This one is going to hurt

[King Tendulkar]

:isalute:O wait a minute god is still at the crease. We can still draw!

[dial_100]

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. 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?

Right. but we had 4 bowlers so even Zaheer and Ishant couldn't break the partnership for long time. And this long is almost 100 overs. THe other guy, we could get him out at all. So it was overall failure. Not just the spinners. We dropped catches. whatever chances we had, had we taken those, we might as well had a relatively small target of 400+

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Online]

It's always easier to support a team when positive things are happening. The true test is being loyal to a team when they are down. You can be critical of your team, but you don't have to throw in the towel when adversity hits

[dial_100]

That other guy was either sooo lucky our sooo lousy that he could not even get withing 2-3 inches on about atleast 2 dozen occasions to Mishra ... one very strange inngs that was ...

Yeah I know what you mean Bossy... we were bit unlucky. He misjudged the turn zillion times....got lucky everytime...neways...that guy alone score more than our entire team..

[vvvslaxman]

Actually it won't hurt as much as the root canal pain i am enduring. :winky:

[akshayxyz]

This one is going to hurt because - last month England saved two tests and win one against SA in SA.. and same SA side is looking at innings win against India in India :(

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Gunner_Mania]

My local BBC radio station talked about the India match today because Steyn is the overseas player for Warwickshire county. They couldn't be remotely arsed about a cricket match in India but they just had to mention it today to compound an already miserable day:((

[Karan114]

It is really sinking in now. The Kolkata game is going to be an anxious watch :((

[vvvslaxman]

It is really sinking in now. The Kolkata game is going to be an anxious watch :((

They will try to draw the match.

[Laaloo]

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63920.html :yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay:

[Online]

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63920.html

some interesting things from that scoresheet (apart from the obvious) SS Das was hit wicket :hysterical: Dravid was run out! and God made 10 in both the innings

[yoda]

For some reason doesn't hurt knowing well that we are missing RD and VVS. Also SAF are bowling their hearts out and I feel like they deserve to crush us.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Karan114]

For some reason doesn't hurt knowing well that we are missing RD and VVS. Also SAF are bowling their hearts out and I feel like they deserve to crush us.

I wish I could rationalize my feelings in that way but just can't. A Test defeat, especially a home Test defeat, is a really bad feeling. ODI/T20I losses don't affect me so much unless it is a World Cup game. But Tests are a different matter, especially this being a two Test series so no chance of winning and facing a mountain to climb to even draw it now and keep our unbeaten home record of a number of years intact.

[Laaloo]

I wish I could rationalize my feelings in that way but just can't. A Test defeat' date=' especially a home Test defeat, is a horrible feeling. ODI/T20I losses don't affect me so much unless it is a World Cup game. But Tests are a different matter, especially this being a two Test series so no chance of winning and facing a mountain to climb to even draw it now and keep our unbeaten home record of a number of years intact.[/quote'] Especially considering the fact that our spinners were awful. Bhajji was sh1t. Not too forget that Steyn and Morkel were reverse swinging the ball at will. Our bowlers had no aggression.

[Karan114]

^^ No doubt the bowlers were utter **** whereas we were facing some brilliant stuff from their pacers, but even so, losing six wickets for 12 runs and seven wickets for 41 runs playing at home is absolutely pathetic. When a team is thrashed by an innings it means both the batting and bowling has flopped.