[finneyp]

And what about the young guns (Yuvraj, Uthappa, Dhoni etc) who failed miserably in this series?

Dravid should gracefully retire from ODI and focus on Test cricket which is his only speciality.

[normally_crazy]

Yuvraj has to be more consistent. Once he does that the oldies will be under pressure to perform.

Uttappa is doing great as our lower order hitter - wonder why Dhoni aint using him as a part time bowler ? Its an experiment worth trying out.

Dhoni has to stop showing his temperament and start hitting which is his speciality. In fact he himself had famously proclaimed he starts hitting from the 11th or 13th ball ! Guess he needs to be reminded of that - of course all this situation permitting.

[cypher]

Can't really say that anyone played that badly in Sunday's match. The men-in-blue did manage to score 299 against Australia. The fact that, that was not enough to win the match is more a testament to the fact that Australia is leagues ahead of us in cricketing skill.

For an average cricketing team - scoring almost 300 against the world champs itself is commendable. That's like Sania Mirza winning a set against one of the William sisters ...

[snaronikar]

@ finneyp: Dravid should play on. This is the only series he has failed.Of course he is out of form. But who is there to play in place of him. Rohit sharma....too inexperienced. May not stand the pressure. Dinesh Karthik....he is also out of form. Then who else?????

Dravid was playing well until the England series. This sudden slump happens once in a while to everyone. He needs support to regain his form and our selectors will not throw away the experienced batsman for an inexperienced one.

[ntomer]

Dravid dropped - Karthik in.

I wonder why they aren't playing Rohit Sharma. He looked a class act in the T20s he played.

\N

[diabloo]

If Sehwag was captain he would have included Dravid till he was finally out of team for bad performance

Originally Posted by ntomer

Dravid dropped - Karthik in.

[diabloo]

Stat from Cricinfo on Dravid's poor form of late - In his last nine innings, he averages 8.88 with three ducks.

BTW, MJ Clarke out for 1st ball of the match.

[suman]

Originally Posted by rks

As Arun Lal said, Ganguly's failure to accelerate when he was the set batsman was an important factor in our defeat. 86 off 111 deliveries is just too slow when the target is 318.

Did you watch the game?

Why do you need Arun Lal to tell you who were the main contributors to our defeat? To me there were only two - Dravid dropping Gilchrist & Sreesanth dropping Symonds. That's it. Period!

Stop theoretising for the heck of it RKS; or, better still, have some basis for your theories

[ntomer]

India is again making the same mistake they did in last match. After taking a wicket in the first over, Zaheer bowled two wides, RP bowled 4 in next; and by the 4th over, they have bowled 9 wides. Bye bye pressure.

\N

[ntomer]

5.6 Singh to Ponting, FOUR, RP errs in length again. pitches on a fullish length on middle and leg and drifts towards the pads. Ponting gets across and works that with ease past square leg
5.6 Singh to Ponting, 1 wide, RP struggles for consistency as he sends that wide outside off
5.5 Singh to Ponting, no run, beaten! in the corridor outside off, draws Ponting forward for the drive. Ponting doesnt quite meet the pitch of the ball and is sliced in half
5.4 Singh to Ponting, FOUR, just a tough too full outside the off stump. Ponting goes forward a little and plays a square drive past point and cover. That was all timing
5.3 Singh to Ponting, no run, holds the length back a little. Ponting stays on the front foot and drives towards point
5.2 Singh to Ponting, FOUR, half volley outside off and a forward defensive push sends the ball sprinting past the right of mid-off
5.1 Singh to Ponting, no run, fullish in length and movement away from the right hander. Ponting goes for the drive and misses

Bowled one excellant ball, two good *****, one wide and three rubbish.

\N

[ntomer]

6.5 Khan to Gilchrist, FOUR, edged and dropped! fullish delivery outsuide off, Gilchrist goes for the drive on the off side and gets a thick inside edge to Uthappa at second slip. Uthappa leaps to take it above his head but the ball deflects off his fingers to the boundary. That was a chance

[rks]

Originally Posted by suman

Did you watch the game?

Why do you need Arun Lal to tell you who were the main contributors to our defeat? To me there were only two - Dravid dropping Gilchrist & Sreesanth dropping Symonds. That's it. Period!

Stop theoretising for the heck of it RKS; or, better still, have some basis for your theories

I did not watch the game. I managed to catch only the final comments by Arun Lal. I agree 100% with Arun Lal; he knows what he is talking about. It is common cricketing knowledge and Arun Lal has played for India.

In every cricket team other than the Indian team, the set batsman has the responsibility to accelerate the scoring. As Arun Lal said, Ganguly could afford to be a bit slow as long as Sachin was pushing the score along. Once Sachin got out, you cannot expect the incoming batsman to blaze away from the first ball. It was up to Ganguly to take on the responsibility to keep the scoreboard moving and he (yet again) failed to do that. If a guy with more than 50 runs to his name cannot push the score along to meet the team's needs, what do you make of that? Is 86 off 111 an acceptable scoring rate according to you when the target is 318 off 300 and we were rapidly falling behind the asking rate?

I know the game very well and I have played it at college level too. I can only suggest that you stop this fault-finding exercise and instead try to understand objectively what Arun Lal said.

[ntomer]

Way to play after a quick wicket...

Current partnership 59 runs, 8.2 overs, RR: 7.08 (Ponting 24, Gilchrist 19)

Last bat MJ Clarke lbw b Khan 0 (1m 1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Fow: 0/1 (0.1 ov); Partnership: 0 runs, 0.1 overs, RR: 0.00 (Gilchrist 0, Clarke 0)

For India it would have been

Current partnership 19 runs, 8.4 overs, RR: 2.26 (Tendulakr 5, Dravid 12)


Last bat SC Ganguly lbw b Lee 0 (1m 1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Fow: 0/1 (0.1 ov); Partnership: 0 runs, 0.1 overs, RR: 0.00 (Ganguly 0, Tendulkar 0)

Whatdayasay

\N

[suman]

Originally Posted by rks

I did not watch the game. I managed to catch only the final comments by Arun Lal. I agree 100% with Arun Lal; he knows what he is talking about. It is common cricketing knowledge and Arun Lal has played for India.

Yup, sure, just because his comments fall in line with your senior bashing theory. And I notice you are steering clear of the two dropped catches from Dravid & Sreesanth - how do you think Australia got to 317???

Originally Posted by rks

I know the game very well and I have played it at college level too. I can only suggest that you stop this fault-finding exercise and instead try to understand objectively what Arun Lal said.

I haven't seen you play but I can only hope that in your college days you put your money where your mouth is and performed instead of theoretising all the time.

And, me on a fault finding exercise I thought that was you! Every post of yours, whether the team wins or loses, its the same fault finding & conspiracy theories from you RKS. For god's sake, why don't you give it a break? If the team wins, its "fixed", if they loose, its the seniors & captain who didn't do enough.

Sometimes I wonder if the words "appreciation" or "loyalty" exist in your vocabulary?

[ntomer]

10.6 Singh to Ponting, 1 run
10.5 Singh to Ponting, FOUR
10.5 Singh to Ponting, 1 wide, that was so wide outside off that Steve Harmison would've been proud of that!
10.4 Singh to Ponting, FOUR, width offered outside off and Ponting stretches his bat at it and plays a controlled slash past the slips. The ball just beats third man
10.3 Singh to Ponting, no run, short of a length in line with the stumps, Ponting goes forward and the ball strikes him high on the top-fglap of the front pad. RP appeals confidently but the ball struck Ponting too high
10.2 Singh to Ponting, no run, full in length, pushed to the off side
10.1 Singh to Ponting, no run, funny looking stroke from Ponting there! that was just a little wide outside off and Ponting, who should've played that on the front foot went on the backfoot instead and tried to cut it square of the wicket. Beaten in the end