and Yuvraj are also similar kind of FTBs.

[metallics2006]

Originally Posted by Migara

They didn't show that they were as such in 1st innings. And this is SLs third line bowling pair! Imagine what Thushara and Malinga would have done on the first morning. And BTW, And Guys like Sehwag and Yuvraj are also similar kind of FTBs.

I promise to give a lot of thought to that point when I snap out of my shock caused by Yuvraj being selected for tests in the first place.

I guess most people will agree that Sehwag is a ftb. But, he is one of the best ftbs around today and it is handy to have him in the side since the pitches around the world are all flat these days.

[Avada Kedavra]

Originally Posted by Migara

They didn't show that they were as such in 1st innings. And this is SLs third line bowling pair! Imagine what Thushara and Malinga would have done on the first morning. And BTW, And Guys like Sehwag and Yuvraj are also similar kind of FTBs.

Mahela's average in Australia - 34
Samaraweera's average in Australia - 22


Sehwag's average in Australia - 59.50 (More than your great FTBs combined)

[Howsie]

Originally Posted by Avada Kedavra

Mahela's average in Australia - 34
Samaraweera's average in Australia - 22


Sehwag's average in Australia - 59.50 (More than your great FTBs combined)

When was the last time Samaraweera played in Australia. From memory he played in 2004? but I can't remember him playing when they last toured (he may of though). Point is he has improved a lot since then and those numbers don't really show/mean anything.

[Top_Cat]

Originally Posted by Migara

No one reprimanded curators at Perth for having a hude 2cm wide crack out side off stump, or having near unplayable steep bounce, but comes with all weapons pointed when the ball spins and a team like Aus/ Eng / Saf gets rolled over for a low score. SC needs raging turners. Lara was so good because he could play on those. Greame Smith averages near that, but never played on pitches like those raging turners of 1990s other than in odd occasion. So let Perth and Jo'burg have their bounce. Headingly and Brisbane the seam. Indian pitches, spin. SL pitches slow turn, Pak pitches their belters, and Kandy the swing. No need to make them similar.

Don't disagree that spinning decks do get targeted but as far as Perth goes, when it's quick, it's far from 'unplayable bounce'. Most batters will tell you once you get past the first 20 mins of batting on it, it's great to bat on. And, as far as the infamous deck years ago against the WI (presume that's the one you're talking about), the curator lost his job after that Test.

[Migara]

Originally Posted by Avada Kedavra

Mahela's average in Australia - 34
Samaraweera's average in Australia - 22


Sehwag's average in Australia - 59.50 (More than your great FTBs combined)

Post Sehwag's averages vs Mahela's in ENG, SAF and NZ, and we'll get back to the discussion.

[Migara]

The clear point is India does not make sporting pitches because they fear that there bowlers could not get upper hand over visitors. India in mid 90s were totally different. They gave spinnig paradises for the visiting spinners but tonked them. But there spinner were near unplayable. But there best chances lies with Harbhajan running through SL side, as he did on a raging turner at Galle last time. On lesser spinning pitches Harbhajan was dealt with ease by SL batsmen.

[Avada Kedavra]

Originally Posted by Migara

Post Sehwag's averages vs Mahela's in ENG, SAF and NZ, and we'll get back to the discussion.

Sehwag against England in England : 39.50
Mahela against England in England : 42.5

Sehwag against NZ in NZ : 20
Mahela against NZ in NZ : 27.7

Sehwag against SA in SA : 26.44
Mahela against SA in SA : 31.4

And your point is ? Mahela has failed in each of these countries. Sehwag has at least done well in Australia.

[Migara]

Originally Posted by Avada Kedavra

Sehwag against England in England : 39.50
Mahela against England in England : 42.5

Sehwag against NZ in NZ : 20
Mahela against NZ in NZ : 27.7

Sehwag against SA in SA : 26.44
Mahela against SA in SA : 31.4

And your point is ? Mahela has failed in each of these countries. Sehwag has at least done well in Australia.

Point is Mahela has done better than Sehwag on testing conditions. And even in Aus, Mahela played on difficult pitches of Darwin, Brisbane and Cairns, not on Adelaide, SCG or MCG where there are run feasts.

[Pratters]

Originally Posted by Migara

Point is Mahela has done better than Sehwag on testing conditions.

'Both have been poor mostly' would some it up more precisely.

[Sir Alex]

Mahela is poor on almost all tracks outside the subcontinent. Sehwag is a goner in swinging conditions but is a good player on hard true pitches of Australia. Both players have poor records in SA, NZ and Eng and no wonder. However Sehwag's ability to change matches in hours and his ability to strike fear in the opposition and adding to that the fact that on his day he can demolish (repeat demolish) any bowling attack makes him the better value player of the two.

[Migara]

Originally Posted by Pratters

'Both have been poor mostly' would some it up more precisely.

I'll agree with that of course. However Mahela has scored heavily when he's set, and averages more. And currently he's #1 in ICC rankings, and the highest Sehwag ever reached was #2. The following two graphs will tell how they have achieved ICC points and will give an good account on who's better.

Sehwag vs Jayawardene, test batting