***Official*** South Africa in India

[funnygirl]

So Indian bastmen played after eating sleeping tablets or what ? Is this the same pitch we got out for 76 . I badly want double centuries from Sehwag ,Dravid and Laxman and a centrury from Pathan in the second innings

 

[jeevan]

Stage is set for the first ever back-to-back triple ton by any batsman.

Indias prospects in this match are about as much as Sehwag doing exactly that.

ps What a way for Kirsten and Upton to start their tenure. Indian batsmen suffer from mental disintegration against SA right after India appoint a South African mental conditioning coach.

 

[Anil]

any discussion on the outcome of this test other than how much south africa will win by is moot...

 

[Jono]

any discussion on the outcome of this test other than how much south africa will win by is moot...

I'm calling an innings and 310 runs.

 

[haroon510]

i have been critisized for bashing Kallis on his 40 or so strike rate bating.. i want to make it clear.. i didn't want Kallis to bat in strike of 70 or 80 or soo on..the way i wanted him to bat was the way ABD did. what a fine batsman he is. a fab innings that not only was entertaining but also consist of his petianed skills.. strike rate of 65 or 70 is fab in test matches.. that is what i needed to see from kallis and in next innings from Dravid.. which means i am asking for mricales..

 

[ret]

I could point out that this is timely evidence for why every partnership between batsmen is valuable, how 1 partnership can transform an innings and how to expect only the top 5 to score runs is crazy and dangerous. I could, but I won't.

yep, all partnerships are important

let's analyze the SA squad

Batting - Smith, Mackenzie, Amla, Prince and de Villiars
All-rounders - Kallis and Boucher
Bowlers - Styen, Ntini, Morkel and Harris

let's analyze the Ind squad

Batting - Jaffar, Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly
All-rounders - Dhoni and Pathan
Bowlers - Sree, RP, Kumble and Bhajji

Since deVilliars scored batting at #6, you thought that, ah ha, SA has a long batting line up and it's not like it's top 5 who have to score .... what you probably ignored is the fact that deVilliars used to bat way higher in the SA line up and is one of the top 5 batsmen in the SA line up

Now if Ind were to change its batting line up to something like

Jaffar, Sehwag, Pathan, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and if Dravid and Laxman were to score then are we suppose to be happy and say ah, ha see even #6 is scoring so it does not mean that only top 5 have to score

Dude, both Ind and SA are playing with a similar combination, the difference is that for SA, Kallis, who does the 5th bowler duties, is batting at 4, while Pathan for Ind is batting at #7 and thats coz they are not of the same quality as far as batting is concerned .... Kallis is a batting all-rounder, while Pathan a bowling but they both lend balance to their sides .... If we were to make Pathan bat in top order then you will find #6 for Ind being as strong as any other teams duh .... and Pathan, if not as good as Amla as a batsman, is certainly not that inferior

what you overlooked is that both Kallis and deVilliars are in SA's top 5 [unless ofc you think Amla is better that deVilliars] ..... it's just that the batting order doesn't reflect that while for Ind the top 5 batsmen in this test are batting from one to five .... and I write from an Indian perspective and when I say top 5 it usually mean Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly .... if Kumble and Bhajji open the batting then that doesn't make them the top 5, does that?

Point: don't judge the top 5 solely on the batting order as top 5 batsmen in different sides don't necessarily bat in similar positions

 

[jeevan]

any discussion on the outcome of this test other than how much south africa will win by is moot...

While situation is certainly bleak, I hope the Indian batting line up fights like hell in the second innings. Perhaps a bit too much to expect Sehwag to triple up (was a joke), but should certainly expect this lineup to respond with a massive second innings.

 

[Goughy]

Since deVilliars scored batting at #6, you thought that, ah ha, SA has a long batting line up and it's not like it's top 5 who have to score .... what you probably ignored is the fact that deVilliars used to bat way higher in the SA line up and is one of the top 5 batsmen in the SA line up

Now if Ind were to change its batting line up to something like

Jaffar, Sehwag, Pathan, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and if Dravid and Laxman were to score then are we suppose to be happy and say ah, ha see even #6 is scoring so it does not mean that only top 5 have to score

Dude, both Ind and SA are playing with a similar combination, the difference is that for SA, Kallis, who does the 5th bowler duties, is batting at 4, while Pathan for Ind is batting at #7 and thats coz they are not of the same quality as far as batting is concerned .... Kallis is a batting all-rounder, while Pathan a bowling but they both lend balance to their sides .... If we were to make Pathan bat in top order then you will find #6 for Ind being as strong as any other teams duh .... and Pathan, if not as good as Amla as a batsman, is certainly not that inferior

what you overlooked is that both Kallis and deVilliars are in SA's top 5 [unless ofc you think Amla is better that deVilliars] ..... it's just that the batting order doesn't reflect that while for Ind the top 5 batsmen in this test are batting from one to five .... and I write from an Indian perspective and when I say top 5 it usually mean Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly .... if Kumble and Bhajji open the batting then that doesn't make them the top 5, does that?

Point: don't judge the top 5 solely on the batting order as top 5 batsmen in different sides don't necessarily bat in similar positions

Wow, way to talk around the point. Keep flogging something when you are clearly wrong. SA picked 6 specialist batsmen. Sure they are lucky that Kallis bowls but there are 6 batsmen and a v. good keeper bat at 7. Teams rely on top 7, not top 5 to score heavily in modern cricket.

Pathan doesnt add balance at 7, he weakens the team and he is massively inferior to Amla as a batsman and isnt comparable to Kallis as an allrounder. Bowling allrounders are out of place in the top 7 unless they are guys like Kapil and Flintoff.

If Dhoni was a proven and successful Test batsman then Id maybe see how picking 5 bats may be justified. However he isnt at the moment and has not deserved a top 6 spot.

Pollock was a better batsman than Pathan yet he spent most of his career at 8 or below.

There is no two ways of looking at it. The composition of this Indian team is poor and you can try and draw similarities with the SA team but its false.

Dhoni at 7 looks good. Dhoni at 6 looks very weak.

 

[aussie]

God damnit the bats some batsmen use these days are just magnificent..

 

[silentstriker]

Hah, how about a match saving triple from someone?

 

[silentstriker]

Well there goes one. Test to be over by the end of the day today? I think so.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Sehwag goes early for a quickfire 17.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

All set for Dravid to channel Hanif.

 

[biased indian]

it will be by a inng and 140 runs

 

[DaRick]

All set for Dravid to channel Hanif.

Well, Dravid's in the pavillion now, so no chance of that happening.

 

[biased indian]

it will be by a inng and 140 runs

make it 240

 

[Googenheim]

make it 240

lol. The Indian team looking to banish all criticism of pathetic fifth day batting collapses by ensuring the match goes nowhere near a fifth day to begin with.

 

[Jono]

Sachin out of the third test too

 

[honestbharani]

Funny now that the guys who seemed to be under the pump, as far as their places were concerned, are getting some runs in now. Not that Ganguly and Dhoni aren't playing well, but I really wonder how much runs in such situations count....... And it seems Dhoni has had a couple of lives already as well.........

 

[Scaly piscine]

I really hate it when teams declare too early, I hope India somehow scrape 500+ and SA choke chasing it. I know the odds are tiny, but bad declarations will bite someone again sometime in the future because every country keeps doing it.