India tour of South Africa - 2013/14

[harishankar]

I get a feeling SA will be bowled out around 375 tomorrow. From there on only one team can win the game and that is SA. From the Indian point of view, they have managed to delay the inevitable and are now waiting for the declaration to come.

Yes Dhoni's tactics are really odd.

He had no slips for the fast bowlers when the reverse swing was happening and he doesn't want to take the new ball also.

That meant that clearly the seamers were targetting the stumps and the batsmen could easily read that and picked off the bowlers off the stumps for scoring on the leg side.

To me, it was almost as if Dhoni has lost faith in his bowling attack to take 20 wickets in this match. Looks like he's also looking to the weather. That's a bad sign from any Test captain. If you cannot expect your most experienced seamer to take wickets off the new ball, you're in trouble.

India will need to look forward to induct more youth in future. I agree that Zaheer Khan's long term future (And even short term future) is in doubt. His pace is down and he's hardly getting the ball to move in the air.

 

[surendar]

Dhoni is really an odd captain, that's why I was always in for his decision of choosing Jadeja over Ashwin on such a track. This match is going to be lively if we don't let it away too much with SA's tail like some 100 runs partnership from nowhere.

 

[harishankar]

Dhoni is really an odd captain, that's why I was always in for his decision of choosing Jadeja over Ashwin on such a track. This match is going to be lively if we don't let it away too much with SA's tail like some 100 runs partnership from nowhere.

It should have been Jadeja + Ashwin and drop Rohit Sharma for me. I think Rohit Sharma bowling as a second spinner on a more spin friendly pitch is ridiculous.

Ashwin's batting is also handy. So it's not like a suddenly out-of-form Rohit Sharma will be missed for his batting.

 

[SaiSrini]

I would say India came out from that Day without much damage done to them. They have managed to keep SA to a 30 run deficit with Day 3 over. If India can pick up wickets as quickly as they did in the 1st session today, they can bowl SA out for 375 (as adi said).. That would mean a brittle 41 run lead for SA. Then India either bats and bats and bats until they draw the test, or they end up being optimistic and try to set a target of 200-250 for SA with two sessions to go (less than that if light/rain has a say).

From here, draw looks the most likely result. Its right 70% draw, 18% SA win, 12% IND win.

 

[harishankar]

I would say India came out from that Day without much damage done to them. They have managed to keep SA to a 30 run deficit with Day 3 over. If India can pick up wickets as quickly as they did in the 1st session today, they can bowl SA out for 375 (as adi said).. That would mean a brittle 41 run lead for SA. Then India either bats and bats and bats until they draw the test, or they end up being optimistic and try to set a target of 200-250 for SA with two sessions to go (less than that if light/rain has a say).

From here, draw looks the most likely result. Its right 70% draw, 18% SA win, 12% IND win.

Draw would be a favourable result for India from here. But the pitch which looks docile when India is bowling would start playing tricks when Morkel and Steyn are bowling on days 4 and 5. Probably the cracks will start getting wider and introduce uneven bounce as well.

To save the game, India would have to really bat superbly.

From that point of view, it would be ideal not to bowl out SA too early but still keep the scoring rate down for as long as possible. It's still negative cricket though.

 

[PackenHols]

A part of me wants a draw just to make the South Africans regret their decisions for not going for a win in the first test.

 

[playkid12]

It should have been Jadeja + Ashwin and drop Rohit Sharma for me. I think Rohit Sharma bowling as a second spinner on a more spin friendly pitch is ridiculous.

Ashwin's batting is also handy. So it's not like a suddenly out-of-form Rohit Sharma will be missed for his batting.

Hint: He's not out of form, he's just out of the subcontinent.
He's had 5 50+ scores outside of the subcontinent that have resulted in India winning. 2 of his 4 hundreds have come in India. The other two came in Zimbabwe, and out of those two, one was in a losing cause. He averages 29 away from home in88 matches in ODIs.
Source: stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/34102.html?class=2;home_or_away=2;home_or_away=3;template=results;type=batting

Yet, he gets the go-ahead for the test team in an away venue simply because he "looks like a good prospect," whatever that means. Just because a batsman has technique doesn't mean he's going to do well.

What doesn't make sense is why clowns like him get a chance above Pujara for the ODI team. The poor guy got 2 matches and was disposed of and turned into a test specialist. I remember India had Dravid as a test specialist as well in the beginning. Looks like the selectors haven't learned a thing.

 

[SaiSrini]

Ashwin should have played this game. When you have a spinning track like this, you need to back your premier spinner even though he has not been able to get wickets on other non-spin friendly wickets. I think Ashwin would have caused more damage along with Jadeja and could have put India in a very good position here.

 

[zeustrojanstark]

I somehow feel draw is the only result possible from here in the gloomy Durban.

 

[harishankar]

What is the weather prospect like today? Any chance of a full day's play?

 

[Epic]

60% chance of rain according to Weather.com, so no, little to no chance of a full day's cricket.

Yes Dhoni's tactics are really odd.

He had no slips for the fast bowlers when the reverse swing was happening and he doesn't want to take the new ball also.

That meant that clearly the seamers were targetting the stumps and the batsmen could easily read that and picked off the bowlers off the stumps for scoring on the leg side.

To me, it was almost as if Dhoni has lost faith in his bowling attack to take 20 wickets in this match. Looks like he's also looking to the weather. That's a bad sign from any Test captain. If you cannot expect your most experienced seamer to take wickets off the new ball, you're in trouble.

India will need to look forward to induct more youth in future. I agree that Zaheer Khan's long term future (And even short term future) is in doubt. His pace is down and he's hardly getting the ball to move in the air.

I thought Dhoni did quite well managing a completely ineffective Zaheer Khan and a somewhat effective Ishant Sharma, the plan clearly was to have them bowl to the middle stump line with a solid leg side field with the ball reversing in, ofc only Shami managed to do that well.

Hint: He's not out of form, he's just out of the subcontinent.
He's had 5 50+ scores outside of the subcontinent that have resulted in India winning. 2 of his 4 hundreds have come in India. The other two came in Zimbabwe, and out of those two, one was in a losing cause. He averages 29 away from home in88 matches in ODIs.
Source: stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/34102.html?class=2;home_or_away=2;home_or_away=3;template=results;type=batting

Yet, he gets the go-ahead for the test team in an away venue simply because he "looks like a good prospect," whatever that means. Just because a batsman has technique doesn't mean he's going to do well.

What doesn't make sense is why clowns like him get a chance above Pujara for the ODI team. The poor guy got 2 matches and was disposed of and turned into a test specialist. I remember India had Dravid as a test specialist as well in the beginning. Looks like the selectors haven't learned a thing.

Why exactly do you want our best Test batsman to waste time wrecking his technique playing a dying format?

Ashwin should have played this game. When you have a spinning track like this, you need to back your premier spinner even though he has not been able to get wickets on other non-spin friendly wickets. I think Ashwin would have caused more damage along with Jadeja and could have put India in a very good position here.

This is all in hindsight though...

 

[aditya123]

Why exactly do you want our best Test batsman to waste time wrecking his technique playing a dying format?

We have a World Cup in Australia coming up in 13 months and many people do care about the ODI WC. While bilateral ODIs have no pride associated with them, the same cannot be said about the WC. It is by far the most prestigious trophy in world cricket for most teams. Kallis continuing his ODI career for one last shot at that trophy is ample vindication of that fact, and you won`t find a more test hardened cricketer than him.

 

[Epic]

We have a World Cup in Australia coming up in 13 months and many people do care about the ODI WC. While bilateral ODIs have no pride associated with them, the same cannot be said about the WC. It is by far the most prestigious trophy in world cricket for most teams. Kallis continuing his ODI career for one last shot at that trophy is ample vindication of that fact, and you won`t find a more test hardened cricketer than him.

It'll be the most prestigious trophy for 3 more years, and I personally rather look to the long-term and get ready for 2017.

Kallis isn't really a good example for the point you're trying to make, Kallis has done it all when it comes to Tests, series victories in every Test playing nation except Sri Lanka, lots of runs and wickets all over the world on all sorts of pitches, so really when it came down to giving up 1 format, it was a no-brainer that it was going to be Tests.

 

[aditya123]

It'll be the most prestigious trophy for 3 more years, and I personally rather look to the long-term and get ready for 2017.

Kallis isn't really a good example for the point you're trying to make, Kallis has done it all when it comes to Tests, series victories in every Test playing nation except Sri Lanka, lots of runs and wickets all over the world on all sorts of pitches, so really when it came down to giving up 1 format, it was a no-brainer that it was going to be Tests.

I don`t think there can be a better example than Kallis. He had so much workload with both bat and ball and still attaches a lot of value to the World Cup. Pujara is just in his early 20s and surely now is the time for him to be playing both formats. You might think otherwise but for most international cricket teams would have an eye on the World Cup in the coming 12 months or so. I don`t think it would affect Pujara`s test prospects if he were to be blooded into the ODI setup. It helped Dravid and Tendulkar become a better players overall. A good test player actually can feed off ODI success.

 

[Meet]

So Kallis overtakes Dravid by 1 run, and I don't think it'll change as well. Well played though, it was really a top notch innings. Being an Indian, I really feel for Dravid though.