**Official** Asia Cup 2004 Thread

[biased indian]

anothr match for Dravid+yuvraj+kaif to win can thay do it once again
even though i dont feel they can .if they can make it a close contest that will be good.

and what the hell is ganguly doing Patel as an opener

 

[ReallyCrazy]

IMO there is no difference whatsoever if patel opens or comes at 7. Coz in both occassions, he won't cross 10.

 

[biased indian]

IMO there is no difference whatsoever if patel opens or comes at 7. Coz in both occassions, he won't cross 10.

well said mate that would not have made any difference then y was he send early the score now would have looked much better at 99/3 than 99/4
and i have to disagree on this that was a bad move on captians part

 

[maxpower]

270/8 short of 12 runs...well loss is a loss, but its good to see india did not fold when they were down 4 early wickets..good knock by dravid...so who is the sri lankan thomo ? is he that fast ?

 

[Langeveldt]

Yeah biased indian, I dont know what Patel is doing in the team let alone opening the batting!! Madness, especially with all that firepower...
Does Dravid not want the gloves?

 

[dude]

The initial post wasn't entirely serious.

But if Chandana is good enough to bowl that sort of ball on purpose, how is his career record so poor?

ever heard of confidence? self confidence is the key here, the SL selectors never really gave this bloke any faith, in the recently concluded tour of aus. with murali out of the scene he had many overs to bowl, that gave him the chance of taking wickets without having murali gobbling them all up and taking that "ten fa" boosted his confidence.

"SL thomo" is lasitha malinga, nowhere near as fast as jeff thomson, very similiar action bowls around 140K's

 

[NikhilN]

oh stupid stupid captaincy....what patel was doing opening the batting ahead of the likes of sehwag or even ganguly is without doubt foolish,but what ganguly is doing batting ahead of dravid when they've lost 2 early wickets is inexplicable really....

this was more of a practice match...there was no point to this match because India are already in the semis so I guess he just put patel on opening just to see how he does

 

[Nate]

haha stoopid patel, i really like him but he never lives up to expectations... cept in 3rd test against pak

 

[Tony Blade]

How does the points system work? Will the points be carried forward? What about the NRR? :|

 

[Deja moo]

How does the points system work? Will the points be carried forward? What about the NRR? :|

Next round begins with a clean slate . Nothing is carried over from the first round......good too , coz it would have been unfair if Pakistan got to carry over points from their game vs Bangladesh , while India failed to carry over any points simply coz they had to play SL instead of Bangladesh .

 

[tooextracool]

this was more of a practice match...there was no point to this match because India are already in the semis so I guess he just put patel on opening just to see how he does

if there was no point in this match then they should have given harbhajan a chance.....

 

[Jono]

this was more of a practice match...there was no point to this match because India are already in the semis so I guess he just put patel on opening just to see how he does

I hate that train of thought, I really do.

My friend told me Sri Lanka beat India and my reply to that was "bullsh*t". I'm pretty disappointed because in the end, it may just be a little bump in the road but its always nice to have a dominant run in an international tournament. I hope India recover, still Dravid proved again he's unstoppable

 

[Arjun]

I hope India recover

Hints for recovery:

1. Fielding needs to improve. The Indian team and their opposition were evenly matched, so the better fielding team would win. None of the Indian throws hit the stumps- Zoysa's run-out from the deep could have won the match. The Indian fielders were slow in bending down and picking up the ball and Sehwag was playing too much football- their Lankan counterparts got over the ball and threw it back fast. Not much difference in wicketkeeping- neither side was up to the mark there.
2. Running between the wickets needs a lot of improvement too. Soemtimes, I think Dean Jones would make a far better coach than the soft-spoken, sad-faced Wright. Dean would put evgery player through the wringer in fieldign and running between wickets, so that they score as many as 50 extra runs in every match. They lack the hitting power of Australian and West Indian batsmen, which makes aggressive running more important. In fact, I actually support Sehwag's running- it just needs to be more selective.
3. The first 15 overs bowling should be tight. It does not matter how good or bad the bowling conditions are; the ball should land in the right place. Can't say much of Pathan, since he's the only bowler close to world class, but Balaji needs to bowl STRAIGHT. Zaheer is having problems with fitness- he should not be considered in the future unless he completes 5 FC matches without breaking down. Bhandari would make a good selection, since he is a far more intelligent bowler. That said, India's bowling strength is not pace, but spin, so a second spinner has to play.
4. The middle overs bowling is going from bad to worse. There is a need for tight bowling there and 4 part-timers will only cause chaos. Instead, there has to be a regular bowler- either a fifth lead bowler, or a batsman bowling 10 overs regularly. Kumble is not a defensive bowler! He is your best wicket-taker and needs more attacking fields and orders! The second spinner was missed and must return.
5. Pathan must move up to number 7- he is far more productive there than so deep down at 8 or 9, and far more productive than Parthiv.

Appointing Dean Jones as coach would be too desperate, so I hope John Wright makes serious statements about fielding and running, and I sincerely hope Ganguly improves his own- fter all, he is the captain of the team!

 

[Tim]

I thought when John Wright first started as Indian coach he went around India & found players like Yuvraj & Kaif who could save runs in the field.

It seems for big Indian fast bowlers they're not athletic enough or don't really enjoy fielding too much. Now Wright can only do so much with fielding...surely it's more of a grassroots problem?

 

[Nate]

too many people that think pathan is an all-rounder...

 

[Arjun]

too many people that think pathan is an all-rounder...

He is the only one close to being an all-rounder in this team, and the Indians have repeatedly felt the lack of a genuine all-rounder. He would make a far better all-rounder than Dravid.

It seems for big Indian fast bowlers they're not athletic enough or don't really enjoy fielding too much. Now Wright can only do so much with fielding...surely it's more of a grassroots problem?

I think Dean Jones would try really, really hard to improve the fielding of the big Indian fast bowlers. Besides, except for Zaheer and Nehra, the others are good fielders. You can't make a Jonty Rhodes out of Ashish Nehra, but he can improve his basics, can't he? That itself would help a lot. But why is Saurav let off the hook so often? He may have a batting average of 42 against weak bowlign attacks on flat Sharjah-like pitches, but that's not an excuse for not contributing on the field, is it?

 

[garage flower]

It seems for big Indian fast bowlers they're not athletic enough or don't really enjoy fielding too much. Now Wright can only do so much with fielding...surely it's more of a grassroots problem?

I haven't seen any of the Asia Cup, but I'm surprised that India appear to be struggling in the field. Pathan and Balaji looked like very good out-fielders in the Pakistan series.

Having said that, I suppose Kumble and Zaheer are a bit cumbersome. And then there's Ganguly....

 

[Arjun]

Having said that, I suppose Kumble and Zaheer are a bit cumbersome. And then there's Ganguly....

Kumble is not that bad, since he can get his basics rught and tries not to mess up too much, except for a dropped catch. Zaheer's problem is fitness- he needs to be fully fit and practice the basics of stopping a ball, sliding, diving, and especially throwing. Ganguly wouldn't even be in the team if Trevor Hohns was the chief selector of the Indian team, given his fielding- or the lack of it.

 

[garage flower]

But why is Saurav let off the hook so often? He may have a batting average of 42 against weak bowlign attacks on flat Sharjah-like pitches, but that's not an excuse for not contributing on the field, is it?

I know this debate has raged, on and off, for some time, but do you think Ganguly would make either the test or one-day side if he wasn't captain?

 

[Arjun]

I know this debate has raged, on and off, for some time, but do you think Ganguly would make either the test or one-day side if he wasn't captain?

This is a different debate. Ganguly is not far better than the other batsmen in India who just miss the team bus. but those batsmen are better fielders. Given the effect of fieldign in ODI's, as in the recent match, you have to have a fully functional fielding unit, but the Indians are not so, if they have Ganguly, Nehra, Zaheer and probably Kumble on the field, and Dravid keeping. If Ganguly is vital, he should improve his fielding to the level of a Damien Martyn or a Darren Lehmann or at least Stephen Fleming.