Dhoni is now officially a crap test captain

[Bumblebee]

Yes it is a kneejerk reaction if we were in coma for the last one year.

well saying dhoni is a crap test captain! yes it was typical knee jerk reaction!

[ViruRulez]

I agree. He also once skipped a test series to rest (Katie wrote a lot of long posts about it, if you haven't heard about the incident). What kind of a leader is that? Dhoni really needs to improve a great deal if he's to earn back the Official blue_brigade seal of approval!

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

[Ram]

Frankly, you guys expect too much out of our captains and their strategies. If arm-chair critics like us think about having the extra slip, dont you guys think the some of the most astute cricketing minds in our team management would have though of it? Obviously, they would discussed field placements/strategies well before start of play and would have come to certain conclusions. On the topic, its amusing how even the ultra-conservative/traditionalist like Gavaskar reveals the odd aggressive streak when he insists that mid-off/extra-cover fielders must be removed and placed at slip/short-leg. What he doesnt realize is that merely keeping people around the bat does not mean you're attacking. You have to keep the fielders where you think the ball might go, not where you want the ball to go.

[Riley's Girl]

Frankly, you guys expect too much out of our captains and their strategies. If arm-chair critics like us think about having the extra slip, dont you guys think the some of the most astute cricketing minds in our team management would have though of it? Obviously, they would discussed field placements/strategies well before start of play and would have come to certain conclusions. On the topic, its amusing how even the ultra-conservative/traditionalist like Gavaskar reveals the odd aggressive streak when he insists that mid-off/extra-cover fielders must be removed and placed at slip/short-leg. What he doesnt realize is that merely keeping people around the bat does not mean you're attacking. You have to keep the fielders where you think the ball might go, not where you want the ball to go.

Finally, some common sense...

[gaurav92]

^ No Sriram, i think when you have got around 350 runs in the bank, you could afford to place an extra men at catching position, and talking about your last sentence

You have to keep the fielders where you think the ball might go, not where you want the ball to go.

Its about making things happen rather than waiting for the things to happen.With 2 slips and a gully in place after having a lead of 347, sounded very defensive tactic.Personally i would have loved to see another slip in for at least Zaheer, who was bowling with the new ball, ball moving in the air and off the pitch.Alviro also got an edge that flew in between the man at second slip and gully, had there been a third slip, he would have been out.We dont feel the pinch now as Alviro didnt bother he scorers much.But had he been not out today, i am sure Dhoni would have been critisized.

[Sachinism]

Also having fielders in close positions puts added pressure on the batsman, him knowing that fielder is there will constantly be in the back of his mind

[Cricketics]

Some times the brain works some time it doesn't. Picking one instance and calling a a captain "crap" is exaggeration

[vvvslaxman]

Tomorrow Dhoni has to be tack sharp. Every ball the batsman faces must be an ordeal. Don't know what he is going to do. But that is the only way he can buy wickets in a short time.

[Karan114]

Tomorrow Dhoni has to be tack sharp. Every ball the batsman faces must be an ordeal. Don't know what he is going to do. But that is the only way he can buy wickets in a short time.

Well Duminy and Prince are under huge pressure in any case following their awful form against England and us, so we have to keep them in that state, don't allow them to escape at all. If we can deal with those two it will make our life a lot easier, as it then leaves just the Amla-de Villiers pair to contend with (and how those two perform will probably decide the Test match) before the tail begins.

[asterix]

Dhoni has this arrogant and egoistic attitude in his Craptaincy..And he has been doing it for long. One of the main reasons that CSK usually loses out in IPL too. We are not criticising him just for the heck of it. His decisions are actually affecting teams chances. Kudos to him for the fantastic knock and the way the team has come back after the loos in Nagpur. There is this theory being propogated that it was Pissant's "fiery bounce ful" spell in the 1st innings which opened the floodgates. No it was not. It was a pathetic and desperate bowling. There is no justification of Pissant to be playing in this match. Pissant's inclusion in the team has hurt teams chances a lot. We are already one bowler short and now Zaheer is having injury issues. Arrogant Dhoni has his own set of rules, field settings & bowling changes. All of us knew that rain will affect atleast 2 days in this test match and I cannot believe that he didn't knew that. Also he was arrogant in not declaring the Indian innings earlier. There was messages after messages from the coach to declare it earlier but he kept on batting. It was so late that he should've continued to bat for the whole day instead of declaring because the SA batsmen simply took the lights offered to them after 5 overs only. I was actually amazed to see that there was no attacking fielding set throught the whole day when SA batted. Any other captain would've surrounded the batsman with fielders. He had his fielders all over the place. He might still be able to win the match tomorrow but I would not attribute that win to his captaincy. As I had said earlier, even Tatenda Taibu can set the similar fielding. What's remarkable Dhoni is doing here as a captain of a Top cricket team?

[flamy]

Dhoni has this arrogant and egoistic attitude in his Craptaincy..And he has been doing it for long. One of the main reasons that CSK usually loses out in IPL too. We are not criticising him just for the heck of it. His decisions are actually affecting teams chances. Kudos to him for the fantastic knock and the way the team has come back after the loos in Nagpur. There is this theory being propogated that it was Pissant's "fiery bounce ful" spell in the 1st innings which opened the floodgates. No it was not. It was a pathetic and desperate bowling. There is no justification of Pissant to be playing in this match. Pissant's inclusion in the team has hurt teams chances a lot. We are already one bowler short and now Zaheer is having injury issues. Arrogant Dhoni has his own set of rules, field settings & bowling changes. All of us knew that rain will affect atleast 2 days in this test match and I cannot believe that he didn't knew that. Also he was arrogant in not declaring the Indian innings earlier. There was messages after messages from the coach to declare it earlier but he kept on batting. It was so late that he should've continued to bat for the whole day instead of declaring because the SA batsmen simply took the lights offered to them after 5 overs only. I was actually amazed to see that there was no attacking fielding set throught the whole day when SA batted. Any other captain would've surrounded the batsman with fielders. He had his fielders all over the place. He might still be able to win the match tomorrow but I would not attribute that win to his captaincy.

[gaurav92]

Well thevortex if Ishant takes a match winning 5fer tommorow, will you change your opinion ? And Flamy, its a serious discussion going on here, no need to spam, its really annoying

[Mr. Wicket]

And Flamy' date=' its a serious discussion going on here, no need to spam, its really annoying[/quote'] ++ yes flamy, internets iz serious buziness. :aetsch:

[saneindian]

He might still be able to win the match tomorrow but I would not attribute that win to his captaincy. As I had said earlier' date=' even Tatenda Taibu can set the similar fielding. [b']What's remarkable Dhoni is doing here as a captain of a Top cricket team?

There's something called marshalling your troops after a morale crushing defeat. Then there's something called as clawing back in a test match after the opponents are 220/1 on day one after winning the test. Then comes making bowling changes, Mishra comes before lunch, takes out Smith, comes bak again after Ishant's spell, takes out Kallis. And yeah in between there was the opening of bowling by Bhajji which took SA off guard completely. Agreed at the start of the day he should have got 1-2 more close in fielders but after 9-10 overs, that was rectified and there were close in fielders for spinners and slips and gully for pacers. On you blaming MSD for CSK losing IPL, IMHO while discussing tests, the mickey mouse cricket shouldn't come into the discussion at all. At the same time , well with a bowling lineup of Gony, Balaji, Palani Amarnath, Murali/Oram , Jakati and Albie Morkel, CSK will lose more crunch games than they win.

[yoda]

Frankly, you guys expect too much out of our captains and their strategies. If arm-chair critics like us think about having the extra slip, dont you guys think the some of the most astute cricketing minds in our team management would have though of it? Obviously, they would discussed field placements/strategies well before start of play and would have come to certain conclusions. On the topic, its amusing how even the ultra-conservative/traditionalist like Gavaskar reveals the odd aggressive streak when he insists that mid-off/extra-cover fielders must be removed and placed at slip/short-leg. What he doesnt realize is that merely keeping people around the bat does not mean you're attacking. You have to keep the fielders where you think the ball might go, not where you want the ball to go.

People are referring to something as obvious as this:

Zaheer Khan got an iffy moment each out of Smith and Petersen in the first few overs, but wasn't helped by the inexplicable choice of just two slips and a gully in his third over.

[Online]

looks like public thought u were serious about ur criticism good one mate :D

[Texan]

Surprising how opinion can turn so sharply against a captain who just lost his first test after winning 8 test matches as captain.... sigh.... talk of short term memory!

[zen]

Dhoni and Kirsten have been pretty poor in this series from the strategy PoV. The team selection has been bad throughout the series. Right from picking Saha as a specialist bat to not going in with 5 bowlers for this game. If Sree had been playing, Ind would still have had an attacking bowler .... Dhoni's field placements have been poor too If Ind lose this series, as I had said before, I would be tempted to ask for Dhoni and Gary's resignation. They have done a good job in the past but the strategy here has been quite poor. In fact it looks like it's good performance by a selected few that's making his them look good

[Ram]

People are referring to something as obvious as this:

When was the last time you saw a batsmen dismissed caught at 3rd slip or the 2nd gully in India?

[zen]

Field placement looks much better now!