Dravid's comments

[The Outsider]

Was in facked up meetings the entire day but ran off to catch the post match presentation ceremony with my laptop claiming a web conference. and loved it, something on the lines of, " I know my bowlers, I know my job, if I was sitting in a drawing room watching the match I would have criticized the decision too, but my team proved me right in the series" :two_thumbs_up: Congratulations, India. Great win. Apologies for not contributing to the other threads and this point might have been brought up in one/many of them.

[Ram]

Yes.. Totally agree with his decision. History will fondly remember only the series win , not Dravid's lack of adventurism.

[Chandan]

There was no point in the adventurism if he felt that his bowlers were not up for it. And they were also trying to make use of the last day pitch with Kumble bowling for the last time in England. Unfortunately, the pitch didn't crumble as much as we had expected and Kumble was largely ineffective. But then a captain has to back his gut feeling. One cannot blame him for that.

[Donny]

Yes.. Totally agree with his decision. History will fondly remember only the series win ' date=' not Dravid's lack of adventurism.[/quote'] Others will remember it quite differently, with bitterness and disappointment - as the many posts in this forum to that effect indicate ..... and by Indian fans.

[Dhondy]

Commiserations for the $200 Dravid cost you, Shwetabh.

[dvs7673]

You must be kiddin me

Yes.. Totally agree with his decision. History will fondly remember only the series win ' date=' not Dravid's lack of adventurism.[/quote'] Remember, the bowlers have done an outstanding job in this series, not trusting them is an amazingly f##@! decision to say the least. Dravid is only interested in being part of the history just like his other two bedroom buddies: Sachin "FCUK" Tendulkar and Saurav "Crazy in the Ass" Ganguly. He knows that history will only see that India won and will say that he was the winning capt, but we know what pussies this team is full off.

[Chandan]

Others will remember it quite differently' date=' with bitterness and disappointment - as the many posts in this forum to that effect indicate ..... and by Indian fans.[/quote'] No Donny. I'm an Indian cricket fan and I have full faith in Dravid's decision not to enforce follow on. I'll remember it fondly as a series victory with India's famous five bowing out of England with glory!!

[Zap_Brannigan]

There was no point in the adventurism if he felt that his bowlers were not up for it. And they were also trying to make use of the last day pitch with Kumble bowling for the last time in England. Unfortunately, the pitch didn't crumble as much as we had expected and Kumble was largely ineffective. But then a captain has to back his gut feeling. One cannot blame him for that.

So Chandan, 1 or 2 bad decisions is allright cos we all know captaincy is more of an educated gambling but what about getting a lot of these kinda decisions wrong? There are only 3 reasons i could think off for not making England follow -on. First, the bowlers being tired.Would be a good point if they bowled a lot but they just bowled around 100 overs. Or our bowlers really that out of shape? Remember that there was a big gap between the 2nd test and the last test, so playing the same team in a 3 test series reason is just an excuse for his bad decision. Second was to exploit the spin on the last day? We had 1 spin bowler and he is no murali/warne to make england crumble. Infact he would have done better had he had more overs to bowl . Also the conditions on the 4th day was actually the best for bowling in that test. Third was to take the option of winning away from England. Even if England had scored the 340 runs it had to score to make India bat again in just the 4th day(thats 4 RPO for an entire day), they still had to set a target on day 5,make us bat again and then take 10 wickets....the probability of that happening was very low. Even if england scored 500 runs in 5 sessions following on, we would have only needed 150 runs in the last session. We could easily have gone for the draw if we lost 3-4 wickets quickly. Mathematically and Logically, making england follow on was the correct decision. Dravid screwed up big time yet again.

[Ram]

Others will remember it quite differently' date=' with bitterness and disappointment - as the many posts in this forum to that effect indicate ..... and by Indian fans.[/quote'] Please do take the reaction of Indian cricket fans with a pinch of salt. We have tendency of blowing hot and cold. The same set of fans would have blasted him no end , had england set a target of 450 and we had lost. I would rather go by cricketing intelligence of Rahul Dravid , rather than the passions of a typical Indian fan.

[Ram]

Just one line reply to Zap's post. 4th innings collapses are notoriously quick. Australia lost nearly all of its wickets in a single session to lose to India in Kolkata.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Please do take the reaction of Indian cricket fans with a pinch of salt. We have tendency of blowing hot and cold. The same set of fans would have blasted him no end , had england set a target of 450 and we had lost. I would rather go by cricketing intelligence of Rahul Dravid , rather than the passions of a typical Indian fan.

You realize that to set a target of 450 england would have had to score 800 ... we had only 2 days left in the game.I know you just threw out a number but i am curious what kinda situation would have put us in a losing position. The worst case situation i could think of is around 100 runs per session for 4-5 sessions leaving us getting 100-200 runs or batting out 30 overs. You reckon we would have lost 10 wickets in 30 overs?I am not saying its impossible, but its not probable.

[Ram]

The worst case situation i could think of is around 100 runs per session for 4-5 sessions leaving us getting 100-200 runs or batting out 30 overs. You reckon we would have lost 10 wickets in 30 overs?I am not saying its impossible, but its not probable.

When India bowled out England on the morning of the third day, they were ahead by 319 runs , with 174 overs of the match left. Assuming Enland played out 110 overs of them and scored and close to 4 r.p.o , which was close to India RR in the first innings , they would have by 130 runs with 50 overs to bowl India out. Now , see this in context with India being reduced to 11/3. I would become VERY nervous then.

[Chandan]

So Chandan, 1 or 2 bad decisions is allright cos we all know captaincy is more of an educated gambling but what about getting a lot of these kinda decisions wrong? There are only 3 reasons i could think off for not making England follow -on. First, the bowlers being tired.Would be a good point if they bowled a lot but they just bowled around 100 overs. Or our bowlers really that out of shape? Remember that there was a big gap between the 2nd test and the last test, so playing the same team in a 3 test series reason is just an excuse for his bad decision. Second was to exploit the spin on the last day? We had 1 spin bowler and he is no murali/warne to make england crumble. Infact he would have done better had he had more overs to bowl . Also the conditions on the 4th day was actually the best for bowling in that test. Third was to take the option of winning away from England. Even if England had scored the 340 runs it had to score to make India bat again in just the 4th day(thats 4 RPO for an entire day), they still had to set a target on day 5,make us bat again and then take 10 wickets....the probability of that happening was very low. Even if england scored 500 runs in 5 sessions following on, we would have only needed 150 runs in the last session. We could easily have gone for the draw if we lost 3-4 wickets quickly. Mathematically and Logically, making england follow on was the correct decision. Dravid screwed up big time yet again.

Zap, If too many of your gambles are ending up on the wrong side, then your captaincy days are up!! But the only thing because of which I'd have enforced follow on was the cloudy day, chances of rain later meant humidity in air which would have helped swing bowling. But then Zaheer was not 100%, Sree has been very unpredictable and you still cannot trust RP Singh to deliver big time. And don't forget that it was overcast even yesterday, but Zaheer couldn't get a single wicket, and RP was taken for runs. And in the end, Sachin had to bowl 19 overs. So obviously, everything is not well with the three seamers in the final inning, despite a rest of 60 overs! In such circumstances, I don't blame Dravid to make this match secure so that series win was certain!

[Zap_Brannigan]

When India bowled out England on the morning of the third day, they were ahead by 319 runs , with 174 overs of the match left. Assuming Enland played out 110 overs of them and scored and close to 4 r.p.o , which was close to India RR in the first innings , they would have by 130 runs with 50 overs to bowl India out. Now , see this in context with India being reduced to 11/3. I would become VERY nervous then.

Even in this case, the numbers are clearly in our favor. 120 runs, 7 wickets,40 overs...... We will never know what would have happened had Dravid enforced the follow-on, but like i said the probability of losing the test was so minuscule either way.

[Holysmoke]

Remember' date=' the bowlers have done an outstanding job in this series, not trusting them is an amazingly f##@! decision to say the least. Dravid is only interested in being part of the history just like his other two bedroom buddies: Sachin "FCUK" Tendulkar and Saurav "Crazy in the Ass" Ganguly. He knows that history will only see that India won and will say that he was the winning capt, but we know what pussies this team is full off.[/quote'] please use appropriate language.

[beetle]

dvs7673.....does using such foul language against your team(if it is indeed your team)members make you feel big?

[King Tendulkar]

This forum has been infiltrated by the ISI:confused_smile:

[King]

I was pretty miffed at his decision not to enforce follow on but hey what's the point in pondering over it thousand times. India won the test series and that is all it matters. For me India was the better team even if they had lost the first test match as it was England struggling to ward off defeat in the last test match. Whether the decision was right or not to enforce follow on, the team has delivered a result that was not expected of them. I knew India couldn't win the test match right after the follow on wasn't enforced and you know it very well Shwetabh as we pondered over it many times. Despite all that a series win should be savored. The team has done wonderfully well in England against a team that had won 3-0 against West Indies recently. Since 2001 none of the test playing nations have won a test series in England and even the Aussies were well beaten in England in 2005. I cannot see why people cannot appreciate the series win whatever the result of the last test match. You can rue not winning the last test match but you can't say I can't rejoice at the series win. These two are different things IMO.

[Gaurav]

It was relevant yesterday but now I don't care as we WON! India India India :two_thumbs_up::two_thumbs_up::two_thumbs_up::two_thumbs_up:

[The Outsider]

Commiserations for the $200 Dravid cost you' date=' Shwetabh.[/quote'] Made up a bit for it by putting money on a draw as well at lunch. Suffered a slightdent.