**Official** Asia Cup 2004 Thread

[delkap]

Lara played 1 or 2 tests with Haynes. Hooper is the epitome of WI underachievement. Chanderpaul only came on the scene in 1994 and he is the only one to whom Lara could turn for support. Walsh and Ambrose yes, extremely good even great bowlers, but we had no 1st change bowlers at all. I see you failed to mention Azzarudin?? Selective memory perhaps?

Ok do u wanna end it by saying, we are a both bit biased as we hv seen more of the players from respective countries

I understand Lara has done great thing, but in my opinion Sachin is a better player.. Lara can be selfish sometimes IMO (going on to 400 and drawing the game, could hv retired on 320 odd) Sachin IMO plays more for the team. And I won't deny I am a bit biased too as I am an Indian and hv looked up to Sacin since I was 8 or 9.

 

[Revelation]

look i can agree to disagree and i agree that Lara was responsible for us not winning that Test but it wasn't for the 400*, it was for dropping Flintoff at the end of the day's play when he was on 20 odd i believe. He went on to score an unbeaten 100 and pullend england out from 98/5.

 

[Revelation]

BTW, Sri Lanka coasting to victory 82/1 chasing 122. See what happens when cricket is so one sided. Have to entertain ourselves some other way.

 

[delkap]

BTW, Sri Lanka coasting to victory 82/1 chasing 122. See what happens when cricket is so one sided. Have to entertain ourselves some other way.

Like someone said a few years ago: "Pak only plays in 2 gears, Top Gear or Reverse Gear" Today they were in reverse ...

 

[ReallyCrazy]

sourav!

ganguly hit 3 really nice sixes against Bangladesh today

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Ok do u wanna end it by saying, we are a both bit biased as we hv seen more of the players from respective countries

I understand Lara has done great thing, but in my opinion Sachin is a better player.. Lara can be selfish sometimes IMO (going on to 400 and drawing the game, could hv retired on 320 odd) Sachin IMO plays more for the team. And I won't deny I am a bit biased too as I am an Indian and hv looked up to Sacin since I was 8 or 9.

However, Sachin has never been in the situation Lara was in so you can't say he would have done otherwise.

 

[delkap]

However, Sachin has never been in the situation Lara was in so you can't say he would have done otherwise.

You r right, Sachin has been in worse situations.. only batsman who scores in the team and no bowlers like Walsh and Ambrose to back up anything he does...

 

[Sehwag309]

You r right, Sachin has been in worse situations.. only batsman who scores in the team and no bowlers like Walsh and Ambrose to back up anything he does...

Good remark

 

[Deja moo]

They don't experiment in dead rubbers, and the number of games they won in a row suggests they don't "take the foot off the pedal" any more.

That is why they are so ahead of the rest of us.

If youre talking about the 16 0r 19 games in a row , they could hardly be called meaningless matches since they included matches in the WC and the VB series finals .

Arent you ignoring the last 3 matches of their series vs the WI ?

 

[Vroomfondel]

Okay, Zaheer looks like he's available for selection after passing his fitness tests. So what should the bowling attack look like for India against Pakistan?

Consider that the match is a D/N at Premadasa, where Zoysa and Vaas bowled quite well against Pakistan.



Irfan is an automatic pick. I would definitely have Harbhajan in the side, considering he's bowling well and that Pakistan hasn't seen much of him. So the remaining 2 bowling spots are to be decided between Kumble, Balaji, Zaheer, and Nehra. I have a feeling they'll go for 3 seamers, what with Tendulkar bowling well and Yuvraj and Sehwag in the side, so that means Kumble is sidelined.

Balaji has definitely looked off color in the last few games, and judging by the way he was handled in the game against Bangladesh (Ganguly chose to bowl Sehwag instead of letting Balaji finish out his ten) he's fallen out of favor with the cap'n. I'm not sure how they can drop him since he's the only Right-Armer in the squad. Nehra bowled well and I'd have more confidence in him over an off-color Zaheer.

So I'd say -- Irfan, Harbhajan, Balaji, Nehra.

How's that look?

 

[arjwiz]

Okay, Zaheer looks like he's available for selection after passing his fitness tests. So what should the bowling attack look like for India against Pakistan?

Consider that the match is a D/N at Premadasa, where Zoysa and Vaas bowled quite well against Pakistan.



Irfan is an automatic pick. I would definitely have Harbhajan in the side, considering he's bowling well and that Pakistan hasn't seen much of him. So the remaining 2 bowling spots are to be decided between Kumble, Balaji, Zaheer, and Nehra. I have a feeling they'll go for 3 seamers, what with Tendulkar bowling well and Yuvraj and Sehwag in the side, so that means Kumble is sidelined.

Balaji has definitely looked off color in the last few games, and judging by the way he was handled in the game against Bangladesh (Ganguly chose to bowl Sehwag instead of letting Balaji finish out his ten) he's fallen out of favor with the cap'n. I'm not sure how they can drop him since he's the only Right-Armer in the squad. Nehra bowled well and I'd have more confidence in him over an off-color Zaheer.

So I'd say -- Irfan, Harbhajan, Balaji, Nehra.

How's that look?

I agree with the 3 seamers in the squad. There has to be 3, and those are the right choices. Now for that one spinner's spot, I think it's a toss-up. It's too close to choose, I'd say both of them have an equal chance of making it. It'll be very unlucky for the person that has to sit this one out.

 

[ReallyCrazy]

how does this lineup look?

Sehwag
Tendulkar
ganguly
Laxman
Dravid
Yuvraj
Pathan
Balaji
Harbhajan
Kumble
Nehra

(no kaif and playing an extra bowler)

 

[arjwiz]

Well the good thing with the Indian lineup is that they have a lot of batsmen that can bowl. So with Sehwag, Sachin, Saurav and Yuvraj combined, they can easily squeeze in 10-15 GOOD overs. That no. 7 spot should be occupied by a batsman, IMO. Harbhajan and Kumble aren't good enough batters to come in at no. 8. The tail becomes extremely weak.

I think Kaif must play.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

You r right, Sachin has been in worse situations.. only batsman who scores in the team and no bowlers like Walsh and Ambrose to back up anything he does...

Sachin has been in worse situations? Do you know anything about the tour of Sri Lanka in 2001? He scored 688 runs in 3 Tests - 42% of the team score. Sarwan got 318 runs @ 53 and the next best was Hooper with 167 runs.

Lara came in at the scores:

95/2 and 75/2 - 1st Test (178 of 448 all out and 40 of 144 all out)
51/2 and 25/2 - 2nd Test (74 of 191 all out and 45 of 190 all out)
17/2 and 20/2 - 3rd Test (221 of 390 all out and 130 of 262 all out)

I'm not going to say whether Tendulkar or Lara have been in worse situations and had to pull through. The statistics speak for themselves. As far as I'm concerned both are equal and my point was only stating that yet some people just can't accept that the beloved Sachin could be on level terms with a simple West Indian ey.

 

[ReallyCrazy]

but the wickets in sri lanka always aid the spinners and i think playing 2 spinners will be actually a good thing. Kaif hasn't done much. And if the 6 batsmen that India has already dont score, it's not going to be kaif who does. At 7 we can have pathan, who i think can bat quite a bit and also balaji to follow. Balaji is no bunny w/ the bat either.

 

[Dasa]

Sachin has been in worse situations? Do you know anything about the tour of Sri Lanka in 2001? He scored 688 runs in 3 Tests - 42% of the team score. Sarwan got 318 runs @ 53 and the next best was Hooper with 167 runs.

Lara came in at the scores:

95/2 and 75/2 - 1st Test (178 of 448 all out and 40 of 144 all out)
51/2 and 25/2 - 2nd Test (74 of 191 all out and 45 of 190 all out)
17/2 and 20/2 - 3rd Test (221 of 390 all out and 130 of 262 all out)

I'm not going to say whether Tendulkar or Lara have been in worse situations and had to pull through. The statistics speak for themselves. As far as I'm concerned both are equal and my point was only stating that yet some people just can't accept that the beloved Sachin could be on level terms with a simple West Indian ey.

I hardly think it's anything racial, and I highly doubt any Indians have this ("the beloved Sachin could be on level terms with a simple West Indian ey") attitude. It's just opinion that SOME people think Tendulkar is better, some think Lara is better (such as Revelation, I could accuse him of having the attitude that "the beloved Lara could be on level terms with a simple Indian ey", and it makes sense that the Indians would support Sachin, and the West Indians Lara.
Of course, I'm of the same opinion as you, in that I believe both are equal.

 

[Revelation]

I don't believe that Lara is infinitely better than Sachin. I was responding to a comment that Delkap made that Sachin was miles ahead of his contemporaries. It was my way of bringing him back to Earth. If you look, you would see that I also mentioned Hayden and Dravid (who also happens to be Indian)

 

[arjwiz]

^^^Maybe this discussion should go into another thread?

Well that formula of 6 batsmen + 5 bowlers might work, if we had another bowler who could bat better (AA for Nehra/Khan). In that case, Kaif ould be sacrificed. Right now, I think Kaif should be playing.

 

[tooextracool]

this is just stupid.....why are the showing the SL-b'desh game on both ESPN & star sports in hindi and english and why are they not showing the england-WI game???

 

[Salamuddin]

this is just stupid.....why are the showing the SL-b'desh game on both ESPN & star sports in hindi and english and why are they not showing the england-WI game???

Cause they want to **** an annoying prat like you off