Will Indian cricket never learn from it's mistakes? [Archive]

Cinefan

16th August 2005, 05:08 PM

A new season has started-a new captain,a new coach,new tactics.

But how was the beginning?-the SAME OLD story.

The team lost 3/3 to Lanka out of which two was there for their taking but as only the Indian team can,they contrived to lose.

Will the cricketers ever display traits like a common sense&an absolute dedication to WIN?Why are they so laid back&lack lustre in their approach?

To add to this,the selectors too play a strange game of musical chairs. They are more keen in keeping the powers that be(Jagmohan Dalmiya)happy than thinking about the future of the team?

Instead of giving Dravid a full season as captain,they give him a series&add Ganguly to the team at the last minute.What does that mean?-you better win this series or you lose the captaincy.

What has Saurav done to deserve a place in the team,forget being captain?

Then they go ahead&drop Kumble????,Balaji????????&bring in of all people Ajit Agarkar???????????????

Do these men have something called VISION?

Is it not time for us fans&the media to stop hyping up this team&accept the fact that it's just a rag-tag bunch of talented individuals who can't do simple things right consistently.

As Harsha Bhogle commented in one of his columns,India are at No 7(in the ICC ratings),played like one&will continue to languish there unless they get their basics right.

jaiganes

16th August 2005, 06:08 PM

cinefan!
well said.
Add to this the stories on factionalism in Indian cricket team.
Also the inability to create a momentum out of a win(rarely they do!!). that can be attributed only to players playing in one game to stay in the team and in the tournament and fissling out later because of complacency.
Players like Yuvaraj and Kaif fire once in 12 to 13 games. Players like Sourav don't fire at all. Players like Harbhajan fire only against weaker opponents.
Zaheer khan's runup is aster than delivery and his followthrough is longer than the run up of freddy flintoff. Can anyone explain why he is in the team? just because he yorked steve waugh millions of years ago?
If you can solve all these puzzles and then come back to what is actually happening between Saourav-Dravid-Sachin-Coach, then you can crack this puzzle successfully!!!

S.Balaji

26th August 2005, 08:02 PM

Players like Yuvaraj and Kaif fire once in 12 to 13 games

Both were doing reasonably well until the recent series against Pakistan..
Both are coming back to form now.. We should give some more time.

Players like Sourav don't fire at all

Sourav is one of the best one day players India had produced. Agreed , one should not thrive on past glory but definitely Saurav has atleast another 2 years of cricket left in him...

Players like Harbhajan fire only against weaker opponents

I wonder how did arrive at this conclusion ??Turbanator might not have taken more wickets but definitely had contained the runs well..

Zaheer khan's runup is aster than delivery and his followthrough is longer than the run up of freddy flintoff. Can anyone explain why he is in the team? just because he yorked steve waugh millions of years ago?

Having nurtured him in the last 2 years, he needs to be given another opportunity... Definitely will do well in the future..

We have hired a high cost Foreign Coach .... Mr.Greg Chappell should bring in all his AUSTRALIAN APPROACH to Indian team....

England has already copied the Aussie model of being very very aggressive.... I mean Flintoff... Jones.....Trescothick...Waugn.....
Today they are doing well due to their aggressive approach copied from Aussies....They have started scoring at 4 runs per over which India also should start doing ...

First we should stop playing against Grade 2 countries like Zimbabawe....Bangaladesh .....

Should play more against England... Australia.... IN THEIR COUNTRY... not in India....

Create more Bouncy and fast wickets......

Look at today's plight.... Bond continues to be India's nightmare... as he is a genuine fast bowler..............

S.Balaji

26th August 2005, 08:07 PM

[tscii:eb5e5b3ca0]Kumble should be preserved for Tests so that he will last for another 3 years…. Definitely has the staying power in the longer version…..

In his place, Murali Karthik can be tried for onedays….. who has good potential
[/tscii:eb5e5b3ca0]

S.Balaji

26th August 2005, 08:14 PM

[tscii:4692595c8a]Persisting with Dravid as a Captain means closing the doors for Ganguly…. Virtually…… Ganguly lost his place for 2 reasons….. the slow bowling rate judgement and failure in batting…..

I think Ganguly still has atleast 2 years of cricket left IN ONEDAYS…. And should be retained ….. Probably should lead up to next world cup……

After all, Ganguly had done well as a Captain…… All he needs now is to score some runs which I am sure he will do it….
[/tscii:4692595c8a]

Thiru

27th August 2005, 01:24 AM

Balaji,
Your comments seem to be good for an upcoming team, not for a team which made the world cup finals a couple of years back and where considered among the Top 3... We keep talking about Talent and youth, but the same team that was playing so well two years back has been close to being awful in the last few months..
Part of it is the schedule where our guys dont play international cricket for almost 5-6 months in a row.. Even when they play its a triangular tournament involving 5 games or a one day series involving 3 games.... A tour of 3 months where you play 5-7 onedayers and 5 tests is what gives the players international experience , not a triangular tournament in kenya or zimbabwe or srilanka which involves either bangladesh, Kenya or zimbabwe... We have seen India make the finals in every triangular tournament by defeating the weaker team only to lose in the finals..

Next is our selection committee... You drop a developing young bowler like Balaji and bring in a guy Agarkar who has failed umpteen number of times in the international scene.. The BCCI have realized that no matter what is the result, people are going to keep watching cricket in India.. So instead of putting a team that could actually win, gather a team that could benefit the selectors in some way (financially or in other ways)... This has been happening for years when Shivlal yadav got in guys like Noel David and Gundappa Vishwanath got in players who were not even fit to be in State teams..

Performing in the field : Ganguly's failure to accept criticisms... Ganguly better stop talking about what he has done over his international career and start performing on the field... Everyone knows that he has hit 10,000 + runs in international cricket, but what have you done lately is the deciding factor in international cricket.. Sehwag has to know that he has to stay for sometime in the wicket before going for his shots.. Invariably we find India 10-1 or 20-1 within the first 5 overs...

When there is such a political debate and fighting going over being the president of a Cricket board, you can understand how much the position would mean to a person and how it would benefit him... Cricket in India is becoming more of a business for certain people and players, whereas its the passion among millions of fans throughout the country...

S.Balaji

27th August 2005, 10:51 AM

Thiru,

About Politics in Indian Cricket.....

You know well that its going on for the last 30 years ever since Sunny and Bedi days....
I think we will have to live with this sad thing as Indian cricket is big commercial activity now.... Sponsors and ads dominate Indian cricket.... the kind of money involvement ....... it amazing to note....
What you mentioned about VIshy... bringing in his group his absolutely right... Having watched Vishy's playing days and the kind of sportsmanship he displayed... I am stunned by his role as a Chief of Selectors.....

Sachin factor.....
Even Sachin's match winning days seem to be over now.... I have not seen him playing extremely well ... either to win matches or to save a test atleast..
There are numerous occasions... in recent times... Sachin did not fire ... to his potential........especially the finals of all the tournaments we had lost in the last 2 years... including Natwest ....
Even in tests.... he could not do well in crucial tests like in Melbourne....
Even in the world cup final...agreed 340+ chasing is not a joke... but there was no need for him to go for big shots in the first over itself... that too against Mcgrath....
What he does is coming up with a big score in one inning which makes up for his lost average in other innings in a series... in the final analysis... the average remains intact.....
The sooner, we find a good alternative for Sachin, its better for Indian Cricket......as he also bogged down by injuries.....

Ganguly....
Agreed he is not that forceful player of the past but definitely needs to be given another chance to reestablish ... both as a captain and also as a batsman... probably for Onedays... while Dravid can be persisted for Tests.......

Greg Chappell....
More than anybodyelse... this guy will be keenly watched by the Critics ( past players of India ) and he will be on the firing line now.....He should bring in the Australian approach to Indians.....

S.Balaji

27th August 2005, 11:18 AM

[tscii:e6cb03f522]Ajit Agharkar….

Could be the most influential guy in Cricket as he keeps on coming back with no credible performances…..Even the century he scored in England was against a virtually sealed match when England were certain of a victory… with a huge margin….I wish this century is taken away from the record…. As this will time and again will be applied for chosing Agharkar…. as a so called All rounder…..

May be the Shastris and Gavaskars are playing their part in Agharkar's selection.......

Chosing Agharkar ahead of Balaji… is a cardinal sin……. Hope Balaji doesn’t get demotivated by this sinful act of selectors……He should keep focusing on his bowling and finetune them ….. besides maintaining his fitness levels….

[/tscii:e6cb03f522]

Sanguine Sridhar

27th August 2005, 01:42 PM

West Indies dominated Cricket for a decade 1970's to 1980's...
After that India won the World Cup..Remember only world cup! After that West Indies came to India ..... gave a big blow ... saying that "You are not big team..boss u have to grow up!"

But i wonder about one team- Australia
Look at their records
1975 World cup
Australia - Final, but losed to West-Indies

1979 World Cup
Australia- Very very poor performance they beat Canada but losed to England,Pakistan

1983-World cup
Australia- Quarter Finals

1987-World Cup
Australia - Won the World cup

1992-World cup
Australia- Quarter Finals

1996-World Cup
Australia- Final but losed to Sri-Lanka

1999-World Cup
Australia - Won the world cup

2002-World cup
Australia - Won the world cup

This is called consistent..consistent for more than 3 decades except 1979 world cup all the other cups they did reasonably well.

Indians on the other hand

1975- World cup
India beat only East Africa..and losed to England and Newzealand

1979-World cup
India losed to all the teams

1983-World cup
India won the world cup

1987-World cup (Played at India)
India reached semi final but losed to England

1992-World cup
India had a mixed luck....but didn reach Semi-Finals

1996-World cup
India reached Semi-finals but losed to Srilanka

1999-World cup
India reached super-six but failed to enter semi

2002-World cup
India reached final but losed to Australia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now the stats shows the performance of both the team..But What about playing with other teams

Australia in One Day Internationals
Against Played Won Lost NR/Tied

Bangladesh 9 8 1 0
Canada 1 1 0 0
England 85 47 34 4
India 80 49 27 4
Kenya 4 4 0 0
Namibia 1 1 0 0
Netherlands 1 1 0 0
New Zealand 97 68 26 3
Pakistan 74 43 27 4
South Africa 56 29 24 3
Scotland 1 1 0 0
Sri Lanka 55 36 17 2
USA 1 1 0 0
West Indies 108 49 55 4
Zimbabwe 27 25 1 1
TOTAL 600 363 212 25

Against team in which Win>Lose
Ecept Wesrt Indies...all the teams!!!!!!!

On the other hand India

India in One Day Internationals
Against Played Won Lost NR/Tied
Australia 80 27 49 4
Bangladesh 14 13 1 0
East Africa 1 1 0 0
England 51 24 25 2
Kenya 13 11 2 0
Namibia 1 1 0 0
Netherlands 1 1 0 0
New Zealand 72 35 33 4
Pakistan 101 35 62 4
South Africa 46 16 28 2
Sri Lanka 82 41 34 7
UAE 2 2 0 0
West Indies 78 30 46 2
Zimbabwe 47 37 8 2
TOTAL 589 274 288 27

Against team in which Win>lose
Bangladesh,East Africa,Kenya,Namibia,Nethrlands,Newzealand,UAE,Sri lanka,Zimbabwe

So from these stats..we can come to a conclusion about the weakness of the Indian team..They didn learn from the past mistakes no not at all

India is not having proper fast bowler..can any one show a fast bowler in India whose econ.rate is less than 4.5

Zaheer Khan - Not as consistent as Chamindha vaas
Ajit Agarkar- I dunno why he is in the team
Nehra- Shines once in a blue moon
Balaji-impressed initially..but not now

We dont have proper wicket keeping batsman after Nayan Mongia... Saba Karim was there then Parthiv,Dhoni..and i left one or two i don remember...

Under New coach,Sourav Ganguly captaincy
India losed 3/3 to Srilanka
Won 2/2 to Westindies
Losed 1/1 to Newzealand

So total playes 6 matches Won 2 and losed 4

Where they have learned...India will also never learn this mistake even after a decade or so.... Pity of Indian fans (Includes me :cry: )

S.Balaji

27th August 2005, 02:50 PM

[tscii:916c6c8a96]Beckham,

You have missed out the Cup which we won under Sunny in Australia . Virtually the same team which was instrumental in winning 1983 world cup..
Probably the best ever team we had was those !

I think the major problem with the current Indian team has been inability to win the finals… Probably what South Africa had earlier under Hansie Cronje…we are going through now…. It all started with the Nairobi Knockout under Saurav when we played extremely well but lost to Newzealand in the finals….
All started from there and still we could not win a final ( except Natwest… that too was an incredible performance from Yuvi and Kaif )….

Probably if Greg Chappell can focus on the real problem that our guys are facing in the finals…. Especially on the bowling front… where we have been giving more runs… and the scores getting ended up with 280+ … that area if its focused… we can expect better results……..

[/tscii:916c6c8a96]

S.Balaji

27th August 2005, 02:57 PM

[tscii:77dd7a5fc0]While the selectors have little to chose on Batting front as we have the likes of :

1.Sachin
2.Sehwag
3.Ganguly
4.Dravid
5.Yuvraj
6.Kaif / Badani / Lakshman

The top 6 are automatic choices……….

The problem starts from No. 7…. From the keeper …..to …..

8,9,10,11………

In a way, I will appreciate the idea of Ganguly persisted with Dravid as a keeper cum batsman as this was giving one extra slot ……
Now that Dravid has stopped keeping… soon he will become a liability in Onedayers… We will also come across a situation when Dravid will become a vegetable… for onedays and will face the axe…… unless he is made a Captain…..

On the bowling front…. Harbajan is also an automatic choice……There is a reserve in the form of Murali karthik...

So the issue is on 9 , 10 and 11……..

Being shared by the Zaheers…. Agharkars…….Nehras…….. Balajis………

These are the guys who really spoil the finals … and end up giving lots of runs and making the target more than 280 or 300 or even 320…..

[/tscii:77dd7a5fc0]

S.Balaji

29th August 2005, 06:49 PM

[tscii:155179a7a8]Its really sad to see India touring a country like Zimbabwe … Crores of money being wasted ( I am counting the pay to the team , the foreign coach, the manager, the support staff etc etc )
Somehow we will reach the final…

I don’t see this series as a preparation for the future… I think this will be followed by some home series… where it will be a square turner…. The opposition will surrender meekly…

Unless we play against quality team like Australia, Pakistan, England…. We will never move up….

Now this Zimbabwe tour will be good tour for those who are not in form….

The Agharkars and the other guys will benefit heavily…

Agharkar… will play for another 5 years based on today’s performance…

Real shame if we count this Zimbabwe series in our records...

Probably they are weaker than even Bangladesh[/tscii:155179a7a8]

Thiru

29th August 2005, 10:15 PM

We score 226 hard earned runs somehow against a team which gave up 397 runs in 44 overs to Newzealand... That explains the current state of the team... We will end up in the final and get beaten easily...

Sanguine Sridhar

30th August 2005, 10:04 AM

This would be my team
1. Sachin
2. Sehwag
3. Dravid
4. Ganguly
5. Badani
6. Yuvaraj
7. Kaif
8. Dhoni
9. Harbhajan
10. Zaheer
11. Pathan

Enough..this is enough cauze India's main + is their batting and not bowling..Understanding this concept it is better to go with 8 batsman.If India has 4 fast bowler and a spinner India will def loose the match...Sure...this would be the best..very best team...

S.Balaji

30th August 2005, 11:17 AM

[tscii:b900764096]Beckham,

I think Dravid’s utility was more when he was doing dual role as both keeping and as a batsman.
I don’t foresee long future for Dravid in onedays as he is not an attacking player and soon may be ejected from the oneday team.
However, his presence is very much needed for tests…

In place of Dravid, we shall bring in another allrounder…… the essence for oneday cricket….

[/tscii:b900764096]

Sanguine Sridhar

30th August 2005, 01:41 PM

Dravid is must in one day...How many he has saved...He is absolutely needed...But instead badani who is a spinner&batsman..a fast bowling batsman should be produced..Like Klusener,Kallis,Flintof etc.,

S.Balaji

30th August 2005, 02:25 PM

[tscii:4e22740259]
Dravid is must in one day...How many he has saved...He is absolutely needed...But instead badani who is a spinner&batsman..a fast bowling batsman should be produced..Like Klusener,Kallis,Flintof etc.,

Beckham,

The Only spot which Badani can replace now could be Dravid… Because…. Kaif and Yuvraj are being backed heavily… and have good future as well and I don’t think the selectors will look for Badani to replace these 2 guys..
Other slots are already locked by established players..

Badani proved himself by scoring a century against Aussies… against a strong bowling lineup.. Besides, he did reasonably well in other matches as well but unfortunately is not able to get enough chances…
Before he gets frustrated, he should be given a good opportunity. The only slot available now is of Dravid’s ! ( unfortunately )…IMO….

Badani is an excellent fielder as well. Can bowl some spinners besides….

Should be encouraged so that he gets well set for the World cup…

Dravid should be retained for tests….

Badani also is doing well as a captain... for TN... A very matured cool headed player...

[/tscii:4e22740259]

Thiru

6th September 2005, 11:55 PM

Another Triangular Series Finals.. Another loss... We knew this one coming long back...

Nerd

7th September 2005, 02:59 AM

I checked the scores today morning and I thought India had put up a winning total and I totally forgot about the match until I saw your post here, Thiru!

geez, what in the world is wrong with these 11 idiots?? If sehwag can pick up 3 wickets, why not *over-rated* pathan????

S.Balaji

7th September 2005, 10:44 AM

Now it appears like we need a Bowling Coach as well :oops:

So long as the Agharkars are there, Indian Cricket will continue to suffer...

Absence of Sachin is not an issue atleast for this series as we had put up a very good score in finals..

Probably if we had come across a decent team than Zimbabwe, we would not have even made it to finals :?:

kickboxer

12th September 2005, 03:37 AM

The current indian team reminds me of the team 15 years ago..

batting -- Very powerful against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh...and nobody else, It was Srilanka back then, now it is Bangladesh.

while fielding...
the ball is escorted to the boundary by one or two guys.
Sometimes three or four guys dive but none stops the ball ...

Bowling...

You have to decide whether the guy is a fast bowler or a spinner only by the distance he is running and not by the speed of the ball!!

It's all comming back...........

Alien

12th September 2005, 10:17 AM

while fielding...
the ball is escorted to the boundary by one or two guys.
Sometimes three or four guys dive but none stops the ball ...

Bowling...

You have to decide whether the guy is a fast bowler or a spinner only by the distance he is running and not by the speed of the ball!!
It's all comming back...........

:lol: :rotfl: :lol: LMAO !!! :lol: :lol:

Thiru

26th September 2005, 07:28 PM

S.Balaji

26th September 2005, 08:48 PM

Anyone following the current spat between Ganguly and Chappell?? This is the current state of Indian cricket... What do u guys think will be the end result of this ? I'm guessing that Ganguly will still come out clean and chappell will resign...

Thiru...

Chappell.... more than anything else... will face a tough test from the press and the media....Either he should ignore or handle very diplomatically..

Ganguly as usual will have the backing of Dalmiya....

In this episode, Ganguly is maintaining a diplomatic silence.... Probably he had done his homework with Dalmiya...

buddysathi

26th September 2005, 09:19 PM

Whomsoever -- Chappell or Ganguly-- wins this battle, nobody in the country cares now..IMHO Its Sania fever now..

Cinefan

27th September 2005, 06:05 PM

Anyone following the current spat between Ganguly and Chappell?? This is the current state of Indian cricket... What do u guys think will be the end result of this ? I'm guessing that Ganguly will still come out clean and chappell will resign...

How can any cricket lover not follow it ,that too when it's front page news.

Greg has opened a can of worms&it needed a straight,upright man like him who calls a spade a spade to do that.

Most neutral cricket lovers will agree to his comments that Sourav doesn't deserve a place in the team as batsman/bowler/fielder let alone be captain.

it's also common knowledge that he has his own set of favourites like Harbhajan,Yuvraj,Zaheer.Result- these guys play irrespective of how they are performing.With a powerful guy like Dalmiya supporting him,Sourav went beserk on/off the field&clearly John Wright did not stand up to him.

Greg is no push over&Sourav is finding it difficult to run the show.

Anyway,I don't think the review committe will come up with any drastic solutions.They will just try to postpone taking hard decisions&wish the problems will vanish away.With Greg I don't think something like that will happen.

As I am typing this comes the news that the BCCI has told the media"Greg&Sourav must work together".So there.

I hope Chappel puts his foot down,gives Ganguly the boot&instills some discipline into this team.

It's not enough to say we want to be world beaters,you should have the will&mental strength to work towards it,a quality sadly lacking in most members of this Indian team.[/b]

Cinefan

28th September 2005, 04:45 PM

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/sep/28arvind.htm

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/sep/27prem2.htm

A couple of damn good columns.

visu

16th October 2005, 07:42 PM

Hey guys ,
Indian Selectors Commitee should be tough like Aus commitee or pak commitee. If anyone is not performing omit him what ever his past performance be. Indian players think asif the national team is their ancestral home . hey dudes if u dont perform get out.

buddysathi

21st October 2005, 03:08 PM

Ganguly svcores a hundred.. Hope he does'nt open another new controversy after scoring a century.. :wink:
http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/oct/21gang.htm

Thiru

21st October 2005, 06:46 PM

I dont know whether we can call this return to form.. Playing inside India, in a flat track where the best short pitch would reach your hips against a bowling attack of bhandari, mishra, gagandeep singh.... Well atleast this is a start..

Nerd

25th October 2005, 10:22 PM

The master blaster is back, with a bang :clap: I was refreshing cricinfo once in every few seconds and when sachin reached 90, i closed it for the fear of him getting out. But I was dejected, dissappointed to learn that he got out on 93 :cry:

Who said here that dravid should not play one-dayers?? On paper it looks like a professional performance. Has Indian CT started to learn from its mistakes, after all??

Sanguine Sridhar

26th October 2005, 07:25 AM

i said the same thing... Dravid is a must...Mr.Balaji your comments plz...

Thiru

26th October 2005, 08:40 PM

Lets not get carried away with one game... Consistency is lacking with the indian team and lets hope they solve that first..

Justice

27th October 2005, 07:25 AM

I've just Dravid's ODI stats. He has no hundred against Australi, England or South Africa in ODIs :shock: . It's a different story in test against Australia and England.

i said the same thing... Dravid is a must...Mr.Balaji your comments plz...

S.Balaji

27th October 2005, 12:50 PM

i said the same thing... Dravid is a must...Mr.Balaji your comments plz...

Beckham dear...

Pl do not get carried away by what our guys score in Sub continent pitches.... Ofcourse Dravid is even better compared to Sachin ..on overseas pitches... as he has a better track record overseas....
I still feel that Dravid's role in Onedayers was utilised well by Ganguly as a keeper cum batsman ...and not purely as a batsman... as for onedayers we need some one with more than 1 ability..... Here I feel Dravid may not be the ideal guy in today's style of One day games......

We dont need a sheet anchor type of a guy in One days now as its all Sehwags, Afridis, Gilchrists... all the way now a days.....

The trend of Onedays has changed now and thats the reason I feel Dravid may not fit into one dayers...

but for tests.... he is God... as he stay for days together ..in the the middle

Justice

28th October 2005, 05:52 AM

deleted

Nerd

29th October 2005, 01:06 AM

Lets not get carried away with one game... Consistency is lacking with the indian team and lets hope they solve that first..

one has become two. But after all they are playing at home :) Lets see.. A 5-2 victory would be awesome and yeh sachin is sure back. What a player :clap:

Thiru

3rd November 2005, 06:25 PM

The team looks rejunevated and pumped up... I watched the 4th one dayer on the net and the fielding has improved a lot.. A different indian team with a 3-0 lead would have sat back and let the srilankan team comeback..You have to add in the fact that this SL team is not the best and they are not playing to their potential either...

The best thing for the indians is the maturity of Dhoni and Raina... They came in at a time when SL fought back into the game and Murali was dominating.. Raina played extrememly well with clean shots..He hit just one ball in the air which was well placed in the gaps.. Dhoni on the other side played an entirely opposite role to the one he played in the last onedayer. Though his final scorecard reads 45 of 43 balls, he was at one time batting 16 of 32 balls... Overall I was impressed with the way the game was finished by these two youngsters.. Something which Dravid couldnt do... .

Sanguine Sridhar

4th November 2005, 07:26 PM

Great Going Indians..
Amazing performance.Before If India was chasing 262 and if they were like 180/6 or so...Tail enders will finish the match very quickly...like 210 all out or something.But Dhoni,Raina Amazing...Dhoni showed a very promising innings..and also didn disappoint his fans by shooting the ball to the fence..and what a way he finished the match..Raina in another hand showed a very matured innings...Good going Indians....
Winning is a habit...stick to it!!!

Raghu

7th November 2005, 05:34 PM

Great going Dilshan, Tilakalakalakalalakalakalakalarante :D :D

Thiru

7th November 2005, 07:28 PM

Dilshan did bat well but Arnold was more responsible... Sehwag let the advantage slip when the score read 155/5 at 30 overs.. He didnt bring in his mainline bowlers at that time and let karthik, yadav and himself bowl the next 7 overs with the field spread well.. It allowed both the batsmen to settle down, guage the pitch and then go for the shots.. A bowler like Harbhajan could have been a difference maker in the game... Overall an interesting game compared to the lop-sided wins in the previous games...

S.Balaji

7th November 2005, 07:54 PM

nilavupriyan

7th November 2005, 08:08 PM

The shot played by Raina was terrible... the same guy played sensibly in the previous match....
I hope Greg chappell gives a tough talk to that guy....

There was no need for him to play such a stupid shot ..moving outside the offstump and trying to improvise as at that time...the number of overs left...around 10......

This dismissal to some extent had brought down the runrate ..... We could have scored another 25 plus...which might have made all the difference..

we must have played pathan or harbajan.......its stupidity to lose the confidence by losing a match after a series of win....we are not australia....we are just now getting the right shape.we must not try too much now....only try to win match by match

Sanguine Sridhar

7th November 2005, 08:12 PM

Hmmm Yeah.. Not only Raina..Even more experienced Agarkar did the same mistake.Talking about the match if Srilanka loosed this match then it would be a major trouble for the team and Atapattu.It was almost like Srilanka facing India "A" with a such a non experience bowlers like J.P.Yadav,R.P.Singh,Srisanth and even Karthik.I thought India would have won when Jayawardaney got out.They allowed Lankans to build the partnership.I think that if there was Harbhajan,Irfan ... it would be 5-0.Anyways good experience for the youngsters.Fielding department was absolutely stunning.In batting Yuvraj was the one who reduced the run rate when Gambhir was on fire ..Gambhir performance was great.Being in bench for so many days..and you cant expect more than this..Impeccable..I think score should have been somewhere around 300+...Dhoni's failiure also made some trick in the Indian score.Dravid asusual made a wonderful performance..Kudos! Now it would be intersting to watch Indian team's strategy in the coming two maatches

nilavupriyan

7th November 2005, 08:16 PM

Thiru

8th November 2005, 09:01 PM

Sanguine Sridhar

8th November 2005, 11:28 PM

Thiru anna, if India looses coming two matches..then dont you think that it will make our team psychologically down even though they won the serious...I think Sachin should be in the squad because he wont be that much tired. Management is giving good chances for Yuvraj .. but that chap should know to use his chances so as Sehwag.

karthik_sa2

9th November 2005, 02:04 AM

i really dont understand the idea behind introducing lot of new youngsters in the indian team when players like kaif,zaheer,nehra,balagee r still performing well.now we have come to a situation where everybody id performing well.as a result youngetsers r not given enough chances to prove themselves.even if they prove it will be tough to drop sachin or pathan or harbajan and have someone like gambir who scored a brilliant century in the last odi in the team.then y these experiments.rao performed very well in the previois odi but he is not included for the 6th odi.what does that mean?again if somebody performs well.rao will be permanently ignored.y shd they do this?
so i feel the team managemnt shdnt include too many youngsters at the same time.pick one or two most talented.try them for a few matches.if they dont click.pick somebodyelse after that

nilavupriyan

9th November 2005, 05:35 PM

I dont mind India playing their youngsters and giving their veterans a break... This is the perfect opportunity for the youngsters to prove and there is absolutely no pressure... winning the series 6-1 or 4-3 doesnt really matter.. what matters is the international exposure players like raina, gambhir and Singh..

if india loses next two matches india will lose its confidence.........but suddenly if a new player do surprisingly great like dhoni its a gift :D to our team

S.Balaji

9th November 2005, 06:39 PM

Nilavu...

The 6 th match is ours now ...

Probably the final one should be for experiments...

Wonder why Zaheer,Nehra, Balaji are not considered ??

Thiru

9th November 2005, 07:39 PM

To reiterate, the selectors and coach are looking to field the best team for the worldcup. So ideally this is the time you can start picking and choosing players.. We cant experiment with new players in november/december 2006 and let them play in west indies for the world cup... Also, the team is pretty much set in terms of 5 or 6 players... Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid, Yuvraj and Kaif are definitely going to be in the team barring injuries... The team around them is what will be changed and experimented.. Dhoni seems to have cemented his place as the Wicket keeper and Pathan certainly is for keeps...
The other 4 players and the other 4 is what is being experimented out.. Balaji has been given so many opportunities and he has performed well at times and has performed poorly at times.. I wouldnt mind the selectors giving a chance to RP singh or the other singh (who is supposed to be the fastest bowler in india)...Sreesanth needs to learn a lot but there's little he can do in indian tracks.. I like the way the team has been selected for this series.. We cant keep everyone and we shouldnt stop everyone from getting chances.. Rao, Raina, RP singh and Gambhir have shown glimpses of their talent in the first few games.. Khan has been a big disappointment recently and Nehra seems to be injure himself almost every series... I dont think any of these players are being ignored or left out... It doesnt make sense to stick with Khan, Nehra and Balaji & even agarkar for that matter if they cant get the job done.. Thats what we did with Srinath and prasad in the 90s and if we continue to live and die with the khans and nehra's , we will have a tough time in West Indies..

Thiru

9th November 2005, 09:04 PM

India will play 10 Test matches and 36 one-dayers in the next 7 months... A perfect platform for selecting the team for the worldcup.. Again one cannot keep everyone happy.. There's always gonna be some second guessing and unhappy people..

nilavupriyan

9th November 2005, 11:11 PM

Nilavu...

The 6 th match is ours now ...

Probably the final one should be for experiments...

Wonder why Zaheer,Nehra, Balaji are not considered ??

nehra and balaji can be used.....

i wonder why they dont use badani....he is a useful player i guess

S.Balaji

9th November 2005, 11:33 PM

Badani is one of those talented guys unfortunately could not get into the team because of Yuvraj and Kaif....
Badani's slot is at present occupied by these 2 guys... i think.....

Unless he is given a chance soon... he may lose interest ..

Is there any chance for Sadagopan Ramesh in tests ? doubtful now as Sewag has cemented as an opener and couple of other guys are in competition for the second slot.... like Gambhir....

Another guy who is slowing fading is ...Sriram.....

Nerd

10th November 2005, 01:22 AM

Nehra seems to be injure himself almost every series

:rotfl:

I dont think India could come that close to winning the world cup as in last time :( They just lost two matches, last WC, both of them being with the eventual champions!

Sanguine Sridhar

10th November 2005, 04:05 AM

Talking about the world cup 2002 ... I dont think that they would qualified for finals if Sachin failed...Little master blastered..in each and every match

nilavupriyan

10th November 2005, 08:38 AM

Talking about the world cup 2002 ... I dont think that they would qualified for finals if Sachin failed...Little master blastered..in each and every match

:D

WHAT DO U THINK ABOUT THE FIRST OVER BOWLED BY ZAHEER KHAN IN WORLD CUP FINALS :evil:

S.Balaji

10th November 2005, 09:39 PM

Nilavu...

the first over of Zaheer in the WC finals was a result of wrong aggression and wrong body language trying to show before the mighty australians.....it was a deliberate ploy by the Indians to irritate the openers...and unfortunaely it totally misfired....and both the openers fired us...... it paved way for the huge total...

S.Balaji

10th November 2005, 09:48 PM

Talking about the world cup 2002 ... I dont think that they would qualified for finals if Sachin failed...Little master blastered..in each and every match

Beckham...

Sachin...unfortunately had let us down on numerous occasions when his sound start was needed.....

Remember even in 2002 wc .... in semifinal...he fell cheaply ( though against Kenya and it was ganguly who took us home )

and the finals....he needlessly went for a big shot in the first over itself.....when there was no need to go for it from the first over itself.....

In 1999 world cup ... the crucial match against australians.... he was out in the first over of the match while we were chasing.....
and though we lost it ...it was salvaged by poor Robin singh...and Jadeja...

In 1996 world cup semifinal..... sachin got out stumped at 60++ when he should have taken us to safety...and what happened was a disaster...the match was called off....due to crowd disruption....

Of late.... every crucial match... Sachin had let us down......

Just go through all the finals of the last 2 years tournaments that we had played..... Seldom Sachin had played well in the finals....

Lets not depend on Sachin....from now....... lets depend more on Sewag , Yuvraj, Kaif, Dravid to some extent ......and the youngsters...

Take it from me....... Sachin's days of dominating the world cricket are over....

I may be harsh but this is the fact..

S.Balaji

10th November 2005, 09:57 PM

Sanguine Sridhar

10th November 2005, 10:06 PM

Balaji Anna,
You are thinking of how our Indian team is thinking.Guess what? If Sachin fails the whole Indian fails.He is not machine to score centuries in each and every match.

Why you are taking only negative part of a series,

World cup series in which he gave perfect start except two matches.Kenya is not a big team.Even if Sachin failed anybody could have played well (Ofcourse our Ganguly sir showed his talent).

Talking about finals..chasing target like 360 you cant play a defence game.You have to fire.Thats what he tried.

Remember his performance against Aussies at sharja during 1998. Single handedly he played.He qualified our team to the finals.Ofcourse he made our team to life the cup too.

I put you a question Balji anna..If you are working as a team(Forget cricket) think your work.If you are ditched up continuesly by your manager will you able to show your full ability.How many times Ganguly has passed sarcastic comments over sachin.Has at any time did sachin opened his mouth?? Further how can you expect that he can show his full talent.

He is 32.. he is playing for more than 16 yrs. Think about his body condition,his injuries..Inspite of that how many times he palyed like a God.Just think he didn turn up in the team for more than 6 months and made a beautiful knock against srilankans in the first two matches!

Its a worst nature of a human being to forget his great past and passing comment over him.

I may be harsh but this is the fact..

S.Balaji

10th November 2005, 11:53 PM

[quote="Beckham"]Balaji Anna,
You are thinking of how our Indian team is thinking.Guess what? If Sachin fails the whole Indian fails.He is not machine to score centuries in each and every match.

Dear Beckham.... I am one of Sachin's fans...but my postings are purely out of frustration that he is not coming good when it is needed the most..... I mean at the most crucial juncture...

I dont have the recent statistics to prove this...but we all have seen this physically...in the last 10 tournaments where we lost in the finals and just see how much our Sachin had scored....It will be quite disappointing...

Why you are taking only negative part of a series,

World cup series in which he gave perfect start except two matches.Kenya is not a big team.Even if Sachin failed anybody could have played well (Ofcourse our Ganguly sir showed his talent).

Talking about finals..chasing target like 360 you cant play a defence game.You have to fire.Thats what he tried.

True...other matches...he gave good start...but I dont think he played well against NZ.. he failed there..and it was a crucial match....
Kenya scored 200 ++ in semis i think ...and it would have been a setback if Gangully had got out...
Sachin played like a true champion against Pak ...especially the first 20 overs was true champion stuff....BUT I THINK THE MATCH WAS OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE... even if we had lost the match...we would have been qualified...and hence this match losese its significance except for another indo pak match...

Remember his performance against Aussies at sharja during 1998. Single handedly he played.He qualified our team to the finals.Ofcourse he made our team to life the cup too.

Truely an outstanding tournament for Sachin.... singlehandedly won the tournament for us..

I put you a question Balji anna..If you are working as a team(Forget cricket) think your work.If you are ditched up continuesly by your manager will you able to show your full ability.How many times Ganguly has passed sarcastic comments over sachin.Has at any time did sachin opened his mouth?? Further how can you expect that he can show his full talent.

THis has happened to everyone and will happen to everyone and Sachin is no exception...Even Kapil wanted to get rid of Sunny ..at one stage.... but could not as he could not get a good opener like Sunny.... This is true....

He is 32.. he is playing for more than 16 yrs. Think about his body condition,his injuries..Inspite of that how many times he palyed like a God.Just think he didn turn up in the team for more than 6 months and made a beautiful knock against srilankans in the first two matches!

Please do not count the matches being played in sub continent pitches... In India Sachin is God....noone can take his wicket...

Its a worst nature of a human being to forget his great past and passing comment over him.

I may be harsh but this is the fact

I repeat.... just read the statistics of the last 10 finals that we had played and they will speak for themselves.... Sachin had let us down in the finals and in the crucial matches......

Bye

nilavupriyan

11th November 2005, 08:22 PM

Even in the test series down under....Sachin was a relative failure until the final test when he scored the double century...

This series was totally dominated by Dravid and the Very very special lakshman....

Sachin's double century in the final test came very late...even in that test...others scored heavily and sachin capitalised on that...

Infact...the best innings was by Sehwag..scoring 196 on a single day in melbourne..... and Sachin failed in both the innings and we lost the match..

we had a golden chance to win a test series down under.....but .......

u cant expct a person to make win matches everytime...he is also a human.....neasrly 25000 runs in international cricket...what else can he do for indian cricket..

i dont agree that someone call that he is not a match winner.....

there is such an impression because sachin opens the innings in one-day......so he cant be there till the end....which made that impression

Sanguine Sridhar

12th November 2005, 01:18 AM

Hmmmm...Balaji anna Sachin is not the only one player in the side.Look at the Aussies if Gilchrist fails Ponting is there,If Ponting fails Martyn is there...So Cricket is a collective team effort game.You cant load tons of weight on Sachin.

S.Balaji

12th November 2005, 01:03 PM

True Beckham.... Sachin is not the only player to depend upon....

My point is ...... we cannot depend only on Sachin from now ...Lets not expect the same Sachin's magic again..... He himself admits this reality and now a days he is adjusting himself to play a new role ...that of a mentor and guide to the youngsters (eventhough he is not that old )..... His aggressive game has mellowed down a lot now..... probably he had gifted it to Sewag.....

WHen you touched about aussies..... Aussies are also ruthless.....

Hayden....who played like a demon since 2000 was almost out ....of the team after the recent ashes series...... even ponting was severely criticised despite his wonderful record as a captain....

We Indians are generally emotional....and we react with emotions....
What kind of emotions and sentiments that we are undergoing now with Sachin....
the same feeling we also had with Sunny , Kapil , Vishy.....etc etc....

Thiru

12th November 2005, 11:03 PM

sachin might not be a finisher but he's one of the best batsmen in the world and whenever he is there on the field the opposition always have a feeling that the win is not guaranteed... Sachin has the tendency to dominate every bowler and that has lead to his dismissal many times.. but when he's on song, its tough to put him away.. The other good aspect is that he carefully paces his innings.. goes for the big shots initially, picks the quick singles and doubles in the middle overs with occassional boundaries and then goes for the kill in the end... It is not realistic to expect opening batsmen to finish the game..How many times have openers carried their bat to finish off? even haynes and greendige needed bats like richards, lloyd and richardson to finish it off... The problem with the past Indian team is that the team started and ended with Sachin.. The crowd loses its confidence.. the opposition are pumped up and the indian heads fall down if its an uphill target.. Other thing is the supporting cast.. Up until the last 2 years, Sachin had a supporting cast of Ganguly and Dravid as the only good players.. Rest of the team was mix and match & a revolving door.. players like kambli, laxman, kanetkar, badani all are paper heroes.. we were never set properly in the wicket keeping area.. The so-called allrounders like joshi were not effective in either area.. we are having a good mix of young talent coupled with some veterans... Having watched players like Irfan pathan, Suresh Raina, RP Singh and Dhoni I'm really positive about Indian cricket in the near future... Put these youngsters along with players like Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj and may be even Ganguly (but not as captain), this team can beat any team on a given day...

S.Balaji

13th November 2005, 04:45 PM

Mr. THiru....

You mentioned about Lakshman and Badani as part of the paper heros....

IMO....VVS...had proved his class ...He had been consistent as well..of late....
On days...his shortcoming on the fielding front might have taken him away from the eleven ....

Badani....is a very good cricketer.....on par with guys like Yuvraj and Kaif....its unfortunate that he didnt get the same kind of chances that the 2 guys got and also the backing of Ganguly.....

else he would have established himself....firmly...

Look even today..despite the failures of yuvraj.... he is still being considered while Badani was not even being discussed.....

Its not that Badani is from TN and I am vouching for him but definitely he is a capable player.... can bet well..field well... a useful bowler also......

remember he had also scored a century against aussies in PUne ....against a good attack....

Thiru

14th November 2005, 08:33 PM

Balaji,

Laxman has proved his class only in patches and mainly in test cricket.. In one-dayers he's still shaky and that's evident from his 6 100's and 10 50's out of 82 innings... Kaif has 2 100's and 14 50's in 87 games with a better average & better strike rate.. You also know what he brings to the fielding side of the game.. Laxman has all the grace and class but he seems to be too lethargic as well as over-confident with his batting... We dont need such players for oneday cricket... Laxman might score the prettiest 30 runs you can ever see with clean cover drives and crisp square drives but an unorthodox 40 runs from Kaif with singles and two's from Kaif is more useful to the oneday game...

Badani and Dinesh Mongia all have been domestic heroes.. They have been given ample opportunities.. Stats dont speak their true value because they might have a 30+ average but their contribution in a crucial situation has been poor... Players like Kaif and Yuvraj have overcome that hump to play their best in crucial situations whereas the ones that have been in and out of the team have scored their 50's and 100's in non-crucial situations and favourable conditions and failed miserably when the conditions dont favour them...

j.chenkalvarayan

14th November 2005, 08:54 PM

talent is always not rewarded. one of the chief reasons for me losing my interest in cricket was the sacking of robin singh. he was my all time favorite.he was at his best, fit enough and had many years of cricket left when the axe fell on him. it was really a shame when he was sidelined and players of lesser ability donned the indian colors. there are some unsung heroes in indian cricket. they perform very well at domestic level but somehow fail to fall in the elite bracket.one name that comes instantly to my mind is sharath, the wonderful southpaw from t.n. how many times he has saved tamilnadu in the ranji matches. wow. i really didn't understand the selection logic those days. even if a player failed he was kept in the team for a long time so much so that some took their position in the national team for granted .anyways for me cricket sucks these days. i don't like to see a cricketer leaving home with lakhs and laks of rupees when a footballer elsewhere struggles even to support his family. something need to be done. in this context i am very happy with states like kerela ,goa and bengal which continue to maintain the thin lifeline of indian football. from tamilnadu i think so far only one team has managed to break into the nfl. i think its indian bank.

Thiru

16th November 2005, 11:17 PM

Good game today...The Toss turned out to be a crucial factor.. Nice comeback by India after being down 5-3 and 34-4, it was great to see them score 250... If the wicket had helped the bowlers a little bit, it would have been a fighting target.. Pitch eased up a bit and India wasted Gambhir as the supersub and had to lose out on Murali Karthik.. He could have made a difference in the game.. Either way, you cant win all the games you play.. india have to come back strong and play their best to break the 20 game winning streak of SA..

S.Balaji

16th November 2005, 11:28 PM

Its very important that one wins the first encounter...so that a psychological advantage is gained over the opponent....
This SA team doesnt have bowlers of Alan Donald class.... even Shaun Pollock is not at his best....
This is another good opportunity for Indians to set the records straight....

The key players could be Kallis and Ntini.....

Thiru

16th November 2005, 11:31 PM

Balaji, This bowling attack doesnt scare me but the problem is the assistance that bowlers get in early morning conditions with the little grass on the wicket.. Its becoming very visible in many of the tracks in India that there will be help for the seam bowlers in the first 1 hour and then the pitch eases out.. So the team that wins the toss has a greater advantage with the ball as well as the bat...

S.Balaji

16th November 2005, 11:55 PM

Dear Thiru....

Idhu romba romba aniyaamunga.....

Cant our opening guys stick around for just 10 overs ( which will take around 45 minutes )...
so that the dew factor is neutralised....

Konjam nalla pitch irundhaal podhum.... our frontline batsmen will all be at sea....Probably the only exception could be Dravid......

Do you agree with me that our guys are not technically sound enough to counter the initial assitance that a pitch offers .......

Thiru

17th November 2005, 01:13 AM

Balaji,
Sachin and Dravid are the only ones technically sound to counter the initial assistance.. Sachin was unfortunate to be given out and Dravid was facing a new bowler with a funky motion.. Again these are not excuses, but these are the only two guys who can play in any conditions.. Thats why they are top batsmen in the world.. The rest of the guys Sehwag, kaif, gambhir etc are not technically sound enough to encounter the initial phase.. Its either hit or miss for them.. Even Yuvraj had trouble initially edging the ball so many times...
The initial dew factor always gives trouble to any opposition and if you look at the SL series, Pathan, Agarkar and Singh had success mainly due to that.. Srilanka was losing 2 or 3 wickets within 50 runs within the first 15 overs regularly because of the initial movement in the air.. My only concern is that sometimes Toss & pitch plays such a crucial factor that the team batting first could be bowled out for less than 100 or 150 and the team batting second have no trouble whatsoever in getting to that..
Now, if the games are played under light, it brings out a different issue.. The games start at 3 pm and there is little or no assistance in the air..The problem though is the dew factor in the grass.. Its tougher for bowlers to grip the ball and the ball stops coming to the bat later in the day under the lights..

As I said, these are not excuses for losses because this can happen to any side.. The thing though is to overcome these factors to become a championship caliber team..

Cinefan

17th November 2005, 11:01 AM

Thiru,
Gambhir was indeed wasted but they had no choice but to bring him when Dravid was bowled,the batting had to be shored up.

Karthik was sorely missed,SA might have still won it but with a lot more of discomfort.

India were 30 runs& a bowler short.

Anyway,I liked the way they fought back after being 5-3&35-5.

Greg's way of focussing on processes before results seems to be working.

Of course,India will still lose matches,mistakes will be committed but the key as Dravid told is not to be scared of making mistakes.

Finally,the bottom line will be consistency.If they start achieving that,the fans&the team will have a lot to cheer about.

Sanguine Sridhar

17th November 2005, 11:20 AM

Well well i saw the match initially before i left to my office.Pitch was very good for bowlers in the morning.I strongly believe that the same result would have happen to SA if they bat first.What i thought that it would be a big collapse in the batting order when the score was 5-3 .. But a very good innings by Yuvraj which made our score to 249.

South Africans are equally confident as Indians.Because this was their 13th continues victory.I don think that it is easy to SA to wrap up the series.If India dominated Pollock,Ntini...Sure we can have good treat! We will wait and c

Consistent

22nd November 2005, 04:40 AM

Indians have to take everything seriously.Indians came to Chennai for the series on sunday and they failed to do practice,instead they were taking rest in the hotel.Where as South Africans had a practice session.Monday there was a heavy shower,resulting yet another day in the hotel .So just with the previous match experience Indians are going to meet South Africans.I am just thinking about the thread title again!

S.Balaji

22nd November 2005, 12:18 PM

Consistent....

I wonder why we are so concerned about a Grade B South Africa team..... really not the class of a team which Hansie Cronje brought here few years back ..spearheaded by Alan Donald....or Jonty Rhodes.... or Mc Millan... or Gibbs..... no...not even Nicky Boje......

It should be a cake walk for Indians....if we fail to win this series like what we did against Srilanka.... its a shame to Indian cricket...

This is the most ideal time to reset all the records.....

and...its time that Sachin comes back to form.....

Thiru

23rd November 2005, 03:21 AM

Balaji,
With the exception of Gibbs, this is a full strength South African team... Gone are the days of Donald, Devilliers, Rhodes, Cullinan and Gibbs... This is also a very good one day side with a good bowling attack and a decent batting side.. Apart from Kallis and an unorthodox Smith, no one scares me in this lineup.. Again, the southafricans do the little things pretty well (no missed chances and saving runs on the field)... Its a well-balanced series and hopefully India should win the 4th ODI..

Justice

23rd November 2005, 08:10 AM

SA is batting line up as good as India's, the team is well balanced. As Thiru said, they don't make the small mistakes other teams make. SA is known for giving its best and trying hard till death.

It'll be a superb world cup as there are many contenders for the title, but not sure if Australia will give up

Cinefan

26th November 2005, 12:11 AM

SA thrashed India today.Smith was just uncontrollable.

I wanted India to win in front of a partisan Kolkatta crowd.There were jeering so much as though wishing for an Indian defeat. Idiots.

Somehow this series is favouring the team bowling first a lot.Hope Rahul doesn't lose the toss next time around.

After a 6-1 victory over the Lankans,it would be bad to allow the SA's from claiming their first ODI series victory on Indian soil.

Sanguine Sridhar

26th November 2005, 12:21 AM

Well said Cine,

I was really amazed to see a big roar when Dravid got out...Big nuts!

Whatever...I admit that SA did a gud job but still toss is the descider in the whole of the series so far... Sachin went out in such an immature way..he was defending a ball which was going outside offstump..You are suppose to leave that ball if u want to defend....Absurd!

Kudos to Yuvraj again played a wonderfull innings...India almost losed the match whn everybody got out for 188 when another 30 balls remaining...

Curious though..Andrew Nell is acting very smart by exchanging words with Gambhir..scaring Sachin by almost throwing the ball to the stumps...Match refree???

Cinefan

26th November 2005, 12:31 AM

The SA's bowled well but I was disappointed with the way Sachin&Sehwag got out.

After the high of lanka,Rahul seems to have come down to the earth in this series as a batsman.

I didn't watch the entire Indian innings,so can't comment on the others.

It's time to stop holding matches at the Eden gardens.What kind of ppl are they who place a bengali above the country.

infact Sourav's inclusion in the test team itself was a compromise b4 today's match.

heard apart from fan(atic)s,film stars&even a minister :evil: had called for a boycott.

This toss thing has made this series a little unequal which is such a sad thing.

Just hoping Ind can win the next one&level the series.

Sanguine Sridhar

30th November 2005, 10:39 AM

-deleted-

Sanguine Sridhar

30th November 2005, 10:42 AM

[tscii:80a4f7f6c5]Here is the summary of the feelings and the banners displayed at the
EDEN.
*Is the Indian team without DADA is equal to Pakistan team in EDEN?
* Regionalisim greater than nationalisim?

What nation watched on 25th November

It was just one of the ways the strong crowd chose to stick to its
'No Sourav No match' diktat and give a thumbs-down to Greg Chappell and Dravid.

*"Bring Dada Back" seemed to be the sole agenda of the crowd that
filled up every inch of the Eden Gardens, the home ground of the
former Indian skipper, for the fourth cricket one-dayer between India
and South Africa.

Murmurs of dissent
Every state should demands for atleast 1 player in our national
cricket team (INSPITE OF Their FORM)

Isolated murmurs of dissent that began in the very first over of the
match with Irfan Pathan's dismissal turned into shrill cries of

*Chappell hatao, desh bachao (remove Chappell and save the country)
and Sachin hai, hai ,when Tendulkar's two-run tryst with the crease
ended.

THE MAN WHO GAVE US 6-1 SERIES WIN AGAINST SRILANKA.

*Cries of Dravid, hai hai. Dravid Murdabad (Shame on Dravid)
reverberated through the galleries when the captain was dismissed
after making just six runs.

AS IF OUR PLAYERS WERE PLAYING IN PAKISTAN.
OUR SKIPPER WAS BLAMED BECAUSE HE IS THE CAPTAIN……

*"This is what a team without Ganguly looks like at Eden - a pack of
cards", said Satyabrata Ghosh, who works with a state-government
concern and had applied for leave a month in advance to be at Eden.

Spectators constantly booed at the players on their way to and from
the pitch and showed their ire in posters that read

*Dada is dada, Chappell is gadha (Dada is big brother, Chappell is a
fool)
THE MAN WHO FIRST BROUGHT THE INTENAL POLITICS THAT WAS GOING ON IN THE
TEAM…..

and "Sourav, the forgotten hero".

*"It is a great irony of fate that the day Ganguly scored 158 in the
Pune Ranji match, Chappell's boys here are playing exactly like boys,"
said Sudipto Roy, corporate executive.

AS INDIA TEAM IS A PAKISTAN TEAM WITH OUT DADA.

Black flags at Eden

NO WARD FOR THIS…………..

*Black flags dotted the stadium and black bandanas became a style
statement as hawkers made hay selling small, square pieces of
black clothes for Rs 5 outside the stadium - all to exhibit the
Bengalis' hurt pride. ( RECOGONISE THE BENGALI PEOPLE)

*Unaccustomed to an Eden match without Ganguly (the Bengal left-hander
has played all but one of India's matches ever since his debut in
1996), the crowd indulged in a constant verbal battering of Chappell
Inc, paying scant regard to Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee's
earnest request to "keep Bengal's honour". (THIS IS NOT THE CRICKET
BUT POLITICS + CRICKET)

*"If this is how Sachin plays, what's the point in letting him continue
and dropping Sourav," said a teenager with an Indian tricolour painted
on his cheeks.

WHERE IS SACHIN AND WHERE IS DADA , ASK THE WORLD?

However, there were also a few logical thinkers.
Anutosh Mukherjee, who shares Ganguly's neighbourhood in Behala, said,

*"it is clear from the nature of the wicket that even Sourav's presence
in the team would not have made any difference."

Another regular at Eden, Rajiv Gupta, said,
*"I would have liked to see
Ganguly leading here.

MORAL OF EDEN MATCH

1. ALL THE AUDIENCE WERE NOT INDIANNA BUT ALL DADAS…
2. DADA KNOWS DADA ONLY
3. BUT NOT AN INDIAN
4. WE R BENGALI FIRST THEN INDIAN?
5. THERE WILL BE THE 30 MEMBERES OF INDIAN CRICKET TEAM
6. EVEY BODY SHOULD BE THE CAPTAIN
7. DADA HAPPY IF OUR TEAM LOSS WITH OUT SOURAV
8. THEN I REQUEST YOU TO COME AND STND AGAINNST THE FORCE LIKE
9. REGIONALISIM, ANTI NATIONALISIM
10. DO NOT STAY IN SILENCE.
11. LEARN SOMETHIGS FROM DADA
12. SUPPORT THE INDIAN CRICKET TEAM
13. SUPPORT SACHIN, RAHUL AND CHAPPEL
14. HATE REGIONALISIMS
15. KICK OUT THE FELLOWS WHO SUPPORT REGIONALISM.
[/tscii:80a4f7f6c5]

lancelot

30th November 2005, 11:51 AM

i used to hate india because of Ganguly..... now ther r a better team...

ganguly may hav done good for the india team... but when a persons time comes ...... he has to let go...

but ganguly can fight his way back in to the team... and prove all the selecters rong... but does he hav it in him to do it?????? i dont know.....
me not being a fan of the indian team.... will allways dislike the team a little more if Ganguly is in it

hehe
:D

S.Balaji

30th November 2005, 12:47 PM

Comparing the performance of Sachin with Ganguly today is enevitable....
After the first 2 one day matches...against Srilanka...Sachin has not come good in the next 8 matches ....

Is it not too much of a failure for a guy of Sachin's calibre ??

I dont find fault on the reaction of Kolkatta crowd ( as they have every right now to compare Ganguly with Sachin )........

The Kolkata crowd is well known for its emotional reaction....

there are many incidents in the past...

remember the 1996 world cup semifinal.....

Sunny was forced to take a decision once that he will never play again in Kolkatta....

IMO....ganguly still has atleast 2 years left ON ONE DAY GAMES.....

SOmehow when it comes to Sachin...we Indians tend to become very emotional and forget his failures..........

Thiru

1st December 2005, 02:22 AM

s.balaji,

I'm amazed by your comments... Comparing the last 8 innings of Sachin vs Ganguly?? Sachin is coming back from an injury.. and he already has two good knocks in the 11 matches played.. He has gotten into the 30s and looked solid.. On the other hand Ganguly has never looked comfortable in his 20s and 30s and he's asking people to look back at his record when questioned... He's not willing to agree the fact that he's in a bad slump... Except for the natwest series in england, when did ganguly really contribute with his batting recently?

Ganguly is a talented player and I agree with that whole heartedly.. but with his current form and arrogant attitude, he's a clubhouse cancer in the team..

There's no point in defending the kolkotta crowd's reactions.... Its really pathetic to see one of the largest venues and beautfiul grounds in India has to go through this crap.. No single person is better than the team.. Even if this happens to Sachin, as cricket fans we have to move on.. We support the INDIAN CRICKET TEAM & the uniform, not the players wearing it.. In terms of neutral crowd, Chennai crowd is one of the best.. I was there when Anwar hit 194 and it looked as if it was his home ground..

Nerd

1st December 2005, 04:13 AM

In terms of neutral crowd, Chennai crowd is one of the best.. I was there when Anwar hit 194 and it looked as if it was his home ground

rightly put.. I was there when pakistan snatched victory from india in that famous test match after saching got out. Will ganguly ever play an innings like that? The stadium was dead silent when sachin got out and people were abusing when India lost the match but what followed was unbelievable and heart-warming. Standing ovation to the pakistan cricket team and they even had a victory lap thanking the chennai crowd. You should have been there to enjoy that moment. Truly awesome :thumbsup:

and comparing sachin with ganguly is a sin and am not a HC sachin fan to say that. In fact I like lara more than him but when it comes to ODI, sachin beats the crap out of anyone. But ganguly WAS a fantastic ODI player, very consistent. He needed a break and am sure he ll bounce back and am looking forward to that :)

S.Balaji

1st December 2005, 12:46 PM

Thiru....

IMO....when the selectors could give a break to Sachin...eventhough he was not THAT CONSISTENT of late, why cant they give the similar treatment to Ganguly....

Again...I am NOT supporting Ganguly for the tests.... I wish Ganguly atleast plays the one dayers..... definitely he is a better batsman..when it comes to onedays.....and he has played some better innings compared to Sachin ...when it comes to one dayers.....

You dont need to be technically sound to play onedayers...and Ganguly is known for his big hitting....

I didnt support the reaction of Kolkatta crowd as they are well known for their EMOTIONAL REACTION .....
Are you ( not you but as some one from Tamil Nadu ) not feeling bad when Balaji or Ramesh or Sriram or Badani does not get selected ??

S.Balaji

1st December 2005, 12:56 PM

[quote="Thiru"]s.balaji,

I'm amazed by your comments... Comparing the last 8 innings of Sachin vs Ganguly?? Sachin is coming back from an injury.. and he already has two good knocks in the 11 matches played.. He has gotten into the 30s and looked solid.. On the other hand Ganguly has never looked comfortable in his 20s and 30s

Thiru...

If Sachin had this run of scores playing for Australia, he would have been asked to TAKE MORE REST AND PLAY MORE DOMESTIC MATCHES.... and then look for a comeback....
AND THIS IS AUSTRALIAN APPROACH.... I wish Greg Chappell brings in some element of fear for one's slot ( even if it is Sachin )...so that the individual performs.....

Lets analyse what happened to Martyn . He was a lovely player..very consistent...where is he now ?? His place has been taken by Hussey and Symonds...

Even Hayden's place was doubtful after relative failures in Ashes recently....

Leymann had a solid average of 45 ++ in tests but still was graceful enough to give his slot to Clarke...

Above all...POnting was severely questioned for his loss as a captain....

Martyn, Hayden, Leymann and Ponting all are excellent players...but just look at how the selectors treat them..... PURELY PROFESSIONAL APPROACH...AND NO SENTIMENTS ON WHAT THEY DID IN THE PAST ....

whereas our selectors and our public always dream , believe and hope on past glory...

Sanguine Sridhar

1st December 2005, 12:57 PM

Sanguine Sridhar

1st December 2005, 12:57 PM

S.Balaji

1st December 2005, 02:41 PM

Balaji,
You are still against sachin ;) Juz kidding....anyways for the final paragraph...do u think that Tamil ppl reject the whole team,nation for this cause? Banners at Eden Gardens is the replica of their mindset

Dear Becks.....

I have been a diehard fan of Sachin since 1989 and have been watching his game.....

I feel that we should follow the AUSTRALIAN APPROACH...

and there can be no sentiments to any player

I am not at all vouching for the Kolkatta behaviour as they are basically a set of emotional guys....

The same crowd which jeered at Sunny when he got out against WI in 1984 ...was showing big big posters ....SORRY SUNNY PLEASE COME BACK...

mirattalji

5th December 2005, 05:59 PM

hello we just cant follow the australian methods..
for that the team has to be of that calibre which we certainly are not.Their infrastructure is very solid.... which we ccant compare with and the most important of all .. We need to keep politicians off the scene..

Sanguine Sridhar

7th December 2005, 12:57 AM

Raghu

7th December 2005, 04:22 PM

S.Balaji

7th December 2005, 04:38 PM

Enna Raghu dear.....

The old Srilankan tamil paasam innum vittu pogalayaa !!

Raghu

7th December 2005, 06:43 PM

Enna Raghu dear.....

The old Srilankan tamil paasam innum vittu pogalayaa !!

Balaji anNe,

ena irunthaalum thai natai marakamudiyathe, thaiyai marapavanum thai naatai marapvanum ondru thaan :D

Raghu

7th December 2005, 06:45 PM

S.Balaji

7th December 2005, 07:20 PM

Raghu...

The lowest ever was 42 in Old trafford against England in 1974 !
I remember the top scorer was Eknath solkar ..16 runs and he hit a six also !

and the captain was Ajit wadekar....

he was treated with chappals when he landed Mumbai airport after this series...

Earlier the same Wadekar brought us cheers in the series against England in 1971 when we won 1-0 !! and there was red carpet welcome

S.Balaji

7th December 2005, 07:29 PM

First test match ended in a draw.India all out for 167! :shock: India took this match in a very easier manner resulting a fantastic batting collapse.But Srilankans took this match in a serious way..and they thought like 168 is a target and they acheived it so...Ganguly no improvement 5 out :?

Becks....

These are the aspects Greg Chappell should address and accord top priority.....He should never allow the team to relax...irrespective of the staus of the test....

Infact, Greg should have made Indians play more positively and aggressively and should have made them go berserk against the lankan bowlers...to have a psychological advantage !!

All these aspects... a normal Australian team will resort to.....

Sanguine Sridhar

8th December 2005, 01:43 AM

Initially, the way Sehwag was batting, i thought his idea was to entertain the crowd.But once he and Gambhir got out..Dravid/Tendulkar played like a test match.Anyways we will wait for the second match.

Btw anybody saw Aus Vs NZ second one day today excellent treat..Aus scored 322/5 in 50 Overs..NZ scored 320 all out in 49.5 Overs..

Justice

8th December 2005, 06:23 AM

Symonds killed 'em 8-) . I started to believe he's a monster 8-)

Initially, the way Sehwag was batting, i thought his idea was to entertain the crowd.But once he and Gambhir got out..Dravid/Tendulkar played like a test match.Anyways we will wait for the second match.

Btw anybody saw Aus Vs NZ second one day today excellent treat..Aus scored 322/5 in 50 Overs..NZ scored 320 all out in 49.5 Overs..

lancelot

8th December 2005, 09:00 AM

nilavupriyan

10th December 2005, 10:46 AM

why didnt shewag play today?

Sanguine Sridhar

10th December 2005, 05:54 PM

Nila, Due to poor health sehwag missed this match

Satisfying day... Sachin's brilliant knock of 100 made my day :D ...

Ennamo theriyala Ganguly-a paatha paavama irrundhathu :( :?

S.Balaji

11th December 2005, 12:43 PM

A proud moment for every Indian Cricket lover

Its more significant in the sense the stupendous record of one legend is being over taken over by another legend and both are Indians !

Indeed its a great day for Indian cricket...

If Sachin God willing maintains his fitness levels for another 4 years , we can expect atleast a minimum of 10 - 12 centuries which means the tally will touch 45 to 47 or may be 50 centuries ......

and its going to be a tall order for any future generation cricketer to achieve that milestone

More satisfying about yesterday's century was when it was needed by the team ....

Lets salute the little master

S.Balaji

12th December 2005, 01:53 PM

nilavupriyan

12th December 2005, 05:29 PM

Murali's performance is outstanding ! against a team who are tradionally best players of spin bowling , this guy had done well on DAY 1 ITSELF ! Probably this is the first test for Murali in India ??

Kumble ...the lion hearted bowler....

Time and again he proved to be a match winner...running through a side single handedly

Irfan's promotion was a masterly move by the team management ! these are the innovations and smart risks / decisions one has to take to counter a team of Australian standard

Good to see Ganguly scoring 40 but ideally he should be persisted for one dayers and not for test matches...wonder what could be the basis for this ?

Sachin's century will carry weight and more value in this interesting test...so also will be of Pathan's knock....

PITCH .... I wonder when we will change our attitude ?? looks like a spinner's paradise ??
When can we see bouncy pitches ??

why are u expecting bouncy pitches in india?....are spinners not a part of a cricket team?...there are only bouncy pitches all over the world except the subcontinent...if u ask us also to change our pitch, spinners need not be there in a cricket team...let all of them be fast bowlers..as all the pitches are for fast bowlers

in new zealand...the pitches are only for pace bowling...does anyone ask to them to make pitches for spinners?

spinners -na avlo kevalama?

S.Balaji

12th December 2005, 05:40 PM

Nilavu...

Kovichikaadheenga...

One of the reasons why we are not able to cope up with pace bowling overseas and on bouncy pitches is having spinner friendly pitches here and no scope for having an exposure to bouncy wickets....

Only when we have world class pitches with bouncy tracks...our performance will match with a team like Australia or today's England

This is no way to demean spinners....

I am sorry if my posting hurts you dear.

nilavupriyan

12th December 2005, 05:45 PM

S.Balaji

12th December 2005, 06:24 PM

ayo..why am i hurt.....just an opinion thats it!....if there are no spinning tracks in india also....spinners nelama romba paavam...fast bowlers can reverse swing or use pace in any tracks.....but think abt spinners in a pace track all over the world...

There are exceptions... Shane warne and Murali can spin viciously even on a flat surface...
Kumble ...a very intelligent and thinking bowler .....Worked very hard and planned and plotted the dismissal of every australian when we toured in 2004 down under.....
Now a days, even Ashley Guiles is doing reasonably well...

On a friendly wicket.... Pakistanis bowled exceedingly well

Sanguine Sridhar

12th December 2005, 07:24 PM

Nila,
If there are bouncy tracks in India then it will be easy for the Indian batsman to play anywhere in the world.It may be Newzealand,Australia,SA or even West Indies.Our batsman are highly talented when comparing to the batsman of above said 4 countries.But when it comes to bouncy track we are not very sure.I admit India can win matches in one day but when it comes like overseas test match we have to simply cross our finger.So Indian Cricket Board should prepare these kind of bouncy tracks for domestic cricket.Moreover we can also have spin tracks.The domestic cricket should be played on both of the pitches.This would be the proper way of moulding the Indian cricket future.This is my opinion

S.Balaji

12th December 2005, 08:00 PM

Beckham and NIlavu...

To add further....

Sydney and Melbourne are traditionally for spinners ..

while Perth is a bouncy one...the fastest in the world....most deadly pitch

Adelaide is batsman friendly

Brisbane is well balanced and result oriented

Look at the variety the magnificient aussies have ! this only makes them play well against any type of attack...whether spin or pace

Lets learn from Aussies .......

We were so terrible that we lost to Zimbabwe 2 years back after winning the first test ( courtesy Ashish Nehra )

S.Balaji

12th December 2005, 08:04 PM

As far as playing spin is concerned, Indians can straight away come out of the bed and play ! its bounce and pace we get rattled

The lesson Alan Donald and Bret Lee gave us are still fresh in memory.....

Thiru

12th December 2005, 08:30 PM

Indian wickets have changed pretty well and the style of cricket has also changed recently.. I remember those days when kapil dev was used for first 10 overs to remove the shine of the ball and then spinners would go on forever until the new ball was taken when kapil had to be brought again to take the shine off.. In India there are only two types of wickets that can be produced.. A flat batting track and a spinner's track.. They tried fast and bouncy pitches in Mohali after India's dismal performance in Newzealand but the pitch wouldnt hold the bounce and pace for more than 2 days... Feroshah-kotla, Chepauk and chinnaswamy stadium are very famous for breaking up within 3 days and the last 2 days would belong to the spinners almost every match.. Sydney, Lords and Edbagston have provided some interesting games both high scoring and bowler-friendly pitches.. Its curious to see how pakistan has some good fast tracks and has produced some deadly fast bowlers like akram, younis and akthar eventhough they fall under the subcontinent..

S.Balaji

12th December 2005, 09:58 PM

Thiru...

Imran khan marandhuteengalay ! remember the famous indipper 1982 series under SMG's captaincy ....VIshy was doing a well left and his middle stump was uprooted by a delivery from outside the off stump !

If the Indian soil variety is like that .... is it possible that we import from Australia or any other country and DOCTOR a pitch ?? Is it possible ??

S.Balaji

12th December 2005, 10:03 PM

Thiru...

Even Pakistan does not have a fast wicket ....Its extraordinary pace by guys like Shoaib, Akram and Waqar which makes up for the lack of bounce I feel....

Thiru

13th December 2005, 05:49 PM

Good chance of wrapping up the test match.. SL face a daunting task of playing for the draw.. If attapattu had stayed, it would have been a fighting innings..

S.Balaji

13th December 2005, 07:38 PM

Our chances are more as we have 90 overs to bowl them out.
Second, they will be trying to save the test...which means a defensive mindset

Third, their top order except Mahela have gone

Hopefully, we should win by lunch time

Thiru

13th December 2005, 08:29 PM

The wicket is playing so low... A few of Vaas deliveries didnt even bounce to the knees of ganguly.. It will be a tough wicket to bat on for 90 overs.. With the variable bounce and Kumble factor, I feel that India should be able to wrap the test by lunch time... but its not over till its over.. I still have memories of Cullinan and klusener battling out the last day in Johannesburg when India had all but wrapped up the match..

S.Balaji

13th December 2005, 09:06 PM

Thiru...

Also remember the recent chennai test day 4 vs Australia ( poor me was physically present in Chepauk that day ) when Martyn and Gillespie survived until tea before they crumbled....

but as Mahela is a stroke player, he may not resist himself to play defensively and hence I feel the innings should get wrapped up by lunch time or max before tea..

S.Balaji

14th December 2005, 01:39 PM

It was nice, satisfying and convincing victory at last... and a sweet revenge over Srilanka also as we had lost most of the tours in Srilanka ..

There are certain positives in this test...

Promoting Irfan Pathan is one master stroke ( the beauty is ..if the experiment had failed , India would not have anything to lose )

The calm presence of Dravid.....a matured guy....

The good support from Sachin and Ganguly...2 senior most cricketers AND FORMER CAPTAINS .....

Yuvraj coming good as a test player .....this will boost his confidence further....as he has to take over from the 3 seniors sooner or later.....

Dhoni's hurricane 50+ ...which means we have a solid keeper for tests as well.....
( but I wish Dinesh Karthik should have been persisted with for tests for sometime ) and Dhoni for one dayers....

Lets hope that the flow of success continues....

Thiru

14th December 2005, 08:18 PM

Very suprised by the inclusion of Wasim Jaffer for the 3rd test match.. He has been included in the team because we lack openers but he's not going to open in the 3rd test.. That to me sounds fishy to me that he was included just to drop Ganguly.. Again if he Jaffer gets a chance, it will be one and out.. He has to perform well to cement his place atleast in the 14... Kumble just proved that he's a tough cookie to tackle in India.. Time and time again most of the wins in our soil was possible only because of kumble.. We will be missing him a lot when he retires...

S.Balaji

14th December 2005, 10:19 PM

Why Ganguly was dropped ?

Thiru

14th December 2005, 10:40 PM

because they dont want to play him in the eleven and they dont want to select him and keep him as a substitute..

S.Balaji

14th December 2005, 11:47 PM

because they dont want to play him in the eleven and they dont want to select him and keep him as a substitute..

If this is the basis, why did they make him play for this Delhi test ?

IMO, Ganguly also had played his part reasonably well by scoring 40 and 39 ..both were quite useful under the circumstances...besides scoring 40+ at test level is a decent score to establish as he must have spent sufficient time in the middle to get the confidence back...

The selectors continue to behave like what Mohinder Amarnath commented once ....

BUNCH OF JOKERS !

This decision on Ganguly will definitely create sympathy wave for him and there will be fire in Kolkatta .....

They should have selected him for onedayers as he has atleast another 2 years left on one day cricket......both as a batsman and as a bowler......

I continue to wonder the basis of the so called Selectors .....its really really disgusting approach ......

Sanguine Sridhar

15th December 2005, 08:51 AM

Inclusion of Wasim Jaffer instead of Sourav Ganguly is nothing about another cheap politics in Indian Cricket.Gangluy scored 40&39 runs in the Delhi test match where as Gambhir scored 2&3 was not dropped.If you are looking at performance you should have dropped Gambhir and they should have included Jaffer or another player.Sharath Pawar has shown his ugly face very soon.Wassim Jaffer is from Mumbai.

Jaffer record is
Played - 7
Innings - 13
Runs -261
Avg - 20.08
Highest-86
100's - Nil
50's - 3
Ducks -2

Last time he played was almost 3 yrs back Aug-2002.I don know what he is going to perform in the coming test match

S.Balaji

15th December 2005, 01:49 PM

When the team management is making so many changes in the batting line up ( like experimenting Sehwag as an opener ) why cant they try Sriram or Badani or any other guy to open instead of Wassim Jaffer ?

Sriram and Badani, after all are 1 down or 2 down players and it doesnt make much difference for them to adjust .....

This sort of north south politics will never end in Indian cricket

Thiru

15th December 2005, 08:20 PM

I dont know if Sriram and Badani will ever make it to the Indian team again.. The timing of ganguly's exclusion is pretty bad.. Where they expecting him to score 100 in both innings to keep his place? The inclusion of Gambhir is to give him more chances than simply drop him based on 3 innings.. Though I'm not sold on this guy, its fair to give to him chances before deciding upon anything.. We have had so many openers like Das, Deep das gupta, Bangar, Jaffer etc who had played 10 test matches and then disappeared... Is Gambhir going to be another one like that is to be seen... Still the middle order seems to be set for now with Laxman, Sachin, Dravid, yuvraj and Dhoni.. Dropping yuvraj after is current run is a big mistake than dropping ganguly.. Sehwag is set as a opener and all we need is another opener.. It would make sense if they try Ganguly as a opener instead of sticking in Jaffer or Gambhir for a couple of test matches and then eventually dropping them.. I can understand the youth movement in one-dayers but for tests I dont understand the concept.. Does this mean that a guy cannot have a bad patch when he is in his early 30s.. Pls dont bring in Australia's case because they have talent in abundance and their team selection is not driven by politics..

It is going to be an interesting few months in test cricket with the Indian tour to pakistan and the tour vengland.. We need a combination of experience(dravid, laxman, sachin and saurav) and youth (yuvraj, dhoni, pathan etc).. lets see how it plays out..

S.Balaji

15th December 2005, 09:33 PM

Thiru....

Your thoughts are perfect except that Ganguly cannot be tried as an opener as he is already found suspect against short pitch deliveries and with the new ball ....the bowlers will be fresh....... they will go for his blood ......

I dont understand the wisdom behind ganguly not being considered for one days but was tried just for a test ! ( when its very clear of late , his technique is found wanting for tests )

THEY ARE DOING INJUSTICE ONE OF THE GREATS OF INDIAN CRICKET AND ONE OF THE BEST ONEDAY BATSMAN IN WORLD CRICKET.....

This is gross unfair.... just few months ago, he was the captain and look at the kind of treatment being meted out .......

Thiru

15th December 2005, 09:52 PM

Balaji, Ganguly's weakness on the short ball is known to the whole world except Ganguly :). Anyway thats really the only spot that is available for him to play unless laxman, dravid or Yuvraj is ready to open the innings which they are not..
Regd one-dayers, there is no technique really needed.. You dont need to hit clean cover drives and crisp square drives to score but simply be aggressive and turn the ball into gaps something like Dilshan, Chris harris or michael bevan.. I'm not saying that Ganguly doesnt do that or is not fit for that, but in One-dayers there's always a chance of finding a player with better form.. The fact is that even if you are an experienced player, if you cant make big scores in a couple of series, you are on the outside looking because there's always some player ready to grab the opportunity. Replacing players in test matches is not that simple because it requires patience, composure and stroke making abilities to survive.. The only valid reason that I can accept for ganguly being dropped in one-dayers is finding the team for the future.. I can understand that if they find able players to do that.. Just because you want to form a team for the future doesnt mean that you can put a poor batsman like gambhir for onedayers..

S.Balaji

15th December 2005, 10:42 PM

Thiru....

Perfect ....

Pls tell me why do you feel that Sriram or Badani will not make it in the near future ? In your opinion, is it that the South zone doesnt have enough push to recommend these 2 guys..or because there is yuvraj and Kaif for their spot ?

Also now I recollect Ramesh...Is it end of the road for him now ??

Now that Dhoni is slowly establishing himself well in the tests, this means, Dinesh Karthik will be in reserves ?? Did he not perform well against the Aussies ? in both Mumbai and Nagpur test ??

Also, Dinesh Mongia is also being left out ?

Wasim Jaffer must be Mumbai ( sharad pawar ) quota ?

Agharkar will continue to play until he reaches 60 years ! the most lucky character ever in Indian cricket

I wonder how many such talent will be shunned due to politics....

Thiru

15th December 2005, 11:02 PM

Balaji,
i guess you are talking about one-dayers w.r.t sriram and badani.. Sriram got only few opportunities and failed to live up in any of the games except for one..A small sample size to determine his real talent.. Badani and mongia on the other hand have similar stats and both are useful bowlers too but In my opinion they were way too inconsistent and didnt prove much when it mattered.. A 30 here and a 40 there is not enough to cement your place... Kaif and yuvraj singh were able to convert those 30,40's into 80's and 90's and more importantly they were able to win games for india.. Badani and Mongia were not able to do that.. They made useful contributions but not of the match winning variety...Ramesh is a forgotton man.. Sad part is that he has a near 40 average and was the ideal opener india was looking for.. He was dropped at a time when he was in good form.. I think part of the blame belongs to him when he opted out for a series by himself..That doesnt go well with our selectors.. He's already 30 and its highly doubtful that he can make a comeback to the test team with his current form..

I think Jaffer was included simply because we needed a opener and he was the only opener in recent times to have scored heavily in Ranjis.. I was about to ask about Dinesh Karthik in my previous post and forgot... What's his status now.. I mean he hasnt done anything extra ordinary but Dhoni looks more like a oneday specialist.. May be Dhoni can improve and become a good test player too but then again if karthik is performing well he needs a few more chances too..

I'm not an Agarkar fan either but recently he has shown lots of improvement in his bowling.. He has learnt a bit to control his deliveries these days.. but he certainly is lucky to be still out there..

Thiru

17th December 2005, 10:08 AM

ganguly's exclusion is going to be discussed in the parliament... Just another move to prove that our board is so politically motivated..

S.Balaji

17th December 2005, 12:50 PM

Friends....

Just a small digression...

I briefly watched today's game Aus vs SA....the way they plotted the dismissal of Rudolph .... just terrific ! the third slip ( Justin Langer ) was positioned few steps ahead of others ........
and Bret was constantly focussing on this aspect before finally like a vulture taking away a bird........

Justin Kemp was all at sea against Warne....and they had kept a short fineleg soon as he arrived !

Riche Benaud was commenting with Ian Chappel and Riche was nodding that Aussies had done their homework through videos of every SA player !

IF GREG CHAPPEL CAN BRING IN ALL THE AUSTRALIAN APPROACH TO INDIA.....Worldcup 2007 will be ours !

End Digression...

S.Balaji

17th December 2005, 12:57 PM

ganguly's exclusion is going to be discussed in the parliament... Just another move to prove that our board is so politically motivated..

Thiru , who is taking up this topic in parliament ? Is it Kirti Azad or Chauhan ?

Ganguly issue would not have reached this magnitude if he had not been selected for the second test...

Adding fuel to the fire, he also scored 40 and 39 .....which only creates some sympathy wave in his favour now .....

Justice

18th December 2005, 06:47 AM

but it's also possible that SA could have seen some of hayden and gilly's videoes from ashes

Friends....

Just a small digression...

I briefly watched today's game Aus vs SA....the way they plotted the dismissal of Rudolph .... just terrific ! the third slip ( Justin Langer ) was positioned few steps ahead of others ........
and Bret was constantly focussing on this aspect before finally like a vulture taking away a bird........

Justin Kemp was all at sea against Warne....and they had kept a short fineleg soon as he arrived !

Riche Benaud was commenting with Ian Chappel and Riche was nodding that Aussies had done their homework through videos of every SA player !

IF GREG CHAPPEL CAN BRING IN ALL THE AUSTRALIAN APPROACH TO INDIA.....Worldcup 2007 will be ours !

End Digression...

Sanguine Sridhar

18th December 2005, 07:58 PM

First Day for India was of mixed luck.I was wondering why they took Jaffer very particularly in half the way..as if Jaffer was a match winner? And they didn use him at all.Inclusion of Kaif was gud judgement because this guy is good.But he didn score well.Thats oky!

Thiru

20th December 2005, 08:56 PM

Looks like yuvraj has to score a duck in the first innings so that he can score big in the second innings.. India is in the driving seat with a great lead and its highly doubtful that SL will be able to chase this huge total in the 4th innings on such a pitch.. dismissal of maharoof was a great one.. Bhajji bowled a great over with a tight line and he had a bat and pad fall jus short of gambhir.. next ball was well flighted and was also a bat and pad but away from the silly point fielder.. the next ball he gave the ball too much air and forced maharoof to play the ball early.. The ball pitched on the rough and slowed a bit & maharoof was early on the shot to offer a return catch to bhajji... now that was spin bowling at its best... bowling at the right spots at the right time.. You dont need to turn the ball too much to be successfull..

Thiru

21st December 2005, 09:53 PM

Is samaraweera srilanka's agarkar? I mean inspite of all the poor scoring and slump he has been on, he's getting his chances in the lineup still.. Sanath jayasuriya or Russel Arnold would have done a better job in that spot... Anyway looks like the series will be wrapped up by lunch... Not something to brag about because this is not the same SL team like the previous years..

Sanguine Sridhar

21st December 2005, 10:38 PM

i was shocked to see Malinga's bowling action :shock: .. It looks like chucking :? He resembles kids who practices bowling..But you cant predict his bowling.But i hate to see it :evil: .... India should win ..Yupe definitely it is not old Srilankan team..Lets watch the next series against Pakistan

S.Balaji

22nd December 2005, 01:01 PM

Another convincing victory .....

The noteworthy factor was the combined team effort.....and not being driven by certain individuals.....everyone played their part...

Hats off to the Indian team......

Hope Ganguly gets his due justice soon....

Malinga's bowling action reminds me of Jeff Thompson's !

Justice

23rd December 2005, 03:49 AM

did you know Stephen Fleming asked the umpires to wear colourful pants? :o this happened after Maling bagged five wickets in an innings agains NZ in NZ

Another convincing victory .....

The noteworthy factor was the combined team effort.....and not being driven by certain individuals.....everyone played their part...

Hats off to the Indian team......

Hope Ganguly gets his due justice soon....

Malinga's bowling action reminds me of Jeff Thompson's !

gaddeswarup

23rd December 2005, 06:13 AM

I have been wondering about Sachin Tendulkar's mixed fortunes in the last couple of years. I read somewhere that he is naturally left handed. It seems such players tend to loose sight of the ball in the last fraction of a second. It seems Compton was another such player. Does this seem to explain some of his recent dismissals?
swarup

Sanguine Sridhar

15th January 2006, 07:57 PM

Pakistan Vs India 1st test match - Lahore

In what kind of Pitch they are really playing :shock: :huh: Really fed up!

S.Balaji

16th January 2006, 12:43 PM

Beckham....

This precisely what I have been mentioning all these days ......
We should never count the runs scored in sub continent pitches as they dont carry any value at all.....
Look at the way Afridi treated our bowlers or for that matter Sehwag treated Pakistan ....

Asian cricket will continue to suffer in bouncy tracks....

Even the previous pak series with England was batsman friendly only...somehow SHoaib aktar did well and could win the tests ......

Sanguine Sridhar

16th January 2006, 05:04 PM

Day 4

India 403/0 Sehwag 247* and Dravid 128* :D

1082 Runs scored in this pitch for the loss of 7 Wickets with 5 Centuries and 1 Double century so far. :shock:

Sanguine Sridhar

20th January 2006, 06:25 PM

Bowlers' Graveyard awaits India

After a high-scoring draw on a featherbed pitch in Lahore, arch rivals India and Pakistan go into the second Test, starting in Faisalabad on Saturday with fears that another placid track and inclement weather may throw up a similar result.

The lifeless track and glooomy conditions reduced the first Test between the two staunch rivals to a batting spectacle and both teams would be hoping for a more sporting track and better weather to ensure a cracker of a contest.

After days of murky weather, the sun broke out on Thursday which should help the pitch to dry up a little bit in Faisalabad which has a history of producing drawn encounters.

The Lahore match showed that both teams are very strong in batting, but India seemed to have walked out of the first Test with a slight edge as the reputation of the Pakistan pace attack lay in tatters after the batting heroics of Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag.

Though the hosts put up a mammoth 679 for 7 declared with four batsmen cracking centuries, the visitors denied the Shaoib Akhtar led attack any opppurtunity to sneak into their middle order as a courageous Indian skipper opened the innings with Sehwag and gave a fitting riposte with a 410-run stand.

The flat track in Lahore drew widespread criticism prompting the curators to leave some dry grass on the pitch here which was not rolled for the last two days and may take turn and also offer uneven bounce.

The toss then would be crucial to the end result as both teams would like to bat first when the wicket is at its best.

India are set to retain the same team and it would be a big surprise if skipper Dravid, who scored a fine unbeaten 128 at Lahore, does not come out to open with Sehwag, whose rollicking 254 with 47 fours and a six left the Pakistani pacers running for cover.

Sehwag would be firmly on the rival team's radar gun when strategies are chalked out for the match as he has contributed phenomenally to India's campaign against Pakistan in the last three series held in a short of time of two years, having accumulated a mind-boggling 1236 runs in only seven Tests.

The Delhi batsman seems to have a special liking for the Pakistani attack as with four centuries (including his career-best Indian record of 309,) at the top of the order, he has not only demoralised their bowlers more than once but also made things easier for the lower order batsman.

Sehwag holds the key to which way the contest goes and his cheap dismissal will be the key for the Pakistani bowlers, who were torn to shreds by his punitive blade in the first Test.

The only worry, if it could be called so, for the Indians following the mega partnership between Sehwag and Dravid at Lahore was that none of the middle and lower order batsmen could not get a chance to bat.

VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh have not had a stint with the bat except at the nets after the three-day warm-up match against Pakistan A at Lahore's Bagh-E-Jinnah stadium. But that was ten days ago and not against the best bowlers that the home team can offer.

Former captain Sourav Ganguly has not batted at all in a match after reaching Pakistan on January 7.

This lack of batting stint in the middle of a top-level contest could be a disadvantage to some extent if Pakistan make early inroads into the Indian innings.

The bowlers, on the other hand, have plenty to chew on after the mauling they received from the Pakistan batsman.

It could be a tough ask for the Indian seamers to bowl them out twice after four top order Pakistani batsmen scored free flowing centuries.

Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf gave them the right start but it was Shahid Afridi, who blitzed his way to 103 in 80 balls with 7 sixes, and young Kamran Akmal, who set a new record of fastest century in Test by a wicket keeper), who dented the bowlers morale with their run-blazing.

The visitors would be hoping that the battering the Indian bowlers received from the Pakistan batting line-up would not be weighing on their minds in the second Test.

A major worry for the Indians was the bowling of Harbhajan Singh who was singled out for some rough treatment by Afridi who repeatedly smashed the off spinner with the turn and struck him for four successive sixes in one over.

It would be interesting to see what strategy the bowler, who went wicket-less while conceding a whopping 176 runs in 34 overs, adopts against Pakistan's big-hitting batsman when the two confront each other in Faisalabad.

Anil Kumble, the bowler with the best strike rate for an Indian against Pakistan, too paid a heavy price while taking two wickets, but could cause trouble for Pakistan, if he gets good deck to bowl on.

Faisabalad, unfortunately, has a long history of providing drawn contests and unfortunately that list includes three out of four contests between India and Pakistan.

It's here that a pitch later described as "The Bowler's Graveyard" was prepared for an Australia-Pakistan Test in the early 1980s which defeated a great fast bowler of the caliber of Dennis Lillee who failed to take a single wicket.

Except for the Imran Khan-inspired ten-wicket Test victory for Pakistan in 1983, the other three contests in this industrial town between the two rivals (1978, 1984 and 1989) were drawn affairs. Interestingly the match won by Pakistan was played in the first week of January.

Teams (from):

India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh and Parthiv Patel.

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Younis Khan, Mohammed Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Muhammad Sami, Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Kamran Akmal, Arshad Khan, Danish Kaneria, Imran Farhat and Muhammad Asif.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa) and Simon Taufel (Australia).

Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

Sanguine Sridhar

14th March 2006, 03:54 PM

Dravid,The God saved the test match yet again.Now he proved that captainship is no way a barrier to batting.India need more Dravids... :)

umaramesh

14th March 2006, 04:55 PM

Dravid is top class batsman for any kind of cricket(one day as well as test). He never shy away from the pressure and his commitment is 100%. Now become good captain also. WALL HAS BECOME TOO STRONGER NOW. :)

Ramesh

S.Balaji

14th March 2006, 05:11 PM

But for Dravid, even this Mohali test would have become England's ....

Its a good wake up call for Sachin now .....

as he is the only senior left out

umaramesh

14th March 2006, 05:21 PM

As pointed out by srikant, crucial innings from Dravid&Pathan. Vital contribution for kumble and Baaji.

I never saw yorker from indian bowlers recently. Excellent bowling from Munaf patel. Amazing to see bounce he extracted from the pitch. Keep it up Munaf. Now we have RP&sreesanth in the reserve. :shock: I read from Indian express that Dravid &Greg picked up one more guy from kashmir team. He cannot be selected immediately because he is little bit wayward in his bowling but maintans 140 .Good show DRAVID&GREG.

raemsh

S.Balaji

14th March 2006, 05:29 PM

Ramesh....

Munaf Patel was a very popular bowler in Mumbai .....and he was due long before ...but probably the presence of guys like Zaheer, Ashish Nehra delayed his entry....

Munaf will be successful in Australian conditions as he has got the height and nippy action....

Lets wish him all the best

Now , it will be interesting to see how Zaheer and Ashish Nehra stage their comeback.....

Basically good bowlers but lost direction due to too much exposure towards one day matches....

I wonder what will happen to Lakshmipathy Balaji.......

umaramesh

14th March 2006, 05:54 PM

I heard that Nehra is little bit lazy. Zaheer should have sent home after the world cup. He survived because of Ganguly.
Balaji is physically not fit even to represent TN team. He became injury prone due to his action. Even Imran was asking about Balaji in the last tour.

ramesh

gaddeswarup

14th March 2006, 07:00 PM

From http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/240659.html
"When I brought the side to India in 1993, he had started to feature a lot in our strategic discussions in the team meetings. From those days, it would appear he has not stopped evolving.

England froze in Mohali because they realised they no longer can treat him as an incoming medium pacer. He was giving the ball a loop and his leg-breaks were turning. He seems to have finally got the one thing which has missed him all his career. In its absence, he relied on developing his googlies, variations in pace, and even clever use of crease. Now if the leg break has come to stay, Kumble could be good for 600 wickets and more!"
Have others noticed this difference?

Nerd

22nd March 2006, 11:40 PM

That was shocking :shock:

100 runs all out :banghead:

Reason: Negative approach. I dont know when will they start playing positively.

Sanguine Sridhar

23rd March 2006, 09:06 AM

Loosing by 213 runs!!teams something like Kenya,Bangaladesh used to do that.Indians always lacks in fighting..This match once again proved it.When Sachin,Dravid falls down there is no one to take thier responsibilities,Still it shows that middle order depends on the top order.Eventhough this series has been leveled..Psychologicaly England has won it!

P_R

23rd March 2006, 04:44 PM

I don't know when I will learn from my mistakes. I have this infernal habit of making bets with colleagues. Team India has burnt huge holes in my pocket this season.

Yet yesterday I took up a bet with returns for me if india won, loss if India lost and no transaction if India won. I took the 1st inns into account and was sure the guys would at last Day 5 even if they didn't win.

Then my wily opponent doubled the stakes by lunch with the offer that I would lose only if India was bowled out before tea. That seemed impossible and I fell for it and agreed to raise stakes. Then both of us went into a meeting and before we were done India made the impossible possible. :(

singularthing

24th March 2006, 10:48 AM

When Sachin,Dravid falls down there is no one to take thier responsibilities,Still it shows that middle order depends on the top order.Eventhough this series has been leveled..Psychologicaly England has won it!

Even sachin failed to make any impression on this england series,

but i agree with ur final point, england has definitely won this series psychologically!!!!!!

asan

25th March 2006, 01:55 AM

guys see over the discussions made here abut mohammad kaif the real star and the in consistency of indian batting in the last innings
http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?p=438363#438363

Nerd

7th April 2006, 01:37 AM

Time to change the title of this thread or to dump this thread :evil:

If you just consider ODIs, of course :)

S.Balaji

22nd May 2006, 02:49 PM

Is there any significant change ever since Greg chappel took charge ? its one year since & I could see the same old Indians :oops:
What makes me wonder is the inept attitudue even against 10TH grade team like WI today !

What is quite amazing is that the current WI doesnt have any single bowler who is world class but still our guys fail to impress !

What should have been thumping victories actually turned out to be nail biting . Why ? Is it because there is no Sachin ? :evil:

The ruthless Aussies are still ruling ! and we have a coach who is an aussie and who was known for aggression and new methods

For the manner Kaif got out , he should be banned for 5 matches atleast

Cheers to Yuvi who time and again proves that he is the only one to be depended upon.

I wonder if Dravid fails even once, the team collapses ?

With this set of standards, I doubt whether we can aspire for World cup 07 which incidentally is in WI only !

ATLEAST LET THEM TREAT IT AS A GOOD PRACTICE TO BUILD UP WHAT KIND OF PITHCES THEY ARE LIKELY TO HAVE FOR WORLD CUP......

Again, i will not be surprised if this indian team wins the series , both tests and one dayers but THE TEAM WOULD NOT HAVE GAINED ANYTHING OUT OF IT, AS WE ARE FACING A SUB STANDARD WI TEAM......

ansa400

22nd May 2006, 02:57 PM

Don't under estimate WI. They've some really gud batsman in their team like Gayle, Sarwan etc.. Needless to mention about Lara who is the best in the world. Some of the batsman who can really make a change if they click are Marlon samuels, Carltonbough(watch out for this tiny guy in the following matches), Dwayne bravo( he is an excellent all rounder and a gr8 fielder). The bowling is a bit low on quality, but u have to give credit to them for the 2nd ODI win. They bowled and fielded excellently.

S.Balaji

24th May 2006, 11:35 PM

So another defeat ! that too at the hands the lowly ranked WI ?
This present WI team has some good batsmen but the quality of bowling is not comparable at all but our batsmen continue to post low / average scores !
Wonder how they would have faced the likes of Holding / Marshal/ Roberts etc !
Greg chappell's stint will come under scanner now.

Or again the Sachin factor ? are we going back to the days when the team fails without Sachin ?

So long as Dravid's form is good, his losses will be tolerated I think. If he also fails with the bat ( unlikely ) then we have some interesting things to see before the world cup

I doubt now whether this present team can win WORLD CUP ?

ansa400

25th May 2006, 12:06 AM

S.Balaji

25th May 2006, 12:17 AM

When Sourav was captain he was praised for his captaincy initially and the team was said to have improved a lot under captaincy. What happened finally? Again same thing is happening. Dravid's captaincy was praised initially and all of a sudden, the team fails and the same old story...

Ansa400

Do you think the present team is capable of winning World cup 07 ? ( considering that Sachin will be back with a bang )
What I wonder is the posting of low / mediocre total against 10th grade bowling attack

Also on Chappell's strategies , apart from promoting Irfan ( which even Ganguly I am sure would have done that ) , is there anything special that he has brought in ? I mean the Aussie aggression ?

Are we well prepared for World cup 07 ?

even the previous series against England, I will not consider great ( except their batting ) , the one day series was played well but they lacked quality bowlers I feel

The srilankan team we played earlier was below par & most of their players were out of form

S.Balaji

25th May 2006, 12:22 AM

When Sourav was captain he was praised for his captaincy initially and the team was said to have improved a lot under captaincy. What happened finally? Again same thing is happening. Dravid's captaincy was praised initially and all of a sudden, the team fails and the same old story...

Beyond doubt, the team under Saurav ( after he took over from a distrous Sachin's team in 2001 ) was well groomed and we had some splendid wins ( forget the number of losses we had in the finals of so many tournaments )
It was pure stupid politics and Sourav was out today. I still feel that he should have been persisted with for ONE DAYERS , not tests. He could have continued up to the world cup and retired gracefully as he had another 2 years left out

Justice

25th May 2006, 02:28 AM

India is really a good team with lots of potential. Considering the last few series and three matches India played in WI, I would say India's plus is its middle order. Yuvraj is in terrific form, has improved as a batsman and matured as a player. Pathan is a type of player that you don't find more often, maybe one in fifty players. The few minuses are the opening pair. Sehwag is out of form and he does not have a regular opening partner. They should do something with Kaif after the series ends. Bowling department is good with Pathan leading from the front but it is wayward sometimes because of agarkar. IMO, if bowling is okay and the openers click, India will go into WC finals.

Sanguine Sridhar

25th May 2006, 02:54 AM

Still we have 2 more matches...People have to think about the experience of the players in the squad.Except very few cricketers all are almost a year experienced players.Experience wise our team is as equal to current Zimbabwe team but in short span of time India produced one wonderful all-rounder(Pathan) and a very good wicket-keeping batsman(Dhoni) which has never happened before.India still trying out with Raina,Munaf,RP Singh,Venugopal Rao,Powar in an international pitch..Remeber there is no Sachin,Ganguly,Laxman,Kumble,Nehra or Zaheer in this team which absolutely did nothing in the previous tour.Still i believe India is marching bravely to the World cup 07..these hiccups are needed to correct their mistakes!!

Talking about yesterdays match India about to set around 300+..Some cheap run-outs spoiled the show..Good show by Kaif yet again..This is his 2nd 50 in this series...

I wonder where are the people who were enjoying by critcizing Kaif?? Waiting for the failiure from Kaif?

S.Balaji

27th May 2006, 12:45 AM

Hai Sanguine Beckham !

How are you dear ?

Enaachu Indian teamukku. Dont you realise that this current WI bowlers are of substandard variety but still our guys are struggling !

How is the bowling dept now ?

Awaiting the grand return of Sachin

S.Balaji

27th May 2006, 07:46 PM

Another defeat overseas. This time against WI !

Wonder if we went with any strategy !

Adding fuel to the fire, Dravid says , ITS A GOOD EXPERIENCE FOR US !

Difficult to imagine a situation if Dravid fails............

Most horrible thing to hear was the wry comment from Greg Chappell that WI lost their way of winning ! Lara says, he took this comment in right earnest, pepped his team mates and went on to win the series

Well done Mr. Chappell !

Sanguine Sridhar

27th May 2006, 09:50 PM

Anna,
You cant expect India to win all the matches/series right? Ofcourse if you look at the second and third match closely its almost belongs to India! Very very minor mistakes turned the plate! Those matches are not worst lose! Accepted WI does not have any great bowlers but still you have to think these things..

*Many of the player's playing their first International(Away from Sub-Continent)
* Raina,Pathan,Sreesanth,Powar,Dhoni all are very new players playing for the first time in a different condition.

And...when somebody says that "Hey dump! You cant do this" then it will defnitely add fuel to the burning fire and yeah Chappel is also a reason!!

I am really surprised why people didn appreciated (16 continuese victories,eventhough all played at sub-continent) India's performance and now after a series of loses questioning India's power?? Dont you thing its a bit biased comments passed by you guys??

Vettriyay pol tholviyum nalladhu,It always corrects your mistakes..

So lets stop bashing Indian players and we will encourage them!! :)

S.Balaji

28th May 2006, 01:39 PM

Sanguine dear

Dont you realise that the WI bowling is sub standard
I am asking you one basic question....

Why close finishes during 1st and 2nd ?
we should have won EMPHATICALLY & not this nail biting way.....

My only concern now is whether this team can get us the world cup !
Is this the right time to build a new team for world cup ?
Sanguine, the recent victories have been achieved in sub continent pitches ( you yourself pointed out )

Are we capable of facing a team like Australia today ?

the new england team is emerging stronger as every day passes by ...

Even SA are not far behind

Not to speak about Pakistanis

IMO, the above 4 teams are superior today when compared to our strength though we might have beaten England and Pak recently....

Also, OF LATE, THERE IS OVER DEPENDANCE ON DRAVID who actually is not a versatile one day player like Sachin or Ganguly but somehow is managing ....

If Dravid fails, the team crumbles

the face saving was Yuvi ( continues to fascinate me with his cover drives and swing over mid wicket ) and Kaif except the way he got out during 2nd match........

Greg chappell vaaya moodi kondu velai seyya sollu pls.......

S.Balaji

2nd June 2006, 11:14 PM

[tscii:1bd82ac160]http://cricketnext.com/indwi06/ptinewsmay06/ptinews237.htm

Chappell's tenure has done more harm: Dalmiya

Kolkata, Jun 1, 2006 (PTI)

Former BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya today launched a scathing attack on Indian coach Greg Chappell, saying the Australian's penchant for experiments has done more harm than good to the team.

"His tenure has done more harm. How else do you explain the four defeats in West Indies in the one-dayers. He has not allowed the team to be set. When there are regular players to open the innings, rank outsiders did the job," Dalmiya said to a pointed query on whether Chappell's stint as coach has been harmful or beneficial to the Indian team.

So long the team was doing well, people were eulogising the 'strategy', "but now that the team was losing he is being criticised," he said.

Dalmiya, who was member of the high powered committee that chose Chappell for the top post ahead of other contenders including Tom Moody, Desmond Haynes and Mohinder Amarnath, said the committee only judged the Aussie on the basis of his understanding of the game and coaching credentials.

"We then could not form any idea about his man management skills," he told a Bengali news channel.

© PTI
[/tscii:1bd82ac160]