Athlai
Not Terrible
Sweetness.
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***Official India in New Zealand***
- Thread starter James
- Start date
I don't think realistically you can plan for the weather. That is ofcourse an integral part, but there are n number of things a captain must concentrate upon rather worrying about the weather.
And your strongly worded poor opinion of Dhoni is surprising as he is the first Indian captain in 41 years to win a series in Sri Lanka, and that he is yet to lose a single test match as captain, which, considering that the opponents have been Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand, is very creditable.
And while it is easy to blame Dhoni for delaying the declaration in the hindsight, what detractors conveniently forget is that Indian bowlers were given 5 and half sessions, that translates to almost 165 overs of play, to bowl out New Zealand in the second session. And how many did India get in the end? 95 overs. That is not Dhoni's fault. Also had Indian fielders taken their catches, NZ would have been allout atleast 3-4 overs before the rain interruption.
His captaincy was right on target for me, and I think he has once again validated his standing as one of the best captains currently in world cricket. His decision to bring in Tendulkar, ahead of pie chucker favorite Yuvraj, despite the fact that Tendulkar has not bowled in the nets, let alone an International match, for eons, speak of his ingenuity and Sachin didn;t let him down. I have not seen anyone here lauding Dhoni for that spectacular decision.
KiWiNiNjA
International Coach
Hmmmm.....
- Knowing that rain was forcast for Day 5
- Knowing that bad light would definitely end play early on Days 4 and 5, after India declined rescheduling of the start to 10am on the 3 post-Daylight-Savings days
- Slow over-rate with periods with little effort to bowl as many overs as they could
- Wasting overs with the whole "bowl it 1m outside off and laugh" tactic
Also regarding the "if they had taken their catches" bit, you could also mention a "if the umpires hadn't made two dodgy decisions" to that too......
I shall overlook the misquote.
Rain was indeed forecast for Day 5. But then as forecasts they are, could have gone either way, Day 5 could have been washed out fully, or we would have got atleast 70-80 overs. We never knew. Had Day 5 been fully washed off, would people complain that Dhoni should have anticipated that and declared when India were 350+?
The outside off stump theory and laughs etc are of no relevance considering that unless you are prepared to completely downgrade the batting potential of New Zealand, they were not going to give it up without a fight. And the same strategy worked wonders earlier in the home series against Australia. Hence it was worth a punt.
Catches are within the control of the team while umpiring decisions are not. Hence, the last point is irrelevant.
KiWiNiNjA
International Coach
Not really from me.NZ fans taking an interesting amount of pleasure in Dhoni's late declaration
Just pointing out that you can't say it isn't Dhoni's fault.
He is a good captain, who thankfully (as a NZ fan) made a wrong decision.
The test series was still pretty one-sided, but on paper it will look a little less so than it should.
KiWiNiNjA
International Coach
This proves that it isn't misquoting.
350 is too low, but 450-500 is plenty. If NZ chased it down it would have been a world record, and considering the abysmal 1st innings total NZ put up, it was highly unlikely. Yes, India had the series wrapped up but 600 is way to defensive. Of course Dhoni couldn't have known how close India would have come to bowling NZ out, but he could have given his bowlers even more time (say 20-25 overs more) to force a result without any real danger of losing the match.
It was completely useless and served no purpose to forcing a result. It was persisted with for far to long. And it is relevant if you are talking about time to bowl a side out. Why waste overs? There were periods of time where there was absolutely no pressure applied to Franklin and Taylor, and its was all fan and games.
You say IF, I say IF.
If one of Harby's loose shots had of found a fielder in the 1st innings, maybe NZ could have won.
See how they work?
Of course it is irrelevant, just like your IF.
Athlai
Not Terrible
Seems to be.
Flem274*
123/5
Congrats to India, easily the better team. A shame they couldn't take the series 2-0, also a shame the pitches were flat, which made them boring batfests except when we decided it was collapse time. Wanted to see Zaheer/Ishant/Munaf vs O'Brien/Martin/Franklin in helpful conditions, but oh well.
Hope to see Tendulkar back down here again as well
Hope to see Tendulkar back down here again as well
G.I.Joe
International Coach
Haha, feeling sorry for Dravid. He's had a miserable time of late and just as he starts gets into some sort of form India take a long break from testsIndia don't play any test cricket till Nov 2009
What do we do until Nov? IPL, T20 WC and?
Magrat Garlick
Rather Mad Witch
Heard you were going to Zim in July.Haha, feeling sorry for Dravid. He's had a miserable time of late and just as he starts gets into some sort of form India take a long break from tests
Edit: WI first though. For a 4-match series. Itstl.
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biased indian
International Coach
as of nowHaha, feeling sorry for Dravid. He's had a miserable time of late and just as he starts gets into some sort of form India take a long break from tests
we have 4 ODI's aganist WI and 7 ODI's aganist Aus...
silentstriker
The Wheel is Forever
So ridiculous. One of the things that has led to the Indian team getting decent at Test match cricket is lots of matches.
This is one of the other reasons I love the Test Championship idea - every major team would play 12 Tests a year.
This is one of the other reasons I love the Test Championship idea - every major team would play 12 Tests a year.
Hindsight is such a wonderful thing right? You talk as if NZ is such an abysmal side incapable of pulling off any chase above 300 in test cricket, yet you forget that the same side made a handsome 600+ in the second test match. And considering the spate of 375+ run chases we have had recently, including one from Bangladesh, it was always right on the part of Dhoni to err on the side of conservatism. The first priority is to ensure the 1-0 win, then only comes the 2-0. And considering India lost alteast 80 overs in this match, ie, almost a full day, I cannot place any blame on Dhoni being over conservative here. Atleast India managed to capture 18 NZ wickets in less than two days of play, on an easy pitch, and most teams would take it.
India did not take too much time to bowl NZ out. It is just a false perception. NZ batted for a total of 165 odd overs and lost 18 wickets within that. That is a SR of 53 balls per wicket which is extremely creditable on this pitch. I think you are overtly concentrating only on minute tactical minuses by Dhoni and totally overlooking the brilliant snippets of captaincy he displayed during the match, ie, like bringing in Tendulkar etc. If you really just want to have a go at Dhoni, go ahead. But don't care to reason them.
No still I don't. Had Ishant Sharma taken that catch, it can safely be said NZ would not have seen it to a draw today. There is an IF, but not an irrelevant comparison like taking catches to getting umpiring decisions.Talking about umpiring decisions, don't forget that a plumb lbw towards the end of the match off Vettori was not given.
Of course it is irrelevant, just like your IF.[/QUOTE]
Xuhaib
International Coach
Agreed and its lack of is also one of the reason Pakistan has gone down the pottyhole.
KiWiNiNjA
International Coach
And NZ for that matter, although Bracewell had a lot to do with that too.Agreed and its lack of is also one of the reason Pakistan has gone down the pottyhole.
I think it makes sense. There is no team in International cricket that has played so much cricket as India in the last 2 years (Since 2007 World Cup).
India have played both most number of test matches (27) and ODIs (65) since then, SA too have played 27 tests, but only 39 ODIs. So a break is imminent and deserved.
Cricinfo Statsguru - Test matches - Team records
Cricinfo Statsguru - One-Day Internationals - Team records
Also, 15 out of 27 tests India played have all been abroad. And that is really exhausting stuff.