Did we back our strength and ignore the wicket? Should India have fielded?

[davidcooper]

This pitch is strange. I doubt dhoni had predicted the role of the pitch by looking at it during the toss b/c he would have rarely played on such a track.

india has played games in guwahati before so the nature of the pitch is not a surprise at all

[Feed]

Early morning starts need a re-look : Kumble Travel is part and parcel of a cricketer’s journey, but it is never easy to lift yourself after a day-night game and then go across the country to a place where even the body clock has to adapt. More so after a match like the one at Hyderabad, where after all that they did, the Indians still ended up losing the game, writes Anil Kumble. More... Early morning starts need a re-look Anil Kumble Agencies November 07, 2009 First Published: 23:34 IST(7/11/2009) Last Updated: 23:36 IST(7/11/2009) Travel is part and parcel of a cricketer’s journey, but it is never easy to lift yourself after a day-night game and then go across the country to a place where even the body clock has to adapt. More so after a match like the one at Hyderabad, where after all that they did, the Indians still ended up losing the game. In Guwahati, with the early morning starts in the winter, you travel to the ground in darkness and return in darkness and that too for a day match! The 8.30 a.m. start is certainly not ideal and needs a re-look. The sun can set by 4.00 p.m., which means the possibility of the D/L method coming into play,, leaving the captains with a difficult task. Also, it isn't easy to decide what to do if you win the toss. If you choose to bat first, you will have to counter the ball moving around more than a fair bit but if you choose to chase, there is every possibility of the pitch crumbling. A catch-22 situation for sure. Having said that, the people in Guwahati are enthusiastic for a big game. No one gets the crowd going as much as Sachin. Even after 20 years of playing at the highest level, to come up with possibly one of his best knocks, speaks volumes about the man. Having watched him from close quarters for long, I don't remember him stroking the ball so well. He was taking calculated risks as one should in such a big chase and yet it was mostly clean hitting. Save for that soft dismissal, but even after that, the Indians should have won. It was a simple mistake of allowing panic to set in. The thing with the run-out of Ravinder Jadeja was that the young man got so sucked into the run-a-ball equation that he was taking a big start to every ball. Also, the fact that Dhoni had sent Harbhajan Singh ahead of Jadeja, shows that the left-hander hasn't impressed the team management yet with his batting ability. Here, I once again advocate that Amit Mishra be looked at as an option. Whoever plays, will have to again contend with the fighting abilities of the Australians. Even with all that has happened to them in terms of frequent injuries, they have fought hard to be in a position from where one more win will give them the series. Dhoni's boys will have to fight even harder to ensure that they pull it off in Guwahati today and go to Mumbai with everything still to play for.

[karteekmvs]

If Johnson can get swing then imagine what Praveen Kumar would have done. In any case' date=' there is NO excuse for the way the top order got out. Besides Yuvraj, everyone else got out through lapses in concentration and/or poor footwork[/quote'] When did the batsmen even settle to have lapses in concentration. It was a mediocre batting effort on a pitch that demanded the good old traditional ODI batting.

[Lord]

bad decision.everyone knew that it will swing n India struggles against swing.terrible decision infact

[saneindian]

Despite losing 3 games chasing, how do we expect the captain to have the confidence in his batsmen to pull off a chase again? Vadodara, Mohali and Hyderabad losses surely influenced this decision and no one in his wildest dreams wud have imagined what was to follow after Sehwag started the innings with a 6. Didnt we all think after that 6, here we go another 300 plus total here and a run feast? Alas not to be.

[Lord]

Despite losing 3 games chasing' date=' how do we expect the captain to have the confidence in his batsmen to pull off a chase again? Vadodara, Mohali and Hyderabad losses surely influenced this decision and no one in his wildest dreams wud have imagined what was to follow after Sehwag started the innings with a 6.[b'] Didnt we all think after that 6, here we go another 300 plus total here and a run feast? Alas not to be.

i surely didnt.i knew it will swing early.everyone did.u cant base ur decision on results on other pitches.India could have restricted them to 250 n i dont think Hauritz n Voges would have caused much problem

[Params7]

Matches like this prove the "Win toss win game" for ODI's to be utter BS. If your team will not perform, you'll lose. Look at the consistency of Top 4 Aussie batsmen vs the Top 4 Indian batsmen throughout the series. That along with craptacular fielding is where we lost this tour to a nooby Aussie side. Bollinger has just made his future and his life out of this tour.

[coffee_rules]

Inconsistent batting and consistent bad bowling costed us the series. Easily it could have been 4-2 in favor of India.

[Lord]

Matches like this prove the "Win toss win game" for ODI's to be utter BS. If your team will not perform' date= you'll lose. Look at the consistency of Top 4 Aussie batsmen vs the Top 4 Indian batsmen throughout the series. That along with craptacular fielding is where we lost this tour to a nooby Aussie side. Bollinger has just made his future and his life out of this tour.

actually did play a crucial role yesterday.Dhoni won it n made a rave error.in effect Ricky won it

[vvvslaxman]

actually did play a crucial role yesterday.Dhoni won it n made a rave error.in effect Ricky won it

That is what we call a good toss to lose.

[Ram]

Don’t blame the decision to bat first, blame the lack of application from the top-order batsmen. Irrespective of what the conditions are, there are simply no excuses for being 27/5. In fairness to the batsmen though, none of them played terribly rash shots to get out.

[Lord]

Don’t blame the decision to bat first, blame the lack of application from the top-order batsmen. Irrespective of what the conditions are, there are simply no excuses for being 27/5. In fairness to the batsmen though, none of them played terribly rash shots to get out.

Sehwag n Gambhir did.Sehwag's wass just a hoick,wen the ball swing he couldnt adjust at all.he was trying to hit it too hard rather than look for timing n placement GG tried to play a outswinging delivery to mid wicket.When u know the ball's swinging n a batsman has just been dismissed,u need to spend some time befor attempting such shots

[Ram]

Sehwag n Gambhir did.Sehwag's wass just a hoick,wen the ball swing he couldnt adjust at all.he was trying to hit it too hard rather than look for timing n placement GG tried to play a outswinging delivery to mid wicket.When u know the ball's swinging n a batsman has just been dismissed,u need to spend some time befor attempting such shots

You’re being really harsh dude. Both those deliveries were bowled at 90 mph. Try playing swinging deliveries at 90 mph and you’ll know. Could they have presented a more straighter bat? Of course they could have. But that is not the way this team plays. All our batsmen have a streak of fearlessness and adventurism in them, which has propelled us to the no.1 rankings for the first time in the history of Indian cricket. Some times, that attitude can backfire badly, like it did the other day. But you gotto excuse them at least once. Think of it, when was the last time the Indian top-order was skittled out in such embarrassing fashion, in form of cricket?

[Lord]

You’re being really harsh dude. Both those deliveries were bowled at 90 mph. Try playing swinging deliveries at 90 mph and you’ll know.

i'm not taking anything away from Johnson.they were great deliveries,but not unplayable

Could they have presented a more straighter bat? Of course they could have. But that is not the way this team plays. All our batsmen have a streak of fearlessness and adventurism in them, which has propelled us to the no.1 rankings for the first time in the history of Indian cricket. Some times, that attitude can backfire badly, like it did the other day. But you gotto excuse them at least once.

being fearless is one thing,being stubborn n arrogant is another.u gotto adjust to the conditions.its not that they dont have the ability,they have,but the application was missing as far as excusing them goes,ofcourse.i didnt say hang them or drop them.i just said they were bad shots n they could have played better.that means nothing in my judgement of them as players

Think of it, when was the last time the Indian top-order was skittled out in such embarrassing fashion, in form of cricket?

exactly .they dont fail coz they r quality players.its better they learn from this experience now .

[champ]

the decision to bat was influenced due to almost nil confidence in our bowlers .. dhoni was saying all the while that they need to watch out for the 1st hour carefully when there will be swing . this is an odi match and how the hell u can play swing for an hour without loosing top order wickets .. even at the start of test match , teams decide to bowl for making use of the early swing on offer .. either we lost tosses on feather beds or won tosses like this to make bad decisions .. dhoni's decision to bat was a major FAIL :fail:

[champ]

Don’t blame the decision to bat first, blame the lack of application from the top-order batsmen. Irrespective of what the conditions are, there are simply no excuses for being 27/5. In fairness to the batsmen though, none of them played terribly rash shots to get out.

that is the point .. they dint play rash shot until raina .. its just the pitch offer assistance and dhoni happily gave the advantage to the opposition .. brilliant dhoni :hatsoff: