Rahul Sharad Dravid

[Gambit]

I want my money back! :mad: Even Dravid of the 90s would have been hard pressed to play such a soporific and pathetic innings. The amount of abuse he got from the Indian fans(and some English ones!) was huge. What was he thinking? PS - I agreed with his decision to bat again but certainly hated the way he went about his innings! Ganguly played a gem.

[kabira]

is Sharad Pawar his dad? just kidding.. He was struggling no end..But to his credit, he kept on going...It was important 4 him to stay so that ganguly can go great guns.

[Cricketics]

well he started of fine when situation demanded as India were 11-3.. thing was that he continued to play in same fashion and got too defensive..

[bigdhoni7]

was michael vaughan sledging dravid during his batting? i saw a pic and it says they exchanged words. anyway dravid still supported ganguly enough for us to be in comfortable lead. imagine he got out early playing a unnesscesary shot. that wouldn't help dada one bit.

[kumble_rocks]

This selfish brat had no business coming at No 3 considering the fact that he was having indifferent series. Should have sent VVS at No 3 or even Ganguly if he was willing.

[Predator_05]

Gutless & moronic captaincy, IMO. Conditions were overcast and with a 319 run lead, India could have sealed it today. The fast bowlers would have put the top order out of their misery and Kumble would have done the rest. Look at how well the English bowled. A quick innings defeat was there for the taking. People will claim that nothing matters but the result, but my take is that every captain should at least attempt to win a match as quickly and as convincingly as possible. I don't need to delve into his batting "performance" - 12 runs off 96 balls, that says it all. In any case, even if the team did decide on batting again instead of enforcing the follow-on - why the f*ck did they take 60 overs to score a measly 180 runs ? The Aussies would never score 180 runs in 60 overs when they are in pole position. All in all, it was an awful display of cricket by the Indian team - bundling out England, scoring 180/6 after 60 overs and then not taking a single English wicket before the close of play. Now I just hope that England don't draw.

[kabira]

he shud have promoted Laxman

[Sooda]

he must have been p1ssing himself thinking India might collapse and leave england something remotely chasable. that why he withdrew into that late 90s esque shell of strokelessness, whilst others scored around him. from that p.o.v, you could see why he 'played' that way...lets not be too harsh. i was all for them batting again, but was so hoping for an ODI style bash, that would have really rubbed the Eng noses in it Dravid dosent mind not winning this- that much is clear. when push comes to shove he's defensive... but its a shame really 2-0 would have been great, and we really could have won this match today...

[novpj]

he played to ensure a draw or a win for India not to entertain you

[Bumper]

I dont know what to worry about more, the 12 off 96 balls or Dravid's decline in form. Utterly disappointed with the way we have slipped from our vantage position. We almost pulled a Capetown deja vu, where Dravid & Tendu plotted & oversaw our burial. Fortunately on this occasion it may not cost us much, as the series is already in the bag. Today's play perfectly summarises why India is so far away from being a great team. I dont reckon the bowling or the conditions were significantly different from the first innings. We are victims of our own mind.

[living]

he played to ensure a draw or a win for India not to entertain you

I agree, at some point I was thinking what if we are bundled out of less than 100? It's all possible. 1-0 or 2-0 series win - I don't care neither does Dravid

[Hawkeye]

Gutless & moronic captaincy' date=' IMO. Conditions were overcast and with a 319 run lead, India could have sealed it today. The fast bowlers would have put the top order out of their misery and Kumble would have done the rest. Look at how well the English bowled. A quick innings defeat was there for the taking. People will claim that nothing matters but the result, but my take is that every captain should at least attempt to win a match as quickly and as [b']convincingly as possible. I don't need to delve into his batting "performance" - 12 runs off 96 balls, that says it all. In any case, even if the team did decide on batting again instead of enforcing the follow-on - why the f*ck did they take 60 overs to score a measly 180 runs ? The Aussies would never score 180 runs in 60 overs when they are in pole position. All in all, it was an awful display of cricket by the Indian team - bundling out England, scoring 180/6 after 60 overs and then not taking a single English wicket before the close of play. Now I just hope that England don't draw.

Many of these sentiments echo what we were feeling having crashed out plent of money for today's play. First of all he should have enforced the follow on with the aim of crushing England by close of play. At worst India would have had to chase a small total in the final innings and they could have repeated their performance at Trent. Second since he decided to bat he should have gone out guns blazing. No consideration was given to the match position and the team's recent performance. You MUST back yourself to score well when you're playing well. It enhances confidence which filters through to the other players. Ganguly was the only one who understood this simple point and yes as Predator says Australia would have taken just such an approach. When the opponent is looking weak, crush him. There was no excuse to avoid a comfortable second win in this series but now he has a day to bowl out England and the pitch is still not Kumble friendly are not as friendly as Kumble might like. A second win would have promoted India to third (or according to some reports, joint second position) in the ICC test rankings and that would have sent a message to the Ozzies who we're playing (away) in December. Dravid's made the prospect of a win much harder than it needed to be, has demonstrate poor decision making and has batted poorly. A sad day for team India and very frustrating for its supporters.:sad_smile:

[Predator_05]

he played to ensure a draw or a win for India not to entertain you

Only p*ssies play for draws when they have a 319 run lead. This is exactly why India are always thought of as a "soft touch" everytime they go to countries like England, Australia or South Africa.

[novpj]

Agree with you Predz but I have seen what adopting an Aussie mind set without the talent or mental strength to back it up can lead to- look at what happened in South Africa when we played to win and ended up losing in the last test. I think we showed that we are a smart team - we know our limitations and will play within it. The same thought went into not enforcing follow-on- players like SRT who are supposed to be the leaders of the team just cave under pressure so no point putting them in a situation where we chase a total.

[monkeyfood]

He shouldn't be placing himself 3rd on the batting line up or even be captain if he doesnt have the mental capacity to cope in situations like that he should promote laxman. Did you all see that he almost got run out (dravid) when laxman now came out/?what was that!

[Predator_05]

India didn't play to win at Cape Town. At least, that was the impression i got while watching Tendulkar and Draw-vid bat at an agonizingly slow pace on day 4.

[Hawkeye]

Agree with you Predz but I have seen what adopting an Aussie mind set without the talent or mental strength to back it up can lead to- look at what happened in South Africa when we played to win and ended up losing in the last test. I think we showed that we are a smart team - we know our limitations and will play within it. The same thought went into not enforcing follow-on- players like SRT who are supposed to be the leaders of the team just cave under pressure so no point putting them in a situation where we chase a total.

Most people will accept that after the Ozzies, on paper, India's test batting side is the best in the world. How good it is was demonstrated in their performace on the 1st 3 days. You don't blow the chance of a crushing victory by focusing on limitations that only exist in the mind. As to chasing totals - really how much were England going to get - 400? 450 max? 250 with the benefit of hindsight? With over 10000 test runs and with two other members of the team having reached this threshold Dravid should have backed himself.

[King]

One of the worst displays of gutless performance and Rahul Dravid deserves every ounce of criticism he is getting. I still fail to understand what he was achieving there blocking every freakin ball when the onus was to score some quick runs and let the bowlers have enough overs to bowl England out. I think Rahul was only trying to win the series and make sure his captaincy was not going to come under threat if he opted to enforce follow on. I could even agree with not enforcing follow on but the batting on display was gutless and ridiculously stupid given the situation. I think Rahul Dravid’s inning was the worst on display through out the last four days of this test match. Even the likes of Monty and Tremlett batted thousand times better than Rahul.

[novpj]

Indian batting looks good on paper only. Lets not get carried away - this lineup is fragile and has a history of folding in pressure situations (world cup and numerous other examples come to mind). At this level of cricket metal strength matter as much as talent - playing within limitations is percentage cricket and thats what we should be doing

[King]

Indian batting looks good on paper only. Lets not get carried away - this lineup is fragile and has a history of folding in pressure situations (world cup and numerous other examples come to mind). At this level of cricket metal strength matter as much as talent - playing within limitations is percentage cricket and thats what we should be doing

Don't paint everyone in the team as fragile mate. Only Rahul and Tendulkar are mentally drained. The rest like Karthik, Ganguly, Dhoni and Kumble are all very strong mentally. Rahul and Tendulkar have seen so many losses they simply can't seem to think beyond that. They want safety first. Going forward couple of fresh legs will help the India team.