*Official* India in South Africa

[GotSpin]

Yeah, you tell him Mike. You get thrashed for 4 days when your the best cricket team in the world them cheer for a couple of boundaries. Yay for you.

 

[kingkallis]

Actually i am a New Zealander we get thrashed for 5 days

 

[ankitj]

South Africa v India, 1st Test: Graeme Smith surprised by India's fifth-day approach | Cricket News | South Africa v India | ESPN Cricinfo

Interesting.

So he is rubbing it in. And why shouldn't he? Well played, Smith!

 

[Mike5181]

So he is rubbing it in. And why shouldn't he? Well played, Smith!

He had a bit of a crack at Harbhajan. Fair enough i guess, you want your players thinking that they can perform better than their opposites.

 

[Blaze 18]

He had a bit of a crack at Harbhajan. Fair enough i guess, you want your players thinking that they can perform better than their opposites.

Paul Harris bowled much better than Harbhajan Singh to be honest. I find it hard to believe that Singh has taken three hundred and fifty wickets; he bowls tripe.

 

[Mike5181]

Paul Harris bowled much better than Harbhajan Singh to be honest. I find it hard to believe that Singh has taken three hundred and fifty wickets; he bowls tripe.

Yeah the NZ batsmen like Ryder and McCullum handled him relatively easy in the recent test series. I wonder what has changed some much from a few years ago.

 

[Blaze 18]

Yeah the NZ batsmen like Ryder and McCullum handled him relatively easy in the recent test series. I wonder what has changed some much from a few years ago.

I don't think he troubled any of the New Zealand batsmen, let alone Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum. He was comfortably out-bowled by Daniel Vettori (who had to bowl against better batsmen).

He never was a great bowler to be very honest. He had one dream series in 2001, that is all. I am sure there are better spinners in India (Muralii Kartik is one) but, unfortunately, they will never get a chance to showcase their skills.

 

[Days of Grace]

Too much IPL, T20 and ODI cricket, imo.

Bowls too flat and/or doesn't attack or loop the ball as much as he used to.

Won't be the only spinner to suffer this fate in the years to come.

 

[honestbharani]

Criticism of Laxman was not entirely unfair and had Ishant got out, it would have all looked silly. But at least I know he had plan better than boosting his average in that match. Can't say the same of Tendukar here. I always knew Tendulkar loves his records and nothing wrong with that because that gives him all the motivation. But in a situation like this, a sportsman's sense of pride should take over love for averages.

To be completely honest, I don't think he will ever put his records above a situation which will help his team get a good result.. As I said, it probably won't have mattered anyway and he might have holed out but so many great batsmen around the world, including himself earlier, have all done that and some of the best knocks came about that way... Not fair to say he can't farm the strike either as I have seen him do that pretty well earlier.

 

[ankitj]

Yes, I know. If it was 30 runs to victory rather than 30 runs to avoid innings defeat, Tendulkar would have given it his all. No denying it. But the sense of pride should stretch beyond just that. How important it is, I don't know, but very disappointing it definitely is.

 

[Xuhaib]

lol...this Sachin thing has turned in to one of the worst ever discussion on CC.

 

[Himannv]

Actually i am a New Zealander we get thrashed for 5 days

 

[honestbharani]

Steve Waugh used to give the tail the strike too.

Look, I'm the first to criticise some of the OTT Tendulkar love, but come on, bagging him here, for what happened this morning? In the context of a game done and dusted? Nah.

Look at it from the pov that he's saying to the Saffies that they couldn't get him out, despite dominating, and what that may mean for the rest of the series.

lol.. no one is making it a big deal apart from the guys defending what he did... As I said earlier, am I making a song and dance about it? No. We played horribly and deserved to lose by an innings just as much as RSA played brilliantly and deserved to win by an innings... But it was disappointing to see Sachin, of all people, take the view that he did and I mentioned it. End of.

 

[honestbharani]

So If Laxman had hauled out trying to hit out unneccesarily then?

There was even less chance of him scoring all of the 90 runs alone.

In this match the loss was likely in any case, even if Sachin had hit out.

So why not give the tailenders some batting practice as well.

It was not as if there were 10 overs left in the day.

Do you even understand what you are saying? This is exactly the sort of "we are not yet knocked out, but let us still lie down for the 10 count" attitude that I hate, really..

 

[honestbharani]

Indian fans you have 2 remember 1 thing:
SA has their own Fab4.
Smith and Kallis together with Amla and AB are an awesome batting line up.
Easily the best in the world.
The only test playing nation that has won in every test nation.
The only one.


Series in 06/07 SA won the series with very little contributions from Amla and AB.
For now though
South Africa : 1 up.
Deal with it

Where exactly have India NOT won a test yet, juz out of curiosity?


Same for Australia and England.

 

[honestbharani]

Even for a batsman of Tendulkar's ability, it's not possible to block out five balls and work the single on the sixth at will.

It is not that he could or could not. It just seemed like he didn't even try, which is the crux...

 

[honestbharani]

So what you are saying is he threw in the towel?

yeah.. pretty much.

 

[Rant0r]

So what did the rest of his team mates do, who by the way, didn't make a hundred

 

[honestbharani]

Hear hear!

If Sachin had managed to hog the strike and score some more runs, there will be some here who would have said he is obviously going for Mo Yousuf's highest runs in a calendar year selfishly when the team should have regrouped and focussed for the next test. The man can never catch a break from some of the stupid mongs on here.

He can't shield them for a day. The point that Indian batting can handle the SA pacers has already been proven. The priority was to get through the rest of the day uninjured and without any incidents. Hopefully they will be able to put it all together in the second test.

At times, I fear that the stupidity on this forum could halt evolution....

pretty much what I feel reading your post.. If you care to look up the posting history of the people criticizing him, you will understand. But then again, you probably don' want to coz whatever Sachin does is right.. It is a win-win situation for you, isn't it? He shields the tail and you claim "he is so good he can shield these nobodies" and he lets them bat and you claim "he is so clever he is helping them improve their batting and giving them confidence." Trust me, for every guy who criticizes Sachin needlessly there are a thousand who are ready to sing his praises just as needlessly..



The stupidity of some fanboys...

 

[Jono]

Tendulkar could have made that century when it actually mattered in regards to his teams fortunes, not when India are basically batting in an effort to stave off the inevitable.

Had Tendulkar failed and fallen early putting India 3/180 or so, when he came in, the knives would have been out as to how he's awful at saving a game.

But he scores a ton, and the knock is still pointless.

He should have just got himself timed out and not batted tbh.

Lets just accept that Tendulkar shouldn't have bothered to score any runs at all in the second innings and spare this thread this mindless debate.

God, the idiocy.

So true.

Personally think that it's an important knock in the context of the series as a whole. If India had just rolled over and been done by an innings and 200 runs, there's little to be taken out of the game and South Africa's attack looks a lot more intimidating, even to those players who didn't get runs.

It's not like South Africa just sit there and let him make runs because they have two days remaining, they need to try and get the guy out because he is good enough to bat for two days straight. When you've had your pants pulled down like India did over the first few days, it's a lot easier to roll over meekly and put your eyes on the next game than make a stand like Sachin and others did.

This x 1000