*Official* South Africa in India

[Shri]

After seeing that spell, I have to ask, are there any batting line-ups in world cricket that could have survived such a hostile spell? No way.

[pasag]

Haha, they've already got in on the act in the "Number Crunching" section as well.

[L Trumper]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

Not only one innings, but one innings where one debutant made a fifty, the one player who is not part of batting plans, and the third who had his first failure in Test cricket.....

At least they could wait until the match is over...

In fairness to vijay the ball he got out was nip back a lot, its not really his fault considering the wicket, its not a poor judgment from his POV.
As far as cricinfo articles considered they always over do it with the verdict of the day they try to predict the next decade.

[ret]

I saw the highlights and saw some comical leaves by Indian batsmen that resulted in to them getting bowled .... the damage could have been much less, if some of those guys had applied themselves a little more or resisted that rush of blood. But I guess that's cricket

[Shri]

Originally Posted by ret

I saw the highlights and saw some comical leaves by Indian batsmen that resulted in to them getting bowled .... the damage could have been much less, if some of those guys had applied themselves a little more or resisted that rush of blood. But I guess that's cricket

You didn't see the bowlers setting them up then. Vijay got some out swingers with the same line and length before being done in by one that came back in. Was just exceptional bowling.

[aussie]

Tentaively i'll say it seem like Gambhir has the same problems like Strauss againts bowlers coming around the wicket to him. This is the first time he has faced a quality pace attack since he came back in the IND team vs SRI 08 & in this test he has looked like the nervous Gambhir that struggled on his debut vs AUS 04 & vs Vaas 05. Which coincidentally was the last tme he faced quality & inform new-ball bowlers.

Will be interesting to see how he counters that in the second test.

[L Trumper]

Originally Posted by aussie

Tentaively i'll say it seem like Gambhir has the same problems like Strauss againts bowlers coming around the wicket to him. This is the first time he has faced a quality pace attack since he came back in the IND team vs SRI 08 & in this test he has looked like the nervous Gambhir that struggled on his debut vs AUS 04 & vs Vaas 05. Which coincidentally was the last tme he faced quality & inform new-ball bowlers.

Will be interesting to see how he counters that in the second test.

This. I always thought the same. I hope gambhir will cope with that problem in the next test. But come SA tour in the end of year is the real test for him.

[ret]

Originally Posted by metallics2006

You didn't see the bowlers setting them up then. Vijay got some out swingers with the same line and length before being done in by one that came back in. Was just exceptional bowling.

No doubt that the bowling was exceptional (esp the strategy) .... What I am saying is that I would have liked Ind batsmen to match that too (thinking process). It's obvious that a bowler is setting you up with something if he is bowling the same line and length

I remember doing such stuff in school like get a couple of ball to come in to the pads and then bowl a straight quick one. Or keep bowling on a few staight ones on the legs and then get one to move away from the leg to off. I know this is not a great example to use but just to show that bowlers set batsmen up at most level. Which is why I found some of those leaves strange but those highlights don't reflect the whole game plan so may be I could have missed something. And yeah those simple things work at all levels

[social]

Originally Posted by ret

I saw the highlights and saw some comical leaves by Indian batsmen that resulted in to them getting bowled .... the damage could have been much less, if some of those guys had applied themselves a little more or resisted that rush of blood. But I guess that's cricket

How well prepared is any batsman for that stuff and especially considering that Indian batsmen are brought up on a diet of "fast" bowlers are 10 ks slower and nowhere near as skilful?

To put it mildly, there is a massive difference between world class versus good enough to get into a team because the options are limited

[aussie]

Originally Posted by L Trumper

This. I always thought the same. I hope gambhir will cope with that problem in the next test. But come SA tour in the end of year is the real test for him.

Indeed.

[L Trumper]

Originally Posted by ret

No doubt that the bowling was exceptional (esp the strategy) .... What I am saying is that I would have liked Ind batsmen to match that too (thinking process). It's obvious that a bowler is setting you up with something if he is bowling the same line and length

I remember doing such stuff in school like get a couple of ball to come in to the pads and then bowl a straight quick one. Or keep bowling on a few staight ones on the legs and then get one to move away from the leg to off. I know this is not a great example to use but just to show that bowlers set batsmen up at most level. Which is why I found some of those leaves strange but those highlights don't reflect the whole game plan so may be I could have missed something. And yeah those simple things work at all levels

Two outswingers followed by inswinger is always difficult. No matter how good a batsman is if bowler got it right chances of batsmen's survival is almost none. Legend has it that malcom marshall once told gatting that he is gonna do the three card trick and will get him and he did exactly that in the match.
Even if you know bowler setting you up its difficult to predcit
when exactly the ball is going to nip back,
whether bowler can delver the inswinger in those conditions,
how long can it nip back,
does wicket have enough carry to take it over the stumps
whether its okay to drive the balls that are swinging away et al;
sometimes he can go a bit shorter and still bowl the outswinger (steyn against SRT), if you are willing to drive which will induce an edge.

Its just damn good bowling batsman has to be very careful. Considering the placid pitch we can't blame them because batsman generally dont think it is possible on these kind of pitches. In second innings they will do better but I am pretty sure SA had this in bag.

[funnygirl]

I was overconfident that Dhoni won't lose a test.But that is going to change.I am so disappointed with the selection of Saha,a specialist batsman really?

Not taking credit away from SA.They were awesome and deserved winners.Steyn my man once again proved why he is the best.

[silentstriker]

Yea, Saha was a stupid pick in the squad. I mean he was never intended to play as a specialist bat by the selectors but their shortsightedness of not picking any backup batsmen (they knew Laxman was iffy) was just inexcusable.

That's not what's going to lose the Test though. First and foremost, it's Steyn and his awesome bowling, and second, it's India's less than inspired bowling.

But really, I was really upset in Ahemdabad, and several other instances where India lost the Test. I am not upset now. There is nothing to get upset about if you lose to someone like Steyn. That's just losing to a superior level of play, nothing much you can do. As a fan, you hope for the best for your team while enjoying the awesome ferocity of a fast bowler at the absolute peak of his power, saying **** you to the pitch and running wild all over the batting lineup.

[Goughy]

It is a little scary that all SA's 4 seamers were quicker than the 2 chosen by India. Even Kallis as SA's 4th seamer broke 90 mph and was faster on average than Indias frontline seamers despite already cracking a big ton.

[silentstriker]

Yes, most defnitely. That's always been an issue. Can you believe that before Kapil Dev, Gavaskar had never seen any Indian fast bowler bounce an opposition player? The whole team was shocked when he came along, and he was hardly express!

Ishant was never 90mph, but he was bowling 140kph initially and now he is 5-10kph slower. While more speed is nice, I think India seem to be missing a lot more than that with our pace bowling most of the time. India do need swinging conditions to be really effective, and the problem is that could also play into the other team's hands.