Have we played our best cricket yet?

[mastana]

Have we played our best cricket yet? What do you think? Even though we haven't batted to our caliber we were still scoring around 270's. Now is the time to play our best cricket against Sri Lanka because they know all our weaknesses and strengths. :two_thumbs_up:

[vvvslaxman]

i gotta say.. we have played very average cricket in this world cup. Our pace bowling really surprised me today. fact that Yuvi is our second highest wicket taker should explain something. Battingwise we had far too many collapses against all teams except Bangladesh (even minnows). Either a mini collapse or a major collapse. Fielding was generally below average. Not champions stuff. Just other teams managed to play worse than us. This world cup is not our A game especially in batting.

[kabira]

^You guys are expecting way too much. Its 100 overs game. You don't have to play well in those 100 overs, you just have to play well in crucial moments. SAF played well for 80 overs but 15 mins of madness, they were out of hte world cup. Our batting has best stats. we have best mandatory power play score. 3 of our batters are in top 10. We probably have best average mandatory score. You have to understand, the pitches have not been absolute belters, as tournament progressed, it goes difficult to score. Its hot in India and pitches will be sluggish, hardly fresh, so 250-260 is good score. We did score 260 in QF and here. So I don't see why we have not average cricket.

[vvvslaxman]

^You guys are expecting way too much. Its 100 overs game. You don't have to play well in those 100 overs, you just have to play well in crucial moments. SAF played well for 80 overs but 15 mins of madness, they were out of hte world cup. Our batting has best stats. we have best mandatory power play score. 3 of our batters are in top 10. We probably have best average mandatory score. You have to understand, the pitches have not been absolute belters, as tournament progressed, it goes difficult to score. Its hot in India and pitches will be sluggish, hardly fresh, so 250-260 is good score. We did score 260 in QF and here. So I don't see why we have not average cricket.

We are capable of far better than this 29/9, 38/6 , then mini collapses against Netherlands, Ireland, Pakistan and Australia. Even considering those factors i think we are better equipped than most teams. I understand playing infront of 1000s of vocal supporters add some pressure. But this team has seen at all.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

No. Not even CLOSE. but we will play our perfect game in the final.

[kabira]

^see those collapses do happen with any team, its how come back is the key. Normally collapses happen in space of 15 mins, you really don't know what hits you, and you can't even stop it. Thats how cricket is and thats why its Baap of all Sports. but even within those collapes we had big score on board. Had Dhoni given more confidence to our bowlers in earlier games, we would have been unbeaten so far.

[Andy]

We need to set a 'Target' for us. It seems we are targetting too big and ending up too short.

[vvvslaxman]

^see those collapses do happen with any team, its how come back is the key. Normally collapses happen in space of 15 mins, you really don't know what hits you, and you can't even stop it. Thats how cricket is and thats why its Baap of all Sports. but even within those collapes we had big score on board. Had Dhoni given more confidence to our bowlers in earlier games, we would have been unbeaten so far.

We defy odds.. I think i have to put that down to Dhoni's form somewhat. He is one guy who always used to stand like a rock down the order. His form and absence of Raina caused a huge imbalance in our batting ranks.

[vvvslaxman]

We need to set a 'Target' for us. It seems we are targetting too big and ending up too short.

That is the result of serious under-estimation of our bowling. Yes our bowling is not great. But we should not under-estimate so bad that we need 350 every time. Did you listen to Sachin. He also felt 315 was needed. Hence he took lot of chances.

[Andy]

That is the result of serious under-estimation of our bowling. Yes our bowling is not great. But we should not under-estimate so bad that we need 350 every time. Did you listen to Sachin. He also felt 315 was needed. Hence he took lot of chances.

True now the way Munaf bowled in QF and Nehra against the proteas, Not many would expect them to defend 260.

[kabira]

^can't blame them. The way Sehwag started it looked like belter of the pitch, you can ball coming nicely and he was playing through the line. Thats why you need experience in the middle, as soon as Sachin saw the pitch is not 310 pitch rather 270, he started to play percentage cricket. Even then he was not comfortable, which clearly suggests everyone mis read the pitch

[vvvslaxman]

True now the way Munaf bowled in QF and Nehra against the proteas' date=' Not many would expect them to defend 260.[/quote'] When these guys can up their pace when they want, why not they bowl this all the time. Nehra in the end and Munaf at the start both generated pace that was few clicks above their normal speed.

[ViruRulez]

We have not played even 50% of our potential especially in terms of batting .. but that has been enough to be in the finals and hopefully will lift the CUP too .. that also implies one thing .. we can become dominant team like the Aussies of the 2000s as other teams in world cricket are not as good as they were in the past .. 1-2 more good bowlers and we would be an undefeatable team very soon like Aussies of the 90s .. however would be interesting how things would pan up after Sachin's retirement a few years from now as we are still dependent a lot on Sachin though we may refuse on most occasions