Halftime thoughts on the 1st India-Aus ODI

[sandeep]

• Rahane's failure is neither unexpected nor undesirable.  A 'good' innings from Rahane would have strengthened his case for ODI selection - something that's clearly not in the interests of Indian cricket at this point. 

 

• Kohli got out to a good catch.  The worst you can say is that he could have been a tad more selective in his shot, or his placement.  Anything more than that is just silly bitterness.  

 

• Pandey and Jadhav's failures were disappointing.  Both blew a golden opportunity to strengthen their claim for long-term selection in the XI.  I firmly believe that an optimal India ODI XI does not have room for both of them.  Only one.  

 

• Pandya was impressive.  Again.   Nothing more needs to be said.

 

• Dhoni may be fading, but this innings was appropriate and doesn't merit criticism in the context of the game.  

 

• Bhuvi exceeded expectations with the bat.  He will need to do the same with the ball if we are to have even an outside chance to win today. 

 

• Regardless of Bhuvi's decent batting, our batting depth - or the lack of it, has again been brought to light today.  We need another batsman to play as the 5th bowler, apart from Hardik.   And the best bet is to find a slugger who can bowl quality 6-7 overs economically consistently - like Krunal Pandya.  Or Hope that Axar Patel somehow finds a way to resurrect his u-19 batting prowess - where he used to bat in the top 5.   

 

• 281 looks 'respectable' particularly given the wicket isn't an out and out road, but is 30 runs short of par, at a minimum.  We will need to get Smith and Warner early (before they cross 100) to put some pressure on the rest of the inexperienced Aussie lineup.  

 

 

[The Dark Horse]

Pleasantly surprised at the total we reached. I hope Kuldeep does something special. If it goes to D/L, Aussies will win comfortably.

[velu]

keep Rahane away from the team ..

pandey cant keep wasting chances like this

[puneet28]

Whenever people underrate Pandya's batting skills, he surprises them. If he's given same number of chance as Jadeja has been given, he will turn into ATG. 

[Mosher]

Bhuvi has to work on improving his strength. He has a decent technique and he can be a handy hitter down the order. The increase in strength can help him muscle a few 4's.

[BeautifulGame]

Highest ODI totals from 3 down for 11 or fewer runs:

368/5 - AUS v SL, 2006 (10/3)
281/7 - #INDvAUS, (11/3)
280/7 - IND v ZIM, 2004 (4/3)

It's damn great recovery .

[Kerberos]

1 minute ago, BeautifulGame said:

Highest ODI totals from 3 down for 11 or fewer runs:

368/5 - AUS v SL, 2006 (10/3)
281/7 - #INDvAUS, (11/3)
280/7 - IND v ZIM, 2004 (4/3)

It's damn great recovery .

The other two came in times when 270+ was great total. Not today.

[sscomp32]

 Regarding Krunal and someone who can bat in top 5 and bowl 5/6 overs, how about raina? He is not over by any means, He is a fantastic fielder too and good part timer too. 

Edited September 17, 2017 by sscomp32

[G_B_]

i would not call Jadhav a failure

 

was an important innings. Though rode his luck a lot in that innings.

 

but agree with most of the other statements

[BeautifulGame]

The other two came in times when 270+ was great total. Not today.

 

That makes it even better actually because even when 270 is not a great total,teams not be able to reach 270+ when 3 down for 11.

 

[Laaloo]

We are 30 runs below par because dhoni refused to rotate strike in the middle overs....yet again. You could see how the likes of pandya had to take unnecessary risks because runs were not coming from the other end. Thank God for Faulkner otherwise it would have been a below par total if it isn't already. Granted dhoni recovered in the end to end up with a respectable knock but if he showed a bit more intent instead of blocking one end, 300+ was gettable even with 5 down. 

[jf1gp_1]

I was surprised to see Rahane open, i expected Rahul. 

 

Dhoni again proved he is still a match winner, his batting may have changed but he is still reliable. 

 

Bhuvi again showed he can bat a bit. 

[sandeep]

On 9/17/2017 at 9:48 AM, Laaloo said:

We are 30 runs below par because dhoni refused to rotate strike in the middle overs....yet again. You could see how the likes of pandya had to take unnecessary risks because runs were not coming from the other end. Thank God for Faulkner otherwise it would have been a below par total if it isn't already. Granted dhoni recovered in the end to end up with a respectable knock but if he showed a bit more intent instead of blocking one end, 300+ was gettable even with 5 down. 

Dude, you have lost all credibility when it comes to discussing Dhoni.  Tomorrow, if he is quoted saying the sky is blue, I will be extremely surprised if I don't see 15 posts from you contradicting him.  Just because.  

[Laaloo]

3 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Dude, you have lost all credibility when it comes to discussing Dhoni.  Tomorrow, if he is quoted saying the sky is blue, I will be extremely surprised if I don't see 15 posts from you contradicting him.  Just because.  

I watched the entire innings. I wrote what I saw. If you want to discuss, then discuss the points. Otherwise leave it. 

 

Dhoni took 66 balls to hit a boundary. He was tuk tuking in the middle the whole time. Bhuvi comes in and hits 2 boundaries in 10 balls. 

Edited September 18, 2017 by Laaloo

[kruiser]

The problem is, no-one know how a Dhoni replacement would have fared. Maybe the replacement candidate would have made an attacking 20 in 10 balls and gotten out. Or scored 80 off 75 deliveries - you can never tell. 

I do not believe in TINA factor because unless you try, you would never know. Now coming to the only measurable aspect - was dhoni's inning yesterday good enough in itself (without comparing to Pant/ Saha/ anyone else)? I felt that he could have rotated a strike a bit more. I was happy he was in the middle because he can bring calmness at one end, as long as there is a good batsman at the other end.

I would love to try other WK bats in the home season including Saha, so that we have a healthy competition but the selectors have not shown that vision. We rotate batsmen, pacers, spinners, then why not WKs? 

Edited September 18, 2017 by kruiser

[Laaloo]

4 minutes ago, kruiser said:

The problem is, no-one know how a Dhoni replacement would have fared. Maybe the replacement candidate would have made an attacking 20 in 10 balls and gotten out. Or scored 80 off 75 deliveries - you can never tell. 

I do not believe in TINA factor because unless you try, you would never know. Now coming to the only measurable aspect - was dhoni's inning yesterday good enough in itself (without comparing to Pant/ Saha/ anyone else)? I felt that he could have rotated a strike a bit more. I was happy he was in the middle because he can bring calmness at one end, as long as there is a good batsman at the other end.

I would love to try other WK bats in the home season including Saha, so that we have a healthy competition but the selectors have not shown that vision. We rotate batsmen, pacers, spinners, then why not WKs? 

Emphatic NO to 

 

Saha

Parthiv

Karthik

Uthappa

 

They all suck. The only deserving one is Pant.

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, Laaloo said:

I watched the entire innings. I wrote what I saw. If you want to discuss, then discuss the points. Otherwise leave it. 

 

Dhoni took 66 balls to hit a boundary. He was tuk tuking in the middle the whole time. Bhuvi comes in and hits 2 boundaries in 10 balls. 

Dhoni had the responsibility to bat through the innings.  Bhuvi had the license to take more risk.   There was no other batsman to follow.  Its a very common method and logic used by any batting pair, at almost any level of cricket.  One guy takes more risk than the other, unless you only have a couple of overs left.  You know I have criticized Dhoni for batting too conservatively in other games - but those match situations were different.    In this particular case, you are letting your confirmation bias override your objectivity.  And if you can't see that, then you are just hopelessly biased.

[Laaloo]

3 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Dhoni had the responsibility to bat through the innings.  Bhuvi had the license to take more risk.   There was no other batsman to follow.  Its a very common method and logic used by any batting pair, at almost any level of cricket.  One guy takes more risk than the other, unless you only have a couple of overs left.  You know I have criticized Dhoni for batting too conservatively in other games - but those match situations were different.    In this particular case, you are letting your confirmation bias override your objectivity.  And if you can't see that, then you are just hopelessly biased.

Responsibility to bat doesnt mean you can shut shop at the other end, refuse to take singles off a misfield because the oppositions best bowler is bowling, and you just dont rotate strike. That's my point. This adds unnecessary pressure at the other end. 

[sandeep]

30 minutes ago, Laaloo said:

Responsibility to bat doesnt mean you can shut shop at the other end, refuse to take singles off a misfield because the oppositions best bowler is bowling, and you just dont rotate strike. That's my point. This adds unnecessary pressure at the other end. 

You go to war with the weapons you have.   Given his current form and capabilities, Dhoni did a good job in this game.   It was more important that he bat till the 50th over, and maximize the overall team total, rather than some short-sighted goal to maximize run scoring off any particular delivery or over, at an earlier stage in the game, given that we only had pure bowlers left at that point.    Your one-note harping on a refused single and speculations that are utterly baseless unless you are a mind-reader, are irrelevant.   

[Rasgulla]

49 minutes ago, sandeep said:

You go to war with the weapons you have.   Given his current form and capabilities, Dhoni did a good job in this game.   It was more important that he bat till the 50th over, and maximize the overall team total, rather than some short-sighted goal to maximize run scoring off any particular delivery or over, at an earlier stage in the game, given that we only had pure bowlers left at that point.    Your one-note harping on a refused single and speculations that are utterly baseless unless you are a mind-reader, are irrelevant.   

So you are trying to explain cricket  to a guy who is totally OK with taking single on full toss when his gawddd is on 99 for his selfish 100 LOL Man don't waste you time. We know his agenda is when it gets to Dhoni. He got served when he thought Dhoni would fail against Big teams. Must be hard for that guy who backs a kid who couldn't even score in A team. He is not ready now anyway. Let him cry till 2019-20

Edited September 18, 2017 by Rasgulla