Mahendra Singh Dhoni is spectacular!

[Mike Hussey]

It was a great knock guys but for heavens sake dont fall over board.

To compare him with Gilchrist is to show the worst kind of.........well all the things that I would like to say but wont for maintaining decorum

I wasn't.

 

[Tim]

to score 180 is a huge achievement, and against an attack which is favourable on the sub-continent is very commendable. But I saw him against New Zealand and he looked average as both a keeper and batsman..I still think he's got a lot of work to do but there's no doubt an innings like that could give him the push he needs.

 

[SJS]

I wasn't.

I wasnt adressing you Mike.

It was a general comment aimed at naturally enthused Indian fans.

My wife had a similar reaction by the way

 

[Mike Hussey]

 

[SJS]

Everytime a youngster comes and plays one good knock she starts off,"India should throw out Tendulkar, Ganguly and Company and play with these fellows !"

I always respond with, "Spoken like a true Indian fan"

I maintain that she epitomises the essence of a typical Indian cricket fan and she knows as musc about the game as they do

 

[thierry henry]

to score 180 is a huge achievement, and against an attack which is favourable on the sub-continent is very commendable. But I saw him against New Zealand and he looked average as both a keeper and batsman.

Agreed.

imo he's exactly the kind of batsman dominating world cricket these days- too many glaring technical faults to name, hits a lot of sixes, has a funny, awkward, unorthodox looking technique. It infuriates me. I wonder if it is a long term change in the game.

 

[SJS]

Agreed.

imo he's exactly the kind of batsman dominating world cricket these days- too many glaring technical faults to name, hits a lot of sixes, has a funny, awkward, unorthodox looking technique. It infuriates me. I wonder if it is a long term change in the game.

He plays some superb cricketing shots and mixes them with some ugly ones once in a while which ruins the over all effect

I honestly feel if he plays his strokes just that wee bit later than he does he will be fine. He does seem to play quite a few predetermined shots and when predetermined shots are of the horizontal bat variety they look very ugly when they dont come off.

Sachin can play a predetermined straight hit over the bowlers head, charge down the wicket, miss it completely, or mis hit to a vacant space between two fielders and still maintain his dignity. It is much more difficult to do this when it is a slog sweep over midwicket or a predetermined hook and the ball is the toatally wrong length or no where near where the bat expected it to be. That makes you look like a nincompoop, particularly if you do it in the 9th over rather than the 49th.

I hope Dhoni will change that. If and when he does that we will stop making fun of him as we have of Sehwag after his spectacular success in the five day format.

 

[thierry henry]

Yeah, I still don't really like watching Sehwag bat either though. I think I am just jealous. Whenever I tried to play an attacking shot in my cricketing career it got me out, whereas these days it seems like a lot of the top batsman can hit slogs and mi***** all over the place and get away with it. I don't know if it's always been like this; perhaps I am idealising the (recent) past, but today's top batsman just seem to be a lot looser than before. Many of them just look like number 8 or 9 batsman who don't get out.

 

[age_master]

i rate 183 as spectacular wish i had seen it

 

[Sanz]

Not again..Let him play couple of years before comparing him to Sangakkara and Gilchrist. These two guys can walk into most world XI on their batting talents alone.

That said his 183 was a spectacular knock and took the match away from SL.

 

[SJS]

i rate 183 as spectacular wish i had seen it

It WAS truly spectacular. A look at his scoring graph is equally remarkable.

- Only seven runs behind point.
- four sixes and 10 fours (83 runs in all) between point and extra cover
- In all 149 runs in front of the wicket on either side with 13 boundaries and 9 sixes in these area.

This wasnt slogging as in slogging, I assure you. I watched it and it was a privilege.
-

 

[GladiatrsInBlue]

I have been saying it since a long time , Dhoni is a superb cricketer & a great athelete .

That innings was the greatest OD innings ever played by a cricketer , that also happen to have been the biggest innings ever by a keeper batsman!!

Such an innings would have made even Gilli proud!! Dhoni said afterwards that Indian ppl would now be used to seeing him playing big innings after his two massive knows, one yesterday and one against Pak (148)

I think Dhoni will be the first OD player to score a double ton in OD cricket!!

 

[luckyeddie]

Reserve judgment for what? I don't see what you have to judge him on? He's a good hitter, and when the ball is there to pound in ODIs he can do it. The thread starter himself said he mis-stated what he meant.

But hey, quote my posts if you like.

I originally reserved judgement on whether he is in the top 3 wicket-keepers in the world, which is the point the thread-starter opened with.

You interjected and kindly informed me (I assume it was me you were talking to seeing as you used the phrase 'reserve judgment' without actually using the 'quote' thingy) that you didn't see why.

As you said, the thread-started amended the original OTT eulogy to 'wicketkeeper-batsman' but he/she still did not make the distinction between one-day and test cricket. Just 'best' or 'best 3'.

Now call me old and decrepit, but I still think that test cricket is the real deal and ODI's, fun that they are, mean diddly squat.

Thanks for giving me permission to quote your posts. If I spot any other mistakes, you can be sure that I will.



Edit:

Incidentally, I have no desire to belittle his achievement - and a little after my reply (and your own response) the thread starter himself implied that he was prepared to wait until he'd played a bit of test cricket.

He (Dhoni) does, however, look quite special at this stage in his career.
You can quote me on that.

No, really - you can.

 

[Nate]

All my friends were going crazy today, and quite obviously, sounds like a huge knock.

Test him. (pun intended) *cringe*

 

[Pratters]

Whats comes of Dhoni in the future, only time can tell.

But no one can take this knock away from the jat who drinks 1 litre of milk a day!

Chasing 6 an over, the guy devastated the Lankan attack to make the score look like a 220. Usually when chasing such large scores, teams would scrape through in the very end overs. The fact that India won it comfortably shows exactly how brutal the inning was.

It is not as great as the inning played by Kapil Dev with India struggling versus Zimbabwe in 1983. Srikkanth compared the inning to innings which Viv Richards used to play.

One thing is for sure, the inning will be looked back upon as one of the great one day innings of all time.

 

[honestbharani]

One swallow does not a summer make - I reserve judgement until he's pulled the gloves on in a test match.

I thought adharcric's rankings were based on ODIs only.

 

[honestbharani]

Everytime a youngster comes and plays one good knock she starts off,"India should throw out Tendulkar, Ganguly and Company and play with these fellows !"

I always respond with, "Spoken like a true Indian fan"

I maintain that she epitomises the essence of a typical Indian cricket fan and she knows as musc about the game as they do

You know, SJS, my mom does the same thing. She even said the same thing with regard to Dhoni's innings. I wonder if some over zealous Indian fans here happen to be middle aged Indian house wives.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Did they not think to bowl shorter? Or was it just a pudding?

And this is still the greatest ODI innings of all time...

 

[Pratters]

Wisden online did a list of the greatest one day innings one or two years back before it was merged with cricinfo when they bought cricinfo but I cant find it.

Maybe its time for us to look at it (if some one can find it).

 

[SJS]

You know, SJS, my mom does the same thing. She even said the same thing with regard to Dhoni's innings. I wonder if some over zealous Indian fans here happen to be middle aged Indian house wives.

By inference you are calling my wife (and your mom of course) middle aged housewives. You are living dangerously young man