Selfish Duo

[spectre]

Just shows how well you assess the match situation I bet you didnt watch the match at all and just commenting based on the scorecard the pair consumed 64 dot balls, most in the powerplay and pushed RRR to 9+ with 30 over pending. This in a chase of 366 wtf is this maturing about. There was a freaking ODI which was lost and you are least bit bothered about that A player actually matures, when he plays according to the situation and he rises, when he wins the matches for his team.

Selfish duo? What did you expect the two of 'em to do? Put on 200 in 25 overs and win the match with 5 overs to spare? If anything, if you're serious Indian fan, you had lotsa reasons to be pleased by their approach. They knew they had a big total to surmount, but they didnt panic and go for hell for leather after the bowling. They put a price on their wicket and batted sensibly. Sure, it might have been a tad slow for this match, but it is this kind self-preservationist, non-glamorous approach that will take us to victories in other moderate chases, not the slam-bam-thank-you-Mam approach that some people here wanted this pair to take. For all their so called defensive batting, the fact is, we were still ahead of South Africa at the 40 over mark. Our biggest problem wasnt so much the reqd. RR, but the loss of so many wicket. If you want to fault both Kohli and Rohit for something, it is that they threw their wickets away at crucial points. Rohit's dismissal was particularly weak and soft. It seemed as though he got too defensive in his mindset. Virat Kohli has matured wonderfully in the last few months. The evolution in his game from the days when he used to attack too early is so easy to notice. He has the talent and skill-set to be the PERFECT middle order batsmen. But things are not so rosy for Rohit. He still seems to be confused to as to what approach to take, when he's batting in the middle.

[The Outsider]

You were pretty gung-ho about Kohli before this series. How do you assess him now? It is not just Kohli' date=' any newcomer has to play for a reasonable amount of time for us to assess their strengths and weaknesses. During one of the two matches he played against Australia he did not show the nous to play risk-free cricket and yesterday he should have taken some risks against the weaker bowlers to keep up with the req. run-rate but he didn't. Earlier, in the first ODI his subdued innings cost us about 20-25 runs. Sure, he will learn but he is not really as quick a learner as you seem to think he is.[/quote'] Hmmm....and what exactly did Kohli do wrong for me not to be gung-ho about him? He scored a half century at 80 SR against possibly the best bowling attack. Kohli is not your typical big hitter. His natural game is to build an innings by placing the ball on the ground. He can hit big strokes, but not early in his innings. No doubt, he will have to develop his big hitting prowess over time and play to the situation a bit more but that's too much of an ask from him so early in his career. Let him develop on his natural abilities and game first, which he did very well against a good attack chasing a big score. I was more disappointed in Rohit Sharma, who is much more experienced and is a more natural big hitter of the ball, but even so won't blame him too much. It's not an easy ask to bat and choose a balanced approach when you have lost 2 early wickets chasing a mammoth score.

[Ram]

Just shows how well you assess the match situation I bet you didnt watch the match at all and just commenting based on the scorecard the pair consumed 64 dot balls, most in the powerplay and pushed RRR to 9+ with 30 over pending. This in a chase of 366 wtf is this maturing about. There was a freaking ODI which was lost and you are least bit bothered about that A player actually matures, when he plays according to the situation and he rises, when he wins the matches for his team.

Yea right.. How do you know if I did or didnt watch the ODI? Sure, you can question their tactics, but to call them selfish is just plain ridiculous.

[teacup]

Hmmm....and what exactly did Kohli do wrong for me not to be gung-ho about him? He scored a half century at 80 SR against possibly the best bowling attack. Kohli is not your typical big hitter. His natural game is to build an innings by placing the ball on the ground. He can hit big strokes, but not early in his innings. No doubt, he will have to develop his big hitting prowess over time and play to the situation a bit more but that's too much of an ask from him so early in his career. Let him develop on his natural abilities and game first, which he did very well against a good attack chasing a big score. I was more disappointed in Rohit Sharma, who is much more experienced and is a more natural big hitter of the ball, but even so won't blame him too much. It's not an easy ask to bat and choose a balanced approach when you have lost 2 early wickets chasing a mammoth score.

One of the reasons you had mentioned for your optimism regarding Kohli was his quick learning ability. I say, that on evidence he is weak tactically as a batsman and is not learning quickly either. He did not play according to situation in 3 matches already and is not showing any improvement in this aspect. Assessing match situation is not rocket science, when you and I can do it, it is not expecting too much. If he had shown the intent - he played for our T20 team before making it to the ODI team so your claim that he cannot score quickly right from the start does not hold any water - but failed attempting no one would have any complaints. I would agree it is not easy to choose the right balls and the right areas to score off for a youngster but not knowing the right approach to take is a little below par for a batsman selected to play at the international level. Btw, he DID NOT do very well in the two matches he got to bat. In both the matches his batting hurt the team's chances than doing any good. To say that he did very well would be to do injustice to batsmen who failed trying to score quick runs. Lastly, Rohit was equally to blame but of the two batsmen if I had to choose one to take on the bowling early on it would have been Kohli because he is the more established player in the team and hence the more confident of the two.