India Tour of South Africa

Turned up two weeks earlier, picked Rahane from the start, and not inexplicably have dropped Kumar and India would have won this fairly easily I think.

Not actually sure the dogshit pitches that this series have played on have helped South Africa. They seem to have acted more of a leveller than given their ridiculously good seam bowlers an edge (not that India's attack is particularly bad these days, South Africas is just ridiculous). A bit similar to the dogshit pitches they played on last time South Africa were in India that made Elgar look like a world class spinner.
 
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Incredible victory for us. Some stupid selection errors and we could've won the series.
 
Virat Kohli lol. Celebrating like won a series away.
SA need to get extra batsman vs Australia. Australia bowling is better than India's and current composition of team will put them in trouble.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Turned up two weeks earlier, picked Rahane from the start, and not inexplicably have dropped Kumar and India would have won this fairly easily I think.

Not actually sure the dogshit pitches that this series have played on have helped South Africa. They seem to have acted more of a leveller than given their ridiculously good seam bowler as an edge (not that India's attack is particularly bad these days, South Africas is just ridiculous). A bit similar to the dogshit pitches they played on last time South Africa were in India that made Elgar look like a world class spinner.
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Can't disagree with any of that.

Think if against Australia, this is how the pitches are and if this is how SA play, they'll get punished.
 
Well done India. Well done to Elgar who has carried his bat, albeit in a losing effort. South Africa went from 124/1 to all out 177.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Turned up two weeks earlier, picked Rahane from the start, and not inexplicably have dropped Kumar and India would have won this fairly easily I think.

Not actually sure the dogshit pitches that this series have played on have helped South Africa. They seem to have acted more of a leveller than given their ridiculously good seam bowler as an edge (not that India's attack is particularly bad these days, South Africas is just ridiculous). A bit similar to the dogshit pitches they played on last time South Africa were in India that made Elgar look like a world class spinner.
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Yup. Crap pitches don't help any side. This pitch will surely be getting 'poor' rating at least and that will give Wanderers no more chances to screw up, else one year ban to host matches.
 
Di Maria's angel said:
I would like to hear @zing's take on the super dangerous pitch? Barely threatened to hurt anyone today. Ironic that the man who got hit yesterday is doing absolutely fine and barely taken a hit.
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It didn't look benign on the other days of the test match. With the information the umpires had during day 3, they had to have called it off. Safety over completing a match.
 
Bit weird reading your posts here, TMH. First thing you say after Ind won only their 3rd test ever in SA is laughing at Kohli. Called him brain dead too yesterday. Thought you'd be chuffed a bit with the result :confused:

Predicted 2-1 before the series started and that's how it ended. Credit to the bowlers who took all wickets on offer - though the pitches helped more than I expected. Very good series for Kohli as a batsmen and he should learn from the mistakes he made as captain. Pujara and Vijay should aim for more consistency and Rahul should stop playing stupid shots away from offstump especially if he wants to do well in Eng. All 4 fast bowlers did well and I thought Ashwin didn't do too bad under the circumstances.

Was slightly apprehensive about the result during Amla-Elgar partnership but good come back from the bowlers. Pleased for Elgar after he took so many blows (I flinched everytime he got hit) though he must have played and missed 30 times during the innings. Amla is the epitome of concentration and covered the seam movement so well.

Great to continue the unbeaten record in Bullring!
 
MichaelKorleone said:
Bit weird reading your posts here, TMH. First thing you say after Ind won only their 3rd test ever in SA is laughing at Kohli. Called him brain dead too yesterday. Thought you'd be chuffed a bit with the result :confused:

Predicted 2-1 before the series started and that's how it ended. Credit to the bowlers who took all wickets on offer - though the pitches helped more than I expected. Very good series for Kohli as a batsmen and he should learn from the mistakes he made as captain. Pujara and Vijay should aim for more consistency and Rahul should stop playing stupid shots away from offstump especially if he wants to do well in Eng. All 4 fast bowlers did well and I thought Ashwin didn't do too bad under the circumstances.

Was slightly apprehensive about the result during Amla-Elgar partnership but good come back from the bowlers. Pleased for Elgar after he took so many blows (I flinched everytime he got hit) though he must have played and missed 30 times during the innings. Amla is the epitome of concentration and covered the seam movement so well.

Great to continue the unbeaten record in Bullring!
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I love his combative style but getting hot-headed over everything especially as captain irritates me. He is always looking for something to blame and get outraged over when things go wrong. Also, yeah celebrating like series has been won especially when it is his decisions which cost the series seems funny. He will blame it on batsmen though, not taking responsibility for faulty selection.
 
Can't wait for Australia-South Africa though. My favorite series in Test Cricket :drool:
 
That third innings by us will go down as one of the most courageous innings i've ever seen. Kohli, Rahane, Vijay and Bhuvi were outstanding.

The pitch today wasn't as bad as yesterday.
 
Disappointing but predictable batting collapse by the Proteas after Amla and Elgar put on a good platform. Still kudos to the boys for a comfortable series home win which is not something we've seen often against the top teams at home in recent years.

De Kock is a concern, hopefully he can regain some confidence in the limited overs series before facing Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins. Otherwise Kuhn should be given the opportunity.

We also need to re-think the balance of this team. 5 batsmen and a keeper isn't enough. De Bruyn and Markram can bowl a few overs to make up the 5th option, Australia are too good with the ball for us to not include the extra batsmen. Great debut for Ngidi, he's probably ahead of Olivier in the picking order now, hopefully he can stay fit and challenge Morkel for the 3rd seamer option.

4 Test series against the Aussies coming up and frankly with their attack and Steve Smith, I would take a draw now if you offered it. Really don't know how we're going to cope with Smith, England have a good attack and never looked like getting him out and he feel right at home on these pitches. Need AB or Amla to step up and get big scores in the series to try and match him.
 
Oh and btw Kohli the top scorer in this series. 25% more runs than the second high scorer in the series.
 
The Man Himself said:
Virat Kohli lol. Celebrating like won a series away.
SA need to get extra batsman vs Australia. Australia bowling is better than India's and current composition of team will put them in trouble.
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Honeslty if they're fit, those boys are going to carve up our batsmen. Need someone to go through a purple patch to match Smith because you know he is going to come and get big score after big score.
 
freeurmind said:
Honeslty if they're fit, those boys are going to carve up our batsmen. Need someone to go through a purple patch to match Smith because you know he is going to come and get big score after big score.
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Englands bowling attack isnt great, especially the one that featured in the Ashes.

As for the Aussies batting, Smith aside, they're not great. I think it'll be a battle of four top seamers against faltering batting orders. You should edge it.
 
freeurmind said:
Honeslty if they're fit, those boys are going to carve up our batsmen. Need someone to go through a purple patch to match Smith because you know he is going to come and get big score after big score.
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Give him moving pitches and he won't be that impressive. I think you're overestimating Aussie batting lineup, they're worse than us but they'll be better prepared.
 
freeurmind said:
Honeslty if they're fit, those boys are going to carve up our batsmen. Need someone to go through a purple patch to match Smith because you know he is going to come and get big score after big score.
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Not sure about that. I think it will be a close series because both of these sides have issues currently, but I really don't think this Aussie team is anything special. They've got a good bowling attack, but their batting beyond Smith and Warner is incredibly brittle and there are injury worries about most of their seamers. If South Africa prepare anything other than absolute roads I reckon they're heavy favourites on paper.
 
ODI squad: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khaya Zondo

Khaya Zondo's selection is a bit of a joke but what else is new with our selectors. Where are the allrounders? One or two of Albie Morkel, Muthusamy, Ackermann and Wiese should be there. Not sure what Behardien did to get dropped. Malan should come in if AB's finger needs a rest. Can definitely see us getting tonked by 4 or 5 games.
 
freeurmind said:
Honeslty if they're fit, those boys are going to carve up our batsmen. Need someone to go through a purple patch to match Smith because you know he is going to come and get big score after big score.
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Australia's batting is not that great either. It might just end up low scoring series given the quality of bowling of both teams.
 
Di Maria's angel said:
Englands bowling attack isnt great, especially the one that featured in the Ashes.

As for the Aussies batting, Smith aside, they're not great. I think it'll be a battle of four top seamers against faltering batting orders. You should edge it.
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KM said:
Give him moving pitches and he won't be that impressive. I think you're overestimating Aussie batting lineup, they're worse than us but they'll be better prepared.
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NinjaFletch said:
Not sure about that. I think it will be a close series because both of these sides have issues currently, but I really don't think this Aussie team is anything special. They've got a good bowling attack, but their batting beyond Smith and Warner is incredibly brittle and there are injury worries about most of their seamers. If South Africa prepare anything other than absolute roads I reckon they're heavy favourites on paper.
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Saw a stat that Steve Smith is averaging 74 since the beginning of 2016 which has included tours to sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and facing SA at home. Also historically we are terrible against the Aussies at home and our batting lineup never looks like getting serious runs. I will be shocked if we win the series. If Steyn was sure to be fit, I'd give us a better chance.
 
freeurmind said:
Saw a stat that Steve Smith is averaging 74 since the beginning of 2016 which has included tours to sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and facing SA at home. Also historically we are terrible against the Aussies at home and our batting lineup never looks like getting serious runs. I will be shocked if we win the series. If Steyn was sure to be fit, I'd give us a better chance.
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Steve Smith is a terrific batsmen, hes not capable of carrying the team to series win abroad. He was great in India last year but they still lost the series.
 
freeurmind said:
Saw a stat that Steve Smith is averaging 74 since the beginning of 2016 which has included tours to sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and facing SA at home. Also historically we are terrible against the Aussies at home and our batting lineup never looks like getting serious runs. I will be shocked if we win the series. If Steyn was sure to be fit, I'd give us a better chance.
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He's a good player of spin, it's lateral movement from the seamers that has historically troubled him. Whether he has solved that or not I'm not sure, but those tours aren't places that he will have encountered a lot of it.
 
Just read that this was the first 3-test match series in history where all 120 wickets were taken.
 
Great win! Would have been great had this been a 5 test series.. While I'm happy with y'day's result,it would have been so much better had we arrived 2 weeks early and got used to the conditions.. BCCI needs to be blamed for that.. As well as some weird team selections initially.. Hopefully we won't repeat the same mistake in England now..

This was an opportunity lost to win our first series in SA..
 
@freeurmind Australia's batting order has question marks too. Warner is brilliant on his day but could also get himself out in a braindead manner ala his first innings dismissal in Hobart in 2016. Bancroft is suspect at test level. Khawaja and the Marsh boys need to prove they can cut it at test level against a high quality bowling attack. While Australia plays well in South Africa, they're suspect against top quality bowling which your team will surely provide during this series.

Ottis Gibson does need ponder if this 5-1-5 system is really the way forward. If South Africa's top 6 could put a minimum of 300 on the board and the bottom 5 contribute another 80-100, it could work but i don't see that eventuating.
 
MDFC Manager said:
:lol:

Fantastic FAF.
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When it gets tough, Faf always shows up and toughs it out. Great player to watch. Will be interesting to see if Rahane can claim the #4 spot to himself. India hasn't found a decent #4 since Yuvraj.
 
Manjrekar is a full time Rahane fan. Probably has life size posters of him plastered on his bedroom walks.
 
Moby said:
He brings in nothing but nauseating bias every single time he picks up the mic.
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All the Indian commentators suck ass. To be fair, all commentators do. Only really enjoyed Benaud and, the late, Tony Greig.
 
Di Maria's angel said:
All the Indian commentators suck ass. To be fair, all commentators do. Only really enjoyed Benaud and, the late, Tony Greig.
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I'll smash something if I listen to his 'guide to picking all rounders' one more time. He's going on about that right now, for the 939256th time. Unreal clown.
 
Both batsmen are comfortably scoring runs, getting closer to the target. Yet Gavaskar thinks this won't worry SA. Only big overs will:wenger:
 
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