***Official*** India in New Zealand 2013/14

[Jono]

Considering the state of cricket crowds in general, and particularly in ODIs and tests, I'm loathe to bag any cricket fan who attends a game. Even if they are glory hunters. I mean I dislike downhill skiier fans like most people, but cricket needs to take what it gets right now I reckon.

 

[Burgey]

Says the bloke who flew to Melbourne to watch the Aus Open final when Nadal was an unbackable favourite....

 

[andyc]

Has this been posted yet? Either way it's quality so I'm doing it.

 

[Athlai]

Have to love how they play the blame game.

So professional.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Some like me are just resigned to the fact that we won't ever have a good pace attack. Honestly though, if we get yadav in and he improves on his early promise, I can see an ok attack.

Good Indian bowlers won't just come up without having a good low level infrastructure in place. India does not know how to groom bowlers and you don't have good pitches. Improve your pitches and have good bowling coaches at junior levels and you will see good fast bowlers emerging. But I'm not sure how interested the BCCI is, since all they want is non stop IPL.

You could always try and pinch Afghani quicks.

 

[hendrix]

Considering the state of cricket crowds in general, and particularly in ODIs and tests, I'm loathe to bag any cricket fan who attends a game. Even if they are glory hunters. I mean I dislike downhill skiier fans like most people, but cricket needs to take what it gets right now I reckon.

It's kinda understandable when it's a home game for India because you expect those guys to be over the top one-eyed Indian supporters, but we'd at least expect that the ex-pat Indians would have at least some allegiance to NZ or would enjoy watching good cricket in general.

 

[Athlai]

It's kinda understandable when it's a home game for India because you expect those guys to be over the top one-eyed Indian supporters, but we'd at least expect that the ex-pat Indians would have at least some allegiance to NZ or would enjoy watching good cricket in general.

This is a pretty poor post.

 

[hendrix]

This is a pretty poor post.

why?

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Some like me are just resigned to the fact that we won't ever have a good pace attack. Honestly though, if we get yadav in and he improves on his early promise, I can see an ok attack.

Good Indian bowlers won't just come up without having a good low level infrastructure in place. India does not know how to groom bowlers and you don't have good pitches. Improve your pitches and have good bowling coaches at junior levels and you will see good fast bowlers emerging. But I'm not sure how interested the BCCI is, since all they want is non stop IPL.

You could always try and pinch Afghani quicks.

 

[hendrix]

Is Bhuvneshwar any shorter than Zaheer? Or Vaas? The guy is genuinely talented IMO.

 

[Jono]

Press Conference : New Zealand v India, 4th ODI, Hamilton | 'We don't have our fast bowlers set for the World Cup' - Dhoni | Cricket videos, MP3, podcasts, cricket audio | ESPN Cricinfo

Spot on from Dhoni imo. Pretty honest.

 

[Prince EWS]

Spot on from Dhoni imo. Pretty honest.

It might just be me but it always seems like he makes scathing, honest and truthful comments about the standard of your bowling when Ishant isn't playing, but then when Ishant is playing he makes comments about the fans and selectors needing to have faith in a settled side and back individuals.

 

[Jono]

wouldn't surprise me if true.

 

[Daemon]

Damn dhoni and his bum chums.

 

[Blocky]

Ishant on his day can bowl some world class spells and trouble any batsman - that's not a luxury India have in many of their other players so I understand why Dhoni keeps him around in that regard, the other thing to keep in mind is that you've got two New Zealanders in the form of their life batting 3 and 4, I think at the moment the way they're playing, they're going to make most pace attacks look pretty pedestrian.

 

[hendrix]

Ishant's "world class spells" involve him picking up 2, maybe 3 wickets max, as well as having a couple of decent short balls that make the batsman hop around a bit.
He needs to go back to domestic cricket and that should have happened 4 years ago.

But yeah, I think Shami and Bhuvi and Aaron aren't bad bowlers, these are flat wickets and KW and Taylor are in good form.

 

[Blocky]

I've been impressed with Bhuvi, I don't know why the Indian's haven't - he's bowled some spells that restricted us big time in the final overs.

I also don't think enough credit is being given to NZ's batting and their approach, because these so called "flat wickets" are seeing India at 130/5 in almost all of the innings so far while we've invariably got to the 35th over only 3 or 4 down. I also think Ryder despite not converting any of his starts has been a major difference maker, as this article indicates - New Zealand v India, 4th ODI, Hamilton, stats highlights: The difference in the first ten overs | Cricket News | New Zealand v India | ESPN Cricinfo

Ryder going out there and hitting 20 off a couple of overs has been a great source of frustration for me, because I feel he should bat on and feel in some situations, he's enforced by a ginger haired muppet to go too hard at everything, but ultimately, it's meant even with the slower starts from Guptill, we've locked away our advantage in the early overs and set ourselves up for a much better consolidation stage. In the last innings where Guptill swung a bit more at the ball, got a few misfields and a couple of edgy boundaries, it really took the steam out of the target total, meaning Taylor and Williamson never had to combat a run rate that went near seven throughout their innings.

The way we dealt with India's spinners is really what cost them the game - India rely on the "bank" of their spinners, but ultimately in this series, they were milked for around 4 to 5 an over, not given that many dismissals and put a tonne of pressure on the fifth and sixth bowlers who invariably got caned.

 

[jonbrooks]

This is a pretty poor post.

Why?

 

[Blocky]

Why?

For the same reason thousands of New Zealanders turn up to an All Blacks game in Australia or England and cheer on the All Blacks.

 

[hendrix]

no, you need to read the conversation.

Of course they're going to support India. I like that, it makes for a great crowd. What I'm disappointed in is the fact that they leave early when it looks like India will lose. It makes for a crap atmosphere when McCullum hits a ball for six to win the game and noone is cheering.