Whodunnit: Graeme Smith says it was tail's call to not push for win

[mishra]

Smith blaming Steyn. No wonder he was pissed after the game

[vvvslaxman]

Smith blaming Steyn. No wonder he was pissed after the game

Steyn was pissed off because crowd was booing him.

[Marut]

Advise would not have been not to go for win. At best "protect your wickets". If Ashwin and Zaheer were in the same scenario with 3 overs to go with an injured Shami and Ishant to come my first prayer would be "Please please play safely".

But that is probably because India is not a champion test side, we don't fully trust our abilities. South Africa are current champions and are expected to have the self beleif to pull it off. I strongly think the decision to draw was a team decision and this defensive mentality also explains why they always fail to win major ODI tournaments. This stuff from a champion side is disgraceful. "Safety first" approach will never win you any major tournaments.

[vvvslaxman]

But that is probably because India is not a champion test side' date=' we don't fully trust our abilities. South Africa are current champions and are expected to have the self beleif to pull it off. I strongly think the decision to draw was a team decision and this defensive mentality also explains why they always fail to win major ODI tournaments. This stuff from a champion side is disgraceful. "Safety first" approach will never win you any major tournaments.[/quote'] Champion side doesn't mean tailenders won't play like top order batsman. Steyn is still a tailender whether they are top side or not. THey proved they are top side by coming that close. Unfortunate run out means they had to weigh their options. We cannot ignore they scored 450 runs to save the test. Just because couple of tailenders did not go after Indian seamers won't make them disgraceful. What about india.. We are no.2 side.. why didn't we go for wickets. why did we bowl bouncers? Are we disgraceful too?

[Marut]

Champion side doesn't mean tailenders won't play like top order batsman. Steyn is still a tailender whether they are top side or not. THey proved they are top side by coming that close. Unfortunate run out means they had to weigh their options. We cannot ignore they scored 450 runs to save the test. Just because couple of tailenders did not go after Indian seamers won't make them disgraceful. What about india.. We are no.2 side.. why didn't we go for wickets. why did we bowl bouncers? Are we disgraceful too?

Philander cannot be treated as a tailender. As long as Philander was there, India had everything to worry about. The target was so close that a couple of wild swings could see them through. Yeah, India was a bit cowardly too, what more can you expect from Dhoni, who refused to chase 90 odd in Jamaica. But I thought Smith was different, at least in test matches.

[vvvslaxman]

Philander cannot be treated as a tailender. As long as Philander was there' date=' India had everything to worry about. The target was so close that a couple of wild swings could see them through. Yeah, India was a bit cowardly too, what more can you expect from Dhoni, who refused to chase 90 odd in Jamaica. But I thought Smith was different, at least in test matches.[/quote'] Ido you how fast SA scored at Perth inquest of win. They are not cowardly. Wanderes pitch had cracks. One mistimed edge means match would have been over in that over itself. You need tremendous application there. Imagine philander gets out in that over. India will have 2 full overs to bowl SA out. With tailenders run out was also a possibility. India will have easily won.

[moniker]

What I don't understand is, why wasn't even a single yorker bowled at the tailenders? They weren't going for their shots anyway.

[I6MTW]

Philander's batting is similar to Bhuvi's batting, not even Ashwin's. He is not a full batsmen. He is a bowler capable of batting.

[South_Paw]

South African paceman Dale Steyn was really upset for being booed by the crowd and being targeted for criticism following the drawn first cricket Test against India, according to his teammate AB De Villiers.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/376521/booing-criticism-upset-steyn-villiers.html

[PAA-G]

Ironically the match was tossed up like a coin....where the result was influenced by tails (philsteyn) n not by heads(smith)

[Ram]

Find it quite weird that the Smith chose to throw the tail-enders under the bus by saying it was their call 'to shut off the chase after a point...' He should have take full responsibility and said 'It was my call. I told Vernon and Dale to stop going for it once the 7th wicket fell and we were in danger of losing the game if we took too many risks..'

[nballa]

One word: Chokers

yep, 450+ runs lead with 5 sessions remaining and we couldn't close it out. we chocked

[youngindia]

philander or steyn had to take max 2 or 3 chances .that was realistic risk they should have taken

[Pagalpanti]

Steyn didnt take chance from ball 1, ridiculous to think he wasn't sent in with a message. He refused singles FFS. And that last 6 he hit out of frustration seemed more like proving a point to the team think-tank that he could've chanced a win for SA there.

[Marut]

What I don't understand is' date=' why wasn't even a single yorker bowled at the tailenders? They weren't going for their shots anyway.[/quote'] Zak did attempt a yorker to Philander but it did not land as well as he expected. A bit risky to bowl yorkers at that juncture, it can easily become a full toss or a half volley.

[Marut]

Ido you how fast SA scored at Perth inquest of win. They are not cowardly. Wanderes pitch had cracks. One mistimed edge means match would have been over in that over itself. You need tremendous application there. Imagine philander gets out in that over. India will have 2 full overs to bowl SA out. With tailenders run out was also a possibility. India will have easily won.

At Perth they were chasing an away win, where loosing isn't as embarassing. Now loosing to a team at home like India with poor recent away record, after all the pre match hype would have been pretty embarassing for them. They thought "not loosing" was more important than winning. Hence the result.

[skindia]

Srini must have called him for ipl contract of csk

[prinzo]

How can the current SA team be a great team when they have never won a series in India, SL, Pakistan (UAE)? The current team in last 4-5 years has failed to beat India, Aus and Eng at home as well. They are a great team currently but will go down in history as a 'very good team' for not losing a series in last 5-6 years. Not sure even if they had gone onto win yesterday, the tag would have changed much except for making this a historical record breaking chase.

SA did win a test series in India. If you talking about current team then BCCI and CSA should agree to test series every year or 2 to give more opportunity