Why was the first test lost ?

[Rahul Dravid]

So, we have lost the 1st test. The 2000th test. A Historic Test. What can we do to make the result turn around, what can the captain do?... few things that I didn't like from the 1st test (in random order,im blazed right now)- * Dhoni not giving the ball to Ishant after lunch yesterday. * Fitness issues ( you ***ing gotta be FIT to play a test), why the hell did you let Zaheer in the lineup? We lost mainly cuz of that, a fit Sreesanth is better than a ***ed up Zaheer) * Rahul, Laxman, Sachin not holding on in the 2nd innings, I expected so much more, I was so confident from yesterday to the start of play today, very disappointed from Dravid especially. * ***ING DROP THIS **** HARBHAJAN, he is a USELESS TEST CRICKETER... DROP HIM, ***ING RATHER PLAY 4 paces.. i may sound crazy, but in Trent Bridge, IT CAN HAPPEN.. if u want some spin ***ing get Raina into attack, IT WONT BE MUCH WORSE THAN BHAJJI. believe me... anwyays, continue, what else you wanna see for the 2nd test... Id also go with Mukund, and drop Yuvi again.. Mukund is bound to perform sooner rather than later.. the guy has a great attitude. also in hope to see a better performance from God... ntohing to be worried about, hell be fine...

[diegovegaz]

sree for zak, mishra for bhajj, and please let gambhir captain

[akshayxyz]

on the significance of #2000. "There is no such thing as an uninteresting natural number. " #2000 was just another match.. btw 2001 is relatively more special number, it is product of three distinct prime numbers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphenic_number).

[Rahul Dravid]

on the significance of #2000. "There is no such thing as an uninteresting natural number. " #2000 was just another match.. btw 2001 is relatively more special number, it is product of three distinct prime numbers.

looools sure mate, whateva makes ya happy but we GOTTA WIN NOW... AND I BELIEVE WE CAN.... JAI HIND.

[Midfielder]

Why was the first test lost? I will start out by congratulating England because they played better in the match so they deserved to win. Let us not point fingers but analytically try to examine why the game was lost. I think numero uno reason was the famed batting miserably failed to put a decent total on board. Let us face it Indias strength is batting and if the batsman cannot put a total of 300 in any inning there is no way you can win the game. That was the main reason. I will keep on adding but please share your thoughts without getting pissy and emotional.

[Laaloo]

Poor shots ( by Dravid and Laxman in both the innings) Also by dhoni in the 2nd innings, I really though Raina and Dhoni could have saved the match for us :mad: Too much emphasis on Sachin and 100 Harbhajans pathetic performance First test of the series Half-fit Zaheer Inability to bowl out lower order batsmen ( Boucher fked us up at Cape Town and Prior did the same here)

[Midfielder]

Poor shots ( by Dravid and Laxman in both the innings) Also by dhoni in the 2nd innings, I really though Raina and Dhoni could have saved the match for us :mad: Too much emphasis on Sachin and 100 Harbhajans pathetic performance First test of the series Half-fit Zaheer Inability to bowl out lower order batsmen ( Boucher fked us up at Cape Town and Prior did the same here)

Agreed. The inability to finish the tail is because of a lack of a finisher(baseball term). Someone with deadly accuracy and raw pace, no swing needed. That should take care of the tail but that is a good point by you.

[punjabi_khota]

Apart the obvious lack of a bowler, it was the fact that the tail didn't perform. As famed as our top 7 maybe, we have collapsed far too many times in past 2-3 years, only to be saved by a combination of some gritty lower order batting, rain and other good fortunes. Beginning with Lords in 07, continuing to Aus 08 (first two tests Bhajji/Zak saving our asses), a few times VVS saved us while batting with the tail in SL/SA, Tailenders helping us avoid embarrassment vs NZ last year, and WI this year. In conditions like those found in England, with the quality that England have in their bowling, we can't trust the tail to contribute anything.

[Yoda-esque]

1) ZAK 2) Sehwag 3) Harby Also,The difference in this series is going to be the tail. England have a stronger lower order. The only way we can draw this series is by having a spell where 3-4 wickets fall in very quick succession (like Durban)

[Midfielder]

Does anyone know if Zak was really match fit?

[Midfielder]

I know tail was a problem but the top seven collectively did not perform either. Individually some of them did contribute but as a team not much.

[Alchemist]

Lack of warm up games. This has started becoming an issue. We only get a 3 day or a 4 day game before the tour. IIRC, in the 90s , whan our team used to travel, we would play atleast 2 to 3 warm up games. Those would help people to get familiar with the conditions. (We would lose the game anyways because of a one man team). But, I think that we should start having more warm up games. This is good from game practice point of view too.

[Midfielder]

Lack of warm up games. This has started becoming an issue. We only get a 3 day or a 4 day game before the tour. IIRC, in the 90s , whan our team used to travel, we would play atleast 2 to 3 warm up games. Those would help people to get familiar with the conditions. (We would lose the game anyways because of a one man team). But, I think that we should start having more warm up games. This is good from game practice point of view too.

There is some truth to that as both Laxman and Rahul outperformed Gambhir and Sachin. Match readiness was missing.

[Misu243]

Lack of batting skills and intent in lower order. MSD is a lower order batsman and had responsibility to take India to a draw. Look at how Prior batted in second innings. MSD's batting skills are terrible right now. Harbhajan played like a gulley batsman compared to Stuart Broad's magnificient innings in second innings as well. Every player must know how to bat. Biggest culprits in India's first loss - Harbhajan, MSD, Zaheer Khan (for showing up with a pot belly).

[Midfielder]

Lack of batting skills and intent in lower order. MSD is a lower order batsman and had responsibility to take India to a draw. Look at how Prior batted in second innings. MSD's batting skills are terrible right now. Harbhajan played like a gulley batsman compared to Stuart Broad's magnificient innings in second innings as well. Every player must know how to bat. Biggest culprits in India's first loss - Harbhajan, MSD, Zaheer Khan (for showing up with a pot belly).

I disagree. I think the batting let the team down.

[Cricketics]

Both batting and bowling were good in patches. Some individual performances stood out, but in test matches, sometimes that is not enough. To allow England to get a lead up to 450, it was horrendous. Some poor captaincy and ordinary bowling did that. Last 100 runs were given to easily. It was like a buffet service for English bats. Also, our batting didn't work. To score less than 300 on two occasions, made our fielding performance better than that of our batsmans even though in the field, we were ordinary. All in all, we expected our bats to atleast score 400 once on this track. We failed too do so. Our bowlers also didn't exert pressure and we didn't make use of good oportunities. We sucked in both departments and it's time to move on as we know we are world no. 1 team.

[Laaloo]

Both batting and bowling were good in patches. Some individual performances stood out, but in test matches, sometimes that is not enough. To allow England to get a lead up to 450, it was horrendous. Some poor captaincy and ordinary bowling did that. Last 100 runs were given to easily. It was like a buffet service for English bats. Also, our batting didn't work. To score less than 300 on two occasions, made our fielding performance better than that of our batsmans even though in the field, we were ordinary. All in all, we expected our bats to atleast score 400 once on this track. We failed too do so. Our bowlers also didn't exert pressure and we didn't make use of good oportunities. We sucked in both departments and it's time to move on as we know we are world no. 1 team.

Not the first time that has happened! That also happened at Joburg in SAF. Raina gave up 77 runs in 7 overs. That's criminal even for a part timer. It looks like when the opposition is on top, dhoni just keeps bowling part timers with no strategies and just waits for the opposition to declare. I mean giving all these easy runs just gives the opposition more time to get us out.

[gloryof83]

As much as people blame our batting, I think our bowling specially in the first innings was the main cause of our loss. People keeping on harping about that it was a flat track... but what they forget is that the ball was swinging for all 5 days. We lost it in the first innings when we let the poms score 470+, given the track and conditions that was a match winning total. Zaheer's lack of match fitness, Ishanth & Harbi's **** bowling in the first innings is what made us lose.

[yoda]

cause we scored fewer runs than them.

[Yoda-esque]

cause we scored fewer runs than them.

Hes not asking for a cause and effect analysis.Hes asking for the Root Cause analysis.. :haha::haha: