India's Tour to South Africa, 2013

[CG]

Everyone was a walking wicket then bar Dravid in England.

where are they now.

[SLICKR392]

Averaged 20 and 30 in Australia in England respectively. Not a very reliable bat down the order but he had a good SA series last time around.

[rkt.india]

where are they now.

You need someone to captain a young team and there is no better than Dhoni right now and he performed in home seasons after that, others not.

[Scarves]

India's past results @ Jo'Burg - ODIs 1992 - India 9/161 (Azharuddin 49, Donald 3/27) lost to South Africa 4/165 (48.3 overs) (Wessels 45, Rhodes 42* Cronje 11*) by 6 wickets 2001 - India 5/279 (Ganguly 127, Tendulkar 101) lost to South Africa 4/280 (48.2 overs) (Kirsten 133*, Gibbs 48, Srinath 2/59) by 6 wickets 2003 CWC - India 6/292 (Tendulkar 97, Sehwag 66, Muralitharan 3/46) defeated Sri Lanka 109 (Sangakkara 30, Nehra 4/35, Srinath 4/35) by 183 runs 2003 CWC - Australia 2/359 (Ponting 140*, Martyn 88*, Harbhajan Singh 2/49) defeated India 234 (Sehwag 82, McGrath 3/52, Symonds 2/7) by 125 runs 2009 Champions Trophy - West Indies 129 (Sammy 23, P Kumar 3/22, Nehra 3/31) lost to India 3/130 (32.1 overs) (Kohli 79*, Karthik 34) by 7 wickets 2011 - India 190 (Yuvraj Singh 53, Tsotsobe 4/22) defeated South Africa 189 (Smith 77, Patel 4/29) by 1 run So basically: India v. South Africa - 1 win, 2 losses India @ Jo'Burg - 3 wins, 3 losses

[MCcricket]

I do not have any expectation from Dhoni but I hope he surprises me normally he will give catching practise to slips and set ultra defensive fields and that looses u games in those conditions where one partnership for 40 or 50 could loose u a game

[vishalvirsingh]

Dhoni is a Great Captain in Indian conditions for Sure....... I believe captainship skills remain the same but that does not seem to be the case with Dhoni He seems to captain spinners better and he also has this Favorites theory...... Kohli has been fantastic so why has he not anounced that kohli wl bat at 4 *nd sharma at 5 That wud be a wrong Call as Kohli is better than Rohit n 4 and 3 are for your best bats......

[vishalvirsingh]

This Indian Team is very powerful Why Dhawan n Rohit are in the form of his life.... Pujara is targetting 150 everytime he goes to bat Entire World fears Kohli as much as they feared Sachin Ever..... Ashwin is also Batting at its Best..... Jadu"s Spin is at its best Ojha just got an MOM Shammi has suddenly turned into 140+ Reverse swing Bowler.......and has over taken bhuvi n Umesh as india"s main bowler..... Zak is Back n many optimists say he is there to stay for 2 yrs..... Bhuvi swings well..... Umesh is 140 to 150 bowler .....if he gets his rhythm then he wud be dreaded. I don't see any REASON as to why India can't Win with this team.....if india looses ODI and test series the captain should be sacked if its 1-1 dhoni saves his position...... If its 1- 0 in africa"s favour still dhoni can be retained but certainly not if its 2-2.... Even ODI series we need to Win as we better in ODI then in tests

[vishalvirsingh]

Except steyn they have morkel philander Chris Morris n wayne parnell ......-4 of these are 140+ I believe they have a DEADLY attack even with out Steyn Morris and morkel were way better than our bowlers in IPL too..... Only wayne parnell did not click

[putrevus]

Hope this generation does not use the excuses and play without fear of failure. Kohli has said all the right things till now.It is time to show what kind of character this team has got.

[Zanjeer]

We are losing badly in tests. We were 130-6 in Kolkata match against Windies. If we get the situation again, ashwin's batting isn't gonna save us in SA.

[CG]

Dhoni defends bowlers after de Villiers' attack

Moments before MS Dhoni spoke, a day before India's first international on the tour,AB de Villiers laid down the gauntlet. When asked if South Africa could actually be considered underdogs in a home series, given their recent record in ODIs and India's No. 1 status in the ICC rankings, de Villiers said there was no way South Africa were going to stand back and allow that to happen. He said it should not be forgotten they were playing in home conditions, against a subcontinent team, one that has "a very bad record" in the country. There wasn't much wrong in what de Villers said. India have never won a bilateral series in South Africa. Of the 25 ODIs they have played against South Africa here, they have won just five. The thing with the Indian team under MS Dhoni, though, is they don't pay much heed to these statistics. Most of Dhoni's players have come here with a clean slate, and carry the confidence of a good year behind them. Dhoni said the numbers didn't bother him overly. "Before you asked me, that was not on my mind," he said. "I will try to make sure it doesn't stay in there." Part of the reason for Dhoni's confidence is that two of those five wins came under him, on the last trip. "Yes we haven't done well," he said, "But there were instances, even the last time we came here, we had a good opportunity to win the series but we didn't cash in on that. So it is important we play well. Only thing is, in a three-match series it becomes a little difficult if a team lags behind and loses the first game. There is extra pressure on the team that has lost the first game." The first game is important as it is the one India are least prepared for. It's the same old feeling. Invariably, India go into their first away match with little acclimatisation. Invariably, weather turns up to complicate matters. Over the last three days, Johannesburg's weather has been giving Melbourne and Auckland an inferiority complex. Stars were visible at 4.30am on Wednesday. It was foggy at 5am, sunny at 8am, rainy at 10am, back to unbearably sunny an hour later, and cold minutes later, before it became sunny again. Rain is expected to affect the match on Thursday, and there will almost certainly be dew at night. Even a mobile phone becomes damp within 15 minutes of its staying out in the open. And dew is one factor, according to Dhoni, that has given his side's bowling a bad name. "What's important is how much you exploit the conditions. It's not about having the best bowling attack," Dhoni said, when told that de Villiers had said India's was not the best by a stretch. De Villiers had even suggested batsmen tend to lose wickets underestimating them.:hysterical: "We have done pretty well," Dhoni said. "There have been ups and downs. Where we have struggled a bit is when there is dew on the field. And when we play on really flat surfaces. That's where our bowlers haven't done outstandingly well. But what we have seen is, if there is a bit of help for them, they have made the most of whatever is on offer. I think overall we are quite happy with the way they have bowled so far, the ups and the downs." Dhoni is not perturbed by the Indian bowlers' general lack of pace. "If you don't have bowlers who can bowl 145 or 150 [kph], then no point thinking about pace and bounce," he said. "If you have someone who can swing the ball, we will make the most of the conditions :giggle:here. With [two] new balls they may get a bit of swing initially. Try and get wickets in the first 10 overs, and that can have an impact on the game." After that, Dhoni joined his team-mates in a game of football, before they began their fielding drills and light batting sessions. As they did so, the bleachers were being cleaned, the hospitality boxes stocked, and the greenish pitch covered. The Wanderers is not quite the MCG, but when you stand in the middle or walk down that famous tunnel you feel it can get intimidating when full, especially when you face up left towards the Golf Course End's steeply rising stands. De Villiers' men, wearing pink for charity, might not look as threatening as the West Indians who added menace to the colour in the 1980s, but they will be ready with whatever they can throw at India. Will India be prepared for it?

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-africa-v-india-2013-14/content/story/697049.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

[CG]

You need someone to captain a young team and there is no better than Dhoni right now and he performed in home seasons after that' date=' others not.[/quote'] Sehwag and gambhir averaged 40 against england.So do not give that excuse.Yeah no better bloke to captain away than who lost us 8-0.

[Number]

Earlier DeVilliers also said India are playing at home on flat pitches and small grounds, here in SA its a different story. Trying his best to spice up the things before big series. :winky: Dhoni is just too calm, not falling in his trap.

[Zanjeer]

Can India recover from 130-6 against SA like they did against Windies in kolkatta?.. Can Ashwin save us like he did in Kolkata against Windies? If you remember correctly, before the 8-0 drubbing we played against New Zealand in India and bhajji scored a century to save a test match. I can see a repeat of the history. Yeah, I'm predicting like a ****ing ponka here. It will be 2-0.

[vvvslaxman]

[bulbul]

No But we can bundle out chokers below 100 :phehehe:

[express bowling]

Dhoni has forgotten that he has 2 bowlers with pace? !!! :((

[vvvslaxman]

WHich De villiers.. Fanie or AB :)

[Zanjeer]

It seems like umesh is gonna be benched and mohit Sharma would play ahead of him. If this happens, dhoni deserves to lose.

[vvvslaxman]

Except steyn they have morkel philander Chris Morris n wayne parnell ......-4 of these are 140+ I believe they have a DEADLY attack even with out Steyn Morris and morkel were way better than our bowlers in IPL too..... Only wayne parnell did not click

But none of them can sieze the momentum back when things are running away from you like Steyn. That is where Steyn comes in . Wresting back the initiative. It is not a flawless side. They have a fixer upper in the form of Steyn everytime things go wrong like he produced a magical spell in Australia reducing OZ to 45 for 6 in no time when the series could have ended in a draw.