full_length said:
"As I said elsewhere I do not think the Indians can improve significantly from where they are at now, whereas NZ can. On current form India may be slight favs, but if NZ put their game together I would back this team v India on anything other than 'sub continent' pitches.
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And I responded to that stupid comment about SubC pitches elsewhere. Why dont you take the pain to go and look at match results for India in ODIs home and away and run a similar excercise for NZ. Let us know what you find.
As for the first part of the quote above, some more crap!
How do yuou know INdia cant improve significantly while NZ can?
Harbhajan hasnt come into play significantly yet. Kaif hasnt made big scores. Sehwag hasnt plummeled a century this WC (he was the only one who managed to score on your so called cricket pitches recently). There's scope for improvement.
I think that NZ have already performed out of their skins, and done the best they can..
They will have to fire big time to make a match of the India encouter.
I really do seem to have hit a nerve here.....this was not meant as an 'attack' on India nor was it some 'blind' faith in NZ, but I admit I can not claim total impartiality.
I realise now that I should have clarified my comment re India's bowling - I am referring to their seam attack as opposed to their spin attack. An oversight I admit but I was thinking in terms of the pitches & performances in this WC. Spin as yet has not played a consistant / major part in this tourneyment (although it has an influence), & seam bowlers still dominate the wicket taking stakes. The Indian seamers have had some impressive results (Nehra), but I do not think they have the ability to do this consistantly against the better batting line ups they will now be facing (Srinath being the exception). Their seam attack needs a large total to defend (whereas the Aussies just need a sniff).
While Kaif & Sehwag haven't made big scores / plummeled a century, by and large the Indian batting order / top order have been doing the job very well thankyou - as per Sachin's new record run tally. They are nicely in form as such - but IMO the batting lineup is susceptable to pace & bounce (so long as it is not short & wide).
I said significant improvement - NZ still has more work / improvement to do than India!!!! India has improved out of sight from the totally pathetic bunch of non performers (Sehwag & Srinath aside), on the recent tour to NZ - NZ has yet to put a complete team performance together - esp in the bowling.
So far as the pitch comments go I have already said that I considered the recent NZ pitches as substandard, but IMO they have been no worse than some of the past pitches served up in the sub continent - just a different type of bad & one that does not suit anyone really, whereas pitches doctored to produce prodigeous & early spin does suit India, but not those countries where wickets are 'greener' & spin less of a norm.
IMO India's ODI & Test record have been blown out by their Home results - their Away Test series results tends to support this. The dominant factor in this record has been their Home pitches where 'spin is king'. India does well in ODI on flatter batting tracks, but not so much on pitches with bounce & seam.
I know India have the better ODI pedigree & I have said that India should be favs on current form, but that I would back this NZ team v India if they got their game together on anything other than sub continent type pitches - so what??????
So far as the WC results comparison goes it was a comparison of results relative to the lead in form of the opponents & NZs poor ODI record in SA. IMO the seam attacks of WI & SA on their lead in form were out performing those of ENG & PAK, & their batting lineups are more familiar with these sorts of pitches than ENG at least.
The NZ loss to SL was as a result of poor decisions & selections prior to the toss - the wrong game plan for the wrong pitch with the wrong team selection. The SL decision v India to put India in was wrong IMO - but not nearly as 'wrong' as NZ got it. That is not meant to deminish the Indian performance (esp the top order), but to put a bit of perspective onto the results.
Even the result of the AUS v NZ match - so NZ made less than India (a record WC low for NZ) & lost by 90+ runs. IMO the game was a lot tighter than that would indicate and AUS were in the most trouble to date in this WC. IMO it was a game NZ 'should' have won, as opposed to a game ENG perhaps 'could' have won.
From memory I am not aware that India could say either about their game v AUS, & I doubt they would have done as well on the same pitch.
If you can not see the 'validity' of any of the above then we shall have to agree to disagree on it all & say no more on the matter, as I doubt that even the eventual result will change either of our perspectives.
Regardless I am still looking forward to the match as the pitch will be better than that v AUS & the players should be the main determining factor not the pitch.
(Apologies to all for the length of this reply)
