***Official*** India in South Africa

[Jono]

Screw the pitch, the guy will get out again fetching something outside off stump, again. And it's not like Gambhir isn't a batsman either. Gambhir deserved a spot in the side, Sehwag deserves to be in India.

Just like he chases balls on slow pitches all the time right?

Wait hang on, he's got hundreds, double hundreds and even a triple hundred on pitches like these.

Look, I feel for Gambhir, and Sehwag may well fail in this test in both innings, but you have to look at it from their view. That middle order looks very good, Sehwag coming in when the ball is old could be deadly.

 

[Dravid]

These guys going along well. 50 run partnership up

 

[silentstriker]

I am almost afraid to say this - but this pitch looks Indian. Who is the groundskeeper, we need to send him a thank you card.

 

[Dravid]

Just like he chases balls on slow pitches all the time right?

Wait hang on, he's got hundreds, double hundreds and even a triple hundred on pitches like these.

Look, I feel for Gambhir, and Sehwag may well fail in this test in both innings, but you have to look at it from their view. That middle order looks very good, Sehwag coming in when the ball is old could be deadly.

But your talking like Gambhir isn't a good batsman for these kind of pitches. He just came out of domestic Cricket in the form of his life.

 

[adharcric]

I am almost afraid to say this - but this pitch looks Indian. Who is the groundskeeper, we need to send him a thank you card.

Let's wait until we win the match, shall we?

 

[silentstriker]

They just need to go to lunch unscathed. The commentators are talking about run rate, but 2.57 is a perfectly acceptable run rate at this point.

 

[adharcric]

But your talking like Gambhir isn't a good batsman for these kind of pitches. He just came out of domestic Cricket in the form of his life.

Sehwag is more proven than Gambhir at the highest level. I'm a huge Gambhir fan, but Sehwag is a key member of the Indian test side and he has a good chance of getting back into form on such a pitch. That said, Karthik having a good technique probably helped them make the decision to retain Sehwag.

 

[Dravid]

If Sehwag doesn't do anything here today, and still manages to be a part of the team in the next tour, I will be very disappointed in the selectors.

 

[silentstriker]

Paul Harris coming on - time to lay into him.

 

[adharcric]

Before this test, we've had opening partnerships of 14, 20, 5 and 14 ... for a grand total of 53.

That's right, we've just eclipsed that in one innings. Dire stuff in the first two tests.

 

[Dravid]

**** that was crazy

 

[silentstriker]

Or maybe not. Could he be a decent SA spinner, at last?

 

[adharcric]

If Sehwag doesn't do anything here today, and still manages to be a part of the team in the next tour, I will be very disappointed in the selectors.

The next tour is in England and that is several months away. We have a Ranji Trophy match, 8 ODIs and the World Cup before then.

 

[Prince EWS]

Wow I had no idea Harris was from Zimbabwe. Another one who got away.

 

[Dravid]

61-0 at lunch

 

[silentstriker]

Yea, RR is fine IMO. Now that you got through a session, you can start opening up. Not too much, an RR of about 3-3.5 is fine the rest of the day.

 

[Jono]

Before this test, we've had opening partnerships of 14, 20, 5 and 14 ... for a grand total of 53.

That's right, we've just eclipsed that in one innings. Dire stuff in the first two tests.

Whilst India's opening partnerships were crap, surely the pitch must be taken into account.

But still, LOL @ Karthik already facing more balls and being out in the middle for a longer time in this one innings than Sehwag was in all his 4 innings combined.

 

[Jono]

Or maybe not. Could he be a decent SA spinner, at last?

Those flighted balls to Karthik were good, but nothing too threatening at the moment. Mind you only day 1, but still, unless (as Cricinfo pointed out) India repeat their stupidity against left arm spinners, I fancy Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly against him until the pitch does more.

 

[silentstriker]

Those flighted balls to Karthik were good, but nothing too threatening at the moment. Mind you only day 1, but still, unless (as Cricinfo pointed out) India repeat their stupidity against left arm spinners, I fancy Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly against him until the pitch does more.

Good thing about SA is that they've got four bowlers outside of Harris. So even if he gets taken off, they've got enough to just field an all pace attack.

 

[social]

Smith must be ropable with the groundsman - this pitch is absoutely made to order for the Indians.

Anyway, both batted OK in the face of largely unthreatening bowling

However, unless it breaks up, they'll need plenty