***Official India in New Zealand***

[Days of Grace]

DoG's thoughts on the match


1. This Indian batting lineup is perhaps the best ODI batting unit to ever tour NZ, as others have said. Perhaps only the Aussie lineup of 1999/2000 would come close.

2. Styris should come into the batting lineup, in place of....who knows. All I know is that Guptill is not good at turning over the strike coming in cold against the spinners. He should bat in the top 3. Taylor came in at 3 today because of exceptional circumstances (100/1 and the seamers seen off). A feature of Styris' play was turning the strike over against spinners in the middle overs.

3. Oram's batting form is a ****ing worry.

4. All in all, our batting is okay. 270-300 would have been very competitive against any other side in the world bar India in this mood.

5. Thompson is what I call a NZ redneck player. May take some wickets in our little domestic league in the sticks, but totally shown up against batsmen even remotely approaching international class. And our opening bowler bowling at 112km/h at times was just ****ing embarrassing, to tell you the truth.

6. Stephen Fleming is actually fairly decent as a commentator.

7. Might as well bring back Southee for the final game in place of redneck Thompson. Or play two spinners. Or even bring in Jimmy Franklin. To be fair, no bowler is going to be that great against this Indian batting lineup. I have actually enjoyed watching them.

 

[Evermind]

6. Stephen Fleming is actually fairly decent as a commentator.

Agreed. So rare these days, isn't it.

 

[pasag]

Yeah this is a great ODI side, but as have mentioned before very possibly peaking at the wrong time.

 

[Nutter]

8. Sehwag is freaking awesome. Always been a big fan.

 

[Days of Grace]

Definitely in my top 10 players to watch bat ever.

 

[straw man]

DoG's thoughts on the match

2. Styris should come into the batting lineup, in place of....who knows. All I know is that Guptill is not good at turning over the strike coming in cold against the spinners. He should bat in the top 3. Taylor came in at 3 today because of exceptional circumstances (100/1 and the seamers seen off). A feature of Styris' play was turning the strike over against spinners in the middle overs.

3. Oram's batting form is a ****ing worry.

.

Don't know what it is, but nearly every time I've seen NZ fiddle round with the batting order it has failed. It seems to work for India but it sure-as-hell doesn't work for us. Taylor should be anchored to the number 4 spot and Oram to the number 7 spot in my opinion.

Styris should definitely have been in the team for the series, but wouldn't bother bringing him in for the final match, a dead rubber, at the end of the season when we don't have any more ODIs coming up for ages.

All this is fairly immaterial I guess - the team is pretty near to the best team we could have put on the park - just need the players selected to perform better than they have been.

 

[masterblaster]

8. Sehwag is freaking awesome. Always been a big fan.

I really admire his simplistic approach to batting and just everything else he does. He's a really level headed and down to earth guy who keeps everything really simple. Very admirable qualities there.

 

[honestbharani]

As a skipper, I'm still not convinced Dhoni's that great tactically, but his man-management skills & ability to get the best out of his troops is absolutely superb

Absolutely.. He is a great leader, juz like Ganguly was.. As a captain, I am sure he has his faults but I still think he is better tactically than Ganguly.


But he is more than a touch negative in his mindset, tactically, as a captain.

 

[honestbharani]

if Dhoni does sit out, Sehwag will be skipper, right?

 

[G.I.Joe]

if Dhoni does sit out, Sehwag will be skipper, right?

Don't know if thats a good idea. He'd have to bat more responsibly, and that means his next century might only be an 80 ball one.

 

[honestbharani]

Don't know if thats a good idea. He'd have to bat more responsibly, and that means his next century might only be an 80 ball one.

That should earn him a place in Andy's most boring XI, surely...

 

[Raghav]

I have to accept now....Its been total demolishing series for NZ...Sehwag, the monster!

Congratulations for all the Indian fans here. My fellow NZ fans will be hoping for a decent test series without any triple ton from Sehwag!

 

[ret]

nice series win for the Indians .... and Sehwag pulls off a 100 in 60 balls

 

[James]

For those of you interested in Peter McGlashan's thoughts on the series, see Peter McGlashan's Blog

 

[SJS]

if this game had been rained off say around 19.2 over it would have been abandoned rite ??

but India already over the par score for 20 overs i think the rule should accommodate that case and award the game to india

I agree. India were something like 192 for no loss. Theoretically in the four balls of that 20th over that were left to be bowled, they could have lost four wickets. At 192 for 4 they were still winning. So to declare the match drawn would have been a real travesty.

Imagine a side being 200 all out in 50 overs and the other side being 198 for no loss in 19.9 overs and the rain comes down for ever and ever. Should this match be declared a draw. Even at 199 for 9 they would have won at the end of 20 overs !

 

[Perm]

Tendulkar was ****ing insane last Sunday. Couldn't beleive the damage he was doing, Yuvraj and Dhoni too. Really awesome game to watch, crowd was so intense. Ridiculous the amount of people that the cops hauled away that were hardly doing anything wrong.

 

[Uppercut]

Sehwag's ODI strike rate has gone over 100.

 

[Furball]

Sehwag's ODI strike rate has gone over 100.

Been that way for a while.

 

[adharcric]

Gambhir, Sehwag (c), Raina, Yuvraj, Rohit, Karthik (wk), Yusuf, Irfan, Praveen, Ojha, Munaf for the dead rubber.

 

[Jono]

On a bad day, that bowling attack could go for 400. Hopefully a few of them can hit their straps (would love Praveen or Ojha to clean up).

Nice deep batting though.

Hope Rohit Sharma gets a nice hit. Love watching him bat.