• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

*Official* India in South Africa

vcs

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Cape Town 2007 was pretty crap as well TBF. Think Indian fans just have to resign ourselves to general mediocrity against SA. They seem to own us. :(
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
So is this the end of the road for Ishant Sharma? At least Sreesanth produces a genuinely match-changing spell once in a rare while, whereas Ishant seems to oscillate from mediocrity to utter crap. Disappointing because a couple of years ago he seemed the one Indian bowler likely to break out of the wheel of mediocrity. And it's scary to think the alternative is Unadkat. Ishant is still young and I could still see him returning in 5 years as a smarter more disciplined bowler but right now he has to go.
He is still young though so hard to say end of the road for him.

He is also the fittest of the 3 fast bowlers in terms of injuries.

Is also slightly better than Sree at home who is dire here. Can reverse swing it from height with inconsistent bounce and does not have so horrendous matches as sree where he concedes at a RPO of 5.


Would personally drop him for a while and tell him to go and play a bit of county cricket perhaps.

Or since the Ranji trophy is over now Send him to the NCA or perhaps on some A tours and also to some other domestic competitions in other countries too.

But since the IPL is coming too ,he will be ruined further as his stint at KKR in the IPL and also getting him into the t20 team too early and ODI team too on pitches with no seamer assistance was the thing that started his downward spiral in the first place.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Cape Town 2007 was pretty crap as well TBF. Think Indian fans just have to resign ourselves to general mediocrity against SA. They seem to own us. :(
That was bad as well,ruining a first innings lead in the 2nd.

But this is worse since both teams are better than then and also it is almost like a last frontier of sorts for us .
We were in a better position today too than we were in any stage of that match.
 

vcs

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Yeah we are better than we were back then. This time our idiocy in turning up unprepared in the first Test will probably end up costing us.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Four years ago, when India came to Cape Town, they went in to lunch on fourth day with two second-innings wickets down and a lead of 114 in the bag. The next two sessions featured confused cricket, and India lost the series there. Here, too, going into lunch India had South Africa effectively at 119 for 5, soon to be 130 for 6. But the rest of the day almost played India out of the Test. Now it's up to the Indian batsmen to put in yet another special show to prevent a repeat.

South Africa v India: Defensive India pay the price at Newlands | Cricket Features | South Africa v India | ESPN Cricinfo

Gotta Screw it up everytime. Then also it was tactics and now too it is tactics.

And ******** Saffers "Choke" in close matches to everybody but us.
 

Dissector

International Debutant
Yeah it's uncanny how we threw it away at almost the same point in both series. Second and third sessions of Day 4 at Cape Town. Last time round though it looked like heading for a draw at lunch while this time we had a win in our sights.

Anyway though we will likely lose and it will be a fine series win for SA I don't they deserve to be no.1 just yet. They have been too ordinary over the last two years for one good home series to wipe that. Another factor is that in our last ten games against SL, SA and Australia I believe we have lost 9 tosses. So our overall record against those teams of 5 wins and 4 losses (at most) isn't that bad. But certainly we will now be no.1 only by a slim margin.

And in truth we don't deserve to be the clear-cut no.1. We are just not good enough on paper and have been getting by on sheer fighting spirit dodging one bullet after another usually through Laxman. That run had to end somewhere.

And I wouldn't be too surprised if in 3-4 years time when players like Vijay and Pujara settle down we make another push for no.1 hopefully with better pace bowlers.
 

Bun

Banned
So is this the end of the road for Ishant Sharma? At least Sreesanth produces a genuinely match-changing spell once in a rare while, whereas Ishant seems to oscillate from mediocrity to utter crap. Disappointing because a couple of years ago he seemed the one Indian bowler likely to break out of the wheel of mediocrity. And it's scary to think the alternative is Unadkat. Ishant is still young and I could still see him returning in 5 years as a smarter more disciplined bowler but right now he has to go.
Yeah, he needs to spend a season or two in county cricket.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
This is so depressing to see Dhoni basically give up.. only yesterday I was praising this Indian team for showing an appetite for a scrap. :( Atleast I hope a couple of batsmen stand up to be counted and take us within a 100 runs.
Having only 2 fielders around ABdV when Harbhajan had his tail up in the morning and South Africa were reeling at 50/4 was criminal. Dhoni should have had de Villiers sorrounded.
 

Faisal1985

International Vice-Captain
Don't know what the others are going to do but you can count on Sehwag to go for it from ball one. However long he lasts.
Sehwag certainly will go for it.....lol

But on the other hand I think its going to be playing on India's players minds big time that if they manage a drawn series tomorrow, in my opinion no damage done to their top ranking. At the same time i think this is probably India's best chance to really stamp the authority by beating SA tomorrow....quite a thin line there.

Its a must watch for sure though.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
I don't mind us going for it and losing if we can reach 300.
Meh, chances of SA allowing a victory even if we bat really well are nil (they'll slow the game down). So there is no point in going for it.

India have never drawn a series in SA - if they manage to do it, it'll be a huge accomplishment.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
SS is right. India cannot win. Even if they bat well and SA bowl poorly, they will bowl negatively into the rough and set defensive fields.

Any chance of a series win died when Dhoni spread the field. End of.
 

Woodster

International Captain
Jacques Kallis yet another immense effort, what a cricketer. Had to battle with that side problem throughout, and with balls leaping from nowhere off a length to thud into his gloves, but still he remained fully focused on the vital job he needed to undertake for his side. Technically fantastic.

India will clearly be massively disappointed in letting this slip, the 100 partnership between Kallis and the scrapper Boucher took plenty out of the Indians, enabling Steyn, Morkel and Tsotsobe to have some fun.

A huge ask for India, while Harbhajan was a real threat into the footholes, wouldn't imagine Harris to be equally as threatening, the uneven bounce for Morkel and pace and swing of Steyn will be decisive.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
I don't like Arun Lal, but he's spot on.

The biggest moment in Indian cricket history (probably bar 83 World Cup, which did amazing things for Indian cricket) was within their grasp, and the fast bowlers were found wanting.

Dhoni escapes criticism once again for some reason.
It annoys me no end that outside of CW, Dhoni never gets criticized for his **** captaincy and Sree and Ishant are regarded as future ATGs in the Indian media whenever they do well and not ripped a new one whenever they do their usual thing.
At least Sidhart Monga isn't letting it go unnoticed!

South Africa v India: Defensive India pay the price at Newlands | Cricket Features | South Africa v India | ESPN Cricinfo

Gave Smith a spray too!

**** I love Cricinfo.
 

morgieb

Request Your Custom Title Now!
India still not out of the game I feel. Sehwag could do something crazy, Tendulkar might score runs again, Laxman always bails India out of tough circumstances, among other things.

What it probably does mean is that they aren't indisputably the #1 side in the world.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
India still not out of the game I feel. Sehwag could do something crazy, Tendulkar might score runs again, Laxman always bails India out of tough circumstances, among other things.

What it probably does mean is that they aren't indisputably the #1 side in the world.
:laugh:
 

Top