This one is going to hurt

[dial_100]

Ishant was a big big disappointment. Man, he was bowling even 84+ consistently. Now, comparing SA 3 bowlers, he was good 2-4 MPH short on average. But he is pitching way too short and wasting energy as well as the shine of the new ball. Often giving a wrong line even if the length is right. Its time to send the kid home for a year. He needs to work on his strength, arms, shoulders. Come back strong. If he continues to play next 2 years the way he is right now, he will be history soon. Zaheer is doing okay but he needs support as well. As for spinners, you cant expect them to deliver on the day 1 pitch??

[The Outsider]

Zaheer is doing okay but he needs support as well. As for spinners, you cant expect them to deliver on the day 1 pitch??

This is one logic I cannot understand. If our spinners are not going to be good enough to deliver on a first day pitch, then why select two of them. Just on probability you are going to be bowling first in half of your test matches, so does it make sense to select a bowling attack half of which is going to be rendered ineffective? 1. If you are picking 4 bowlers - 2 of whom are spinners then there should be an expectation from them to deliver even on a first day pitch. This was possible and was the case till Kumble was in the team. 2. Given the decline of Harbhajan and the inexperience of Mishra and Ojha, then it does not make sense to play 2 spinners at all if they are not going to deliver on the first and second day. 3. If the idea is to keep spinners for an assault in the final quarter of the test match, then we already have enough part time options who are pretty decent bowlers like Sehwag and Yuvraj to be able to do a reasonable job with one main spinner. You cannot pick half your attack which will be ineffective on day 1 and 2 and then use it as an excuse for a shoddy performance.

[nballa]

we were not expected to win. stop saying that. our debutants failed to rise to the challenge and the occasion. we were always susceptible against quality pace and believe me there was some quality of pace from the SA bowlers, consistently hitting the 92 mph mark and making our batsmen look like low ranked hard tennis ball league players. time to start thinking about the second test and prepare a flat track, the flattest of them all.

[vvvslaxman]

we were not expected to win. stop saying that. our debutants failed to rise to the challenge and the occasion. we were always susceptible against quality pace and believe me there was some quality of pace from the SA bowlers' date=' consistently hitting the 92 mph mark and making our batsmen look like low ranked hard tennis ball league players. time to start thinking about the second test and prepare a flat track, the flattest of them all.[/quote'] Grr.. Australian bowlers bowled faster than 90 mph and much more consistent basis when they toured here. Johnson, Lee, Siddle. You are talking about Pakistan players i think. :haha:

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Karan114]

we were not expected to win. stop saying that. our debutants failed to rise to the challenge and the occasion. we were always susceptible against quality pace and believe me there was some quality of pace from the SA bowlers' date=' consistently hitting the 92 mph mark and making our batsmen look like low ranked hard tennis ball league players. time to start thinking about the second test and prepare a flat track, the flattest of them all.[/quote'] You really don't have a clue.

[vvvslaxman]

Its not the track ohhh dritharashtra .... its the fudgning swing .... only one bowler was doing it perfectly and surprise surprise hes got 8 wkts ...

He is representing a country that can create only soda bottle cap induced swing, bite induced swing not the conventional swing. what can you say :cantstop:

[nballa]

Its not the track ohhh dritharashtra .... its the fudgning swing .... only one bowler was doing it perfectly and surprise surprise hes got 8 wkts ...

that's what i meant by quality pace. anyways look the reason we lost this game is because we were playing too casually almost like SA will be rolled over without a fight and let our guard down. and guess what? we let a sub standard player who struggles against every other team get 250+ overconfidence is not good.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Gunner_Mania]

I take it that you did not watch a single ball in the past 3 days :hmmm:

BossBhai..aap bhi na..Kiss se behas kar rahe ho. Just show him the :finger: and leave it.

[dial_100]

This is one logic I cannot understand. If our spinners are not going to be good enough to deliver on a first day pitch' date=' then why select two of them. [b']Just on probability you are going to be bowling first in half of your test matches, so does it make sense to select a bowling attack half of which is going to be rendered ineffective?

I am glad you said you didn't understand it. Because I can explain what I meant there. Lets take Murli as an example. There are 13 of 130 tests that hey played (So 10%), he couldn't manage to get more than 1 wicket while bowling in the first innings of the game.. Does that ring the bell???? But there are only 4 occassions when he couldn;t manage more than 1 wicket while bowling in the second innings. I didnt not check every single match of these 13 tests that I am talking about. But when randomly checked 1, I fould in the same match, in Columbo, Croft from england manages to take 4 wkts bowling in the second innings. Now there may be other occassions where he could not manage even a wicket on day 1 pitch but goes on to take 4 wkts on day 2. Obviously, seach cannot pull those matches here. Also there are occassions he has managed to take 6 wkts on day 1 pitch (Dust bowl probably). Does that support my argument?? on a second day, Bhajji picked up 2 wickets. I wont complain for not getting wkt on day one. I am not supporting Bhajji or Mishra, neither am I too critical of Ishant, but I see potential in this kid and he should have delivered on a day 1 on the fresh pitch which was assisting fast bowlers lot. As for your probability argument, Amla and Kalis are very good players of spin. So give them some credit as well. If we had them gotten out by the phast bowlwers as well, we could have seen SA colapse as well. I am sure, spinners could have taken more wkts, had these two not played that long.

1. If you are picking 4 bowlers - 2 of whom are spinners then there should be an expectation from them to deliver even on a first day pitch. This was possible and was the case till Kumble was in the team.

Hmm... Kumble. Lets continue with the same stats we did for Murli. Kumble while bowling in the first innings on 23 occassions couldn't get more than 1 wkt. 9 of those 23 matches, he couldn't get even 1 in the first innings. In all those 9 innings he had bowled between 20-50 overs.

2. Given the decline of Harbhajan and the inexperience of Mishra and Ojha, then it does not make sense to play 2 spinners at all if they are not going to deliver on the first and second day.

But both of them at least picked up a wkt. If they get to bowl in the 4 innings, you will have to prepare youself to change your opinion my friend...

3. If the idea is to keep spinners for an assault in the final quarter of the test match, then we already have enough part time options who are pretty decent bowlers like Sehwag and Yuvraj to be able to do a reasonable job with one main spinner. You cannot pick half your attack which will be ineffective on day 1 and 2 and then use it as an excuse for a shoddy performance.

Yes. It is more of a selection issue. I dont know if our selectors will even do that though. The front line bastmen like VS and YS could get injured or something and that way we would lose a batsman as well as a bowler. Thats probably why they dont consider them as front line bowlers.

[The Outsider]

dial, I am not contesting that spinners are going to be more effective as the match progresses. I am sure all can agree to that. Neither am I saying that Kumble, Warne, and Murali would always pick up wickets on the first day. My point is that when you are playing 2 fast bowlers and 2 spinners, the spinners should be picked only on the expectation that they will deliver on the first day, not as much as on the 4th or 5th obviously but pick up some wickets or at the very least bottle things up. Tell me how is it a practical strategy to have 2 fast bowlers be your only strike weapons for 90 overs on pitches like these? And this was not a first day Headingly surface - there was turn here even on day 1. You can go in with two spinners if they are Kumble and an in form Harbhajan or Warne and MacGill because you can expect them to deliver a few wickets even on the first day or at the very least build up pressure for the other bowlers. Will they always deliver? No, but you cannot build your bowling strategy around just 2 bowlers for the length of the first innings if you happen to field first. You should not be playing this 2 spinner, 2 fast bowler combination if your spin resources are a disoriented Harbhajan and Amit Mishra and then use that as an excuse for conceding 550 runs.

But both of them at least picked up a wkt. If they get to bowl in the 4 innings, you will have to prepare youself to change your opinion my friend...

What's the point? They are not likely to bowl in the 4th innings now because of the damage which has already been done in the first innings. And if they do get a bowl in the 4th innings with even 150 to defend it will be no thanks to them. Even so, would you back them to bowl South Africa out for 150 in the 4th innings?

[riya]

Is going to hurt because we sacrificed our best batsmen for a crappy series and selected a weak replacement.

[Online]

It won't hurt if God scores a century

[Karan114]

It won't hurt if God scores a century

So you don't mind losing a Test as long as SRT scores a hundred?

[ludhianvi]

The only thing missing is a couple of bad umpiring decisions going against India. India basically needs to bat out 4.5 to 5 sessions to save this test match. Even if India bats with a good run rate i.e about 100 runs/ session, that gets them about 400 runs. So the Saffies will have to chase around 140 in the last two session. That's assuming India bats for 4 sessions :hehe:

[Online]

So you don't mind losing a Test as long as SRT scores a hundred?

absolutely All I want is God scoring more and more and more runs and centuries. If that happens and we win a test, it's like the cherry on top. but for now I'm happy with the cake and I'm not a big fan of cherries any way.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Dhondy]

Doesn't hurt, Gambo. I'd say our side performed beyond our wildest dreams in opening up a 5-point lead at the top. This was very much on the cards. South Africa have always owned us home and away. Even before the last series draw, it needed quota players like Tsolikile over Boucher for us to eke out a narrow victory. In the meantime, players like Amla and DeVilliers have matured, and Kallis is quite clearly the best batsman in the world at the moment. That's even before I mention Steyn with his superb back up cast. Congratulations, Marilize. You must be a very proud girl. That's a great side you have there.

[King Tendulkar]

WE HAVE LOST. I am gutted.