So whats your take on Dhoni's captaincy in this test?

[Yoda-esque]

Haha cricket analysts here nicely summed up in 4 pointts :cantstop:

They are called REs now.See the number of "should haves"

[Ghost Buster]

You judge him for this test but i judge his captaincy overall abroad. Where he is lacking? Attacks philander when he couldnt even defend him properly and defends tahir and duminy. Craves for spinning tracks at home and plonders a given chance to win abroad. He is always and will be a defensive captain thats why we have drawn.

[jf1gp_1]

Also' date= everyone becomes a captain. All viewers watching were like "Dhoni delaying declaration" etc. He knows what our bowling is and is capable of. I am glad he didn't declare before 400. We aren't playing Zimbabwe. This was south africa, and he judged it right. In the end, even 450 was coming out to be a little less to defend against Proteas. This guy is the captain of India for this long for a reason. Hence he is there, controlling a national cricket team, and we are here commenting through our PC and other devices.

i think thats a great point, I was of the opinion 375 was enough so he did well atleast on that front. Overall he did what any captain would have done .

[Yoda-esque]

Credit to keep Rahane at such an important spot, but thumbs down for having Rohit in the slips

[Marut]

Also, everyone becomes a captain. All viewers watching were like "Dhoni delaying declaration" etc. He knows what our bowling is and is capable of. I am glad he didn't declare before 400. We aren't playing Zimbabwe. This was south africa, and he judged it right. In the end, even 450 was coming out to be a little less to defend against Proteas. This guy is the captain of India for this long for a reason. Hence he is there, controlling a national cricket team, and we are here commenting through our PC and other devices.

I think the target of 450 was not the problem per se. If India has set a target of 375 then pressure would have caused them to choke by the time they reached 300 and the result would be the same. Narrow margins of defeats do not mean that the result would be diferent with a different score. Whatever the target, teams play to a plan to chase that target and when they close in they become more careful and there is more pressure. That is why in ODIs, you can have two teams scoring very different scores on two successive days and yet producing the same result. Would India be safe with a target of 500 just because SA slid to 450/7? No.

[saneindian]

I am looking for those who were mad at us batting even after leading by 400+. Rain was likely to have a major say today. On Dhoni's captaincy when we bowled in 1st innings, I thought almost everyone here sais Zaheer was the bowling captain and Dhoni had no role to play?

[BeautifulGame]

I think the target of 450 was not the problem per se. If India has set a target of 375 then pressure would have caused them to choke by the time they reached 300 and the result would be the same. Narrow margins of defeats do not mean that the result would be diferent with a different score. Whatever the target' date=' teams play to a plan to chase that target and when they close in they become more careful and there is more pressure. That is why in ODIs, you can have two teams scoring very different scores on two successive days and yet producing the same result. Would India be safe with a target of 500 just because SA slid to 450/7? No.[/quote'] Yeah right the same batting line up withthat chased 440 away from home would have choked if the target was 375. :lmao:

[Cricketics]

I think the target of 450 was not the problem per se. If India has set a target of 375 then pressure would have caused them to choke by the time they reached 300 and the result would be the same. Narrow margins of defeats do not mean that the result would be diferent with a different score. Whatever the target' date=' teams play to a plan to chase that target and when they close in they become more careful and there is more pressure. That is why in ODIs, you can have two teams scoring very different scores on two successive days and yet producing the same result. Would India be safe with a target of 500 just because SA slid to 450/7? No.[/quote'] These imaginations do not work. India is not playing against mediocre batting team like Windies in India who will collapse to our spin at our home. We are playing South African, in South Africa, where their batters have done well. They might have not scored much but they are still pretty good bats at home, and our bowling was fairly new. Also remember this, giving a target of 375 meant that we are giving south africa full 90 overs of day 5 plus 55 overs of day 4, which is sufficient time for their batsmen to take their own sweet time to score runs without any pressure. Their team has - ABD, AMLA, GRAEME SMITH, in the top and middle order. I would think 100 times before I set them such target when I have option to pile some more runs and given them bigger target.

[ThePhenomenal1]

Overall he did well but underbowled shami. Overbowled ashwin and zak. Also, use of kohli shows that they missed a 4th seamer. Needed 3rd man to protect runs too. But he was more aggressive

[ThePhenomenal1]

He shouldnt select ashwin. Do whats best and attack with 4 seamers

[King Tendulkar]

Have to say. Cant really fault him at all this test. Did well, kept it simple and stuck to sound tactics. Did not try which can be his fault to be over smart and rely on some tragic cricket instinct. Only thing is maybe could have bowled shami more 2nd innings but thats minor compalaint. O and bowling himself was ridiculous! Keeping without pads was pretty stupid as well. Actually thinking about it have many issues!:cantstop:

[Pagalpanti]

Only tactical mistake he did in this test was he over-used Zak a lot in the morning. Zak should be used in short bursts. Also as a batsman Dhoni should back himself to play positively. 1st innings was totally out of character. 2nd innings he did it but was unfortunate as for him most fielders were in the boundaries.

[JourneyMan]

He shouldnt select ashwin. Do whats best and attack with 4 seamers

Are our bowlers fit enough for that? They were really stretched today.

[ThePhenomenal1]

Are our bowlers fit enough for that? They were really stretched today.

M vijay had a decent over, can also use rohit sharma and squeeze in some overs now and then. Maybe kohli has 1 over. But 4 seamers should be fine, especially if durban is pacy meaning they won't need to completely bend their back if they were on a flat pitch. Today, i think they relied on scoreboard runs too much. M shami looked good even at the end and zak gave it his all, his pace even went up to 134/135. Ishant looks tired but can still charge in. Today's issue was the areas we bowled and what side we bowled on, we didn't even change things up to take a wicket. Umesh is fit too, so yeah think we would be good with 4 pacers. Just need the tail to hold up

[Trundler27]

Interestingly enough, dhobi mentioned during the presentation that he expected Zak to continue improving his fitness so that he could do more :cantstop: This was when Mike asked him about Zak's fitness being a pleasant surprise What is he expecting from Zak? 50 overs each innings?

[nballa]

I thought his captaincy was wonderfool

[JourneyMan]

You judge him for this test but i judge his captaincy overall abroad. Where he is lacking? Attacks philander when he couldnt even defend him properly and defends tahir and duminy. Craves for spinning tracks at home and plonders a given chance to win abroad. He is always and will be a defensive captain thats why we have drawn.

I agree that he's always been defensive, but at the same time he has never really had a lethal bowling unit at his disposition. The weapons you have influence your strategy. If we had aggressive wicket-taking bowlers, maybe he would be more ambitious in going for results.

[NareshK]

He set an attacking field and kept 3 slips even when 100 runs were needed. So that's good attacking captaincy. Could have asked Zaheer to bowl over the wickets for a spell and could have used Shami right after tea instead of bowling Zak and Ashwin. I think Shami came on to bowl much later when they were much closer to the target but he looked threatening right away.

[Sidhoni]

He attacked as much as he could. If only we took a wicket in the second session.

[putrevus]

:hatsoff:Greatest captaincy ever displayed by master tactician dhoni in this test.