Discussing the 2nd test between India and SA at Kolkata, 2010

[King Tendulkar]

Despite all its probs crowd behaviour, booing india cos of gangs ets. Still by far the ultimate venue in India. 100,000 indians crammed in. Vocal support. Magnificent venue, maybe not in terns of facilities but in terms of vastness etc still the BEST Cant wait for the game at the magnificent Eden Gardens today

[Rohan495]

Re: Love Eden Gardens The man who played the greatest innings an india has ever played is missing sitting at home in Hyderabad wondering why he isnt playing

[King Tendulkar]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

The man who played the greatest innings an india has ever played is missing sitting at home in Hyderabad wondering why he isnt playing

Well someone should let him know that its cos he is cr@p fielder, cr@p runner btwn wickets and an inabilty to up the tempo with big shots in odi's.

[Dirty_South]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

The man who played the greatest innings an india has ever played is missing sitting at home in Hyderabad wondering why he isnt playing

Aren't u Tired??? I'm Sick n tired :wall:

[King Tendulkar]

Re: Love Eden Gardens Eden gardens is packed. Brilliant :hmph:

[talksport]

Re: Love Eden Gardens The match should be rained off.... The crowd deserves this from the GOD

[Legend]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

The match should be rained off.... The crowd deserves this from the GOD

u n ur kaali zabaan damn...

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

The man who played the greatest innings an india has ever played is missing sitting at home in Hyderabad wondering why he isnt playing

Bhaiya do u tire at all..

[yoda]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

The match should be rained off.... The crowd deserves this from the GOD

was thinking the same. atleast those aholes who were booing the indian team the last time around, cheering the opposition, throwing bottles at our players, booing the indian captain as he came in to bat all because their beloved dada wasn't playing, deserve this. i feel sorry for the decent ones though.

[Holysmoke]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

The man who played the greatest innings an india has ever played is missing sitting at home in Hyderabad wondering why he isnt playing

oh well, so many great players are sitting at home... gavaskar, kapil, etc, :shrug:

[ranj]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

The match should be rained off.... The crowd deserves this from the GOD

was thinking the same. atleast those aholes who were booing the indian team the last time around, cheering the opposition, throwing bottles at our players, booing the indian captain as he came in to bat all because their beloved dada wasn't playing, deserve this. i feel sorry for the decent ones though.

Aha, spot on. Karma at its finest.

[Predator_05]

Re: Love Eden Gardens

Despite all its probs crowd behaviour, booing india cos of gangs ets. Still by far the ultimate venue in India. 100,000 indians crammed in. Vocal support. Magnificent venue, maybe not in terns of facilities but in terms of vastness etc still the BEST Cant wait for the game at the magnificent Eden Gardens today

Too bad India have a crap record there, eh. When was the last time India won an ODI at Eden Gardens ? I am guessing; in 2002 vs England (India didn't even deserve to win that one, as Trescothick was done in by a dodgy lbw decision). That's a little over 5 overs ago.

[shailesh]

Re: Love Eden Gardens I hope enough information is passed on to the waiting crowd..last thing we need is a riot like what happened at guwahatti sometime back. :shrug:

[dr_tooley]

Sehwag and Gambhir vs Morkel and Steyn is the critical encounter http://www.cricinfo.com/indvrsa2010/content/current/story/446911.html Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir play for the same state and the same IPL side. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel play for the same franchise in South Africa. Sehwag and Gambhir are close friends, Morkel calls himself and Steyn best friends in the team. Sehwag and Gambhir run on intuition, their batting styles compliment each other. Morkel goes for raw pace and bounce, Steyn goes for swing, presenting a varied attack. Sehwag and Gambhir are the best openers in the world, Morkel and Steyn the hottest new-ball pairing going around. Can we fix the toss for the first Test to ensure we start the series with its biggest selling point? Gambhir and Sehwag v Morkel and Steyn. Morkel knows how to build it too. "It's going to be a very good challenge," he says. "Gambhir and Sehwag have played very well for India. Myself and Dale are pretty new with the new ball, and it will be a big test, especially in Indian conditions. Luckily, the challenge is going to be for them too at the end of this year in South Africa. It's not going to end here." Imagine the first morning of the series, three slips and a gully, a fresh pitch, and Zaheer Khan bowling to Ashwell Prince. What a dampener it will be. In my opinion our opening batsmen vs their opening bowlers is by far and away the critical encounter. If Sehwag can stay in, he can win the series virtually single handed. His ability to acquire runs in short time to put his side into unassilable positions is unmatch in mordern test cricket. By contrast if the openers are blown away, it will expose an untried middle order lacking the Test experience and thus prone to collapse. The excitement is building!!!

[Ram]

No doubt whatsoever that this going to be the battle that is going to decide the outcome of the series. Our biggest weapon is our opening batsmen, theirs are the opening bowlers. It couldnt get more direct than this. If we're to have a chance of winning this series, one of our openers has to make at least one 100 in this series.

[patriot]

It would be foolish to label it as our opening bats versus their opening bowlers. We should not expect our team to score 400+ all the time. Sometimes the bowlers must make up for the batters. If our spinners do a below par job, Saffies will take the series, which will be a shame because this is one team we have not held a rubber against for a long time.

[dr_tooley]

It would be foolish to label it as our opening bats versus their opening bowlers. We should not expect our team to score 400+ all the time. Sometimes the bowlers must make up for the batters. If our spinners do a below par job, Saffies will take the series, which will be a shame because this is one team we have not held a rubber against for a long time.

The South African Team disagree with you. Who will conquer Virender Sehwag? South Africa's bowlers are fully aware of the damage this man can inflict if he gets going Sidharth Monga in Nagpur February 4, 2010 Text size: A | A Morne Morkel appeals in vain against Virender Sehwag, India v South Africa, 1st Test, Chennai, 2nd day, March 27, 2008 Chastened in Chennai: Morne Morkel's memories of Virender Sehwag's 319 invoked one reaction - "ridiculous" © AFP Related Links News : Adaptation is the key - Corrie van Zyl News : Steyn looks to exploit inexperienced middle order Preview : Test for India to stay on top Players/Officials: Paul Harris | Morne Morkel | Virender Sehwag | Dale Steyn Series/Tournaments: South Africa tour of India Teams: India | South Africa The Sunday Times in South Africa last week asked the freshly sacked coach, Mickey Arthur, about his life after the job. "I walked on the beach with my wife this morning," Arthur said. "We played tennis together after that … I can actually concentrate on what people are saying rather than thinking how we are going to get Virender Sehwag out." It is instructive that Arthur should use Sehwag as the metaphor, and not, say, Sachin Tendulkar or Gautam Gambhir, who are actually more difficult to dismiss nowadays. But Sehwag invokes fear. When he plays well, he feels sorry for the bowlers. He leaves behind destruction and debris for bowling units. Arthur's sacking has come with a positive: he won't have to worry about all that. Over the next two weeks, the rest of his mates of nearly five years won't have that luxury. Over the next two weeks, they may be thinking about how to get Sehwag out even when talking to wives and girlfriends. They have perhaps been thinking about how to get Sehwag out for two weeks now. Or longer even. Sehwag can ruin a series in two hours, and the scars those two hours leave can run deeper than two days of batting from some. When they last came here, two of South Africa's bowlers - in fact their best bowlers - Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, were at the receiving end of Sehwag's triple century at record pace in Chennai. "Ridiculous" is how Morkel describes his initiation to India. Both Steyn and Morkel, though, draw heart from how they came back in the series to get Sehwag out for 6, 17, 8 and 22. "Once we exploited what his biggest weaknesses were, he wasn't able to get away again after that," says Steyn. "We definitely have our game plans against somebody like him. What's happened in the past has happened in the past. It was definitely not the pitches [in Ahmedabad and Kanpur] , it was the mind frame that we got into." Back then, Arthur acknowledged that Sehwag played his first pull shot after he reached 312. Short balls, tucking him up, and turning third man into a catcher was the plan then. But Sehwag's leg-side play has only improved since then. The flick-pull off the hip is back, so is the orthodox one through midwicket. Yet this will be a new test for Sehwag because there will be two pretty hungry men bowling consistently fast at him, an assignment he doesn't get to face everyday in international cricket. Morkel knows it might take more than just bowling short into his body, which is mainly a restrictive ploy if the pitch doesn't afford high bounce. "We are wary about how dangerous Sehwag is up front, we definitely need to target him up front," he says. "We need to get him out really, we know how bad he can dominate attacks when he gets in." Steyn, the leader of the attack, concurs. "I don't think you can ever contain somebody like him. Our plan is definitely not to let him get going. We have got our plans for him in every situation. We have been in every situation. We have been in a situation where we have got him out for nought, we have been in a situation where we have got him out for 300. We have basically got a plan for every run that he has got!" We have been in a situation where we have got him out for nought, we have been in a situation where we have got him out for 300. We have basically got a plan for every run that he has got! Dale Steyn is aware of what Sehwag can do Steyn's words, in a way, show how helpless Sehwag makes bowlers feel. "Sometimes he will go hard and be so aggressive that he gets himself out," Morkel says. "The main thing is to stay patient and keep on doing what you believe is right." Another member of this team, Paul Harris, tried the containing role with Sehwag in Chennai. And again if Sehwag is still batting by the time Harris comes on to bowl, he might have to try the improbable: contain Sehwag. "If you've got fielders on the boundary and he hits over them, you can't do much about it. The field is only so big, you can't make it any wider," Harris says. "I'll probably set him pretty defensive fields depending on the wicket. If he wants to go over my fielders, and he does it well, I will shake his hand after the game and say 'well batted'. If he doesn't, there will be people there to catch him. I am not too fazed. Hopefully I will… Hopefully I won't have to bowl to him. After the seamers get him out early." In the same Sunday Times interview, Arthur maintains that the best way to bowl to Sehwag is to tuck him up with the short stuff. That at least is clear thinking. Almost Sehwag-like. But the beauty of Sehwag is that he messes with bowlers' thought processes. A lot will depend on how clearly the South Africans think when bowling to Sehwag. Says Steyn: "I am not giving everything away here, we still have got to play two Test matches against him. But whenever we go out to bowl in the Test match, you will obviously see what's going to be coming his way." We'll see. In fact, can't wait to see.

[patriot]

^ I hear you. But you are missing the point. He can't do it so often. He is only human, a genius albeit. At somepoitn the bowlers will have to stand up and helpout against better sides when the batsmen have a bad game - which is more than liikely against a strong side liek South Africa.

[Gunner_Mania]

^ Having said that, the point of this thread is not that. The point is that while this is the series to decide who is No 1, it also is a series where arguably the No.1 opening batting pair is playing against the No.1 bowling pair. So it becomes a critical encounter. Whoever gains the upper hand will go a long way in nullyfyng the threat by the rest of the team.

[jusarrived]

It would be foolish to label it as our opening bats versus their opening bowlers. We should not expect our team to score 400+ all the time. Sometimes the bowlers must make up for the batters. If our spinners do a below par job, Saffies will take the series, which will be a shame because this is one team we have not held a rubber against for a long time.

theres no way SA winning this one unless we screw up badly , our series to loose if you ask me . Steyn and morked on unhelpful pitches will get tonked around by our batsmen & their bowling otherwise is very one dimensional ..just dont give them ealry wickets . & you should give more credit to our bowling , in tests their contribution to our wins arguably has been greater than our batsmen ...Harbajan an exception though !