India vs SA ODIs

crappycraperson

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5 match series started today.
Both teams in super form.

So far
India: 249/9 in 50 overs
SA : 112-3 in 24 overs

SA should win unless India could bowl them out
 
crappycraperson said:
5 match series started today.
Both teams in super form.

So far
India: 249/9 in 50 overs
SA : 112-3 in 24 overs

SA should win unless India could bowl them out
Click to expand...

Quitter
 
I haven't seen much of the Indian team the last few years, but was pleasantly surprised with the agressive running between the wickets. Also, with the way the lower order came back at the south africans, there seems to be a lesser reliance on the star batsman to produce. The bowling was a bit tame, but 'suppose the pitch flattened out for the second half as expected. I had no idea that Hyd had a new cricket stadium .. plan on checking it out on my vacation next month.
 
Good performance by us, from 35/5, to run them close was an achievement in itself. Need to win the second to have a chance.. Dont know why we're playing so few test matches..
 
I agree. I can't remember the last time we played a 5 test series with anyone. Today's game being a d/n one, batting first seems to be the best play for us .. hopefully we will win the toss.
 
Another very good performance, Sehwag looked his old self again...ideal wicket prepared to counter S A's strengths.

We seriously lack Slabbs input on cricket.
 
Good stuff
Actually it was the 4 early wickets by seamers that did the trick, their lower order was never going to survive bhaji and kartik on that pitch.
Pathan is looking good and not fading away like Zaheer.
Its going to be a real good series.
 
crappycraperson said:
Pathan is looking good and not fading away like Zaheer.
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Zaheer has somehow lost the art of side movement, it's been like that since the world cup...
 
Nice win. Pathan's opening spell was super and I thought that set the tone. Kallis's lame dismissal was probably the crucial wicket. Once Dravid saw the ball turn, it was easy for him to shuffle 32 overs between the spinners. Having said that, I thought it was a really poor one day pitch. Granted it favoured the spinners, but it wasn't sporting at all. The ball barely carried to the keeper of the seamers. Surely, there has to be a better way to prepare pitches.
 
vikram10 said:
Surely, there has to be a better way to prepare pitches.[/QUOTE
Why? When we go to SA our spinners get nothing out of the pitch, those tracks are bloody dead for spinners. Nothing wrong with it being the other way round once in awhile.. of late pacers have been taking plenty of wickets in India.
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Agreed. when in foriegn land, we get quite a few pitches where suit their pace bowlers a lot, nobody moans about sportsmanship then.
 
vikram10 said:
Having said that, I thought it was a really poor one day pitch. Granted it favoured the spinners, but it wasn't sporting at all. The ball barely carried to the keeper of the seamers. Surely, there has to be a better way to prepare pitches.
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That's ridiculous. The home team always pays great detail to getting a pitch that plays to their strengths. Every team in the world does that. It's part of the home advantage.
 
I'm not talking about leaving grass on it or baking it like at the WACA, but make it hard enough for there to be enough carry. As it is, the boundaries are fairly small coupled with sandy, crumbly pitches like the one in Bangalore makes for poor cricket. Maybe at the cost of losing a few more games at home, it might make our performances more consistent abroad (outside of the sub-cont).
 
Againt the onus is on us to prove ourselves abroad, while other countries too struggle to win in the sub continent.
It would make sense to use different pitches for Ranji games but not for internationals.
Otherwise we will end up losing both at home and abroad.
And we actually did produce " sporting " wickets against the aussies last time they visited.
 
Of course it makes sense to prepare them to suit our advantages at home, but I would also like to see a minimum standard of cricket. I agree with you about those prepared for the aussies and hopefully the rest of games are on similar squares.
 
crappycraperson said:
Againt the onus is on us to prove ourselves abroad, while other countries too struggle to win in the sub continent.
It would make sense to use different pitches for Ranji games but not for internationals.
Otherwise we will end up losing both at home and abroad.
And we actually did produce " sporting " wickets against the aussies last time they visited.
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Ejjactly.
Those sort of experiments should be done in the Ranji trophy and other domestic games. Not tests.. besides IMO our current main team is good enough on foriegn tracks.. theyv proven it. Its just a case of application the next time we tour. And those tracks against Australia werent even sporting they were just a downright disgrace.. you might get tracks which turn when you go to australia, but to get a track made purely for the visitors is ridiculous.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Ejjactly.
Those sort of experiments should be done in the Ranji trophy and other domestic games. Not tests.. besides IMO our current main team is good enough on foriegn tracks.. theyv proven it. Its just a case of application the next time we tour. And those tracks against Australia werent even sporting they were just a downright disgrace.. you might get tracks which turn when you go to australia, but to get a track made purely for the visitors is ridiculous.
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Nothing wrong with a medium pacer getting carry to the keeper consistently, wouldnt you say? I see that your rambling tends to border on the extremes. Those pitches against the aussies made for some fantastic cricket.

I agree with the idea of preparing better pitches for domestic cricket, but do the national team players play enough ranji or duleep trophy games or is it only when they are dropped? Any idea?
 
He is correct about the last set of pitches again Aussies when they won 2-1.
Even the aussie camp commented that they favoured them instead of India, some home advantage that.
And the last ODI pitch against SA was not that bat at all really. Perfectly fine, if SA had not lost early wickets they would have made 200 atleast.
What are we supposed to do? Gauge the ability to play spin of each team and prepare pitch accordingly? There are very few pitches left in India which are " Banjar".
 
What's with bringing Ganguly back? dumb decision after his spat with Chapple...
 
vikram10 said:
Nothing wrong with a medium pacer getting carry to the keeper consistently, wouldnt you say? I see that your rambling tends to border on the extremes. Those pitches against the aussies made for some fantastic cricket.

I agree with the idea of preparing better pitches for domestic cricket, but do the national team players play enough ranji or duleep trophy games or is it only when they are dropped? Any idea?
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Your not getting the point.. i didnt say its wrong for medium pacers to get good carry, but if it isnt there, theres no need to make a big deal out of it. Quality teams play well in all conditions, and the conditions should suit the home teams, thats just how cricket has always been. By that i dont mean make tracks that guarantee a victory for the home side, but one which First and foremost will provide a good game of cricket and Secondly, be more suited to the home side.

I didnt say the track against the Aussies was a substandard one.. it was obviously a good cricketing wicket. Had it been us touring them a track like that would be fine, but it wasnt, it was here in our own backyard, we prepared a pitch ideal for our visitors and that just isnt on.
 
Well done boys.

Pathan opens.Genius.I would've slated the move even if he'd scored a decent amount.I think this experimentation malarkey's going a bit haywire. :wenger:

Smith's a great batsman to watch when he's in full flow.

fecking eeeejits the lot of them.
 
Terrific performance to square the series. The bowling and fielding was very impressive.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Your not getting the point.. i didnt say its wrong for medium pacers to get good carry, but if it isnt there, theres no need to make a big deal out of it. Quality teams play well in all conditions, and the conditions should suit the home teams, thats just how cricket has always been. By that i dont mean make tracks that guarantee a victory for the home side, but one which First and foremost will provide a good game of cricket and Secondly, be more suited to the home side.

I didnt say the track against the Aussies was a substandard one.. it was obviously a good cricketing wicket. Had it been us touring them a track like that would be fine, but it wasnt, it was here in our own backyard, we prepared a pitch ideal for our visitors and that just isnt on.
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Fair enough. My bigger point is that for as long as I can remember, every poor performance abroad was greeted with usual "unfamiliar pitches" excuse, and rightly so. If the longer goal is to have a team that can consistently be among the world's best, then the attitude has to change and if that costs of a few home series, so be it.

For example, we've had some fantastic talents in the last 10-15 years who've played tremendously well at home and are the reason why we have such a dominant home record. However, my feeling is that playing on our pitches for such a long period of time have progressively destroyed their ability to play abroad. Players like kambli, sidhu, azhar and even ganguly to name a few, have tremendous stats but towards the end of their careers couldn't perform except at home. As weird as it sounds, I feel the longer a batsman is consistently selected for the indian team, the poorer their short ball technique gets. If it's not due to the amount if cricket played in the sub-cont, what else could it be and for supposedly having the strongest lineup on paper? My fear is that the new crop like yuvraj, kaif, dhoni having started out superbly may go down that route if things remain the same. I certainly hope not.

Recent history shows that being dominant in the sub-continent is cyclical. A year ago, we were in the dumps but now it's SL's turn. In a few months, it could be Pak. With your thinking, I have no doubt that we will always be strong at home and decent away, but I doubt we will be among the top teams.

Btw, I looked up a few numbers from the aussie series and here is how the indian spinners performed:

bangalore - 16/20
chennai - 18/20
Nagpur - 8/15
Mumbai - 18/20
 
Local climate plays a big part in maintaining the pitches and the conditions are more favorable in Pakistan to prepare bouncy tracks. The pitch at Mohali is fast and bouncy and we can expect such kind of pitches if we move north towards Pakistan ..as the geography and soil conditions too plays a part preparing the wicket. Generally its not possible to make a genuine tracks in Bombay, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.

Kotla and Eden Gardens can be made in to bouncy tracks but since they are reputed test centres with a crtical test match being played there on almost home tour, the curator usually tampers them favoring the spinners.

Generally these instructions would come from the team management. Ajit Wadekar and Azharuddin did their best in favoring underprepared wickets. It won them some home series and saved their skins temporarily but worsened the overseas record further and finally backfired at their own backyard in the WC Semifinal against Srilanka.

Wright and Ganguly should be credited for opting genuine wickets and it really played a big part in the recent oveseas victories. The track in which we beat Australia in Calcutta was a genuine wicket.. It had plenty of bounce, assisted the seamers and also the ball was coming on the bat for the first 3 1/2 days and gradually deteriorating and assisting the spinners towards the end. Now a days thats the standard even at SCG and Adelaide Oval.
 
vikram10 said:
For example, we've had some fantastic talents in the last 10-15 years who've played tremendously well at home and are the reason why we have such a dominant home record. However, my feeling is that playing on our pitches for such a long period of time have progressively destroyed their ability to play abroad. Players like kambli, sidhu, azhar and even ganguly to name a few, have tremendous stats but towards the end of their careers couldn't perform except at home. As weird as it sounds, I feel the longer a batsman is consistently selected for the indian team, the poorer their short ball technique gets. If it's not due to the amount if cricket played in the sub-cont, what else could it be and for supposedly having the strongest lineup on paper? My fear is that the new crop like yuvraj, kaif, dhoni having started out superbly may go down that route if things remain the same. I certainly hope not.
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Agree about Kambli, Sidhu and Azharuddin to some extent was a decent batsman abroad but Ganguly was/is? a very good batsman in the bouncy conditions. He has scored centuries in all big Australian and South African grounds and has also done extremely well in England...Infact he has an excellent overseas average compared to his mediocre domestic record.

Kaif is technically well equipped and Yuvarj has matured a lot in the recent seasons but I fear this Dhoni bloke would turn out to be a liablity , especially outside the subcontinent.
 
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