Defensive and disgusting

[Mr. Wicket]

New ball handed to Harbhajan for the first over of the chase. No Powar, no Sreesanth. Zaheer shunted to second bowler, RP demoted to a change bowler. Harbhajan had a mantle to wear as senior and strike bowler here with the new ball. He was the guy Dhoni turned to first, expecting results because wickets were needed to make a fight of it. There was turn and bounce on offer, and that too in spades. In the first few overs, Harbhajan turned one almost square to the point that Dravid caught it at slip. Yet he refused to attack. Bowled with the same trajectory, refused to flight it, and kept his line predictable, consistent and negative. Sent it down outside the left handers' leg stump, let it rip square - with the turn on offer, Gilchrist and Hayden rarely had to worry about their stumps being threatened if it pitched in line, and when it pitched outside, they could play with some care knowing they couldn't get out LBW. This became obvious after the first over, yet Harbhajan did nothing. Length balls without too much flight, all in the same area outside the leg stump, with little chance of getting Gilchrist or Hayden bowled or LBW, and giving them insurance to leave the balls. Nothing fuller, nothing from around the wicket, no intention or effort whatsoever to try and make anything happen. And that, more than the lack of wickets, is what grates. His figures after the first five overs reflected it all: 5 0 8 0. Lovely without context. In this game, disgraceful. His captain and side needed him to attack, go for wickets and bowl flat out to try and remove at least one of the openers and get into the middle order. Instead he chose to protect his figures and Australia played along, handling him with care in the knowledge that he was the opposition's most dangerous bowler, the one guy who could win the game for India and that they could and would get the runs off the other, lesser bowlers. It's one thing to go down. It's another to go down like this, trying to minimize damage rather than really make a fight of it. Dismal.

[Gambit]

Agreed. I said this a few days ago: I like watching spinners, who attack, in ODIs. Murali(who isn't really a bowler but that's a debate for another day) makes for compelling viewing because he attacks. Saqi, who is the best ODI spinner I have ever seen, relentlessly attacked the batsmen. Warney did the same, especially in the 1999 world cup. It is when spinners look to contain rather than attack that they look rather boring and toothless. Bhajji has been guilty of this for some time now. As one of our frontline bowlers, we want him to prise out batsmen, not bowl a quiet 10 overs for 40 runs. Same old drifting onto legs with a packed legside field stuff. If Bhajji continues to bowl with that mindset, I'd rather play Chawla and 3 quicks. Chawla has that aggressive mindset that many spinners lack today. He may go for 4.5-6 an over but he will get wickets. And in ODIs, nothing slows down scoring like wicke

[Mr. Wicket]

I am also reminded of that spectacular win in Mumbai three years ago. Defending 107, Dravid handed the new ball to Murali Kartik. Kartik didn't take the Harbhajan route that day, and made history because of it. He attacked - went around the wicket right away, made the batsmen play, prod and get out. When he'd struck twice in his first over, the game immediately opened. That's what saw the game turn - Australia's captain and then their best player of spin being removed in a single over by a spinner willing to risk it all. That's the difference between Harbhajan and these other bowlers. Kartik, Warne, Kumble, for example- they may not all be on the same talent planes, but they are fearless. They will risk it in situations like this. If their captain gives them the ball, they will understand what is expected of them, and try and do it, and to hell with their bowling figures, economy rates and such. Harbhajan sadly is not made of the same material.

[Guest HariSampath]

Salil, lets not lose focus here just because we crawled to 148 and start having a go at the bowlers. 99 times out of 100 anything less than 150 cannot be defended . So what about the "all star cast top order" with 145,000,600,432 runs between them at an average of 6,134,268.75 at a strike rate of 99.98768956% ?? !!! Face it, in EACH match this series the aussies have won the new battle against the Indians. It is just that in that rain affected game and the Suresh Shastri game that we won, we chose to ignore it and gloss over it. Thats exactly what happened today, we didn't accept it even to ourselves , being misled by phantom opening starts, deceptive 40s and 50s by our "star cast" , the number 3 etc. We wsere "talking" about rotation all the time, why didn't we select the right teams in the first place ? The team's top order and senior players have let the gteam down comprehensively and they are squarely responsible for the defeat, that is the defeat reading 0-5 at the moment in my book, for I refuse to accept the sole win as a win as it was almost entirely due to deliberately biased umpiring towards India.

[fineleg]

Bhajji may have made mistakes. We'll nitpick that later. Today the batsmen need to be scathingly attacked. We'll tackle the hapless bowlers later.

[fineleg]

What can we say about our current lot of players? No shame' date=' no goal to win and their ambition is to make money. These guys are di*kless. They better go play hide and seek instead of embarrising nation's name.[/quote'] Mouni, From a diff thread, but I agree totally. RIDICULOUS performance by these guys.

[Chandan]

Bhajji may have made mistakes. We'll nitpick that later. Today the batsmen need to be scathingly attacked. We'll tackle the hapless bowlers later.

The batsmen don't even deserve the attack--so pathetic they were!!

[coffee_rules]

Dude, the spinners can attack with some backbone made by runs by the batsmen.

[putrevus]

I am also reminded of that spectacular win in Mumbai three years ago. Defending 107, Dravid handed the new ball to Murali Kartik. Kartik didn't take the Harbhajan route that day, and made history because of it. He attacked - went around the wicket right away, made the batsmen play, prod and get out. When he'd struck twice in his first over, the game immediately opened. That's what saw the game turn - Australia's captain and then their best player of spin being removed in a single over by a spinner willing to risk it all. That's the difference between Harbhajan and these other bowlers. Kartik, Warne, Kumble, for example- they may not all be on the same talent planes, but they are fearless. They will risk it in situations like this. If their captain gives them the ball, they will understand what is expected of them, and try and do it, and to hell with their bowling figures, economy rates and such. Harbhajan sadly is not made of the same material.

the same karthick was in the team today what did he do , Karthick was never match winner nor he will be, in the sydney in 2004 , he never showed up to match when we had 705 runs to defend , kumble was left to battle on his own.After one match he was all over place telling media , the plan they had for symonds and hayden , where is that plan.It is high time these guys shut up and play.

[Sooda]

Zaheer should be rested for the Pak series

[DravidDaBest]

Salil, lets not lose focus here just because we crawled to 148 and start having a go at the bowlers. 99 times out of 100 anything less than 150 cannot be defended . So what about the "all star cast top order" with 145,000,600,432 runs between them at an average of 6,134,268.75 at a strike rate of 99.98768956% ?? !!! Face it, in EACH match this series the aussies have won the new battle against the Indians. It is just that in that rain affected game and the Suresh Shastri game that we won, we chose to ignore it and gloss over it. Thats exactly what happened today, we didn't accept it even to ourselves , being misled by phantom opening starts, deceptive 40s and 50s by our "star cast" , the number 3 etc. We wsere "talking" about rotation all the time, why didn't we select the right teams in the first place ? The team's top order and senior players have let the gteam down comprehensively and they are squarely responsible for the defeat, that is the defeat reading 0-5 at the moment in my book, for I refuse to accept the sole win as a win as it was almost entirely due to deliberately biased umpiring towards India.

Its quite obvious that top order let India down. But the point of this thread was NOT who was the culprit for the defeat but rather why Harbhajan is not attacking when he has so much assistance. As far as your Suresh Shastri comment, it is silly & plain stupid comment to say the least.

[BERGKAMP]

basically bhajji is a pusssy. and the batsmen dont really give a shitt. they all have their mansions and millions to go back to. no hunger and the attitude of win at all costs, thats the problem.

[sachin_fan]

Salil, lets not lose focus here just because we crawled to 148 and start having a go at the bowlers. 99 times out of 100 anything less than 150 cannot be defended . So what about the "all star cast top order" with 145,000,600,432 runs between them at an average of 6,134,268.75 at a strike rate of 99.98768956% ?? !!! Face it, in EACH match this series the aussies have won the new battle against the Indians. It is just that in that rain affected game and the Suresh Shastri game that we won, we chose to ignore it and gloss over it. Thats exactly what happened today, we didn't accept it even to ourselves , being misled by phantom opening starts, deceptive 40s and 50s by our "star cast" , the number 3 etc. We wsere "talking" about rotation all the time, why didn't we select the right teams in the first place ? The team's top order and senior players have let the gteam down comprehensively and they are squarely responsible for the defeat, that is the defeat reading 0-5 at the moment in my book, for I refuse to accept the sole win as a win as it was almost entirely due to deliberately biased umpiring towards India.

I agree to all you are saying mr.sampath...but the point remains...every bowler, at every stage of a match....should keep victory in his mind and work towards it...scoring 150 is no excuse to give the match away...u need to be clever as a captain and a bowler to make it as hard as possible to the opposition...thts where we score over the other team, india failedi n that as well

[Mr. Wicket]

HS, you're missing the point. This is not a response to yesterday's game, or to the collapse or to the result. There is a larger issue here: Harbhajan is the most likely man to take up the strike spinner mantle in tests when Kumble retires. But this is his present mindset: negative, defensive and unwilling to take the bigger risks for his team despite having all the talent in the world. Much more concerning than a 9 wicket loss to Australia in one ODI.

[DravidDaBest]

HS, you're missing the point. This is not a response to yesterday's game, or to the collapse or to the result. There is a larger issue here: Harbhajan is the most likely man to take up the strike spinner mantle in tests when Kumble retires. But this is his present mindset: negative, defensive and unwilling to take the bigger risks for his team despite having all the talent in the world. Much more concerning than a 9 wicket loss to Australia in one ODI.

Harbhajan with his current mindset can only be a support bowler and will never be strike bowler

[Mr. Wicket]

Indeed, and that's a real shame. He has all the skills to be a lethal strike bowler - loop, drift, flight, wicked turn and a great topspinner and doosra - but lacks the mindset. All the more reason to hope Chawla really comes through and can crack it at test level.

[yoda]

I still don't accept starting with a spinner.

[Hawkeye]

The damage had been done before Harbhajan stepped at the crease to release his first delivery but his wilful decision to defend bordered the criminal. He not only ignored the advice of Ganguly who was pressing him to bowl around the wicket for obvious reasons but seemed to forget that he was facing two fantastic in-form batsman who, with the rest of the Australian team, had to get out in single figures if there was any chance of winning. Let's not forget that his brief cameo with the bat going for a wild shot wasn't exactly award winning either.

[Rahul Khan]

they all have their mansions and millions to go back to. no hunger and the attitude of win at all costs, thats the problem.

thats the point...at least they should respect the national interest...they must be made to realize in a proper manner...isn't it?