[mclaren1885]

And WHY is it that John Wright never had any problems with Ganguly or Sachin? How did John Wright manage such a commendable job, while ever since Greg became the coach Indian cricket went only one way, DOWNWARDS.

Did everyone forget what the lethal combo of Ganguly-Wright did? The accolades they won together?

1. Miraculous win at home against the Aussies in 2001.
2. Natwest Trophy winners.
3. ICC Champions Trophy Joint winners with Sri Lanka.
4. Runners up 03 WC.
5. Leveling the Aussies at Down Under.
6. Beating Pakistan in Pakistan in both ODIs and tests.

Someone please explain to me why Wright did so well while Greg couldn't. And I am not the one who is going to take lessons about "fair game", "ethical players", "giving opportunity" from Greg. He was a part of what was considered the "Worst Moment In Cricketing History EVER". He lacked "team spirit", "spirit of fair play", most of all "he let down the spirit of cricket itself" just to win a match. A person who would go to THAT level to win a match, in my books has no self-respect whatsoever. He stooped to really low levels to WIN. Maybe, this was another attempt of his after he realized he was not being credited a lot for India's coach and decided to get it to a crashing end?

Now, look at where India is once again headed to with that sore looser Greg not a part of the team. T20 champions, winning a test series in England.

[Surprise]

Aus Vs Ind

10 overs - 61 for no loss / 34 for 3
20 overs - 110 for 1/ 75 for 3
30 overs - 140 for 3/ 142 for 4
40 overs - 207 for 3/ 188 for 7
50 overs - 290 for 7/ 243 all out

Why did aussies score only 30 runs in 10 overs (20th-30th). Is it because they lost 2 wickets at quick regular interval & wanted to preserve wickets to go for the kill in the slog overs?

Once aussies get into the groove they know the secret of scoring at brisk rate without loosing further wickets (on most occasions).

Keeping the wickets really helps to build decent score (defendable score), but scoring rate needs to be reasonable & at the same time batsmen should middle everything thrown at them to develop confidence. Not scratch around as indians do & on top of it loose the wickets

[rks]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

And the same as Inzamam's as well. So are you trying to imply that Inzamam is not a good enough one-day player?

Inzy is also from the old school of players. I don't mean to say that these guys are not good enough. It is just that they might find it difficult to adapt to changing times.

You will be proved wrong over and over again on this one topic. This theory holds good for most matches played in the sub-continent where the new ball does very little. When you go to Australia, NZ, WI you cannot expect to start off hitting from ball one because the new ball WILL do something.

If you remember, during the early days of one-day internationals, a total of 250 in a 60-over game was already considered a winning total. In the 50-over game a total of 230+ was considered winning. That changed to about 250 a little later. Now with the dominance of the Australian team in recent times, the requirement has been upped to 300 runs in the 50-over game. With the advent of T20, a commentator was suggesting that the norm in the 50-over game may get close to 350 as batsmen get used to smashing the ball around.

Note that the early trend was to start very slowly and then increase the run rate with wickets in hand. But then Jayasuriya started a new trend of smashing the ball around in the first 15 overs (when Sri Lanka would often cross 120 runs) and then when the fielding restrictions are removed, start scoring in singles and twos with the occasional boundary. I think Tendulkar was also one of the pioneers of this trend, along with Mark Greatbatch of New Zealand. Others also followed suit. The ease with which Sri Lanka coasted to a win against Australia in the finals of the 1996 World Cup, after Australia got a total of 280, was just stunning.

I agree with you that wickets in hand is always desirable, since that will prove decisive in the final 10-15 overs. But nowadays one cannot afford to start as slowly as was the trend when Dravid and Ganguly were at their prime. Of course I do agree that when judging Dravid, Ganguly and Inzamam, one must also take into account the times when they were at their prme and also the number of crisis situations that they faced, which would automatically slow down the run rate.

[diabloo]

I am with you rks. Having wickets in hand will help in the last 10~15 overs only if the bowling is weak. Against a strong attack you can't score 4~5 per over in these overs and end up with a low score. So a better strategy would be to maintain good run rate with minimal loss of wickets and up the run-rate during the last overs.

Originally Posted by rks

I agree with you that wickets in hand is always desirable, since that will prove decisive in the final 10-15 overs. But nowadays one cannot afford to start as slowly as was the trend when Dravid and Ganguly were at their prime. Of course I do agree that when judging Dravid, Ganguly and Inzamam, one must also take into account the times when they were at their prme and also the number of crisis situations that they faced, which would automatically slow down the run rate.

[mclaren1885]

Now with the dominance of the Australian team in recent times, the requirement has been upped to 300 runs in the 50-over game.

More than Aussie domination, it has to do with the way the pitches have been prepared in recent times. Most often than not you will not see such high scores on pitches abroad.

With the advent of T20, a commentator was suggesting that the norm in the 50-over game may get close to 350 as batsmen get used to smashing the ball around.

I don't see ANY signs of it YET! Not even close. Specially in a series with the Champions playing (all 3 forms of cricket) you would expect to see the change in trend. But till now its NADA!

Of course I do agree that when judging Dravid, Ganguly and Inzamam, one must also take into account the times when they were at their prme and also the number of crisis situations that they faced, which would automatically slow down the run rate.

Thank god you agreed on that one. So I would still say Dravid is fit to play ODI's. Like I said before he was perhaps the most underrated ODI player in India. Anyone who looks at his ODI stats will be quite amazed. He had a slow start till about 40 matches. After that he has never looked back. And I was quite amazed with the number of times he has come up with the goods by scoring runs. Every 3rd match he has scored atleast a 40 or above. When I try to put a link to his detailed run analysis, the link shows up as a error. But you guys should go to cricinfo & have a look at it. Its impeccable with the number of times he has scored runs so consistently. Mostly unnoticed.

[esteem_lover]

We all know that dravid, sachin & ganguly are the best 1 day players in our team, but just that the one day game has gone ahead of them a little bit.

Rahul, this thread is slowly starting to resemble your blog. I sincerely request you ( as i have done before to keep your comments crisp & within 30 words if possible). Everytime a newbie logs on to this thread, he is sacred to think that he has to read 6 pages of today's literature alone.

[mclaren1885]

Sorry John, but the point that I am trying to make will take more than 30 words. If you find my posts literature, its best you avoid reading them.

[mclaren1885]

A very interesting read this. IMO very well written & explained.

Desicritics.org: What Do We Expect of Indian Bowlers?

Desicritics.org: Is Twenty20 the Future of Cricket?

Desicritics.org: Twenty20 Winners And The Money Rainfall

Desicritics.org: Twenty20 - Not So Plenty

[greatDrive]

Well, what you people think of chandigarh ODI, Is it going to be high scoring game?
IMO, If India bats first, Its very difficult to post a score of more than 220 with Bracken joining the team.
36 + 9 words, Could not make less than that.

[mclaren1885]

Some more VERY interesting & well worded articles to read. A must along with the previous ones.

Desicritics.org: Shanthakumaran Sreesanth - Which Way Will he Go?

Desicritics.org: Yuvraj Singh - "Payback" - Seriously?

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by greatDrive

Well, what you people think of chandigarh ODI, Is it going to be high scoring game?

Since this ground has never been used since the 93 series it would be difficult to predict the nature of the pitch. But if we are to go by the playing conditions at Mohali (the neighbouring ground at Chandigarh) a score in the region of 250-280 should be a defendable score. It goes without saying that most often than not sides chasing scores have lost at Mohali. Same might appply to the Sector-16 ground as well. All the more with the Aussies batting line up firing all the way down to No 7.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

Freaky incident, I mean a cheeky encounter of Ponting with an Indian fan who tries to kiss him .

YouTube - Drunk Man Tries To Kiss Ricky Ponting in India

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

I have never seen Flintoff laugh like this .

YouTube - Freddie Flintoff Sledges the West Indies (Cricket)

Another interesting one.

YouTube - Kumar Sangakkara sledging Shaun Pollock

One more.

YouTube - Mark Boucher Sledging Cricket

Perhaps the longest banter on a cricket field between two players. But what an end to it. Hats off.

YouTube - Making Me Cross-Pietersen vs Gayle (Lords Test, 20 May 07)

Someone said Aussies don't sledge their own team mates?

YouTube - Hayden vs Mcgrath FUNNY SLEDGING - ahahaha

Diabloo's dream come true. A cricket academy to teach sledging. Just search Youtube, cant put up the link here.

Aussie Media doesn't like sledging either.

YouTube - Aus Media Panel Attack Ponting & Team Behaviour - 12 Mar 07

Sreesant at it again.

YouTube - Inzi Reply to Rude Sreesanth

YouTube - Sreesanth dance before Andre Nell

YouTube - Sreesanth's jig after dismissing Saqlain Mushtaq

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

Missed out on the best sledges in cricket? Read the link below. A few of them had me in splits .

Sledging incidents in cricket : Sledging incidents in cricket, B S Keshav blogs on sulekha, cricket blogs, B S Keshav blog from india

Statutory Warning: Overeat elsewhere if you must, but dont puke here.

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

. Tell me ONE captain in Indian cricket who went AGAINST the selection committee and DEMANDED that he needed some players in the team when they were dropped.

Fact is that it WAS Ganguly who batted for Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Balaji, Aashish Nehra, Kaif, Murali Karthik inspite of several bad performances. Now look at how many are still playing in the team. You will find your answer.

I agree - Saurav fought for the players but we have to remember he saved his backside and place in the team by suggesting that Yuvi start to open the batting so that Ganguly could his place safe when he was woefully out of touch.

Why would you bring back a player who got axed and humiliated so badly? I would like to see BCCI give an answer to this. Didn't they find ANYONE to replace him with?

Its not so simple - have you heard of the word politics ?

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

And WHY is it that John Wright never had any problems with Ganguly or Sachin? How did John Wright manage such a commendable job, while ever since Greg became the coach Indian cricket went only one way, DOWNWARDS.

Someone please explain to me why Wright did so well while Greg couldn't.

Sat and played "hearts" on his laptop when India were playing out in field thus keeping out of the players hair.

[kpzen]

Rahul
Have u stopped working on your Baleno?

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

Its not so simple - have you heard of the word politics ?

All politics were against him don.

Originally Posted by steeroid

Statutory Warning: Overeat elsewhere if you must, but dont puke here.

You got a problem? I think you need to stop acting like you are the finally authority on all things here. You need to go back to the Dicor 2.2 thread and stop wasting your time here.

Originally Posted by kpzen

Have u stopped working on your Baleno?

Cricket is less harmful on my pockets you see .