**Official** South Africa in India Thread

[tooextracool]

So when you look at a bowlers record do you discard the no. of wickets taken on bowler friendly wickets ??

yes i do, if someone takes wickets on a real seamers paradise it doesnt mean anything to me, just like all the wickets got in the NZ-ind series in NZ. or the fact that murali karthik took wickets in the 4th test against australia.

I am not claiming that Gambhir is the new genius on the block but I will give the guy credit for going out there under pressure and batting well in front of Nitni, Pollock etc. If nothing else the the least I could do is be positive about him and his effort.

i wouldnt give him any credit for scoring on the flattest wicket since antigua, and as far as ntini and pollock are concerned, neither of them are particularly good bowlers on non seamer friendly wickets, ntini is rubbish anywhere away from home.

 

[SJS]

Here's the names, * denotes someone who never made it as a regular pick at any sustained point (feel free to dispute my memory, especially when it comes to India)

Conclusion... Indian new caps get a shorter run?

Sort of.

Actually, from the beginning of test matches in each country, if one was to see the number of players that have represented the country against the tests played, India comes BANG in the middle, with Australian, Pakistani, West Indian and Bangladeshi players having longer stints than an average Indian player in tests and English, Kiwi, South African and Zimbabwean having shorter stints. Sri Lankans are about the same (marginally less) than Indians.

Just for the record, the average span of a test player for all countries put together is 18.1 tests and for India it is 16.7. So anyone who thinks Indian players dont get changed or get long terms doesnt know what he is talking about.

 

[Neil Pickup]

What I'd be interested in finding out (and no, I'm not doing the donkey work) is the distributions of caps with respect to numbers of players. It sort of seems that the Indians have a core unit with a shedload of caps each, and then a lot of peripherals with very few, whereas the English seem to be more evenly distributed.

Something like:

|
|
|
|______
|      ______
|           ____
|               ____
|                   ___
|________________________
ENGLAND

|
|____________
|           ____
|              __
|                __
|                  __
|                    __
|                      _
|________________________
INDIA

 

[biased indian]

Here's the names, * denotes someone who never made it as a regular pick at any sustained point (feel free to dispute my memory, especially when it comes to India)
ENGLAND
566 SJ Rhodes -- 11
577 RC Irani -- 03
580 MA Ealham -- 08
583 CEW Silverwood --06
585 DW Headley -- 15
587 AJ Hollioake --04
592 AJ Tudor --10
595 CMW Read --11

*219 S Ramesh -- 19
*229 SS Das --23

Conclusion... Indian new caps get a shorter run?

if the two indian players are considerd as not given a good run why is it that these english players not in the same list (the number of test played by them --) ?????

 

[marc71178]

Indian pessism and optimism is apparently both a no-no on this board.

TO the extreme's it goes then it is annoying.

 

[Legglancer]

South Africa happy with a draw

by Christo Buchner

Posted on 24 November 2004 - 22:25

The young South African cricket side led by captain Graeme Smith can look back with satisfaction on the outcome of the first test against India that ended in a draw on Wednesday.
To get live scores from the cricket sent to your cell phone, send CSA to 33003. This is a SuperSMS service, with each SMS costing R1.50.

Before the start of the two-test series, experts predicted that India would be leading the series 1-0 after the first five-day encounter.

This was, however, not the case and now India have more questions than answers. The second test begins at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.

After play was called-off with South Africa's score at 169-4 in the second innings - a lead of 213 runs - Smith said that he was very satisfied with his team's performance.

"We showed we can compete against India on an equal footing, even though there is a lack of experience, especially to the conditions we encounter in India.

"Most of the things we experimented with worked and there are positive aspects for the future," Smith predicted. The Indian players are moaning about what they called South Africa's negative tactics, but the fact remains that South Africa played as planned the past five days and they can be proud of their performance.

Coach Ray Jennings said: "Test cricket is all about pressure and we applied it from day one. Our plan was to amass a big total and dictate the match from there.

Increased pressure on India

"With players with hardly any experience playing in India, we did exceedingly well to score 510 runs. "It really does not matter that it took us two days to get to that score. It increased the pressure on India to bat quicker and to take more chances to remain in the match," the coach said.

He acknowledged the first time his team allowed the pressure to take hold was when the Indian opening batsmen, Virender Sehwag and Gautham Gambhir, kept the scoreboard ticking over at a rapid rate in the last session on the third day.

Jennings said: "It seemed as if the bowlers did not quite know what to do and lost their way a bit. However, we addressed the issue and on Tuesday they came back to curtail the Indian run rate.

"I am especially pleased with the performance of Makhaya (Ntini) on Wednesday. He did exactly what I had asked. The seed of doubt was sown when they lost six wickets for 59 runs.

"They now realise we have a bowling attack that can keep their wickets tumbling and they will think about that. We managed to get Tendulkar (Sachin) out cheaply and Ganguly (Sourav) and Dravid (Rahul) also did not look comfortable.

"This test was definitely a shot in the arm for my players. The standard has been set and now we have to work hard to improve on it. I am especially pleased that the experiment to open the bowling attack with Andrew Hall was so successful.

"He showed what a valuable player he is and India must know there are many more such players in our squad," Jennings said.

 

[JustTool]

TO the extreme's it goes then it is annoying.

Oh, so sorry. We will try to be more sensitive to your tender emotions. We are trying to learn how to be sensitive from Botham.

 

[Legglancer]

Oh, so sorry. We will try to be more sensitive to your tender emotions. We are trying to learn how to be sensitive from Botham.

 

[Neil Pickup]

if the two indian players are considerd as not given a good run why is it that these english players not in the same list (the number of test played by them --) ?????

Did you not read the disclaimer? My pre-2000 knowledge of world cricket is sketchy at best - I wasn't aware that Das and Ramesh had played so much (weren't they in-out anyway?)

 

[marc71178]

Oh, so sorry. We will try to be more sensitive to your tender emotions. We are trying to learn how to be sensitive from Botham.

Win a game and they're talked of as the 2nd best side in the world.
Lose a game and they need to make 11 changes to avoid being the worst in the world.

That sort of reaction is extreme and pointless.

 

[Jono]

Yes but don't categorise all Indian fans on this board as members that take that line of thinking.

 

[viktor]

DAmn right Jono ! we Indians take everything in our stride and treat both success and failure the same.
You, Marc, have hurt Indian sentiments; could you provide a full length photgraph of urself? I would like to burn your effigy as a mark of protest :-P

 

[marc71178]

Yes but don't categorise all Indian fans on this board as members that take that line of thinking.

To be fair I guess the number of the more terrace-type posters that come here skew the view.

 

[masterblaster]

To be fair to Marc, I think he was referring to those terrace-type posters. I think all the older members know who the good Indian fans are and who the 'terrace' is.

We older members have seen it all really. England 2002 was a lot of fun.

 

[Neil Pickup]

DAmn right Jono ! we Indians take everything in our stride and treat both success and failure the same.
You, Marc, have hurt Indian sentiments; could you provide a full length photgraph of urself? I would like to burn your effigy as a mark of protest :-P

 

[nikhil1772]

Win a game and they're talked of as the 2nd best side in the world.
Lose a game and they need to make 11 changes to avoid being the worst in the world.

That sort of reaction is extreme and pointless.

Too exaggerating here,aren't we...eh marc?

 

[biased indian]

Did you not read the disclaimer? My pre-2000 knowledge of world cricket is sketchy at best - I wasn't aware that Das and Ramesh had played so much (weren't they in-out anyway?)

Das made his debut in Nov 2000 well with in u r knowledge peiod!!!!

 

[Neil Pickup]

Das made his debut in Nov 2000 well with in u r knowledge peiod!!!!

Over there, look, there's, erm... *runs away*

 

[JustTool]

Win a game and they're talked of as the 2nd best side in the world.
Lose a game and they need to make 11 changes to avoid being the worst in the world.

That sort of reaction is extreme and pointless.

Thank you for your wisdom O' Great One. Is this similar to Botham saying that England will beat Australia (seeing that England has won a few games here and there) ?

 

[tooextracool]

Too exaggerating here,aren't we...eh marc?

really? i mean not long ago there were many many people talking about how brilliant ganguly's captaincy was and now people want him sacked cause hes incompetent.