Congratulations!! 1-1

[Yuvraj4Captaincy]

well played dada

[Dhondy]

Phew! Was quite worried we'd get stuffed 2-0. Ishant and Yuvi definitely made a difference. Ishant was nowhere near the speeds he generated in Australia, but still showed the gulf of class between him and the other indian quicks. He's a good lad, Ishant. Dravid should be shunted up to open, and Yuvi should get the middle order berth for Tests on the subcontinent. Dravid no longer makes it to this side at one-down, sadly. His decline is irreversible. Once your reflexes slow down, you can't scratch around and hope for the best. The contrast between he and Ganguly is just startling. The latter comes across as somebody who has really thought about his game, knows how to get the best out of himself, and is completely confident in that knowledge. Dravid, and I am one of his biggest fans, remember, doesn't look like he knows whether he is coming or going. Didn't come as a surprise though- he's been on the downhill slope for a while now. India missed Tendulkar and Zaheer, so it would be good to see them back for the SL series. Should be a good contest. A bit worrying that Bhajji was comprehensively outbowled by Sehwag for the second series running when it really counted. Still think he makes it to this side only because of the lack of credible alternatives at home. Look at his closest competitor- Chawla- aweful action, no pullback in delivery stride, and suffers from a lack of inches. How on earth can he be playing Test matches for India? Indian spin bowling cupboard is truly bare. SA are an impressive side, but slightly one-dimensional. Their batting order can be fragile under pressure, and although they are a match for other teams in the pot because of their two young fast bowlers and some gritty, attritional batsmen, they won't stretch Australia. That particular contest is doomed to remain as one-sided as ever. My biggest disappointment of this series? RP Singh. I'd reposed a lot of faith in him, and feel badly let down. Maybe it was a lack of fitness, as Bumper pointed out. Unfortunately, Sreesanth was shown up by the other quicks on show as well, although he was trying very hard. Big backward step for India, and my balloon of optimism has been quite rudely deflated, I must say. If this is the way these two are ging to perform in india, no wonder Shwetabh won't be the first person to join me in admitting that Shehezaada and Sriram was right all along in reaffirming that India's strength lies in preparing brittle pitches and going in with appropriate personnel.

[graphic23]

Very good comeback from us especially after Ahmd debacle. Took revenge by winning it under 3 days. :two_thumbs_up: Good start for Dhoni as captain too. We remain the second best side in the world. :hatsoff:

We remain the second ranked side in the world - the 2nd best, I'm not so sure. I'm not being bitter or anything but the debacle in previous test showed that we still need to achieve a much higher degree of consistency. We cannot always depend on a debacle or a controversy in the previous test to do well in the next.

[Dhondy]

We remain the second ranked side in the world - the 2nd best, I'm not so sure. I'm not being bitter or anything but the debacle in previous test showed that we still need to achieve a much higher degree of consistency. We cannot always depend on a debacle or a controversy in the previous test to do well in the next.

While there is some truth in what you say, I am not sure SA can be considered to have earned their stripes either. Afterall, this was the same pitch where india's 10 and 11 put on 46 runs against the new ball. That's a bigger partnership than anything SA managed in the 2nd innings. I'm not sure SA didn't let the pich get to them just as India did in the last Test. Hardly the CV for the second best side in the world. I'd call it evens.

[ludhianvi]

Contratz India on winning the final test match. As for the overall series, India were "supposed" to win over the Saffies. So the Saffies must be more pleased with a 1-1 scoreline than the Indians should be. Just like Smith stated that at home, a 1-1 scoreline would be disappointing. It was interesting to see three different types of tracks used. Flat, pace friendly, and the third spinner friendly. those three covered all the bases.

[Ram]

Great win for us. After Motera, I had thought the gap between the two sides was too much to bridge in 5 days. I expected a spinning pitch, but didnt expect the track would spin *SO* much. I would have rather preferred u to win on days 4 or 5, rather than in 3. Still, it doesnt matter. Its also good to see the spinners winning a match for us. Its not without reason that India is known as one of the toughest places to tour and a major part of that reason are our world class spinners and helpful tracks. I understand that our fast bowling attack has improved vastly in the last 3-4 years, but that isnt reason enough for us to give up our traditional advantage at home. We must, ALWAYS, play to our strengths at home. There's no shame or sham in that. Dish out pitches that crack on day 1, spit dust on day 2 and explode on day 3. Do whatever it takes to spook the opposition batsman. They may be the best in the world, they may have averages in excess of 50, but when they ball doing tricks in front of their eyes, it deflates them, punctures the spirit out of 'em. And more importantly, most times, they dont have the bowlers to take advantage of the same conditions. I am glad we drew this series, but terribly disappointed we didnt win it. Alas, 90 mins of madness at the Motera cost us dear.

[The Outsider]

A disappointing result at the end of the day, but given the circumstances of having played an unfit Kumble and missing Tendulkar and Zaheer, not to mention being 0-1 down thanks to the horrific track at Ahmedabad, not one which can be complained about too much. The series, more than anything, highlighted the ineptness of preparing wickets in India, the quality of which has been on a decline for a decade now. Serious questions must be asked about curators and highly paid foreign consultants who have been dishing out one nonsensical wicket after another. Either it's a death bed like Chennai, on which a test played over 10 days would not have produced a result, or it's a "sporting" pitch like Ahmedabad which darts around for a session or two before going off to sleep and where cracks can be produced only if Shiv Sena decides to try out their hands on it. The Kanpur track, although not ideal, at least rewarded good, positive batting and offered assistance to all bowlers throughout. If these are the choices on offer, give me a Kanpur wicket any day. Sehwag's cracking triple ton was followed up by a series of low scores and he needs to get more consistent as an opener. Such sporadic bursts of brilliance can't be faulted for a middle order batsman but an opener needs to get through the new ball on more occasions than Sehwag managed to get through during the series. Jaffer was disappointing again when faced with a quality new ball attack and Dravid while showing the will to fight it out every time he went to bat, just could not come up with any sort of fluency. Laxman and Ganguly's performances in the final test avoided a defeat. Dhoni was brilliant behind the stumps and as others have mentioned Ishant really underlined the importance of having a good pace attack even on Indian pitches. The spinners can really come into their own at 50-2 as opposed to 100-0 starts that the South African openers were being provided by RP Singh and Sreesanth. For all my backing of Sreesanth, he needs to find more consistency. But fast bowlers take time to develop and the Indian pace attack still has all the right tools. Spin is the worrying department. If Chawla is the third best spinner in the country and Harbhajan the second best, we are in serious trouble. True, Harbhajan bowled decently in the series but was never a continuous threat till he was given a turning track. The bulk of wickets he picked up in the first two tests were too expensive and frankly he got them only because his competition was a completely out of sort seam attack and an unfit Kumble. Five wicket hauls mean little if the opposition has scored 400-500 runs. Some guys from the domestic scene like Mishra and Ojha should be tried more often because Chawla on current evidence is tripe. He just rushes through his run up, has little loop, is not a big turner, regularly gives long hops and full tosses and the only redeeming feature of his bowling, the googly, is hardly going to get him wickets against international class batsmen. South Africa did well, but are not as good a team as India for sure. Their batting line up is too flaky and is likely to be blown away later during the year against Australia and maybe even against England. Steyn, Ntini, and Morkel are a handy pace attack though and will trouble even the best batsmen on a consistent basis. But without a quality spinner and with a brittle batting line up, they are unlikely to give Australia a fight. Hopefully, the IPL circus will not injure our test players so that we can hope for a full strength Indian side trying to wrest a test series in Sri Lanka. They'll have a good chance of doing it. The ingredients are there, but the team really needs to show more desire.

[straighttalk]

challange is sri lanka in srilanka

[Chaos]

donation of ICF $$ to mouni is deeply accepted. Mouni's Charity is now open and please make contributions for the good well of the humans.

[Desi Cartman]

donation of ICF to mouni deeply accepted. Mouni's Charity is now open and please make contributions for the good well of the humans.

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: how did u lose it ?