Kallis and De Villiers wickets early, please.
South Africa vs India
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been reading the same stuff on the Guardian blogs.. England fans getting a bit cocky..
Get the feck in.
Shit umpiring..
Shame, we've bowled really well
Shame, we've bowled really well
Umpires have killed what could have been a great finish to this match.
Steyn gone.
155/7
155/7
i believe you, and england will win the upcoming world-cup.
good to see we are on track to tie the series.
To be honest India cricket fans are the worst. I mean 1.5 billion people focusing on one sport, you should be bloody good at it.
Well that was brilliant.
good win for india. will be good 3rd test. Amla selected for T20 match, boy is he on fine form at moment
Sreesanth to Graeme Smith yesterday:
"None of us like you. We all think you're arrogant. And it's not just us. Even your teammates have told us."
Brilliant.. wound up Smith enough to get him out.
"None of us like you. We all think you're arrogant. And it's not just us. Even your teammates have told us."
Brilliant.. wound up Smith enough to get him out.
Yeh, because they never turn up to watch their team play home and away
Let them have their fun. They rarely get to celebrate anything.
Dhoni wins the toss, wow.
And we've chosen to bowl. Conditions a bit overcast..
And we've chosen to bowl. Conditions a bit overcast..
Smith, you giant pussy hahahaha.. out.
Last over.. he hit through mid wicket and refused a second run because Zaheer was bowling
Last over.. he hit through mid wicket and refused a second run because Zaheer was bowling
play starting again
England are a better side then South Africa in home conditions. And India have a terrible track record in England, their batsman tend to struggle in English conditions with the ball seaming and swinging around. Even Tendulkar does. It's the one series India must win is they are to be considered the best test side but I think it will be very tough for them. Should be ineteresting though.
No we doesn't have a bad test record there atleast in the last two series. We drew the series in 2002 and won there in 2006.
And Tendulkar doesn't struggle in England, he has an excellent average of 63 there.
Rain stops play again.
2002 was affected by rain and you only just (remember the 1 wicket at Lords?) beat a declining England at another rain affected 3 match series in 2007. This time England will have a far stronger bowling attack in a 4 match series, batting is going to be very tough for India this time round.
It's a over-rated bowling attack.
Anderson and Swann are very good, but the other 2 are just okay bowlers. And it's not like we're going to turn up with a bunch of chumps for batsmen.
Anderson and Swann are very good, but the other 2 are just okay bowlers. And it's not like we're going to turn up with a bunch of chumps for batsmen.
I think it's a very good bowling attack but India's batting attack is probably the best in the world right now. We haven't done that badly against the best bowling attack in SA right now, I think England surely will be easier than playing against Steyn and Morkel.
Although I seriously think that some of the media are overhyping England again, I just read Darren Gough's comments regarding the series, amazingly deluded I would say.
We had typical English conditions this summer, but prior to that our wickets have been pretty much docile. I think most batsmen in the world would struggle on pitches that offer lateral movement, thesedays.
Kallis needs to get out.
Id expect England to beat India and beat them well in English conditions, Indias batting even in SA looks very flimsy in seaming conditions, its a top batting line up on paper but can be blown away by swing especially, and Anderson is by far the best swing bowler in the game.
Anderson/Broad/Tremlett/Swann is a top quality bowling line up, compared to Inida who have 1 decent bowler in Zaheer Khan, the resat are pretty ordinary for test level.
Anderson/Broad/Tremlett/Swann is a top quality bowling line up, compared to Inida who have 1 decent bowler in Zaheer Khan, the resat are pretty ordinary for test level.
Our "Average" bowling line up bowled out South Africa's batting lineup(which is superior to England's) for 131 in the first innings. Zaheer is world class, whereas Harbhajan is more than ordinary.
The problem with England fans is that most of them watch only the Ashes, they miss all the other cricket.
Could do with another wicket in the couple overs left. Bowled well, but Kallis has been rock solid.
Zaheer is a great bowler, world class without question ive always been a massive fan of his actually, but other than him your seam attack is ordinary, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharmer whoever are average test level bowlers which was the point i was making, and Swann is the best spinner in the world so as decent as Harbhajan is hes still bettered by an England bowler.
As for Englands batting line up, i think a lot of people criminally underrate it actually, now and again like Perth or headingly it will collapse like any other (Indias batting has collapsed 3 times already in the SA series) but in general Englands top 7 are very strong, all average well above 40 right down to Prior and in English conditions i wouldn't be surprised to see them out bat India who in my view have always been suspect to the moving ball, in India your batting line up is phenomenal, outside India i think its very get-attable, Dont think Sehwag/Laxman/Dhoni/Ghambir/Raina etc are good in such conditions.
For what its worth im a fan of Indian cricket, have been for a long time, but i dont think your half the side outside of Indian conditions to be honest.
I agree that our bowling attack can be ordinary. Potentially Ishant and Sreesanth can be good bowlers, but more often than not, they fail to deliver. But, you're judging their performance purely on the basis of them bowling in the sub-continent. I don't think Broad or Finn would get on much better in sub-continental conditions(not counting Bangladesh here).
Between Anderson and Zaheer, it's pretty close. Swann's been miles better than Harbhajan over the past 12 months. The other 2 can't really be compared as the English ones have been bowling in seamer-friendly conditions.
And as for the batting, I know which one I'd take. India's batting hasn't collapsed 3 times on this tour. They made 229 and 205 in the 2nd test both of which turned out to be about average on that pitch -- outscored South Africa in both the innings.
The first innings of the first innings was a collapse, but I don't think any side in the world would've scored much more on that day.. the conditions being what they were and how Steyn and Morkel bowled.
We have a bad record against England?
We beat them the last time we played a test series there, drew the time before that. Saching LOVES playing against England, he pretty much always gets hundreds there. Apart from that we beat them at home 7-1 or something in ODI's didn't we? Basically it's hard to remember us not beating England in recent times.
But I guess they've improved so it could be close the next time. Maybe if the 'oldies' begin to fall away.
We beat them the last time we played a test series there, drew the time before that. Saching LOVES playing against England, he pretty much always gets hundreds there. Apart from that we beat them at home 7-1 or something in ODI's didn't we? Basically it's hard to remember us not beating England in recent times.
But I guess they've improved so it could be close the next time. Maybe if the 'oldies' begin to fall away.
If our team's playing the same way they are right now, England won't beat us.
Six months is a long time away, though.
Six months is a long time away, though.
Lets face it, in recent times, we've kind of beaten England for fun. But I hear this team has something different about it, so it's for them to set the record straight.
Do not make the mistake by comparing a test series in South Africa to one in England. The ball does not swing anywhere near like as in England even if at first glance the conditions might seem similar. And the pitches are firmer and harder than in England where the ball doesn't bounce as much.
I've watched a lot of India and their batsman will have to adjust the way they normally play when in England or they'll be edging Anderson & co. all round the slip cordon..
So you didn't watch the last two times we toured England then. Nice.
If you're talking about the likes of Sehwag and Gambhir rather than Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid, then you may have a point. But fact is we beat you in your backyard last time, drew the time before that, so it's all for your lot to prove.
I think batsman in general have become poor against the swinging ball because it doesn't happen that often days. In fact even we seem to have better chances of winning tests these days when the pitch swings because our seamers depend heavily on lateral movement.
So for me it really depends on whether our golden oldies - Sachin, Dravid and Laxman - can go that long or whether they will begin fade away. Those three play swing as good as any in the world, better actually.
But as I said, it's been too long since I saw a decent England team against us. We seem to get better results in swinging conditions year after year, so in that sense no reason to believe we can't win again.