So India lost a close game...what is the big deal?

[Manny_Pacquiao]

India 2011 isnt the aussie team of 2007. were u idiots seriously expecting india to go through this tournament unbeaten? there are many positives here that the fair weather retard 'fans' will miss. tendulkar is in sensational form, like he was in the 2003 world cup. if he keeps scoring like this, we are a lock for semis at least. india always do well in any tournament he hits form in. sehwag kills every opening bowler he faces. gambhir consistent as ever. the fact that our top 3 can bat 40 overs consistently on their own is a huge plus. the collapse today was embarrassing but this isnt a problem that india cannot fix with the kind of quality they have in their batting lineup. not to take credit away from SA, but the indian middle and lower order threw their wickets away while trying to aim for a huge score. a more measured approach and they would have cruised to 340+, we know they are capable of playing this way. the fielding was much better today. virat kohli is electric in the field. tendulkar doesnt look 37 at all, he can outfield pretty much any of the 20 somethings in the indian team., there was some real urgency in how our players made an effort to save runs. we have some slowpokes like munaf and nehra but if we field like we did today, there wont be much to complain about. india wont be as good as SA, AUS and other top teams in fielding, but they are competent enuff bowling is the big concern for all the lundfakkeers of this forum but india has arguably one of the best death bowlers in zaheer khan. munaf is great in the middle overs. the part timers hold their own. nehra was the weak link today, but he is coming back after a lay off. once india gets ashwin in there for next game and QF, we wont get hit in the powerplay like today. its tough work bowling on flat pitches, and under lights with dew but india didnt bowl badly today. how can anyone disagree with that? finally, SA are a quality side and will up there in the semis with india. give some credit to guys like amla - number 1 ODI batsman in the world, and talented players like de villiers and steyn. these guys arent nathan mccullum and kyle mills, they are some of the best in the game. the reason why they won today was because they were better over 100 overs and didnt lose their heart after sehwag and tendulkar were slaughtering them at the beginning.

[Switchblade]

Many agree with u that it was a great comeback by Steyn and in general they made better use of the power play but the problem is that Munaf is quite predictable in the death overs he bowls wicket to wicket you have to vary ur line and length not hating him but its better that we finish his quota of overs before

[Manny_Pacquiao]

i agree, Munna shouldbt bowl more than 2 overs at the death. he bowls too many length balls

[Switchblade]

And Nehra is past his prime Many he was at his peak during 2003 but he has been poor at the death overs for a while u remember how he struggled in S.A tour Sree im not saying play him every game but atleast try him out again i dont think his first 2 overs against BD were that bad it was his 3rd that went for 25

[Karan114]

And Nehra is past his prime Many he was at his peak during 2003 but he has been poor at the death overs for a while u remember how he struggled in S.A tour Sree im not saying play him every game but atleast try him out again i dont think his first 2 overs against BD were that bad it was his 3rd that went for 25

Nehra was doing alright in ODIs after he returned to the side back in 2009...but since the NZ series in December he has been in bad form. As for Sree, the guy has a career economy rate over 6...that Bangla game was fairly typical of him - a couple of genuinely good balls, some bad luck (conceding boundaries off decent deliveries) before losing the plot completely. Nehra is not great, but Sree is worse.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

replace nehra with ashwin and the bowling lineup is solid. watch harbhajan and ashwin rout the windies on chennai's turner next sunday.

[Switchblade]

Nehra was doing alright in ODIs after he returned to the side back in 2009...but since the NZ series in December he has been in bad form. As for Sree, the guy has a career economy rate over 6...that Bangla game was fairly typical of him - a couple of genuinely good balls, some bad luck (conceding boundaries off decent deliveries) before losing the plot completely. Nehra is not great, but Sree is worse.

Karan i agree that initially when Nehra came back in 2009 he did well on W.I tour then then in final against lankans him and Ishant were throwing it away i agree in C.T 2009 he did well after that ive forgotten how he did in that O.D.I series against Oz against Lanka again he went for runs in the penultimate over which was the only game we lost then in Jaipur when we won against Saffers by 1 him and Sree were being smashed by Parnell and Steyn and then in t20 wc he gave 13 last ball 6 against SL. Did well in the final of Asia Cup didnt followed the tri series of Nz us and lankans after that in 2011 in S.A ive stated my case thats why im not happy with him

[lonestarranger]

What do you have against Kyle Mills? Are you insecure?

[flamy]

What do you have against Kyle Mills? Are you insecure?

He's got a lazy eye. Not cool yo.

[Misu243]

It is shameful that India still have to rely on old pacers like Nehra. He should be dropped asap. Munna bhai and Zaheer are enough. The team needs some young fresh player like Ashwin.

[CG]

Nehra was doing alright in ODIs after he returned to the side back in 2009...but since the NZ series in December he has been in bad form. As for Sree, the guy has a career economy rate over 6...that Bangla game was fairly typical of him - a couple of genuinely good balls, some bad luck (conceding boundaries off decent deliveries) before losing the plot completely. Nehra is not great, but Sree is worse.

sree is a better bowler than nehra.

[yoda]

I don't think the reaction is just for the loss. It is the way we batted, losing the plot after getting a great batting start, plus the inability of our bowlers to be able to defend any decent total. First England and now this. We even gave a gazillion runs to the Bangbros and our wins against other 2 minnows has been less than convincing. Overall fans had high hopes for this team and to even lift the cup at home, but the chances seem a little blurry at this point.

[vvvslaxman]

Backn in 1990s there was a match we had a collapse similar to this. I still vividy remember every thing about that match. These kind of matches leave a lasting impression. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64434.html India needed 30 runs in 8 overs with 7 wickets in hands. Match was all but over. Then SL bowlers dibbly dobbly bowlers came on. They completely choked us . India crashed out to a 8 run loss. We lost 7 wickets for 21 runs. This is a match that i still remember. I can never forget that embarrassing collapse. Now i am coming back to this match. We have lost 9 wickets for 29 runs. This is far worse than that match. So criticisms should not be surprising. It is not like this is the first time. We had a similar collapse against England. But they didn't learn anything from it.

[CSK Fan]

@OP, anyon in their right mind WILL criticize a top team losing 9 wickets for 29 runs

[Ultimate_Game]

Backn in 1990s there was a match we had a collapse similar to this. I still vividy remember every thing about that match. These kind of matches leave a lasting impression. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64434.html India needed 30 runs in 8 overs with 7 wickets in hands. Match was all but over. Then SL bowlers dibbly dobbly bowlers came on. They completely choked us . India crashed out to a 8 run loss. We lost 7 wickets for 21 runs. This is a match that i still remember. I can never forget that embarrassing collapse. Now i am coming back to this match. We have lost 9 wickets for 29 runs. This is far worse than that match. So criticisms should not be surprising. It is not like this is the first time. We had a similar collapse against England. But they didn't learn anything from it.

I remember the match as well... wasn't that the game where Kapil was given LBW to a ball pitch at least a foot outside leg and Tendulkar was given run-out when he was safe? That match was a combination of Indian brainless batting and pretty atrocious biased umpiring from the SL home umpires before the days of 3rd umpire and neutral umpires for odis.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

@OP' date=' anyon in their right mind WILL criticize a top team losing 9 wickets for 29 runs[/quote'] yes, go ahead and criticize this crappy batting lineup: tendulkar sehwag gambhir kohli yuvraj dhoni pathan LOL. where do u ppl come from. if india makes 350 at chennai next sunday u are gonna go back under th rock where u live

[maniac]

If India made a game out of nothing and lost it wouldn't be a big deal but the way we lost it is what hurts...Brainless batting,Munaf and Nehra's bowling when they kept giving away 1-15 run overs when it mattered is what is a matter of concern. Dhoni did captain well till the last over...Giving a seamer the last over on paper looks a good idea but when the seamer's name is Nehra i automatically nullifies it into a patheic idea

[Bumper]

India 2011 isnt the aussie team of 2007. were u idiots seriously expecting india to go through this tournament unbeaten? there are many positives here that the fair weather retard 'fans' will miss. tendulkar is in sensational form, like he was in the 2003 world cup. if he keeps scoring like this, we are a lock for semis at least. india always do well in any tournament he hits form in. sehwag kills every opening bowler he faces. gambhir consistent as ever. the fact that our top 3 can bat 40 overs consistently on their own is a huge plus. the collapse today was embarrassing but this isnt a problem that india cannot fix with the kind of quality they have in their batting lineup. not to take credit away from SA, but the indian middle and lower order threw their wickets away while trying to aim for a huge score. a more measured approach and they would have cruised to 340+, we know they are capable of playing this way. the fielding was much better today. virat kohli is electric in the field. tendulkar doesnt look 37 at all, he can outfield pretty much any of the 20 somethings in the indian team., there was some real urgency in how our players made an effort to save runs. we have some slowpokes like munaf and nehra but if we field like we did today, there wont be much to complain about. india wont be as good as SA, AUS and other top teams in fielding, but they are competent enuff bowling is the big concern for all the lundfakkeers of this forum but india has arguably one of the best death bowlers in zaheer khan. munaf is great in the middle overs. the part timers hold their own. nehra was the weak link today, but he is coming back after a lay off. once india gets ashwin in there for next game and QF, we wont get hit in the powerplay like today. its tough work bowling on flat pitches, and under lights with dew but india didnt bowl badly today. how can anyone disagree with that? finally, SA are a quality side and will up there in the semis with india. give some credit to guys like amla - number 1 ODI batsman in the world, and talented players like de villiers and steyn. these guys arent nathan mccullum and kyle mills, they are some of the best in the game. the reason why they won today was because they were better over 100 overs and didnt lose their heart after sehwag and tendulkar were slaughtering them at the beginning.

Good post. I am less concerned about our batting, we don't collapse the way we did today too often, esp, when we have a well laid platform. People forget how good Steyn is, he is not easy to hit. However our death bowling remains a serious worry. We gave up 28 runs in 2 overs to English tailenders and 15 runs today in the final over to Peterson. Both games we deserved to win. Nehra is supposed to be an experienced bowler & his mistakes were elementary - he was bowling length balls as opposed to firing fullish yorker length deliveries. And in both, Zakky should have been doing the bulk of the bowling in the last 4 overs. Dhoni miscalculated both times. I am concerned that sooner or later we are going to be in this situation in a knockout game and death bowling will prove to be the difference between winners & losers. I also think we should cash in on games, when we win the toss and bat first. Chasing against big teams wont be easy. I expect us to give up 320ish totals with our bowling attack & chasing that kinda total against the likes of Australia or SAF will take some getting, regardless of the form of our batsmen. Overall like you said, this is a good team, but by no means an invincible team. Infact i dont even think we are the best team in the world cup. SAF is far more balanced than any other side in the tournament.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

zaheer was used in the powerplay altho in hindsight u have to wonder if that was a goodmove because one of his overs went for 17. but that wasnt so much bad bowling as it was cheeky batting by de villiers who used some unorthodox shots to throw zaheer off. up until then, zak had given up just 20 runs in 8 overs which was PHENOMENAL. typically u want ur best bowlers in the powerplay because teams look to attack at that stage anyway, this problem of bowling in powerplay will be solved when ASHWIN is introduced to the team in the remaining matches

[maniac]

zaheer was used in the powerplay altho in hindsight u have to wonder if that was a goodmove because one of his overs went for 17. but that wasnt so much bad bowling as it was cheeky batting by de villiers who used some unorthodox shots to throw zaheer off. up until then, zak had given up just 20 runs in 8 overs which was PHENOMENAL. typically u want ur best bowlers in the powerplay because teams look to attack at that stage anyway, this problem of bowling in powerplay will be solved when ASHWIN is introduced to the team in the remaining matches

Ashwin is not the answer to all our problems,every time Munna,Nehra or the part-timers hold the ball,they are easy pickings that's half our bowling line-up.Have to give it to Dhoni though for making best use of his resources.We need some one like Sreeshanth who can be no worse than Nehra but atleast he is a wicket taker.