This is it ... Make or break

[bharat297]

Thanks to Dhoni, Bhajji and all youngsters for saving the test match ... Time and time our old players have proved how useless they r ... when they should have attacked (Sachin and Laxman) they were defending the balls and piling up the pressure ... This is not the first time they did so ... At Cape town sachin and dravid did the same thing ... Sachin can't perform under pressure ... And its 100% true.. Just look at the way sachin got run out ... Was he sleeping or gone blank? Kick out dravid now ... Bring in Rohit, Vijay, Raina etc ... Give them as much of chances as dravid is getting ... I hope India goes for kill tomorrow and not for just a draw ... We need to win 2-0 not 1-0

I think thats extremely harsh ... Had it not been for Sachin and Laxman we would be having this discussion with the scoreline at 1-1 instead of 1-0. Also remember in Perth when VVS Laxman made that crucial 76 to give us a defendable score? What about last game? ... the Sach and Lax partnership took away any hope of Australia winning the game, and the series. Not to mention last year against Pakistan where Sachin made that crucial 58 after India had slumped to 3/90 chasing 200 odd and he batted very well against Shoaib. They do have a tendency to collapse but to be fair ... Laxman got a very good ball. Dravid and Ganguly just didnt watch the ball properly and Sachin just well ... he had a brain explosion.

[bharat297]

well if hes the captain he got to be blamed or praised for tactics' date='doesnt he? [b']i still cant understand why he send out rahul dravid at3? can u justify that?it was obvious india was playing for a draw n wen even that seemed difficult,charitable ponting came to the rescue.the tactics were defensive,dude,we could have posted a 420 score(including lead) and had a few more overs at them

Yeah it was a shock to me as well that the man that has been batting at no.3 for India for the past 10 years came out to bat at no.3 ... I totally did not expect that.

[hitman1980]

I think thats extremely harsh ... Had it not been for Sachin and Laxman we would be having this discussion with the scoreline at 1-1 instead of 1-0. Also remember in Perth when VVS Laxman made that crucial 76 to give us a defendable score? What about last game? ... the Sach and Lax partnership took away any hope of Australia winning the game' date=' and the series. Not to mention last year against Pakistan where Sachin made that crucial 58 after India had slumped to 3/90 chasing 200 odd and he batted very well against Shoaib. They do have a tendency to collapse but to be fair ... Laxman got a very good ball. Dravid and Ganguly just didnt watch the ball properly and Sachin just well ... he had a brain explosion.[/quote'] I am not harsh but these performances drive me crazy ...Agreed in some tests they scored but I am talking abt their mentality in general ... They have a mentality of a defeated person .. They just know how to defend and in the process if they get some score its ok else it piles up more pressure on the team ... And more then helping these old players r thorn in Indian team ... Just compare them with the approach of youngsters ... Despite having 40+ centuries sachin get nervous in 90s ... Now wht's the bs ... He should learn from sehwag ... Never play for urself .. Play for team ... I still remember how sachin used to get out in last tour of pakistan and some 1 -2 years back from then .. He just used to sits on the pitch whenever he gets bowled or lbw as if to show tht there r demons in the pitch ... He brings moral of the team so much down ... Ofcourse these guys have contributed to Indian cricket but tht doesn't mean tht we should carry on with them ... They were given equal love and affection by people ... But now its time to move ... The bs abt "I have 2 years more etc" is just a crap to lend more time ... They r stopping youngsters to take a place in the team ...

[bharat297]

Despite having 40+ centuries sachin get nervous in 90s ... Now wht's the bs ... He should learn from sehwag ... Never play for urself .. Play for team ... I still remember how sachin used to get out in last tour of pakistan and some 1 -2 years back from then .. He just used to sits on the pitch whenever he gets bowled or lbw as if to show tht there r demons in the pitch ... He brings moral of the team so much down ...

Well he got out 7 times in the 90s last year ... all times he was going for attacking shots. He had a brain explosion in this match but he has been in superb form all series.

Ofcourse these guys have contributed to Indian cricket but tht doesn't mean tht we should carry on with them ... They were given equal love and affection by people ... But now its time to move ... The bs abt "I have 2 years more etc" is just a crap to lend more time ... They r stopping youngsters to take a place in the team ...

Dude what are you talking about? I never understand this stupid reasoning that these guys cant perform under pressure just because of some recent 2nd innings performances. If a team is 2/20 in the first morning of a Test match, is that not pressure. Besides, go through the stats ... Laxman has been one of our best performers in 2nd innings of test matches, and Sachin played a couple of crucial knocks this series in the 2nd innings. One failure and the usual rubbish begins. Seriously ... we're already losing Ganguly ... so a youngster will come in. It looks like Dravid wont play next series ... so another youngster comes in. Kumble has gone ... another youngster comes in. Lets see how the youngsters go before we kick out our 2 in form seniors Laxman and Sachin. That would be the rational thing to do. Otherwise how do we know how they will adapt to test cricket. Are you assuming that the young team will do well because they have had T20 success. There is a huge difference between being able to play well for 3 hours and 5 days. Lets see how the likes of Badrinath and Vijay go next series.

[Ram]

I am not harsh but these performances drive me crazy ...Agreed in some tests they scored but I am talking abt their mentality in general ... They have a mentality of a defeated person .. They just know how to defend and in the process if they get some score its ok else it piles up more pressure on the team ... And more then helping these old players r thorn in Indian team ... Just compare them with the approach of youngsters ... Despite having 40+ centuries sachin get nervous in 90s ... Now wht's the bs ... He should learn from sehwag ... Never play for urself .. Play for team ... I still remember how sachin used to get out in last tour of pakistan and some 1 -2 years back from then .. He just used to sits on the pitch whenever he gets bowled or lbw as if to show tht there r demons in the pitch ... He brings moral of the team so much down ... Ofcourse these guys have contributed to Indian cricket but tht doesn't mean tht we should carry on with them ... They were given equal love and affection by people ... But now its time to move ... The bs abt "I have 2 years more etc" is just a crap to lend more time ... They r stopping youngsters to take a place in the team ...

I've gotto be honest and say that, in a strange way, I am in general agreement with whats being said here about Sachin. Sachin is just way too old-school. If he had probably studied in Sunil Gavaskar's school of cricket, a school with a batting curriculum that focusses exclusively on silly stats and meaningless milestones, he would have been its star student without an iota of doubt. Only a blind man can miss the importance he places on acheiving these milestones. Just the relief on his face when scored the 100 in the 1st innings was so telling. T'was like a whole mountain had been removed from his shoulders. The guy's the greatest ever batsman, a team man beyond par, make no mistake bout that. But on the flip-side, for someone who's played so much cricket, he still allows the pressure of approaching milestones to shackle him shockingly easily. In a way, I hate Sunil Gavaskar more than ever now. That shameless guy reduced something as sacred as playing for your country to some silly game of numbers and imaginary milestones. And Sachin, coming from that time Gavaskar was the be-all and end-all of Indian batting, definitely seems to have a similar mentality. Of course, this lone foible of his shouldnt in anyway lessen or trivialize his contributions to Indian cricket. Its something that needs to be treated as a matter-of-fact, not a matter of inference. Lets just accept the fact Sachin is Stat minded and on occasions, the pressure of such stats does get too big on him. And lets just move on. P.S; I love guys like Sehwag and Dhoni for this sole reason.

[bharat297]

Its all well and good to say they should have attacked more but in the first innings they were guilty of over attacking and not showing the bowlers enough respect ... With someone like Sehwag its great that he is always attacking but with all do respect to him ... by always playing like that ... you in a sense devoid yourself of any real responsibility ... If Sehwag gets out attacking (even if its a bad shot) everyone says ... well at least he was attacking. (Im not trying to criticise Sehwag, I am just saying that you have to take that into account). Not everyone can play like Sehwag and Hayden and be able to consistently attack. If they got loose balls to put away they would have ... but they didnt get man loose balls. So what do you expect them to do? ... go out and attack good balls when they are losing quick wickets? The final point that one needs to remember is that when Dhoni and Harbhajan made their match saving partnership ... Australia had guys like Hussey and White bowling. Had he been bowling when the other 4 were batting , they would have surely attacked the same way as Dhoni and Harbhajan did.

[bharat297]

Lets just accept the fact Sachin is Stat minded and on occasions, the pressure of such stats does get too big on him. And lets just move on. P.S; I love guys like Sehwag and Dhoni for this sole reason.

Well he got out 7 times in the 90s last year playing attacking shots each time. Instead of saying he was thinking of the team , people said he has an inability to convert. Now he was being a bit cautious around the 90s and people say he is stat minded. Just because many Sachin fans are stats minded doesnt mean he is. I am making no excuses for him yesterday ... it was a total brain explosion. A moment of stupidity. However, if people are using this as an argument for him to be dropped from the team as hitman1980 is doing, then they are totally crazy.

[Ram]

Well he got out 7 times in the 90s last year playing attacking shots each time. Instead of saying he was thinking of the team , people said he has an inability to convert. Now he was being a bit cautious around the 90s and people say he is stat minded. Just because many Sachin fans are stats minded doesnt mean he is. I am making no excuses for him yesterday ... it was a total brain explosion. A moment of stupidity. However, if people are using this as an argument for him to be dropped from the team as hitman1980 is doing, then they are totally crazy.

Of course.

[CSK Fan]

Thanks to Dhoni, Bhajji and all youngsters for saving the test match ... Time and time our old players have proved how useless they r ... when they should have attacked (Sachin and Laxman) they were defending the balls and piling up the pressure ... This is not the first time they did so ... At Cape town sachin and dravid did the same thing ... Sachin can't perform under pressure ... And its 100% true.. Just look at the way sachin got run out ... Was he sleeping or gone blank? Kick out dravid now ... Bring in Rohit, Vijay, Raina etc ... Give them as much of chances as dravid is getting ... I hope India goes for kill tomorrow and not for just a draw ... We need to win 2-0 not 1-0

Pathetic. If you have been follwoing the Indian team you would realise that players have been given roles and it was a team descision to play for tea. Aslo the ball was doing a bit and Watson was bowling amazinlgly well. The only reason Dhoni and Bhajji could score easily was beacuse part-timers were on later. About the run-out, even the commentators agreed that there was a easy run there so Dhoni was clearly at fault that time

[CSK Fan]

I am not harsh but these performances drive me crazy ...Agreed in some tests they scored but I am talking abt their mentality in general ... They have a mentality of a defeated person .. They just know how to defend and in the process if they get some score its ok else it piles up more pressure on the team ... And more then helping these old players r thorn in Indian team ... Just compare them with the approach of youngsters ... Despite having 40+ centuries sachin get nervous in 90s ... Now wht's the bs ... He should learn from sehwag ... Never play for urself .. Play for team ... I still remember how sachin used to get out in last tour of pakistan and some 1 -2 years back from then .. He just used to sits on the pitch whenever he gets bowled or lbw as if to show tht there r demons in the pitch ... He brings moral of the team so much down ... Ofcourse these guys have contributed to Indian cricket but tht doesn't mean tht we should carry on with them ... They were given equal love and affection by people ... But now its time to move ... The bs abt "I have 2 years more etc" is just a crap to lend more time ... They r stopping youngsters to take a place in the team ...

Another uttter BS posts. Sachin sitting on the pitch to show that the pitch was unplayable, wt the hell are you talking about? If you have been watching cricket regularly and have even an iota of knowledge about it, you will know the only reason, Sachin seemed to stoop after missing the ball was sbecause around that time, he had developed a fault in his batting. His feet was pointing away from the ball, he was playing away from the body on his toes and as a result he was missing in coming deliveries by over-balancing himself. It was the same reason why he was lossing his balance and squatting after he missed the ball, not becuase he was pretneding that the ball was low

[King]

I have a theory about our middle order taking the defensive and evasive action usually in the 2nd innings. Given these guys played a lot in the 90s and were beaten often they still have that defensive streak in them. They tend to bat for time rather than go for the runs. Being defensive does more damage than going for runs. Someone like Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid may have had the capacity to bat for long hours but ideally the likes of Laxman or Ganguly shouldn't fall into this trap. They are good stroke makers and stick to what comes naturally for them. I'm not blaming Tendulkar here but I dread when the likes of Gambhir, Laxman or Ganguly have to bat with the likes of Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar in the second innings and in particular when setting a total or playing to win a series. Almost always the likes of Laxman or Gambhir will change their gameplan. Ganguly is his own man so he wouldn't usually care and bats in his own pace. In the past India hadn't had the services of someone like Dhoni and am glad they do now. The younger lot that have debuted since 2000 are way more positive and play good aggressive cricket at all times. There is no reason why they shouldn't though, they will come better off majority of the times than not. I quite like the new breed, whether batting or bowling they seem to be on the attack at all times. In a way I'm happy India was bowled out and there is slight chance for the Aussies to have a go. If they do get through, it will be one terrific day of cricket to watch. It won't be easy for the Aussies and Indians will be hoping for a good day in the field today. I would ideally want India to win but I don't mind Aussies winning (they will deserve it if they can knock off 360+ runs on the last day) as long as there is a result in this test match. Last thing I would like to see is the game end in a lame draw.

[milkman]

Yes no matter who wins it will be awesome cricket today. I don't want a draw though.

[Desi Cartman]

had VVS and SRT not played for time , Aussies would probably be chasing 360 (if not less) off 120-130 overs ...