Final nail for the coffin anyone ?

[Ram]

That is the only thing we need yet for this Pakistan team, to be honest. That they are down in the dumps mentally could be found out from this - India are chasing 255 for victory in the 4th ODI. Sachin and Sehwag put on a 100 for the 3rd wicket. The pakistanis are desperate for a wicket. Now, Sehwag hits ball the STRAIGHT to mid-on for a run, Shoaib Malik hits down the stumps in what was run-out that could be judged even with the naked eye. Yet , there was absolutely no SEMBLANCE of celebration from any of the pakistani players, niether from the bowler or from the fielder himself. In fact , they seemed not too bothered by it , with all of them hardly even getting together. I say we should win the one-day series 4-1 and the test 3-0. Anything less will be a disappointment.

[sm332]

That is the only thing we need yet for this Pakistan team, to be honest. That they are down in the dumps mentally could be found out from this - India are chasing 255 for victory in the 4th ODI. Sachin and Sehwag put on a 100 for the 3rd wicket. The pakistanis are desperate for a wicket. Now, Sehwag hits ball the STRAIGHT to mid-on for a run, Shoaib Malik hits down the stumps in what was run-out that could be judged even with the naked eye. Yet , there was absolutely no SEMBLANCE of celebration from any of the pakistani players, niether from the bowler or from the fielder himself. In fact , they seemed not too bothered by it , with all of them hardly even getting together. I say we should win the one-day series 4-1 and the test 3-0. Anything less will be a disappointment.

hold your horses mate ... i will be happy with the series win .... a lot will depend on the surfaces we prepare ...

[Holysmoke]

We need to destroy the pakistanis.If we want to go into OZland with any kind of confidence at all, we need to make sure we dont lose a single test...

[Bumper]

That is the only thing we need yet for this Pakistan team, to be honest. That they are down in the dumps mentally could be found out from this - India are chasing 255 for victory in the 4th ODI. Sachin and Sehwag put on a 100 for the 3rd wicket. The pakistanis are desperate for a wicket. Now, Sehwag hits ball the STRAIGHT to mid-on for a run, Shoaib Malik hits down the stumps in what was run-out that could be judged even with the naked eye. Yet , there was absolutely no SEMBLANCE of celebration from any of the pakistani players, niether from the bowler or from the fielder himself. In fact , they seemed not too bothered by it , with all of them hardly even getting together. I say we should win the one-day series 4-1 and the test 3-0. Anything less will be a disappointment.

Excellent point marirs. This is where this Pak team is missing that 'fire in the belly'. In those days, one wicket is all it took for Wasim or Waqar to smell blood. I recall the game in Singapore, when Jayasuriya was going hammer & tongs scoring the fastest 50 in ODIs & the chase has been reduced to 3.5 rpo. Out goes Jayasuriya, Waqar & co dimiss the Lankans cheaply & win the game handsomely. Even as late as the 2003 wcup, when Tendulkar had pretty much won the game when he was out, you could see the thrill & excitement in the Pak team after his wicket fell, almost gave you the feeling that they have come back into the game. This Pak team seems too friendly to inspire a competitive series

[Mr. Wicket]

Agree with most of it, bar the 3-0 prediction (there'll be at least one draw). Nice thoughts. Mind if I flesh a couple of them (re. the killer instinct) out into an article later today/tomorrow, unless you'd rather do it?

[Ram]

Agree with most of it' date=' bar the 3-0 prediction (there'll be at least one draw). Nice thoughts. Mind if I flesh a couple of them (re. the killer instinct) out into an article later today/tomorrow, unless you'd rather do it?[/quote'] Please go ahead !

[theguyinallblue]

i think they thought that sehwag was in..this is what commentators were also discussing..

[fineleg]

i think they thought that sehwag was in..this is what commentators were also discussing..

Yes, I think it was not 100% clear when seen in real time. Thats probably why they did not jump up in glee immediately. I think we are reading too much into this.

[Ram]

i think they thought that sehwag was in..this is what commentators were also discussing..

Yes' date=' I think it was not 100% clear when seen in real time. Thats probably why they did not jump up in glee immediately. I think we are reading too much into this.[/quote'] Are you kidding ? That was out the moment the ball hit the stumps. That was the most stupid run ever !

[Dhondy]

Staggered by the amount of optimism here. Have you guys taken a leaf out of Asif and Shoaib's book, and been sniffing glue or something? An India Pakistan series end 2-0, 3-0? Gee, how naive can you be? How naive? I can see India on her knees half way through the Kotla Test, having selected Bhajji and looking up at a mountainous 550 by Pakistan on the back of towering slalom runs by Younis and Yousuf. After Dinesh Kartick's honeymoon has finally ended, the world will wake up to Rahul Dravid's passage to mediocrity on the back of his eleventh failure on the trot. I can see us struggling to avoid follow on, and you lot, the bubbly bunch, punch drunk on a bit of ODI success, go puce in the face as the premature celebrations unravel . A 1-1 series outcome will be a victory for Pakistan, and something tells me they are going to get it, just as they did in 2005, with a far inferior team. Boiled crow for lunch, folks?

[Bumper]

Good job Dhondy at your reverse jinx. Am not overconfident but confident that we can beat them, after we saw the way they competed in the ODIs. In 2005, Pak may have been a weak team, but competed bloody well in all tests. In the first test, they played out of their skins to eke out a draw. In the Kolkatta test, until the KKD-Dravid partnership Pak was very much in the game. Even while chasing, Afridi's fireworks showed they had the fight. In the Bangalore test, they nailed the series. But this Pak team, fails to induce the fear that any Pak team in history would have. I'd be shocked if we let Pak win a test match.

[dial_100]

I agree with Bumps... 2-0 is very much on the table.. right now.

[Ram]

I dont want to see Pakistan defeated, I want to see them hammered. This has got nothing to do Pakistan ( well , maybe not :D) but i just want India to hammer the living daylights out of their opponent. We can do it , we have the tools but beyond all , the opponent is floundering. God , how much i would give to see India win the toss in the first, bat first and get 550+. That is effectively the series sealed.

[Mr. Wicket]

I can see us struggling to avoid follow on' date=' and you lot, the bubbly bunch, punch drunk on a bit of ODI success, go puce in the face as the premature celebrations unravel .[/quote'] Excuse me, but I'm punch drunk (and very much so) on Phil Jaques' success, not ODI success.:D I expect a 3-0 result is asking for a bit too much, but a draw would be very disappointing. Pakistan's attack looked downright insipid at times against South Africa, and I hope Dravid's break in Ranji cricket has helped him get some form and focus back (two tons, one of which was a double, suggest it was the case). If he clicks and the guns like Dhoni and Jaffer stand up, this should be won.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[DesiChap]

A 4-1 ODI victory and 3-0 Test will be sweet. I would be more than happy to settle for a 2-0 test victory :D

[The Outsider]

Some of the optimism surrounding the test series is just wierd.

[apocalypse]

Squads likely India: 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Virender Sehwag, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt and wk), 6 Robin Uthappa, 7 Rohit Sharma, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Murali Kartik, 11 Sreesanth. Pakistan: 1 Salman Butt, 2 Shoaib Malik (capt), 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Kamran Akmal, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Rao Iftikhar Anjum, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Umar Gul.

[coffee_rules]

Not having Afridi in tests is good. He used to give great starts or middles in tests and used to break partnerships. Even in the Kumble test, Afridi and Anwar had put a 100+ opening partnership chasing 408 and then Kumble happened.

[Captain of Bhangra]

Test cricket is a different game altogether. I don't need to remind you that we lost the last Test series to them, and hammered them 4-1 in the ODIs not long after... A lot will depend on the surfaces, but if we don't back Sreesanth, RP, etc, and prepare our usual surfaces with Bhaji, Kumble, and the batsmen in mind, it will simply take the coin toss landing in favour of Pakistan to sort us out. It will be Bangalore revisited, in that series, the Mohali Test came back to bite us, but if Pakistan had won the toss in the 2nd Test, we'd have lost that series. Similarly, if we'd won the toss at Bangalore, it'd be 2-0 to us. That's not cool, I'd rather see matches where you have a chance even if the coin flips the bird at you...