*Official* VB Series - Australia, India & Zimbabwe

[Pratters]

The Aussies are batting well now. As I said, I didnt expect the batters from the test series to do very well.

 

[deeps]

duz ne1 else think that it's time they replace symonds with a PROPER batsman??? number 5 is a solid BATSMAN's position...not a weak batsman's position... Fine,if symonds should b in the team, drop harvey or watever...I just think that symonds is not reliable enough,and doesn't have the technique and temperament to play at number 5..Yes,i saw the world cup match against pakistan... But looking at how he's playing now,and how he's been playing since the WC...he looks far from a good batsman...yes,i know he's on 41* but i still don't rate him as a number 5 batsman...perhaps swap him and clarke around or somethinG? better still,drop him and bring on hogg!

 

[Tim]

Are you watching the same match as me? Symonds is batting quite well at the moment. Eventually Clarke & Symonds could swap places though.

 

[Pratters]

Lehmann is injured and is also on his 2 match ban suspension. What do you think will happen when he returns? Certainly Symonds cant be dropped as he is scoring the runs and so neither cant Clarke as he hasnt done any thing wrong till now in the one day side.

 

[mavric41]

duz ne1 else think that it's time they replace symonds with a PROPER batsman??? number 5 is a solid BATSMAN's position...not a weak batsman's position... Fine,if symonds should b in the team, drop harvey or watever...I just think that symonds is not reliable enough,and doesn't have the technique and temperament to play at number 5..Yes,i saw the world cup match against pakistan... But looking at how he's playing now,and how he's been playing since the WC...he looks far from a good batsman...yes,i know he's on 41* but i still don't rate him as a number 5 batsman...perhaps swap him and clarke around or somethinG? better still,drop him and bring on hogg!

ARE YOU KIDDING? Who do you classify as a PROPER batsman - Geoff Boycott or Bill Lawry?

 

[Pratters]

Kumble was sleeping? that was one of the funniest things I have seen.

 

[Tim]

lol, Bill Lawry is starting to get into his work as Kumble makes a mistake in the field.

 

[Tim]

wow, Bevan lost his cool & played a shot most unlike him early in his innings.

Sehwag did a good job of tieing him down & I don't think i've seen Bevan play so impatiently before.

 

[Craig]

Marc will be over joyed that his hero AA has 4.

 

[Slow Love™]

This'll be an interesting game - the Aussies, given how well Clarke and Symonds did, probably would have hoped for around 340 or so. I guess we'll adjust that now at 8/275 in the 47th over to "maybe" 300 (285-290 looks more likely at this stage)...

The Aussies will have to bowl a lot better than they did in the tests to restrict India below this total. Clarke and Symonds did really well after such a shaky start though.

 

[Slow Love™]

... and we need to hold our catches, of course.

 

[Bapu Rao Swami]

Remarkable catch by Yuvraj.


Agarkar bowled extremely well , Balaji is very good I think Balaji will be the best cadidate to fill Agarkar's shoes after Agarkar retires. India needs to bat extremely well to chase this.

 

[V Reddy]

Remarkable catch by Yuvraj.


Agarkar bowled extremely well , Balaji is very good I think Balaji will be the best cadidate to fill Agarkar's shoes after Agarkar retires. India needs to bat extremely well to chase this.

I don't think AA will retire soon. I expect him to play 6-8 years.

 

[V Reddy]

the most dangerous being Steve Bucknor

Can't resist quoting this. Bucknor missed another plumb one against Symonds and he went on to make 80 odd. But other than that he has been good in this match.

 

[Bapu Rao Swami]

Can't resist quoting this. Bucknor missed another plumb one against Symonds and he went on to make 80 odd. But other than that he has been good in this match.

You know what Buknor has not missed anything, he' been great. The Hawkeye will make any umpire look stupid. That Symonds kindaa like lbw was not an lbw. think about had Buknor given Symonds out for that - it would be a mockery!

The ball in Symonds case was bounced slightly outside the leg stump and it wasn't swinging inwards rather it was moving outwards.

 

[Pratters]

You know what Buknor has not missed anything, he' been great. The Hawkeye will make any umpire look stupid.

The judgements of height from the hawk eye is a suspect. But the pitching marks on the pitch clearly show the decisions where height was not the problem (as has been the case with the Bucknor decisions) were plumb. So Bucknor did miss a lot

cricinfo has Agarkar shown as a hero on their site

The most crucial thing in the inning was not the Symonds inning but the Bevan dismissal. And Agarkar, though didnt bowl great deliveries to get the wickets, certainly had a creditable performance to get 6 wickets. So Wisden isnt totally unjustified in putting him when he did change the course of the way the Aussie inning was progressing.

 

[Bapu Rao Swami]

Dunno why but we're playing Australia. Australia is the top team, from this series we're clearly being able to spot India's weaknesses.

1 - our keeper Dravid doesn't know how to keep. Rather than standing behind the stumps when receiving a catch, he covers the stumps. we need place for Patel in ODI's too.

2 - our pace attack is extremely weak especially the reserves. Against Pakistan I hope we go with Agarkar, Khan and dunno whom (Pathan is too young for all this, Balaji shows the signs but doesn't deliever, Balaji has been the highest wkt taker and most economical bowler in Domestic Indian cricket, Salvi isn't of International standards, Nehra is so and so, up until the world cup he showed the signs after that its been downhill).

So our pace attack will most likely be Agarkar, Khan and Nehra at times Pathan - this is a very weak attack if we wanna trouble Aus, SA and PAk in the future ..

Our spin bowlers are amongst the best in the world but only on conditions that suit them.


Our bowling is holding our team from improving and climbing the ICC ratings. Our fielding has improved much esp since Kaif and Yuvraj debuted, batting isn't a problem.

I suggest we train more bowlers, seriously otherwise we'll never make it.

 

[Tim]

The Indian bowling lineup has potential, but not threatning at this stage...the bowlers don't really have extreme pace.

If the Indian batsmen don't fire on any given day then I think its unlikely that the bowlers will win it for them.
I think Salvi has a future though..he's played 3 or 4 matches and thats no way near enough to judge him on at international level..he's got a truckload of wickets at FC level so I think there is still hope for him.

 

[Mister Wright]

Why? I'm just wondering...

Not really cheating I guess. Just that Mark Waugh and Shane Warne got in trouble for releasing match information before the game.

 

[Tim]

I still think Pakistan need to show more consistency without needing Shoaib to wreck the opposition, and if they can do that then look out because they will be very tough.