*Official* India in South Africa

[GIMH]

Lol @ the Harby comment.

Swann averaging 20-odd in 2010 has to be seen with some perspective regarding the strength of the opposition and the variations in his performances against B'desh and Pak and SA and Oz. You'd think he's Murali already seeing how some people rate him.

Do you rate anything an English bowler did last year?

 

[Blaze 18]

India are not actually in too bad a position here if they can dismiss South Africa early tomorrow morning.

Second new ball will be key. From here on this pitch will only flatten upto day 4 when it starts to worsen.

That doesn't bode well for India. They will be batting last...

 

[TT Boy]

I think the slowness might be just as much from the Indian bowlers than the wicket. Speedgun's had all three of them at around 80mph all day, often even less.

I guess we won't know til South Africa bowl. Could be an iffy speedgun.

Wicket is slow. Might quicken up tomorrow. Hope it doesn't as batting will get infinitely easier.

Won 500 quid on India in the second test. Put that on South Africa for this. Felt sick as a parrot when I saw the weather, Dhoni winning the toss and the movement the Indians bowlers were getting.

 

[Rant0r]

Perhaps, But still one who will average about 30 against the best sides, not higher quality than that. In all fairness, Shakib isn't far off, IMHO. Shakib averaged 21 in SA, 32 against India and 18 against NZ. He just hasn't had an opportunity of playing 6 tests against teh quality of batting lineups that Swann faced.

Come to think of it, Swann keeps getting praised for averaging about 30 in SA while Shakib being much better is rarely mentioned.

But yeah, Swann's better.

I reckon Shakib has been rated extremely highly by some good judges actually.

 

[smash84]

The way things stand SA are in a strong position

 

[Prince EWS]

Do you rate anything an English bowler did last year?

Sreesanth > England.

 

[Cevno]

That doesn't bode well for India. They will be batting last...

But SA only have Harris as their spinner.

 

[Uppercut]

What was the pitch like when England drew here last year?

Not sure, I missed the first couple of days of that one. The two teams in that game bowled a lot better than India have IIRC.

 

[Teja.]

Do you rate anything an English bowler did last year?

I rate them with perspective. Jimmy Anderson and Swann are suddenly not sub-25 average bowlers because they haven't replicated how they performed against B'desh and Pak against Oz and SA, while bowlers like Zaheer and Steyn have actually performed to that level against the top-class opposition too.

 

[TT Boy]

If we just get Kallis, I reckon we can get the rest for >80 runs.

Yeah, I would go with that. Probably Bouch's last test match, so hopefully he is worth a vital 50 here.

 

[Shri]

Hope we get a 250ish target and start batting late on day 4. Sehwag will smash a quick 70 odd and Smith will give Harris a lot of overs on day 5 and the Indian batsmen will score freely off his bowling resulting in a 5 wicket victory with Sachin getting an unbeaten 100.

 

[Blaze 18]

Haha yeah AWTA. That 3fa he picked up against Australia was hilarious.

Second innings of the Mohali test ?

 

[Shri]

Yeah, I would go with that. Probably Bouch's last test match, so hopefully he is worth a vital 50 here.

Who is next in line? Will they play a batsman/all rounder at 7 and make Abdv keep or is it going to be Heino Kuhn?

 

[Rant0r]

Hope we get a 250ish target and start batting early on day 4. Sehwag will smash a quick 70 odd and Smith will give Harris a lot of overs on day 5 and the Indian batsmen will score freely off his bowling resulting in a 5 wicket victory with Sachin getting an unbeaten 199.

That's a fairly long bow. Harris has been extremely economical over the course of his career, less so against India but still economical nonetheless. If anything the pitch will flatten out and India might gain a handy first innings lead. But I don't see Harris really getting collared

 

[TT Boy]

But SA only have Harris as their spinner.

Good record at Cape Town, averages 28 and the choke job he did on Sachin and Dravid in 2007 in the same fixture won South Africa that test match and the series. Likely to be Harro's last test match as well.

 

[Prince EWS]

Who is next in line? Will they play a batsman/all rounder at 7 and make Abdv keep or is it going to be Heino Kuhn?

De Villers doesn't want to keep and has been averaging about 1000 of late as a specialist batsman, Kuhn has been awesome domestically and they have Kallis as the fifth bowler anyway so another allrounder wouldn't add anything. The chances of De Villers getting the gloves in Tests at the moment are basically 0, I'd think.

 

[kingkallis]

Boucher's last game???

 

[vcs]

Not sure, I missed the first couple of days of that one. The two teams in that game bowled a lot better than India have IIRC.

India's poo bowling (without letting the scoring rate get out of hand) is a deliberate ploy to take time out of the game TBH..

 

[kingkallis]

Who is next in line? Will they play a batsman/all rounder at 7 and make Abdv keep or is it going to be Heino Kuhn?

Hopefully Kuhn.

 

[Rant0r]

Who is next in line? Will they play a batsman/all rounder at 7 and make Abdv keep or is it going to be Heino Kuhn?

I hope not for South Africa's cause. De Villiers is a thoroughly average wicketkeeper.