Batting was good but not great

[King]

The proceedings have been pretty slow. Tendulkar has to put away any personal motive behind a knock and play an aggressive one as India needs the rest of the batters to step on the gas a bit if they have to show any positive intent of winning this test match. So far I have seen all our batters just wanting to get to a fifty to salvage some pride not with standing this is the last test and a favorable result will ensure their bad days on this tour will be forgotten. At times the personal mile stone and to get back to their form should take a back seat for the good of the team. Tendulkar looked to be still working at regaining his form as did Rahul Dravid. After having put more than 150 runs for the first wicket it was quite a downbeat approach. If this approach continues in the form of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman and Sehwag on day 2, a rare golden opportunity to win a test series in South Africa will go abegging. I really want the batters to show some courage and take on the Saffie bowlers. If they can't even do this on a pitch like this against a rookie attack (barring Ntini and Pollock) I will be truly disappointed. Time is gold on this pitch as Saffies can dig out fair number of overs batting.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: Batting was good but not great below 3 per ovee evn on this pitch can never be termed good....... Let us hope sehwag comes to his own element :wtg:

[The Outsider]

Re: Batting was good but not great I'll take an opposite view, Ravi. I think the batting was superb. Our first target was to ensure safety after choosing to bat in the test. We still haven't done that. Another 20-30 overs for the loss of no more than a wicket would put us in the zone. After that we can accelerate. As long as our final run rate is close to 3.25 I wont have any complaints.

[Mandrake]

Re: Batting was good but not great I agree with Shwetabh....having a new opening combination the first task was to achieve stability and build a platform for a big score(500+ hopefully). This was achieved splendidly.Dravid did show positive intent later but I guess his wicket put the brakes a bit...still very good first day overall.

[Inside_edge]

Re: Batting was good but not great Quick scoring was/is the key here. 550 runs in 5 sessions makes the tough job of taking 20 wkts on this pitch a lot easier. At 150/1 we should have played a lot faster. Excessive slow play means waste of time and runs besides increasing chances of getting out with a negative mind.

[The Outsider]

Re: Batting was good but not great The intent to accelerate was there the way Dravid started but Pollock came up with one of the best spells of controlled seam bowling. Sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposition. Scoring quick against Pollock in that spell was out of the question without taking unnecessary risks.

[King]

Re: Batting was good but not great There was not one Saffie bowler yesterday you could pick and say was threatning. Yes they all bowled few good balls but a lot of bad balls went unpunished. Clearly India was lacking the positive intent and was more often on the defensive side. I can understand the first wicket stand given our dismal first wicket partnership so far on the tour but after having grinded out nearly 2 sessions our batters still were showing no intent of scoring quickly. Scoring quickly does not mean hit over the top, the field was spread and there were plenty of single for taking but our batters wanted to deal in fours. :eew: 55 singles were scored in all for the day i.e about 20% in singles. The following are the number of balls played and the corresponding dot balls : [code:9a096c1d0f] Total Balls played Dot Balls Jaffer 244 191 Karthik 170 136 Rahul Dravid 58 45 Tendulkar 57 48 Laxman 16 15 [/code:1:9a096c1d0f] Look at the high percentage of dot balls played out by Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar. This is after the first wicket had put on over 150 runs :chin: I just hope things change a bit today otherwise this one will end in a lame draw.

[yoda]

Re: Batting was good but not great Ravi your pick - 300/6 or 254/3? No, can't have 300/2.

[veer]

Re: Batting was good but not great I would say, kaarthik wicket fell at crucical time.. i.e first ball after tea.. I think plan was to acceleration by kkd after tea.. and den dravid came out blazing which was offense in itself and shows they were not in defensive mindset.. but then pollock stopped the flow.. and then mr. jaffer was looking for his century.. and dravid fell and so on.. i think we will play around 3.2+ RPO from word go..

[King]

Re: Batting was good but not great

Ravi your pick - 300/6 or 254/3? No, can't have 300/2.

I don't think they could have lost 3 more wickets for an addition of about 40+ runs. Ideal score with the long batting lineup India has on day 1 should have ideally have been 330/4. What's the point in playing Karthik as an opener and having Ganguly coming at no.7? When you boost your batting by so much on a batting track you have to make that pay don't you think? I fear Tendulkar, Laxman and the rest to follow will also try and settle down to get as many runs as possible. I hope they don't go that line and play for the team cause.

[yoda]

Re: Batting was good but not great Given our poor form, last thing we want is a collapse on a batting track. But in general we need to play more positive cricket while batting. Need to go for the kill instead of waiting for the opponent to kill us.

[Rahul]

Re: Batting was good but not great ravi, hark back to sehwag's first Test. IND scored 370+ on that day, lost the remaining three wickets for next to nothing on the next morning and lost the test by a whopping margin. Let's face it, the Indian batting isn't in great nick (and lets face it they ain't Australia to score at 4 a day). Even so, Harris was bowling a leg stump line, Dale Steyn started the day with balls well left alone, Kallis bowled a completely negative line targeted at sixth stump and Pollock was as miserly as ever--meaning only two balls per every over was even worth touching with the bat. with the pitch not really quick, IMHO, it's not going to be easy for the Indian bats to score quickly against the RSA attack. The pacemen are used to bowling wide of the off-stump to a 7-2 field, and by the end of the day, Harris was bowling around the wicket, outside the right-handers' leg-stump, and getting some turn. There is, of course, also the small matter that the second new ball could clean up the innings for 320-ish. Even if most of the middle order survives the first hour, I'd expect the scoring rate to be 40-45 runs an hour until tea. That's about 420 or so by tea, and maybe 475-ish by an hour after tea. Assuming enough of the middle order survives. given a great unplayable ball in the AM (always possible with the new ball) and Sehwag's awful form, it is not inconceivable to realistically bowl IND out by lunch... If IND keep their heads, they should be able to get to 400. But RSA are capable of crossing that if they bat well themselves. As of now, IND r slightly ahead on points, but really no favorites in this match one way or the other, at the end of Day 1.

[King]

Re: Batting was good but not great Lot of good points there Rahul and yes it's not over as yet. There still is a chance for Saffies to come back but India now has to play attacking cricket if they have to win. Fair enough they are not in good form but the ball is coming on nicely. The leg glances played by our boys through the mid wicket shows that the ball was coming on nicely. Wonder how long it will be the case though. Yup agree there is still a lot to play for considering the batters barring VVS aren't a confident lot. Ideally when you choose 6 batters + a wicket keeper as an opener the batting team should show more positive intent. Well, let's see how they get on with it today.

[Predator_05]

Re: Batting was good but not great aaargh, stop complaining about the damn run rate ! India @ Headingley in '02 - 236/2 at stumps. India @ Sydney in '03 - 280/3 at stumps. It's not about how you begin an innings - rather, it's how you FINISH it, which matters. If India step up a gear and hit out after lunch they will comfortably finish with a 500+ total by tea. That is a very conceivable possibility provided that one of Tendulkar or Laxman gets his eye in. Ganguly and Sehwag down the order will be lethal on this pitch. India did superbly on day 1 and it's their performance on day 2 which will determine whether they can set themselves up for a win.

[DesiChap]

Re: Batting was good but not great

aaargh, stop complaining about the damn run rate ! India @ Headingley in '02 - 236/2 at stumps. India @ Sydney in '03 - 280/3 at stumps. It's not about how you begin an innings - rather, it's how you FINISH it, which matters. If India step up a gear and hit out after lunch they will comfortably finish with a 500+ total by tea. That is a very conceivable possibility provided that one of Tendulkar or Laxman gets his eye in. Ganguly and Sehwag down the order will be lethal on this pitch. India did superbly on day 1 and it's their performance on day 2 which will determine whether they can set themselves up for a win.

Spot on.

[King]

Re: Batting was good but not great Headingly wicket was not conducive for stroke making and even if the batters survived there for about an hour it was great. This pitch is a patch on that one. We all know what happened at Sydney :hic: It was a draw in the end. That is excatly what I don't want this test to end up as. Oh well we will know by the end of today how well we are placed to win this one. :wtg:

[Predator_05]

Re: Batting was good but not great

Headingly wicket was not conducive for stroke making and even if the batters survived there for about an hour it was great. This pitch is a patch on that one. We all know what happened at Sydney :hic: It was a draw in the end. That is excatly what I don't want this test to end up as. Oh well we will know by the end of today how well we are placed to win this one. :wtg:

I mentioned the examples to emphasize the point that run rate doesn't always matter - especially on day 1. You won't be complaining if India make a sizeable total. As for Sydney - come on, mate; u know better than that. That match was India's but for the pitiful umpiring and Parthiv's blunders, two factors which denied the team a well-deserved victory. I reckon this match might be similar to that one, but on this occasion India has a much better bowling attack and the pitch will undoubtedly crack on day 5 so they will have a genuine chance to force a result.

[King]

Re: Batting was good but not great

I reckon this match might be similar to that one, but on this occasion India has a much better bowling attack and the pitch will undoubtedly crack on day 5 so they will have a genuine chance to force a result.

My major rant is that when you play a wicket keeper as an opener and have 7 batters then they should bat more positively. I may be speaking a bit too early of course and they may as well finish quite well as you mentioned. I hope they do it as I cannot digest another bloody drawn series overseas. The 4th and 5th day wicket will be hard to bat on surely and with Kumble in the side India should feel confident. Before anything of course India will need a score of over 500 first and we are still quite a long way from it.

[vroomfondel]

Re: Batting was good but not great playing 'positively' is playing right into saffie hands. On a run-scoring pitch, the saffies played to their strength -- discipline. Bowl outside off with 2 slips and two boundary runners. The risk-reward ratio is stacked against the batsmen driving. This is the only gameplan that SA have, since they don't have a quality spinner. Once we bat for long enough, SA will have to bowl at the batsmen because they need to win this match more than us. That is when we make runs, but only if we have wickets in hand. We need to bat once. And Krumbles will take care of the rest.

[Rahul]

Re: Batting was good but not great looks like i was pretty much on the money... what say, ravi??