Remember the best wicket-keeper batsman in the world is Matt Prior!!!

[ganeshran]

That 224 is a useless knock cos Dhoni played it. bet you had it been played by any other keeper, any comparisons with Prior's knock would have been laughed off. Some people have had a lot of disappointments in the last 3-4 weeks, their frustration is understandable.

Here comes your usual strawman argument. Can you quote one post on the the thread which said Dhoni's knock was useless?. Also still waiting for the post where I supposedly claimed Ajay Ratra, Dighe etc to be better than Dhoni.

[Number]

It was definitely better knock imo. I am not biased against MSD the WK-Bat.

[rkt.india]

Even if the subject is just this one knock, Prior's knock is still better than what Dhoni did in Chennai. The shot making in the Chennai knock was imperious and enjoyable to watch, but Prior's knock was better because it was played under immense pressure on a 5th day pitch fighting to save the match. It was a gritty test match innings and I would rate it higher than Dhoni's 224 anyday. Prior's past record also comes into play, it is not a once in a blue moon innings. He has regularly played such innings in the last 2-3 years.

5th day pitch. this was not an Indian 5th day, but NZ. Pitches in NZ get better as the match progresses and IMO, Bell's innings was better and more important than Prior's, check the score card the kind of temperament Bell showed. What is better for you a win or a draw? Dhoni's innings was as gritty as Prior's. In the end what matters is win. Dhoni's innings is in history books and people will talk about ion time to come, no one will remember this Prior innings.

[Sidhoni]

Are you guys seriously rating Prior knock on a 5th day innings fighting to save the match below Dhoni's flash in the pan 224. I dont even see the comparison. Over the last 2 years and even before that, Prior has proved that he is far better than Dhoni in test cricket. He has played knocks in difficult conditions and saved matches for the team. Dhoni on the other hand goes AWOL on the slightest hint of lateral movement.

We are not debating on Prior vs Dhoni. It is this knock vs Dhoni's 224

[Sidhoni]

Even if the subject is just this one knock, Prior's knock is still better than what Dhoni did in Chennai. The shot making in the Chennai knock was imperious and enjoyable to watch, but Prior's knock was better because it was played under immense pressure on a 5th day pitch fighting to save the match. It was a gritty test match innings and I would rate it higher than Dhoni's 224 anyday. Prior's past record also comes into play, it is not a once in a blue moon innings. He has regularly played such innings in the last 2-3 years.

This pitch was still better to bat on that Chennai pitch. That pitch was looking so ugly and full of rough patches on both sides of the pitch. Lyon, who ended up taking 7 here at Delhi, was bowling in a good rhythm and had just dismissed Tendulkar with a beauty. Pressure was on India, in comes captain at a stage where he was being severely criticized for his test captaincy. He started counter-attacking Lyon from the first delivery, unsettling his rhythm. That knock changed the whole mach and gave India the momentum with lasted throughout the series.

[Raghav_12]

5th day pitch. this was not an Indian 5th day, but NZ. Pitches in NZ get better as the match progresses and IMO, Bell's innings was better and more important than Prior's, check the score card the kind of temperament Bell showed. What is better for you a win or a draw? Dhoni's innings was as gritty as Prior's. In the end what matters is win. Dhoni's innings is in history books and people will talk about ion time to come, no one will remember this Prior innings.

This is absolutely fail statement. People still remember his 70ish innings at Lords very well while many of his 100's are rarely talked about. Dhoni 224 was a good innings but came on a decent pitch and team was already around 250 or so when Dhoni came to bat. Second factor which should be considered is that after first 100 runs or so, there was hardly any pressure on Dhoni and he made merry on dejected Aussie bowlers while in case of Prior pressure consistently grew till the end of innings.

[rkt.india]

This is absolutely fail statement. People still remember his 70ish innings at Lords very well while many of his 100's are rarely talked about. Dhoni 224 was a good innings but came on a decent pitch and team was already around 250 or so when Dhoni came to bat. Second factor which should be considered is that after first 100 runs or so' date=' there was hardly any pressure on Dhoni and he made merry on dejected Aussie bowlers while in case of Prior pressure consistently grew till the end of innings.[/quote'] So Pattinson, Siddle and Starc were dejected bowlers while Pattinson was on fire and NZ pacers are better than them and Bruce Martin and Kane Willamson who combined bowled 59 overs in this innings are great bowlers. Remember NZ pitch became flatter than Chennai. People were expecting a draw since Yesterday because of the flat pitch so, it is not like Prior did a miracle. Only expected thing happened that to because Bell's innings was more important than Prior. People have short memory. We were still 184 runs behind Aus total when Dhoni came to bat with last recognized batting pair in and you forgot his partnership with BK when he shielded tailenders so well that we got a big lead over Aus as we were just 26 ahead when 8th wicket fell and any total over 150 in 2nd inning on that pitch would have been hard to chase. Look at that inning in the scenario of the match. Had we not get that big lead, we might well have lost that match in last innings.i

[Junyfan]

dhoni is not test batsman,prior is magnifecent talent.

[Crookbond]

Even if the subject is just this one knock' date=' Prior's knock is still better than what Dhoni did in Chennai. The shot making in the Chennai knock was imperious and enjoyable to watch, [b']but Prior's knock was better because it was played under immense pressure on a 5th day pitch fighting to save the match. It was a gritty test match innings and I would rate it higher than Dhoni's 224 anyday. Prior's past record also comes into play, it is not a once in a blue moon innings. He has regularly played such innings in the last 2-3 years.

And I say Dhoni's knock was better because he came in under pressure as well and it was a much worse pitch than the 5th day NZ pitch plus it set the tone for the series. There are some extra-ordinary comments here!

[ganeshran]

And I say Dhoni's knock was better because he came in under pressure as well and it was a much worse pitch than the 5th day NZ pitch plus it set the tone for the series. There are some extra-ordinary comments here!

It was not a worse pitch than the new Zealand pitch, both were relatively flat. Australia had just scored 380 on the pitch and it hadnt started to break up yet. The difference was in the pressure on the batsmen. Mc Cullum bowled most of his bowlers with a lot of players in catching positions both for spinners and seamers. Boult was bowling brilliantly and beat the bat a lot of times. Saying that Dhoni was under more pressure than Prior when he came into bat is absurd

[ganeshran]

. Dhoni's innings is in history books and people will talk about ion time to come' date=' no one will remember this Prior innings.[/quote']

[rkt.india]

It was not a worse pitch than the new Zealand pitch, both were relatively flat. Australia had just scored 380 on the pitch and it hadnt started to break up yet. The difference was in the pressure on the batsmen. Mc Cullum bowled most of his bowlers with a lot of players in catching positions both for spinners and seamers. Boult was bowling brilliantly and beat the bat a lot of times. Saying that Dhoni was under more pressure than Prior when he came into bat is absurd

It had not started to break up yet and Auckland pitch was a minefield. :cantstop:

[The Outsider]

5th day pitch. this was not an Indian 5th day, but NZ. Pitches in NZ get better as the match progresses and IMO, Bell's innings was better and more important than Prior's, check the score card the kind of temperament Bell showed.

How does it matter is Bell's innings was better or not? The comparison being made is between Dhoni and Prior's innings. :dontknow:

[rkt.india]

Yes, Prior was under pressure, but all the pressure was soaked up by Ian Bell up the order whose innings was more important than Prior's and facing Bruce Martin and Kane Williamson he was really under pressure.

[rkt.india]

How does it matter is Bell's innings was better or not? The comparison being made is between Dhoni and Prior's innings. :dontknow:

Yeah. Right then Prior's innings was better than Dhoni's.

[ganeshran]

It had not started to break up yet and Auckland pitch was a minefield. :cantstop:

Care to read the post ?

both were relatively flat

So you are saying that on the 3rd day pitch where more than 600 runs has been scored over the last 2 days and bit more, it suddenly broke up and became extremely difficult to bat on when Dhoni came to bat. Yea sure. :giggle:

[Crookbond]

It was not a worse pitch than the new Zealand pitch, both were relatively flat. Australia had just scored 380 on the pitch and it hadnt started to break up yet. The difference was in the pressure on the batsmen. Mc Cullum bowled most of his bowlers with a lot of players in catching positions both for spinners and seamers. Boult was bowling brilliantly and beat the bat a lot of times. Saying that Dhoni was under more pressure than Prior when he came into bat is absurd

So from a 5th day pitch for Prior we came to both were relatively flat. Good! Lets take it one by one. Next, is your assertion that the pitch wasn't breaking up.

The day had begun with a slow opening hour in which only 21 runs were scored because of run-saving fields. After Tendulkar fell, the match suddenly went into turbo gear. Offspinner Nathan Lyon had begun to get bite off the pitch, the footmarks had created dust-raising roughs and the scoring had been stifled. Within a few balls, Dhoni changed that. Suddenly Michael Clarke had to shuffle his fielders around. It was less cat-and-mouse and more of a smash-and-grab on Australia's plans.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2013/content/story/606267.html Here is Tendulkar's dismissal

88.4 kph, oh Lyon, what a beauty. That's a lovely offspinner's dismissal. They dream of these, and when you do this to Tendulkar in a Test in Chennai, oh boy what a feeling. Tossed up outside off, exactly in that rough, Tendulkar drives away from the body, and it spins sharply through the gate. Reminiscent of the way Vaughan got him. This one might even have taken the inside edge 196/4

The 5th day NZ pitch was as flat as a pancake and barring Joe Root none of the other batsmen were dismissed due to pitch demons but rather due to bad shots. Also, talk about NZ bowlers bowling well - so were the Aussies before Dhoni came in - just 21 runs in the first hour of the day's play. Next, Dhoni's innings was more physically demanding due to the humidity / heat of Chennai. Also, Dhoni's assault on Lyon led to not only win the Test match but have an impact on Australia to drop Lyon for the next Test match. So Dhoni's innings had far reaching consequences beyond the Test match.

[The Outsider]

When Jaddu's bowling performance is discussed Dhoni fanboyyzz make Chennai pitch sound like a national highway and when Dhoni's batting is discussed fanboyyzz talk about the same pitch being a minefield. :adore:

[Crookbond]

Looks like "intellectually honest" people would like to remember that Australia *always* got the BEST batting conditions.

[ganeshran]

So from a 5th day pitch for Prior we came to both were relatively flat. Good! Lets take it one by one. Next, is your assertion that the pitch wasn't breaking up. http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2013/content/story/606267.html Here is Tendulkar's dismissal

Lyon was bowling a few good deliveries every now and then but was also bowling lot of pies in between those good deliveries. One of those balls got Sachin. No way was he bowling well enough to trouble our batsmen. Of course the NZ pitch was relatively flat, so was the Chennai one, Australia had scored 316 in the first day, India had finished the second at around 200. Plently of runs had been scored before that. Dhoni did nothing against the run of play. His shotmaking was brilliant, but to say that the pitch was difficult to bat on (at that stage) is simply not true.

The 5th day NZ pitch was as flat as a pancake and barring Joe Root none of the other batsmen were dismissed due to pitch demons but rather due to bad shots. Also, talk about NZ bowlers bowling well - so were the Aussies before Dhoni came in - just 21 runs in the first hour of the day's play. Next, Dhoni's innings was more physically demanding due to the humidity / heat of Chennai. Also, Dhoni's assault on Lyon led to not only win the Test match but have an impact on Australia to drop Lyon for the next Test match. So Dhoni's innings had far reaching consequences beyond the Test match.

Barring Pattinson and to some extent Lyon, all Aussie bowlers were bowling utter dross. Starc and Siddle's line was consistently down the leg side. These were easy pcikings for our batsmen Contrast that with the Kiwi seamers who were consistently troubling the English bats even before the new ball was taken. Root played atleast 4-5 false shots in consecutive overs.