***Official*** South Africa in India 2015

[cnerd123]

Jadeja apparently told Virat he was willing to bowl straight through the final session without a break if Virat needed. WAG.

Excellent contributions from the whole side this series (except Nohit).

I predicted that peak India > peak SA, but we never really saw that this series. India's batting didn't click until this Test, and SA's until this last innings. Both sides bowled extremely well, but SA definitely missed Steyn's old-ball skills. A few dropped catches didn't help.

Good win for India. Good performance from SA in this final innings, not so much for rest of the series.

Ashwin WAG. Indian ATG in the making.

 

[biased indian]

all the blockathon gave us the biggest victory margin (runs) in our histroy

 

[weldone]

3 cheers for India - hip hip...

 

[social]

I reckon some people are going OTT with the praise as well. SA put all their eggs in the bat all day box and didn't manage it. But there a there's a difference between 'not that great' and 'everyone stop feeling good about anything, I have a superiority complex to maintain'.

Social is actually acting like them being bowled out yesterday for a higher score would have been closer, which is bull****. Saying 'we're going to get bowled out anyway, may as well play some shots' is much, much more negative than deciding you're going to stick to the crease no matter what and actually aim for something.

Ah no

ABDV is the classic case

Best batsman in the world faced 345 deliveries

If he had batted very conservatively rather than full-on block mode, he could have been well over 100 without taking any great risk

If that had been the case, Kohli (who still had a cover on the fence with a run rate of less than 1 btw) might not have had a man in position to catch ABDV off the glove

Blocking everything was simply death by 1000 cuts and no more praiseworthy than if they had gone full on 20/20 and been bowled out for the same score in 16 overs

 

[Shri]

They made 143!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You guys just don't seem to get the fact that SA not only didn't try to win the match but failed MISERABLY in their attempt to save it

They were ****

They had to survive just under 180 overs to draw. They survived 120 overs without too much trouble. Another 10-15 overs of blocking would have meant going off for bad light and saving the match. It was not a 'miserable' failure. It was an epic effort.

Dude you are severely mistaken. All Indian supporters were ****ting in their pants.

I wasn't going to **** my pants over a drawn test. It was nice to watch since a loss was out of the question. No room to get frustrated.

 

[Dan]

Hmmmm....

 

[Shri]

I just don't get the massive admiration for this kind of batting.

Because it is such a rare occurrence.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I reckon some people are going OTT with the praise as well. SA put all their eggs in the bat all day box and didn't manage it. But there a there's a difference between 'not that great' and 'everyone stop feeling good about anything, I have a superiority complex to maintain'.

Social is actually acting like them being bowled out yesterday for a higher score would have been closer, which is bull****. Saying 'we're going to get bowled out anyway, may as well play some shots' is much, much more negative than deciding you're going to stick to the crease no matter what and actually aim for something.

pretty much agree with this

Maybe a part of me is jaded when it comes to South Africa blocking for draws after that test years ago where they were chasing 450 i think and needed 8 runs off 2 overs with 2 wickets in hand (or something like that) and instead of going for the win they blocked it out. That was just **** cricket.

 

[cnerd123]

Blocking everything was simply death by 1000 cuts and no more praiseworthy than if they had gone full on 20/20 and been bowled out for the same score in 16 overs

Lololol.

Yea, they're identical. Except one gives you a chance of saving the game and the other ends it in 3 and a half days. Totally the same thing.

 

[Gnske]

Tbf, I don't think BMac had released his handbook on aggressive losing by then, how were they to know they had earned the right to be aggressive?

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lololol.

Yea, they're identical. Except one gives you a chance of saving the game and the other ends it in 3 and a half days. Totally the same thing.

there's some logic behind it, especially looking in hindsight and seeing that they lost anyway.

One could argue that at least giving yourself a chance to win and losing is more respectable than just trying to deny a result for anyone with boring cricket and losing anyway.

 

[cnerd123]

there's some logic behind it, especially looking in hindsight and seeing that they lost anyway.

One could argue that at least giving yourself a chance to win and losing is more respectable than just trying to deny a result for anyone with boring cricket and losing anyway.

Well the point of trying to deny a result is to actually achieve that, not to lose less embarrassingly. Given they've done this before and came quite close this time, it made perfect sense to give it a shot. Who cares how it looks in hindsight. Decisions are not made in hindsight. From the moment the target was set - 481 runs in 6 sessions - the best decision was to attempt a blockathon and force India to work for their wickets.

In general, it makes no sense to have a go at a target in the 4th innings of a Test unless the target is realistically within reach. This isn't an ODI where going down swinging is preferable to batting out the 50 overs aimlessly. If you're going to lose, surely it's preferable make the opposition bowlers have to work for your 10 wickets rather than gift it to them through the inevitable batting errors that arise from everyone attempting to play their 'natural game'.

 

[weldone]

Let's get this straight. There is NO chance of winning when you're chasing 481 on the Kotla track against Ashwin and Jadeja. I haven't seen Bradman bat. But I haven't seen anyone who gave the remotest impression that they could do it. There's no current side in world cricket who could come close to doing it, period. The chance of winning was zero, zilch, null, void, shunya. It was like chasing 600 in an ODI, or 330 in a T20 game. It doesn't happen on this track against this spin attack. It just doesn't. Drawing the match was a very very tough job and AB, Amla, Faf did an excellent job trying. On this track and against this attack I don't think any other team could've done a similar job except maybe Pakistan (I can somehow see Younis, Azhar, Misbah, Shafiq, Hafeez, Sarfraz come close to drawing this against this spin attack - they certainly have the best batsmen against spin)

Now can we please stop this senseless debate and...

celebrate the Indian performance in this series against the world's no. 1 side

 

[jan]

First time in years I didnt have to to watch/follow closely a SA series. I didnt expect Proteas to win but this went south way quicker and uglier than I would have imagined. Now England...

 

[indiaholic]

Yep don't see them surviving 160 overs while scoring at 3 rpo. They took the best available strategy, executed it very well and would have been praising them to high heavens if they stuck around for 9 more overs or so.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Well the point of trying to deny a result is to actually achieve that, not to lose less embarrassingly. Given they've done this before and came quite close this time, it made perfect sense to give it a shot. Who cares how it looks in hindsight. Decisions are not made in hindsight. From the moment the target was set - 448 runs in 6 sessions - the best decision was to attempt a blockathon and force India to work for their wickets.

In general, it makes no sense to have a go at a target in the 4th innings of a Test unless the target is realistically within reach. This isn't an ODI where going down swinging is preferable to batting out the 50 overs aimlessly. If you're going to lose, surely it's preferable make the opposition bowlers have to work for your 10 wickets rather than gift it to them through the inevitable batting errors that arise from everyone attempting to play their 'natural game'.

Still not sure where I stand, but I'm certainly nowhere near as impressed as most re. this negative batting. I can completely understand if many fans would be more impressed with an attempt to actually chase even in a seemingly impossible cause and failing, than this.

If it were my team, I would rather them have a go tbh. Especially with this sort of scoreline.

Now, if SA were 2-1 up in the series and leading into this situation . . . completely different scenario imo

 

[indiaholic]

Still not sure where I stand, but I'm certainly nowhere near as impressed as most re. this negative batting. I can completely understand if many fans would be more impressed with an attempt to actually chase even in a seemingly impossible cause and failing, than this.

If it were my team, I would rather them have a go tbh. Especially with this sort of scoreline.

Now, if SA were 2-1 up in the series and leading into this situation . . . completely different scenario imo

Think the decision to go for the win has to take into consideration the pitch and the quality of the bowling. And in this case both argued against going for it.

 

[cnerd123]

Still not sure where I stand, but I'm certainly nowhere near as impressed as most re. this negative batting. I can completely understand if many fans would be more impressed with an attempt to actually chase even in a seemingly impossible cause and failing, than this.

If it were my team, I would rather them have a go tbh. Especially with this sort of scoreline.

Now, if SA were 2-1 up in the series and leading into this situation . . . completely different scenario imo

Why would you have them attempt to chase down a target, thus pretty much guaranteeing a loss, rather than fight out for unlikely but still possible draw? This is such a weird concept to me. Surely drawing a game is better than losing it, is it not?

 

[weldone]

Still not sure where I stand, but I'm certainly nowhere near as impressed as most re. this negative batting. I can completely understand if many fans would be more impressed with an attempt to actually chase even in a seemingly impossible cause and failing, than this.

If it were my team, I would rather them have a go tbh. Especially with this sort of scoreline.

Now, if SA were 2-1 up in the series and leading into this situation . . . completely different scenario imo

It was not 'seemingly impossible'. It was impossible. I know nothing is impossible, like you may land in Jupiter tomorrow. But let's just say that the chance of SA winning this test was same as you and social playing cricket together in Jupiter tomorrow ok?

 

[TheJediBrah]

Why would you have them attempt to chase down a target, thus pretty much guaranteeing a loss, rather than fight out for unlikely but still possible draw? This is such a weird concept to me. Surely drawing a game is better than losing it, is it not?

Dunno. Losing a game having a go is better than losing it playing pointless boring cricket. Even if they had drawn the match it's certainly an achievement but I don't feel that there is as much to be proud about as a lot of other posters tbh.

Nothing wrong with it being a weird concept to you, but try to keep an open mind. Otherwise you're sounding just as close-minded as social, just on the other side of the coin.

It was not 'seemingly impossible'. It was impossible. I know nothing is impossible, like you may land in Jupiter tomorrow. But let's just say that the chance of SA winning this test was same as you and social playing cricket together in Jupiter tomorrow ok?

ok?