Did we win the 4th ODI or did SL lose it?

[flamy]

Ya, this is kinda late to be milking this, but the bovine captaincy of Sanga demands this. This dumbass may well pip Punter for the top spot of the most moronic captain in today's teams. What, pray tell, was this accented whiner (he whines with an accent :wall:) thinking when our most important batsmen in this series were sent back in short time and our progress depended on a newbie Kohli? I recall at least two edges flying thru a vacant slip area, once though second slip for Kohli and once for Gambhir (which prompted Whinga to immediately place a slip). Also, where were the fielders saving the singles during the middle overs? There was no pressure applied even though there was so much opportunity to. Kohli has been damn impressive, but he is still new to international waters and will of course feel the pressure. He wasn't in a situation like this before. If he were to fall, things would have been damn easy for SL with Lakmal getting precarious bounce and Raina being kinda suspect against that kinda bowling. I don't trust Karthik at all despite him showing good form recently. All hypothesis of course and no cause for worry for the tinkers of the world. All this may seem too harsh, and yes it is, but this comes on the back of Whinga's previous showings. I think Lady Jaya was definitely better than Sanga and he will only find things get tougher from now on. Now about our baize. To be fair and un-finey-esque, of course India won it and not the other way 'round. Sure, we had some help from Captain Timid, but it was the mettle of our colts (although Gauti can hardly be considered that) that got us through. I have always been an avid supporter of Kohli and those who were on the fence can at least grant us a nod now. However, this match easily proves how Gauti is a hugely important cog in our lineup, or maybe even THE wicket for the opposition. While his sophomoric partner got carried away and played a cavalier shot (which Kohli totally earned), Gauti didn't lose sight of the goal and saw us through with a prime 150. Gotta love Gauti. He is a stubborn mofo. :icflove: Congrats on the series win guys. Now, please let us not slack off and seal the series 4-1. :isalute:

[Sachinism]

Sanga messed up by never attacking by bringing up the field how Sehwag did to them in the 3rd ODI. He allowed Kohli and Gambhir to pick up 1's and 2's at ease. They were never forced to play a risky shot to get a boundary. When a team needs to score at 6 rpo they know they will need to attack to pick up boundaries, but Sanga let them take so many easy 1's and 2's they didn't bother with the risky boundaries

[vvvslaxman]

Despite stupid field set by Sangakkara it is very difficult to look at it from their point of view. He probably had some ideas. He probably banked on the idea that batsman like Kohli would throw his wicket away. But Gambhir took 69 singles. Kohli took over 40 singles. That was something Sangakkara didn't factor into.

[rahulrulezz]

IMO defensive field settings in a way is a smart tactic.....so many times we have seen teams like NZland and India loose matches trying to take singles in middle overs leaving all the heavy task in last 10 overs ....We all have seen how players get run-out trying to take cheeky singles in gaps... also one can't get 6 singles every over so team end up wasting up 1-2 dot ball every over which accumulates pressure... we got lucky as we had a boundary once every 2 overs..

[vvvslaxman]

IMO defensive field settings in a way is a smart tactic.....so many times we have seen teams like NZland and India loose matches trying to take singles in middle overs leaving all the heavy task in last 10 overs ....We all have seen how players get run-out trying to take cheeky singles in gaps... also one can't get 6 singles every over so team end up wasting up 1-2 dot ball every over which accumulates pressure... we got lucky as we had a boundary once every 2 overs..

How is getting boundaries lucky when all fielders are on the fence.

[PotterManiac]

Well, I agree Sanga was a bit off last day with his funny captaincy bit you got to give credit to the two Delhi boys...2 great knocks under pressure