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***Official*** South Africa in India

adharcric

International Coach
So much has been made about the pitch being so bad or batting and what not. Today at least 3 of the Indian batsmen threw their wickets, Yuvraj, Dhoni and Ganguly. All three were batting very fluently and rarely looked getting out. 20 run lead is nothing on this pitch. India had a chance to gain some decent advantage and their middle order batsmen blew it.
Dhoni for sure. Yuvraj maybe. Ganguly no.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Funny thing about Ganguly was that he's been criticised in the past for NOT going after the bowlers when he's battign with no. 10 and 11, and instead playing for the n.o, and taking the singles.

I thought he did the right thing and went for his shots, but both arguments are valid IMO. However based on previous innings, and the way Steyn would rip out India's tail, I think his decision was a calculated one for the better of India. Just unfortunate he went out I guess.

I do find it ridiculous that Ganguly said no Indian threw their wicket away though, because how else can you define Dhoni's dismissal?
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Silentstriker's Law for Dhoni (I'll call it SLD)



And this is our Test captain folks. He has impressed me considerably by improving his keeping, which is now Test class. Now lets hope his shot selection (and really its giving too much credit to say he has a shot selection problem) improves. Charging down the track was stupid. And its not the first time he did it either.
 
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ret

International Debutant
I think charging down the wkt is part of the game .... there is a risk when you play a forward defensive shot to a spinner so you get caught at the short leg or nick one to the slips .... there is risk in padding as well as you can be given LBW for not offering a shot

i think Dhoni assessment was that he will probably get a good ball sooner or later so he went after the bowling and unfortunately got out

I guess McKenzie got out trying to do something like that, De Villiers got caught as well, we don't see SA fans making an issue out of it
 
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jeevan

International 12th Man
Silentstriker's Law for Dhoni (I'll call it SLD)



And this is our Test captain folks. He has impressed me considerably by improving his keeping, which is now Test class. Now lets hope his shot selection (and really its giving too much credit to say he has a shot selection problem) improves. Charging down the track was stupid. And its not the first time he did it either.
Strangely, he seems to bat very sensibly in ODIs when wickets have fallen in succession (since his captaincy).
While his strike rate in ODI's has fallen, he is almost Dravidian in his anchoring of the Indian ODI middle order.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
I think charging down the wkt is part of the game ....
So is throwing your wicket away like a moron, and he is an expert at it. In that situation, that was about as unnecessary as you can get. Charging down the track in this situation is not a calculated risk like, say, playing a sweep shot would be....it's a suicide shot.
 

jeevan

International 12th Man
Ganguly could've done better, but he did enough. (this particular 10,11 are OK bats - he could've been more patient ).
Yuvraj, Dhoni , should've been more careful for sure.

The real shortfall came from the top 3. Any one of them reaching even their
batting average (Yuvi,Dhoni both did) would've left us with another 25-40 runs more,
which would've been quite a difference in this situation.
 

ret

International Debutant
It's weekend so there is some time for brainstorming and looking back at the series.

With the game tantalizingly poised, I can't help but wonder that do we [India] deserve to win this game and thus level the series?

Apart from the loss to SA in the early 2000 and to the Australia in 2004, I haven't seen an Indian team play so badly in a series at home. Strategically too we have been poor.

Let's analyze the batting:
The two best batsmen of India in the squad have played just one good innings of note and that too in the first test where Sehwag hit that triple and Dravid made use of the flow to scratch to a 100. They both have failed since then. Of the support batsmen, only Ganguly has shown some resistance with two good back to back innings, Laxman has failed apart from the first inning in this test, while Jaffar has been a waste of space

bowling:
The pacers has had a nightmare of a series, the spinners hardly effective .... Kumble has come out a cropper [though he has been suffering from injury since Chennai] and Bhajji has been at his restrictive best. Less said about the pacers the better [except Ishant]

India has not been helped by the injuries to its key players so has not been able to field a full strength squad in any of the games but you have to take that in the stride and move on

Before an important series like this one, you expect all departments of cricket right from the team management, the selectors and the administrators to be in sync. But that doesn't seem to be the case as the administrators were busy with the IPL, the selectors did little brainstorming and selected the same team that played in Australia thus giving more chances to the failures of that tour and allow things to go from bad to worse, the pitch committee prepared bad pitches right from a flat bed at Chennai to the green top at A'bad. Clearly the best chance to beat the opposition is in the first test so it's absolutely necessary to prepare a pitch that suits the home side but we get a flat bed that allows the visitors to practice and get into the groove, then we offer a pitch that suits the visitors at A'bad

Strategically too the team composition lacked sense. At Chennai, we played 7 batsmen, while on the green top at A'bad, we played 6

In a few hours from now the action will begin, the team has not played great cricket so far bar a few individual performances, it's time for the lazy asses to pick up their games and give their best performance of the series and get from bad to good OR come out cropper and go from bad to worse .... the stage is set for them
 
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Protean

State Regular
Cannot believe McKenzie dropped that. Terrible time for SA to let their fielding standards slip.

Looking like India is going to get that 50 run lead.
 
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cricketboy29

International Regular
I think charging down the wkt is part of the game .... there is a risk when you play a forward defensive shot to a spinner so you get caught at the short leg or nick one to the slips .... there is risk in padding as well as you can be given LBW for not offering a shot

i think Dhoni assessment was that he will probably get a good ball sooner or later so he went after the bowling and unfortunately got out

I guess McKenzie got out trying to do something like that, De Villiers got caught as well, we don't see SA fans making an issue out of it
No offense, but who the hell cares what the SA fans, are doing? We're complaining, because we feel that our captain in waiting, indeed the captain in this test, should be falling victim to the 'SLD'. Not because its fashionable.
 
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