Gambhir finally comes of age in the NZ tour

[veer]

you deserved this century.... you fought for it.. curbed your natural game.. keep grinding tomorrow as well.. and bottom line is amits will be proud of you.. :two_thumbs_up:

[fineleg]

Very important knock by GG here! :thumbs_up: He needs to start day-5 like its a new innings, and continue afresh. Still lot of work left for the Indian team on D-5. Both Sehwag and Gambhir are capable of many Test centuries. Just have to curb the instinct to over attack, then opposition will be in trouble. Hope for Test-3 both realize this, and make the NZ bowlers toil hard.

[Dark Warrior]

hats off to GG, RD nd of course GOD thank u all of u, u all made my day

[amits]

i have always said that gambhir can play the long innings. and he showed it here today again, a 100 when the team needed it the most & took india to a position from where we cannot lose

[mausumidas]

Gaotam Gambhir has shown that he can play any type of cricket which includes test cricket. The way he batted today is sheer resoluteness, patience, grit and determination that he should not lose his wicket.

[Anakin]

What I like the most about this innings is how he controlled himself. That's exactly what I was expecting from Sehwag in the 2nd innings. I don't care if Veeru gets out cheaply too, it's the intent of applying himself that's more important. Well done GG :hatsoff::hatsoff:

[Ram]

Wonderful innings from a wonderful player. If India manage to save this test, Gambhir's legend will grow further. He already has a lot of respect from a lot of players, now the respect will just grow.

[cochise]

This was a fighting knock from Gambhir...and innings of character. Top century...the young fella has all the right stuff.

[amits]

apart from fineleg, i am still to find an indian who hates gambhir. more than the amount of fans, its the no. of haters which tell how great a player is & gambhir has none apart from fineleg :D

[cochise]

He hasn't been around long enough for the haters to hate him yet. A few seconds is enough for finey to start though...:--D

[Ram]

I doubt if there is any other batsman in world cricket who looks as accomplished as comfortable as Gambhir does, playing all 3 forms of the game. And that is a remarkable achievement that even greats dont manage to do. You think about the world's best batsmen and the names that come to mind are guys Sach, Ponting, Kallis, Dravid, VVS, J'dene, Younis Khan, Mohammed Yousuf, Gayle, Shiv, Sarwan, Kallis, Amla, Smith, etc and not many of them are equally comfortable playing all 3 forms of the game. And GG is...

[ludhianvi]

It has been a great knock considering the amount of pressure there was when Sehwag got out early. Had Gambhir gone early as well, it would have put double the pressure on the batsmen following. While India probably need to bat out two more sessions to save this test match, Gambhir's knock will be a match-saving one and one that he relish for a long time. He has his own style of play in Tests it seems. While it may seem that he is fidgety on the crease and may seem to get bogged down if the runs dont flow, yesterday he was 83 for 30 balls. So he does have the patience when required.

[rahuliverpool]

Gambhir was interviewed by Shekhar Gupta in Walk the Talk a month back. During that interview, Gupta told Gambhir that he had spoken to some of his team mates and the first thing that all of them said was that Gambhir always plays for the team. Today, again he has showed that he does not care about what the critics think. Nothing for him is more important than playing for India, and ofcourse, it helps when there is Sachin at the other end who kept speaking to him when he was getting restless and looked fidgety and made him realize the importance of his wicket. :hatsoff::hatsoff: Gambhir and :hail: Sachin

[Guest Hiten.]

Well played GG. Its really hard to curb your natural aggression and score at miserly rate. He managed to score only 19 runs in the final session. I would really like the coach/captain to give him the license of coming out all guns blazing tomorrow as India have to push for a win here now. We have to get rid of the deficit ASAP and set a target of around 250-275-ish for the NZ team to chase it. I know its not gonna be easy to bowl them out given the time we have, but I think our bowlers can surprise their batsmen.

[graphic23]

Well played GG. Its really hard to curb your natural aggression and score at miserly rate. He managed to score only 19 runs in the final session. I would really like the coach/captain to give him the license of coming out all guns blazing tomorrow as India have to push for a win here now. We have to get rid of the deficit ASAP and set a target of around 250-275-ish for the NZ team to chase it. I know its not gonna be easy to bowl them out given the time we have' date=' but I think our bowlers can surprise their batsmen.[/quote'] Thats wishful thinking. Methinks that we'll play its safe until 1.5 sessions, and first avoid innings defeat - then slowly up the rate until the 2.5 sessions. Give them half-a-session to bat .. or maybe not even that, depending on the lead.

[Anakin]

Kiwis can't be bundled out cheaply imo. I say just bat and bat. Make the bowlers tired for the next match.

[Guest Hiten.]

Thats wishful thinking. Methinks that we'll play its safe until 1.5 sessions' date=' and first avoid innings defeat - then slowly up the rate until the 2.5 sessions. Give them half-a-session to bat .. or maybe not even that, depending on the lead.[/quote'] I know its an impossible task, but we have to make sure NZ are the team that are trying to "save" the game and not us. This will give us the momentum that we could use in the third test. Having said that, NZ should be really feeling low as they couldn't capitalize on the big deficit that India had to wipe out. I still think NZ should have batted for 3 sessions and set a target for the Indians. Its really hard for the bowlers to bowl 4 days consecutively on a track that is really not assisting the bowlers. Oh well, good for us and we are certainly saved from fineleg's wrath :((

[King Tendulkar]

Kiwis can't be bundled out cheaply imo. I say just bat and bat. Make the bowlers tired for the next match.

Agree bring them to their knees with exhaustion we will reap the benefits of this in next test match

[fineleg]

Having said that' date=' NZ should be really feeling low as they couldn't capitalize on the big deficit that India had to wipe out. I still think NZ should have batted for 3 sessions and set a target for the Indians. [/quote'] You are probably right on they should have batted. Follow on except in situations completely favoring the bowlers is a bit tough. Though NZ had a big lead to try it out. And just maybe India would have done the same here, had the roles been reversed. It was tempting. We are not out of the woods yet. First session day 5 is absolutely critical. We have done all the hard work on day-4, and but for the poor umpiring decision, even Dravid may have been there. But, still day 5 pitch and the concentration needs to be started all over again, and carried through. Good luck! (and may I lose my bet with cochise and co, I'll be happy to :D)

[King]

Gambhir has fought back against all odds. I'm sure he will treasure this knock. One for the future, he will end up as one of the best openers.