***Official*** India in South Africa

[silentstriker]

Jaffer and Gambhir should be fine for that role. Sehwag will probably return as an opener once he works out those kinks in his technique that we discussed yesterday. Of course, they could leave him down the order if Ganguly doesn't secure his spot.

I don't disagree. I am just pointing out that the first thing we should look for in our openers is how well they see off the new ball, and not how fast they can score off it.

 

[adharcric]

Agreed.

 

[adharcric]

Thoughts on Harris? He flights it pretty well but I haven't seen too many glaring positives yet. Of course, I missed the last hour of play because the match was playing on my Ashes link the whole time.

 

[silentstriker]

Thoughts on Harris? He flights it pretty well but I haven't seen too many glaring positives yet. Of course, I missed the last hour of play because the match was playing on my Ashes link the whole time.

Not bad, its hard to judge a spinner on the first day of the test match.

 

[adharcric]

Karthik on 44 now. Love his mixture of compact technique and controlled aggression.

 

[Achtung Baby]

At last a four from karthik. That makes me feel better his strike rate had gone down below 30. One more four!!! Take that

 

[silentstriker]

There haven't been any close ups, who are the umpires in this match?

 

[adharcric]

Harper and ..... Rauf

 

[Dasa]

There haven't been any close ups, who are the umpires in this match?

Asad Rauf and Daryl Harper according to CricInfo.

 

[silentstriker]

Shastri: "Dravid did a good job winning the toss."


WTF?

 

[Dasa]

Thoughts on Harris? He flights it pretty well but I haven't seen too many glaring positives yet. Of course, I missed the last hour of play because the match was playing on my Ashes link the whole time.

Reminds me of Darren Lehmann...probably because of the side-arm style.

 

[Jono]

Reminds me of Darren Lehmann...probably because of the side-arm style.

I was about to say the exact same thing!

This round-arm action is so similar to Lehmann, and to me he's looking pretty unthreatening. I don't want to be too harsh on him early, but really, I'd be very very surprised if he troubles the likes of Sachin, Laxman, Sourav etc. That doesn't mean he won't get their wicket, but it'd come from a stupid shot more than likely.

Plus he has the worst grunt I've ever heard from a spinner. I am a man that appreciates a spinner's grunt, as I often do it myself when I bowl, but his is horrible.

 

[Jono]

Apparently Sehwag is down to bat at 7 but I'd put him in at the first wicket

Scores runs, he'll do it quickly and India will be well on top

Fails, who cares, it's still 2 - 100+

Yeah I agree with that, but Dravid is definitely padded up so he's coming out. But I was thinking of that before. He could really take the game away from SA, they are really on the back foot atm.

 

[Jono]

Play him as a specialist bat then. Note that I am not suggesting that karthik should be the permanent opener. But if someone can blunt the new ball consistently, then he should be the permanent opener. Obviously, Karthik has a long long way to go to prove that, but I'm just saying that as a point in response to what Dasa said.

Look, don't get me wrong I'm happy with Karthik here, but are you guys forgetting how slow and flat this track is? For all we know, had Sehwag opened, he could have pulled a:

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/RSA_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/RSA_IND_T1_20-24NOV2004.html

Or

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/RSA_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/RSA_IND_T2_28NOV-02DEC2004.html

He didn't have too much trouble killing SA's bowlers on slow tracks, just like this one. Let's not judge Karthik's ability as an opener on this match/track alone.

 

[Dravid]

Partnership going along great, Jaffer moving closer to his century, and Karthik moving closer to his 50. Been a while since we saw scores like this on day 1

 

[silentstriker]

Look, don't get me wrong I'm happy with Karthik here, but are you guys forgetting how slow and flat this track is? For all we know, had Sehwag opened, he could have pulled a:

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/RSA_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/RSA_IND_T1_20-24NOV2004.html

Or

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/RSA_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/RSA_IND_T2_28NOV-02DEC2004.html

He didn't have too much trouble killing SA's bowlers on slow tracks, just like this one. Let's not judge Karthik's ability as an opener on this match/track alone.

My point wasn't that Karthik should play as an opener (as I've said twice now ). It is just that we should play the person that gives us the best chance to see off the new ball, whoever it may be.

 

[Jono]

My point wasn't that Karthik should play as an opener (as I've said twice now ). It is just that we should play the person that gives us the best chance to see off the new ball, whoever it may be.

Does that mean not playing Sehwag on a permanent basis? Someone's gotta keep (say Karthik impresses enough to keep his place, he'll take 7), then you've got your Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Sourav/Yuvraj/Kaif.

No room for Viru on slow tracks?

 

[Dasa]

I was about to say the exact same thing!

This round-arm action is so similar to Lehmann, and to me he's looking pretty unthreatening. I don't want to be too harsh on him early, but really, I'd be very very surprised if he troubles the likes of Sachin, Laxman, Sourav etc. That doesn't mean he won't get their wicket, but it'd come from a stupid shot more than likely.

Plus he has the worst grunt I've ever heard from a spinner. I am a man that appreciates a spinner's grunt, as I often do it myself when I bowl, but his is horrible.

Hahaha can't say I've much of a spinner's grunt myself.

Anyway, I agree with that assessment of Harris. He looks like he could be useful on a turning track, but seems to fire it in a bit too much for my liking. He does have a pretty good FC record though, especially for a South African spinner. I'll reserve my complete judgement until I've seen a bit more of him.

 

[silentstriker]

Does that mean not playing Sehwag on a permanent basis? Someone's gotta keep (say Karthik impresses enough to keep his place, he'll take 7), then you've got your Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Sourav/Yuvraj/Kaif.

No room for Viru on slow tracks?

On his current form, it means not playing him. If he gets his problems sorted out, then absolutely. He has proven his ability to play big innings at the top of the order. The problem is that when he is out of form, he can't just sit back and defend like the other openers so that not only does not not score any runs, he also exposes an already out of form middle order way too soon.

If he were out of form but was scoring 10 (60), I'd want to stick with him a bit longer because at least he was sticking around. The very nature of his game prohibits him from playing that type of innings, so India suffers twice when he gets out cheaply (no runs and no shine taken off).

 

[Dravid]

50 for Dinesh Kartikh. Fell fought innings