West Indies tour of NZ

[rollingstoned]

3 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Congrats WI, one of the most epic rearguards....had Indians drawn a test like this, you would never have heard the end of it. 

 

Special mention to 37 yo Roach who is so underrated. 

Shitting on India is flavor of the moment now but the Old trafford draw was commendable. It is not like this pitch was doing all sorts. 

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, Manucrick said:

 MSD is actually a lucky captain. Honestly, you need some luck to win a trophy nowadays. Our captains can't even win a toss

 

Not lucky. He makes a lot of gut decision.   Joginder had bowled 3 overs conceded only 20 runs. SO he resreve dhim for last over. He opened with Yusuf pathan in the final when he made debut.  He picked Ashwin just against Australia in the quarter final used him 5 straight overs in the power play. Ashwin took out Watson and later Punter. He dropped Ashwin for the next match. Then he promoted himself to no.5 in the final to deal with Murali.  In the CT final Ishant move looked like a bad move. But he took 2 wickets. He has a lot of gut feeling. You cannot keep on lucking in the IPL season after season. He had a box office 2011. He won CL, World cup, India won test mace, IPL.

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, rollingstoned said:

Shitting on India is flavor of the moment now but the Old trafford draw was commendable. It is not like this pitch was doing all sorts. 

 

Especially given that Pant was practically out from the match and tail starts after Jaddu/Sundar. Choker Kela would have choked in that situation.

[rollingstoned]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

 

Not lucky. He makes a lot of gut decision.   Joginder had bowled 3 overs conceded only 20 runs. SO he resreve dhim for last over. He opened with Yusuf pathan in the final when he made debut.  He picked Ashwin just against Australia in the quarter final used him 5 straight overs in the power play. Ashwin took out Watson and later Punter. He dropped Ashwin for the next match. Then he promoted himself to no.5 in the final to deal with Murali.  In the CT final Ishant move looked like a bad move. But he took 2 wickets. He has a lot of gut feeling. You cannot keep on lucking in the IPL season after season. He had a box office 2011. He won CL, World cup, India won test mace, IPL.

He was not a good test captain but helped build the 2013-24 team too by giving all of the debuts and easing them in. 

[rollingstoned]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

 

Especially given that Pant was practically out from the match and tail starts after Jaddu/Sundar. Choker Kela would have choked in that situation.

We batted for more than 2 new balls iirc. England got fed up and called the match off and we made them bowl till both got centuries lol. 

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, rollingstoned said:

He was not a good test captain but helped build the 2013-24 team too by giving all of the debuts and easing them in. 

People get confused about that. He is still the best street smart captain ever to play cricket in the LOI format.  He was not really blessed with great bowling unit like we had in the last 2 world cups.

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, rollingstoned said:

We batted for more than 2 new balls iirc. England got fed up and called the match off and we made them bowl till both got centuries lol. 

Then injured Vihari/Ashwin batted out 43 overs against an ATG attack on day 5.  Akash deep most recently helped us earn a draw.

[rollingstoned]

2 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

People get confused about that. He is still the best street smart captain ever to play cricket in the LOI format.  He was not really blessed with great bowling unit like we had in the last 2 world cups.

Biggest problem was he had no instinct to attack and make batsmen uncomfortable in tests especially away from home. Frequently batsmen would hit 2 boundaries and immediately he will take catchers out and put sweepers, worst captain for fast bowlers. It must've been a dream as an oppo batsman. He was good at home, we demolished Australia in 2013 even after Dhoni was past it as a captain. 

Edited December 6, 2025 by rollingstoned

[rollingstoned]

1 minute ago, vvvslaxman said:

Then injured Vihari/Ashwin batted out 43 overs against an ATG attack on day 5.  Akash deep most recently helped us earn a draw.

Yes that was a big achievement. And commendable too. Ashwin had a back issue and Vihari also was not 100%. 

[Lord]

2 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

Not lucky. He makes a lot of gut decision.   Joginder had bowled 3 overs conceded only 20 runs. SO he resreve dhim for last over. He opened with Yusuf pathan in the final when he made debut.  He picked Ashwin just against Australia in the quarter final used him 5 straight overs in the power play. Ashwin took out Watson and later Punter. He dropped Ashwin for the next match. Then he promoted himself to no.5 in the final to deal with Murali.  In the CT final Ishant move looked like a bad move. But he took 2 wickets. He has a lot of gut feeling. You cannot keep on lucking in the IPL season after season. He had a box office 2011. He won CL, World cup, India won test mace, IPL.

 

no that was miscalculation. Irfan or RP should have been kept for last over. He relied on Bhajji but when he got hit turned to Jogi

 

Ashwin played the WI match too. Yes opening with him was good but it was a turner and Ash had done it in IPL

 

Ishant move again worked but made no logical sense. Just luck. 

[vvvslaxman]

1 minute ago, rollingstoned said:

Biggest problem was he had no instinct to attack and make batsmen uncomfortable in tests especially away from home. Frequently batsmen would hit 2 boundaries and immediately he will take catchers out and put sweepers, worst captain for fast bowlers. It must've been a dream as an oppo batsman. He was good at home, we demolished Australia in 2013 even after Dhoni was past it as a captain. 

Yea.. he had this epic strategy of 8-1 field against Australia. Australia batted 90 overs made 167 runs !

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, Lord said:

 

no that was miscalculation. Irfan or RP should have been kept for last over. He relied on Bhajji but when he got hit turned to Jogi

 

Ashwin played the WI match too. Yes opening with him was good but it was a turner and Ash had done it in IPL

 

Ishant move again worked but made no logical sense. Just luck. 

 

YOu won't see such instinctive moves from Rohit or Kohli. Kohli is by far the worst ODI captain we have ever had.   Him batting at 5 was  a move kohli would not have taken.  In 2019 world cup he could have easily asked MSD to do a blockathan up top. He stuck to routine batting order.

[Lord]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

 

YOu won't see such instinctive moves from Rohit or Kohli. Kohli is by far the worst ODI captain we have ever had.   Him batting at 5 was  a move kohli would not have taken.  In 2019 world cup he could have easily asked MSD to do a blockathan up top. He stuck to routine batting order.

Why couldn't Dhoni as a senior come forward to do that? Can't imagine VK saying no to that.

 

Also it's said sending Dhoni above Yuvi in 2011 was Sachin's idea

[Manucrick]

1 minute ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

Not lucky. He makes a lot of gut decision.   Joginder had bowled 3 overs conceded only 20 runs. SO he resreve dhim for last over. He opened with Yusuf pathan in the final when he made debut.  He picked Ashwin just against Australia in the quarter final used him 5 straight overs in the power play. Ashwin took out Watson and later Punter. He dropped Ashwin for the next match. Then he promoted himself to no.5 in the final to deal with Murali.  In the CT final Ishant move looked like a bad move. But he took 2 wickets. He has a lot of gut feeling. You cannot keep on lucking in the IPL season after season. He had a box office 2011. He won CL, World cup, India won test mace, IPL.

He did some bold moves and that really paid off was a smart caption to, and I agree with it. The luck was I talking about Misbah scoop shot 

[vvvslaxman]

4 minutes ago, Manucrick said:

He did some bold moves and that really paid off was a smart caption to, and I agree with it. The luck was I talking about Misbah scoop shot 

Captaincy in crunch games will separate men and boys.  We absolutely bottled in 2015/2017/2019/2023 even though we were the best team.

Edited December 6, 2025 by vvvslaxman

[Gollum]

26 minutes ago, Lord said:

We drew Manchester from tough situation too

 

and ofcourse Sydney

Yeah they were great, especially Sydney. But this draw by WI will soon be forgotten by most unlike the Indian ones. I remember even SL and BD pulling off great draws recently in NZ by batting for long.

 

Too much hype around India and England. 

Edited December 6, 2025 by Gollum

[Lord]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Yeah they were great, especially Sydney. But this draw by WI will soon be forgotten by most unlike the Indian ones. I remember even WI and BD pulling off great draws recently in NZ by batting for long.

 

Too much hype around India and England. 

That's true. No one even remembers Kusal Perera's 153 in SA and still hype Stokes' greatest knock.

[Gollum]

24 minutes ago, rollingstoned said:

Shitting on India is flavor of the moment now but the Old trafford draw was commendable. It is not like this pitch was doing all sorts. 

OT was still 3rd innings. 

 

SCG 21 is a more apt comparison and that was truly a great feat. I rate it as one of our greatest achievements of all time, above many wins in SENA and ICC trophies.  

 

[Gollum]

2 minutes ago, Lord said:

That's true. No one even remembers Kusal Perera's 153 in SA and still hype Stokes' greatest knock.

Ind and Eng have the most jingoistic, chest thumping sports media. Big turn off for true sports lovers. 

[The Hound]

Good effort but thr umpiring did a number on new Zealand after they didn't had reviews left