8th Match - South Africa v India

[ankitj]

Yep, India looks the goods. No apparent weaknesses, and stacked with world class players. This is officially India's World Cup to lose now.

Middle order of Rahul, Dhoni and Jadhav is pretty ordinary. It is bound to hurt us in a big chase or will reduce a potential 340 score to 280 when batting first. It's down to our bowlers to carry us as far as they can.

 

[_Ed_]

I week in and SA look like they're down and out. Every game is must win for them now and they still have England, NZ and Australia to play.

They've already played England, but, yeah, NZ and Australia might be tough opponents considering the form SA has been in so far. West Indies could be another hard one - even Pakistan if they produce a performance like their one against England.

 

[ankitj]

Wait, what?

AB de Villiers sought World Cup recall, SA team management said no | ESPNcricinfo.com

 

[Starfighter]

While it's obviously a stupid thing to do to not pick ABdV when he's available, I do sympathise with the SA management on this one. You don't get to retire from international cricket and offering plenty of reasons for doing so (while still continuing to play T20 leagues in Asia) then suddenly pitch your name into the ring with a day to go. That's called being an arse.

 

[cricketgateway]

Good match.. well done Bumrah..

 

[Bolo]

Nice innings, but small total against a mediocre side and it wasn't exactly do or die tbh.

Didn't Dhawan score a century against a much better Saffer side a few years ago? That would be of more worth for sure.

True, and I'm sure it won't be remembered as one of the greats for these reasons.

But everyone else really struggled in those conditions against the bowling on the day. A 47 over unbeaten innings in a chase is pretty notable- shouldn't last that long against mediocrity. And he was scoring a ridiculous proportion of the runs before the game was completely settled.

I don't necessarily think it is one of the great innings (only managed to watch a few overs, so I don't even know if it was a particularly good innings). But it does standout pretty severely. Gilchrists WC final hundred is the one that I always remember as a run feast in the context of the game, but there were two other fifties that time

 

[Zinzan]

While it's obviously a stupid thing to do to not pick ABdV when he's available, I do sympathise with the SA management on this one. You don't get to retire from international cricket and offering plenty of reasons for doing so (while still continuing to play T20 leagues in Asia) then suddenly pitch your name into the ring with a day to go. That's called being an arse.

You can when you're AB. Whether it breaches some internal selection criteria or not, you do it anyway. It's not likely to happen again when arguably the greatest ODI bat of all-time makes themselves available if wanted.

AB would have been an arse had he made a song and dance about it, but as far as I read, he didn't.

It's Cricket SA who'll look like asses if SA continue this form & fail to make the 4.

 

[Starfighter]

You can when you're AB.

Actually you can't, as has indeed happened. If he wanted to play, then he shouldn't have publicly quit, and if he wanted to come back maybe substantially more than a day's notice would have been good. Same as any other job.

 

[Zinzan]

Actually you can't, as has indeed happened. If he wanted to play, then he shouldn't have publicly quit, and if he wanted to come back maybe substantially more than a day's notice would have been good. Same as any other job.

Cool, so we disagree. SA cricket made an irrational decision. Was a rare exception to break an internal rule. He'd have made a real difference to the balance of that side.

I'd view it differently if they were looking like world beaters going into the tourney, but they didn't & their batting in particular looked ordinary.

 

[Anil]

Such false modesty. It's obvious that India will obliterate all challengers as they stroll to the title. Anything less would be a choke of epic proportions.

Is this gambhiring or reverse-gambhiring?

 

[Bahnz]

Cool, so we disagree. SA cricket made an irrational decision. Was a rare exception to break an internal rule. He'd have made a real difference to the balance of that side.

I'd view it differently if they were looking like world beaters going into the tourney, but they didn't & their batting in particular looked ordinary.

I do think giving SA cricket literally a single day of notice made it very difficult for them. If AB was serious about this he should've let them know a couple of months in advance. At the same time, I kinda agree. South Africa have been looking increasingly ordinary in ODI's since AB retired (getting taken apart by India and struggling to beat Pakistan at home). Really, I think you have to select him, he's just too good a player to ignore.

 

[Dendarii]

South Africa have been looking increasingly ordinary in ODI's since AB retired (getting taken apart by India and struggling to beat Pakistan at home).

Not that I disagree with your point, but he played in the series against India.