The bowling was full strength, though. Unless you want to posit that Sreesanth is a better pick than Ishant, that's both possible and unlikely. Any chances of winning this match disappeared when India just couldn't get SA out once.
Not really having any of that. South Africa won because they bowled so much better than India did. It's not like Vijay and Badrinath are bad batsmen. As Dhoni was gracious enough to admit, the top order generally were getting out to really, really good deliveries.
It would be a better side to draw the game, I have no doubts abt that esp considering Dravid's recent form
Dravid could have kept those good deliveries out. He isn't known as the wall for no reason.
I am not getting too optimistic here and I am not saying that we could have won. We could have comfortably drawn the game if Dravid had played. He could have supported Sehwag in the first innings and Sehwag would have stayed out there longer without as much pressure.
Apart from Amla and Kallis, nobody else really made big runs did they? With Laxman coming back a big chunk of the batting deficiency in the middle order will be solved, and Tendulkar, Sehwag all are in form too. Gambhir just had a poor game after months of sterling consistency so nothing really needs to be done on that front immediately. Badri had a good first innings under extreme pressure but it is actually Vijay who is the sore thumb here. He bats like a god but his inconsistency reminds me of the gun in my avatar. We are better than SA in terms of batting strength going into the second test, but our bowling is not even 30% as strong as SA's. Their worst bowler, Parnell can give our best bowler, Zaheer a run for his money and Harris looks ten times as better as Harbhajan. If we don't really wake up to the FACT that our bowling is perhaps in the middle or lower rung as far as test nations are concerned we are not going maintain our rankings. Right now, the temporary solution is to plough down the Eden Gardens wicket and starve it to purgatorial finesse and let loose all our spinners on it.
A super human effort wasn't required to merely draw this game though. India just missed Dravid who has proven multiple times in the past that he can hold one end without losing his wicket for many sessions.
India missed BOTH Dravid and Laxman in this test match. This pitch was essentially tailor made for Laxman. No real uneven bounce, reasonable pace off the bat and bowlers pitching it up, the stuff he would put away for runs day after day. Add to that a left arm spinner bowling at his legs.
Overall figures Player Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s
G Gambhir 8 15 2 947 167 72.84 1675 56.53 5 2 0 106 3
SR Tendulkar 9 14 2 912 160 76.00 1538 59.29 5 3 0 111 7
V Sehwag 9 15 1 909 293 64.92 911 99.78 3 3 0 132 12
R Dravid 8 13 2 886 177 80.54 1785 49.63 3 5 0 113 4
VVS Laxman 7 11 3 547 124* 68.37 1072 51.02 1 6 1 75 0Yeah, he could have. He also might not have. That's so easy to say in his absence.
What was Tendulkar averaging against them at home? It was poor as well. Form temporary class perma etc.
precam please.stop your trollin please.
