*Official* VB Series - Australia, India & Zimbabwe

[Eclipse]

Well he should have. Even if he was dead he should have come out, with the game in the situation it was. He does have two eyes... and si one of my favourite players, so i love noting better in the world than to see him lead Zimbabwe to an impossible victory. Real shame he didnt return.

I could not ever blame him he does have a fractured scull after all.

he may well not have been allowed to go out even if he wanted to because one more hit to the scull could possibly be fatal.

 

[Prince EWS]

I was not aware that he had a fractured skull. Im still not so certain you are correct. The commentators did mention that he had had one earlier in his career, so it was a worry, but I dont think they ever said he had doen it again. Maybe Im wrong, or maybe they just didnt say it. Anyway, if he does have a fractured skull, I apologise.

 

[Eclipse]

I was not aware that he had a fractured skull. Im still not so certain you are correct. The commentators did mention that he had had one earlier in his career, so it was a worry, but I dont think they ever said he had doen it again. Maybe Im wrong, or maybe they just didnt say it. Anyway, if he does have a fractured skull, I apologise.

This form the cricketinfo report.

"Mark Vermeulen was forced to retire hurt after being hit just above his right eye by an Irfan Pathan short ball – reports later confirmed that he had suffered a fracture"

 

[V Reddy]

They were showing Wasim assist Irfan in the indoor nets yesterday on Sportcentre India on ESPN. He doesnt officially want to take the position as even talk of it has invited a case filed against him which ofcourse is ridiculous. But I would imagne Wasim doesnt want the official tag to avoid controversies. What Bruce Reid is doing then when Wasim is helping, I am not aware. Reid by the way has said he would not tour with India to Pakistan as bowling coach.

Bruce Reif was only contracted for the tests but he stayed for 2 onedayers. Now he is not there. Pathan is a big fan of Wasim and Wasim seems to like him and i don't think any coach would stop a player from approaching from a legend. I don't know what influence Reid had on Balaji but he seems an improved bowler now. He is bowling much closer to the stumps and is swinging the ball in the air too which he didn't used to. He is bowling much better line and length than he used to. Atleast he seems to have improved with him :saint:

 

[Prince EWS]

Well I guess we can only hope the fracture was to his eye socket.

 

[CDAK]

I don't know what influence Reid had on Balaji but he seems an improved bowler now. He is bowling much closer to the stumps and is swinging the ball in the air too which he didn't used to. He is bowling much better line and length than he used to. Atleast he seems to have improved with him :saint:

U r wrong. Balaji was the no.1 Indian pacer in the domestic level for the last few years.(in Ranji season this year, he got 47 wickets in 7 games). Moreover, he was the best Indian bolwer for India-A in England tour.(according to the team coach,Patil). All those were achieved by his swing and control of the ball only in the so called McGrath line and length. So there's no question of improving, but getting matured in international level is happening now.

 

[Mister Wright]

I have to admit, I find it depressing how defensively this Zimbabwe top order plays the game.

If a wicket or two falls early (and this is often the case) they go into full caution mode, and barely play any shots. It's like they take the Ian Chappell "must bat out the 50 overs" mantra as their only philosophy. There's no point batting out slowly to a loss, particularly when chasing a target that wasn't huge (even if it may have been a bit much for Zimbabwe to get).

Better to go out blazing. This is one-day cricket, after all. Zimbabwe have nothing to lose - nobody really expects anything other than sound losses from them anyway, so they really ought to have a go. The other factor here is that rain is on the cards, and Zimbabwe's best chance of a win was to at least try and stay ahead of the Duckwork/Lewis target. As it stands, they don't have a chance if the rain comes, their run-rate is far too slow.

This top order is just not suited to one-day cricket. There must be some kids to try.

Oh please...you have to be joking.

All they had to chase was 5 runs an over. Flower and Vermeulen were going very, very well (It was so good to see Flower opening again). They started off cautiously and were starting to hit some boundaries when Vermeulen had to retire hurt. (It sounded pretty bad, I was in the top tear and I could hear the crack). Then Grant Flower did exactly what you asked and played a rash shot when he needed to build a partnership with Carlisle. For me, that was the turning point.

Boy it was an exciting finish, and I think everyone who wasn't Indian were going for Zimbabwe, and we almost got them home.

But one thing is for sure, Ervine his a star of the future.

 

[Slow Love™]

Oh please...you have to be joking.

All they had to chase was 5 runs an over.

Exactly. And the fact that they scored 60 runs from the 15th over to the 35th (when Taibu fell) meant that the asking rate was already 8.5 for 15 overs by the time Ervine came to the wicket. Scoring at only 3 an over for 20 overs in the middle of the innings is always going to create extreme pressure on the late order bats when you're chasing any decent total. They simply played far too defensively, and were comprehensively outshown by the lower order - yet again. Ervine, Ebrahim and Price played a great hand, but it was just too many to get at that stage of the innings.

 

[Linda]

Wow, Zimbabwe do have a world-class tail, just a shame there top order isnt doing the same.

Ervine shouldve been man of the match, IMO. If he hadnt of done what he did, there really wouldve been no chance. Those early wickets and quick fire runs were outstanding. Still it shows hes got plenty to come at such a young age!
Ebrahim and Price showed such determination, which almost got them through, they seemed to be having a good time aswell!

I really laughed when Ebrahim and Price were going for a hard fought third run after the Price boundry, and Bill Lawry is yelling "Run, boy, RUN!". Hilarious!

 

[biased indian]

By the same token, Australia dominated many more days than India in their series though.

Pakistan are in a good run IMO - don't forget they beat SA no that long ago.

quote of the season!!! is above these lines in bold letters

 

[biased indian]

I already did in the Test Series thread:

Will look it out for you again though.

First Test Aus 2 Ind 1 (2 rained out)
Second Test Aus 2 Ind 3
Third Test Aus 3 Ind 1
Fourth Test Aus 1 Ind 2 but 2 days honours fairly even.

I make that 8-7.

when aus last toured india they won all the 4 days in mumbai,3 days in culcatta, and 2 days in chennai that is they won it 9-5. The series should have been australias oh steve waugh come back and get the series trophy and u r final frontier !!!!!

 

[biased indian]

Day 1: India 284/3 - India dominates
Day 2: India 650/5 - India dominates
Day 3: India 705/7d, Australia 342/6 - no way can you say India dominated, if anything Australia had the upper hand.
Day 4: Australia 474, India 211/2d, Australia 10/0 - reverse of Day 3 - India slight upper hand.
Day 5: Australia 357-6 - For me that day clearly belongs to Australia, for a fair while, the target was possible.

I am a neutral in this series, and looking at the comments from fans of the competing nations, I think the neutrals are the objective ones!

and that is why england have not beaten australia in 18 years
because for an english fan his team is in strong position if his team is 342/6 chasing 705/7 dec.Whising every english cricket fans many more days like this where their country have the upper hand best wishes

 

[PY]

and that is why england have not beaten australia in 18 years

Not sure what this is supposed to mean. You mean a series?

If not I'll ignore it because it's tripe.

If you do, then why does this particular match show why England haven't won a series against Australia?

I don't agree with Marc on Day 3 for the record but just don't see the relevance it has to the Ashes.....:rolleyes:

 

[Tom Halsey]

and that is why england have not beaten australia in 18 years

Relevance?

 

[krkode]

PY and Halsey: he also said this:

because for an english fan his team is in strong position if his team is 342/6 chasing 705/7 dec.Whising every english cricket fans many more days like this where their country have the upper hand best wishes

Indirectly referring to Marc's opinion that 342/6 chasing 705 is "the upper hand", which it clearly is not.

I am of the opinion that Australia, never for a moment, looked like winning Test #4. Just no. They had a shot on Day 5, but nowhere near the kind of chance India had.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Indirectly referring to Marc's opinion that 342/6 chasing 705 is "the upper hand", which it clearly is not.

True, however, considering the position India were in at the start of the day, it was Australia's day, which is just what Marc said.

 

[krkode]

True, however, considering the position India were in at the start of the day, it was Australia's day, which is just what Marc said.

I don't see it? India scores 50 quick runs and declares and Australia scores 340 odd with the loss of 6 wickets, still 300 odd behind with an unproved Katich and the tail remaining? How can it have been Australia's day?

 

[PY]

I think Marc meant taking each day as it comes ie not taking the match situation into account so therefore, India lost 2 wickets for 50 runs and Australia scored 342 for loss of 6 wickets.

Still don't agree with him but thought I'd take a stab at what he meant.

 

[PY]

Indirectly referring to Marc's opinion that 342/6 chasing 705 is "the upper hand", which it clearly is not.

Still don't see relevance to England :P

 

[Anil]

IMO Aus had more on day 5 than Ind, since Ind never even really looked like bowling them out and Aus for a while looked like it was on.

When was this? I agree that it rarely looked like India would bowl them out, but when was this "for a while" when Australia looked likely to win? It was always a loooong shot for them and considering that they lost 6 wickets while being 86 runs short of the target , it was much more likely that they would've been bowled out had they tried to race to the target! They always score at a reasonably fast clip, but that was not a serious chase(especially Steve Waugh was definitely trying to save his last test and not win it) at any point on the 5th day. It was neither India's day nor Australia's.