This one is going to hurt

[kabira]

I am not disappointed as such. top 3 got beauties and it happens. Din't SA collapse in a like a session against reverse swing. Good bowling is good bowling no matter who you are .

[flamy]

OUCH, big feckin OUCH! :((

[gaurav92]

Still i do hope that GOD saves this test match for us .I know its asking too much, but hey magic do happen, and i think Eden Gardens test back in 01 v/s Aus, was nothing less than a miracle.So gaize, keep our fingers crossed and hope for a miracle

[ViruRulez]

Mishra will keep on 'toiling' for rest of his career. He is not sharp enough. He is a slow leg spinner with occasional googlies..He needs proper field settings to create any chances of taking wickets..Unless the captain backs him up' date=' he will keep on 'toiling'..[/quote'] :dito: Mishra does not have the x-factor that an international bowler needs .. both Mishra and Ojha are good and work hard but they miss the wicket taking ability which Jumbo or even Bhajji had in the past .. I would try some other good bowler instead .. anyways I personally dont find Mishra impressive at all .. he is just ok but nowhere near to great or awesome.. I dont want mediocre players as it does not help our cause .. we really need to work on our bowling now .. I dont want recycling of our bowlers .. it is not helping at all

[IKnowU]

Hoping Vijay has a breakthrough innings and partnership with God:pray:

[gaurav92]

^ :cheers::

[Karan114]

This is even worse than Ahmedabad where we collapsed on a seaming pitch in the first session (not that it excused 76 all out). Utter humiliation for a no.1 ranked team at home as OP says :((

[EnterTheVoid]

This is even worse than Ahmedabad where we collapsed on a seaming pitch in the first session (not that it excused 76 all out). Utter humiliation for a no.1 ranked team at home as OP says :((

Never say never. We can still salvage some pride.

[thevortex]

I would say bring in Ashwin instead of one of the bowlers.. drop Ishant .. he is anyways not effective .. bring Ashwin for either Bhajji or Mishra .. he bowled well in the Board President's XI match against SA and might be a lot more effective

Try new spinners for sure. But not Ashwin. He is just a defensive spinner - just like what we have seen from our spinners in the 1st innings. What we need to do is call up Murali Karthik. Does BCCI have the guts and magnanimity to do that? I doubt it.

[Shehezaada]

it's not over till it's over.

[The Outsider]

I am not terribly disappointed - South Africa have just played superb cricket and deserve to be in the position they are in. Kallis and Amla played solid cricket, cutting out all risks and the spell from Steyn could have blown away any side, let alone an inexperienced line up that we have fielded. Not a whole lot of positives to take from the game yet except Badrinath and Sehwag's partnership. There could still have been an outside chance to save the match had Sehwag not been playing so loosely in the second innings though. However, I would be disappointed if India just throw in the towel and fold up. The second innings is a great chance to get some runs on the board for Vijay, Tendulkar, Badrinath, and Dhoni. There is no reason why they would not be able to take the match into the fifth day. There is hardly any gap between the two tests and India should aim to keep South Africa out in the field for as long as they can. It's important to keep in mind that we are still a very good side - one aberrant loss does not change that. And while the fans and the media will have wrist slitting going on in full flow, I hope our cricketers do not lose sight of it and retain the confidence going into the second test. A 400+ score will definitely do their confidence a world of good. One can keep on talking about our bowling, but let's face it those are the best we have in the country. An Ojha, Tyagi, or Mithun are not going to suddenly start to run through South Africa.

[patriot]

This just goes on to vindicate all those critics who have been questioning India's No.1 rank. Our bowlers are an extremley spoilt lot. They are pathetic. Sadly, we don't have any decent backup.

[Karan114]

This just goes on to vindicate all those critics who have been questioning India's No.1 rank.

Not really, we got to the no.1 position because we performed better than the other teams over a period of time. South Africa may be crushing us here, but they lost to Australia and couldn't beat England at home in the last 12 months. By contrast, we beat both Australia and England at home in late 2008 and then smashed the Lankans last year. If South Africa win this series they will regain the no.1 spot - and that rank will change hands depending on form. The rankings methodology is the same for all teams, there is no question of anyone getting "vindicated" by questioning it.

[Ram]

Yep, this one's gonna hurt big time.

[sm332]

I am not terribly disappointed - South Africa have just played superb cricket and deserve to be in the position they are in. Kallis and Amla played solid cricket, cutting out all risks and the spell from Steyn could have blown away any side, let alone an inexperienced line up that we have fielded. Not a whole lot of positives to take from the game yet except Badrinath and Sehwag's partnership. There could still have been an outside chance to save the match had Sehwag not been playing so loosely in the second innings though. However, I would be disappointed if India just throw in the towel and fold up. The second innings is a great chance to get some runs on the board for Vijay, Tendulkar, Badrinath, and Dhoni. There is no reason why they would not be able to take the match into the fifth day. There is hardly any gap between the two tests and India should aim to keep South Africa out in the field for as long as they can. It's important to keep in mind that we are still a very good side - one aberrant loss does not change that. And while the fans and the media will have wrist slitting going on in full flow, I hope our cricketers do not lose sight of it and retain the confidence going into the second test. A 400+ score will definitely do their confidence a world of good. One can keep on talking about our bowling, but let's face it those are the best we have in the country. An Ojha, Tyagi, or Mithun are not going to suddenly start to run through South Africa.

Yeah - although I am disappointed I recognize that South Africa have played really well. Would like to see some fight and some of the batsman put their hand up to bat out time. I was impressed by Badrinath's willingness to stick it out in the first innings, would love to see Murali, SRT and Dhoni all play 200 balls a piece.

[Gunner_Mania]

The Saffies have both batted and bowled magnificiently. The pitch I think is still good. Steyn and Morkel have rendered the pitch irrelevant becaue of their sheer pace & swing. I am disappointed at our poor batting effort. if we pull a rabbit out the hat over the next couple of days then it would simply mean our batting is GOD awesome in spite of our first innings failure. Even with the faith bestowed in Tendulkar this is too big a miracle to pull without some big support by Murali, Badri & MSD.:((

[sm332]

The Saffies have both batted and bowled magnificiently. The pitch I think is still good. Steyn and Morkel have rendered the pitch irrelevant becaue of their sheer pace & swing. I am disappointed at our poor batting effort. if we pull a rabbit out the hat over the next couple of days then it would simply mean our batting is GOD awesome in spite of our first innings failure. Even with the faith bestowed in Tendulkar this is too big a miracle to pull without some big support by Murali' date=' Badri & MSD.:(([/quote'] Unfortunately, I just dont see it happening. I would be encouraged to see a big partnerships but in all likelihood this match ends during the last session tomorrow.

[DomainK]

This is one steep bouncer that I would take on my chest and continue batting. These nasty ones come once in a while that you can not hit, can not avoid.

[Karan114]

Unfortunately' date=' I just dont see it happening. I would be encouraged to see a big partnerships but in all likelihood this match ends during the last session tomorrow.[/quote'] Yeah, we recovered in similar situations at 1) Napier 2009: we followed on 315 or so runs behind and 2) Ahmedabad 2009: we were faced with a 334 run first innings deficit In both cases Gauti guided us with second innings hundreds. Unfortunately here Morkel (who is a real menace to left handed openers) got him in the second over itself. Also the quality of the bowling in both those Tests was lower than it is here. Yes the Lankans had Murali but we always thrash Murali at home. The South African bowlers have always had our number, the exception to this is Veeru who has four centuries and averages over 50 against them.

[coffee_rules]

I am not too disappointed, we could have avoided this mistake of selecting a 35 average batsman to a high-profile match. This reeks of 1999 all over again when we took rookies to Australia and got Pakistanized there. They could have gone with a Kartik, or a Pujara or even Nayar instead of a bakri-ka-pilla. Still we would have lost without atleast 2 batsmen scoring 100s with a huge partnership. Hopefully they will show some character and hang around for a longer time and last until D5, I will be happy with the performance.