***Official*** South Africa in India 2015

[cnerd123]

I think its worth noting here, too, that this isn't a first-innings approach at all. No point at all playing for the draw from ball one; you play your natural game and hope you're better over the five days.

I distinctly recall India's strategy for Tests in the late 90s/early 00s being to bat as long as possible in the first innings in order to secure the draw, before attempting to actually win the game. Usually worked for a side that lacked in bowling potency. Ganguly/Wright's success overseas was built upon ensuring they didn't lose matches more than trying to win them.

 

[cnerd123]

I don't think so, but I think this may well be the last match where Kohli doesn't play 5 bowlers. I'm sure at some stages he missed Mishra.

Yea definitely. It's fine in the last Test of the series, since he can bowl the 4 bowlers into the ground and let them recuperate after. But if this was the first or second test of the series, we'd be ****ed. **** like this is why our fast bowlers keep pulling up injured and our spinners resort to bowling darts. The lack of a Top-6 batsman to contribute a few overs is an issue for both the Test and ODI sides.

In a long series 5 bowlers, or 3 spinners 1 quick if conditions allow, is the way to go IMO.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Just bring in Bhuvi and we'll be fine. Can't do any worse with the bat than Rohit.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Man, you know everything.

I thinks you need to read more Pews posts

I'd definitely back Rohit over Rahane in India.

 

[cnerd123]

PEWS definitely wins the award for worst prediction of the thread IMO.

Rahane literally scored 10 times as many runs as Rohit did.

 

[cnerd123]

So many fun Nohit stats from this series:

Nohit - 26 runs
Rahane - 266 runs

Jadeja - 23 wickets
Nohit - 26 runs
Ashwin - 31 wickets

Nohit - 26 runs in 4 innings, average of 6.50, HS of 23
Mishra - 25 runs in 4 innings, average of 6.25, HS of 14 + 7 wickets @ 17.28
Morkel - 38 runs in 5 innings, average of 9.5, HS of 22 + 9 wickets @ 20.66

Players with a higher batting average than Nohit this series include:
- Vilas
- Faf duck Plessis
- Morkel
- Yadav
- Rabada

 

[Shri]

The XI for our next home test:

Shikar Dhawan
Murali Vijay
Cheteshwar Pujara
Virat Kohli *
Ajinkya Rahane
Gurkeerat Singh
Ravi Ashwin
Wriddhiman Saha +
Ravi Jadeja
Umesh Yadav / Mohd Shami (based on form/fitness)
Ishant Sharma

Gurkeerat Singh for Mishra strenghtens the batting more. Guy has a Sehwag-ish average and strike rate in FC cricket and is a very promising bowler. Maybe ask him to open when Dhawan is dropped and troll the world with another beast at the top.

 

[cnerd123]

Nohit Sharma Test Record - 29 innings, 896 runs, 2 centuries, 4 fifties, average of 33.18
Nohit Sharma Test Record excluding his debut series vs WI - 27 innings, 608 runs, 0 centuries, 4 fifties, average of 23.38

 

[harsh.ag]

nohit sharma test record - 29 innings, 896 runs, 2 centuries, 4 fifties, average of 33.18
nohit sharma test record excluding his debut series vs wi - 27 innings, 608 runs, 0 centuries, 4 fifties, average of 23.38

Really, WAN

 

[Gnske]

So many fun Nohit stats from this series:

Nohit - 26 runs
Rahane - 266 runs

Jadeja - 23 wickets
Nohit - 26 runs
Ashwin - 31 wickets

Nohit - 26 runs in 4 innings, average of 6.50, HS of 23
Mishra - 25 runs in 4 innings, average of 6.25, HS of 14 + 7 wickets @ 17.28
Morkel - 38 runs in 5 innings, average of 9.5, HS of 22 + 9 wickets @ 20.66

Players with a higher batting average than Nohit this series include:
- Vilas
- Faf duck Plessis
- Morkel
- Yadav
- Rabada

Man, imagine getting outscored by Vilas, who had absolutely no clue what he was doing with the bat all tour.

Rohit should cut his losses and retire now.

 

[Furball]

Please tell me van Zyl scored more runs than him
Haven't seen a batsman look as clueless as him for a long time.

 

[indiaholic]

But you are all judging him without considering the real reason he shows up in the team: for the intent and the aggression, for batting sooo fast that he can take the game away from the opposition. His SR of 51.73 vs the pitiable, truly deplorable 49.15 of Puj is all the evidence you need.

 

[Furball]

But you are all judging him without considering the real reason he shows up in the team: for the intent and the aggression, for batting sooo fast that he can take the game away from the opposition. His SR of 51.73 vs the pitiable, truly deplorable 49.15 of Puj is all the evidence you need.

It's bizarre how strokemakers get away with batting slowly.

Bell, Cook and Trott all strike at similar rates over the last 3 years yet Bell is often described as an 'artist', something the other 2 will never be described as.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Series ratings:

India:

Vijay: 7/10 Couple of gun innings on tough tracks, failed on a flatter one in the last match.
Dhawan: 5/10 He's still perfectly alright as an opener in SC conditions. Needs to stop being dumb though
Pujara: 6/10 Like Vijay, played a couple of vital innings on turners and failed in easier conditions
Kohli: 5/10 Needs to improve plenty with his play outside off and those hard hands vs spin are ****ing terrible. Two excellent knocks in the last match though.
Rahane: 6/10 Did ****all before the last game, but those two tons were glorious. All his runs came after the series was decided though
Rohit: Toilet/10 I like him, but he needs to piss off now
Saha: 5/10 CW needs to leave him alone. He's perfectly ok without being incredible.
Jadeja: 9.5/10. Total boss in these conditions. Haters can suck it.
AshWIN: 10/10
Yadav: 7/10. Always fun to watch and that counts for a lot.
Mishra: 8/10. Did his job and delivered the breakthroughs on the rare occasions Ashwin/Jaddu couldn't
Aaron: 5/10. He's ok. Shouldn't play ahead of any of Ishant/Shami/Yadav/Bhuvi once they're fit.
Ishant: 6/10. Didn't get wickets, but did a decent job. Arjun needs to #LeaveHimAlone


SA:

van Zyl: 1/10. Generous point because I rate him and think he'll be gun one day. Sucked as much as it's possibly possible to suck.
Bavuma: 5/10. Well, he tried all right. Freak at short leg.
Elgar: 6/10. I don't care if he didn't get too many runs and played some horrendous shots. He just gives off an aura that he cares, you know. Always looks like he's giving it everything, bowls awesome troll SLAs, and is a crabby left hander, which gets an automatic bonus point.
Amla: 4/10. Pathetically out of form, but boy he can block.
Faf duck Plessis: 3/10. Found out a bit against spin. But can block.
AB: 8/10. Can attack. Can block. Can defeat a fast receding hairline and grow back a wonderful mop.
Abbott: 8/10. Complete gun. Deserves to be ahead of Rabada in the pecking order.
Tahir: 5/10. Stats look good but was as erratic as ever. Got wickets though.
Vernon Failander: 2/10. Bowled well. But is Vernon Philander. Also got injured at the worst time.
Harmer: 6/10. Not bad at all. Puzzled why he was dropped tbh.
Piedt: 5/10. He's ok.
Steyn: /10

 

[Pratters]

India has riches in spin now suddenly with Mishra doing well. Ojha is there as well. It's good that he is having a proper home season right now. Then there are guys like Karn Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav for the future after 3-4 years.

 

[Daemon]

Karn sharma is terrible atm

 

[Marius]

Disappointing result for SA, but well done to India.

I was one of those who whined about the pitches, but good teams should be able to deal with things like that to be honest.

SA is also a team in transition, think the series against England is going to be a cracker, and I'm not confident of a series win as I was a few weeks ago.

Think Duminy needs some time out of the team, but all the other guys deserve to be persisted with. Will be interesting to see what happens with the openers now - Bavuma shouldn't open, but (politically) a place for him might have to be found.

Abbott did well and Rabada also wasn't terrible. If Steyn and Philander aren't fit for England it won't be an absolute disaster.

The spinning berth will also be interesting. Despite his fifer still don't think Tahir should be our first choice Test spinner and it will probably be a straight shootout between Harmer and PIedt. Both of them did all right and Harmer was unlucky to be dropped for Delhi.

 

[Shri]

Gurkeerat Singh ****s. He should make a great 5th bowler at home and a 6th bowling option away. And Suryakumar Yadav. The others can piss off until they get their chances.

 

[Shri]

The next best batsman for India is probably going to be Sarfaraz Khan. Kid looked impressive for RCB in the last IPL.

 

[Howe_zat]

Sarfaraz Khan is the name of a Pakistan cricketer, surely. It'd be like having an England player named Bruce Marsh or a West Indian player called Jacques de Villiers.