[iraghava]

Don - I thought Chawla too bowled beautifully, the deliveries to get rid of Pietersen & Collingwood were fantastic!

And the last over apart Munaf Patel was a revelation again, if that guy can bowl like this consistently, man He, RP Singh & Zaheer are going to make one hell of a pace trio!

BUT our fielding was bloody pathetic in both the matches, Powar was terrible (If he had caught Ian Bell, it would have been a completely different situation) and so were the others. Is Robin Singh doing anything at all? Maybe Bishen Singh Bedi is right about him after all.

[Surprise]

Dravid innings was highlight of the indian innings. he dispatched every other delivery bowled at him. If he had got another 5-6 *****, certainly he would have scored a ton. scored 53 runs in his last 26 deliveries faced.

Originally Posted by Surprise

Any one got idea of max.no.of times an individual player getting dismissed on 99?

Sachin shares the record with Jayasuryia for getting dismissed at 99 for twice. hope he doesn't break this record.

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Dravid innings was highlight of the indian innings. he dispatched every other delivery bowled at him. scored 53 runs in his last 26 deliveries faced.

Yes man - don't know what he had for breakfast - Chawanparash maybe

Sachin shares the record with Jayasuryia for getting dismissed at 99 for twice. hope he doesn't break this record.

The way the umpires are going - I guess they will surely help him get there.

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Don - I thought Chawla too bowled beautifully, the deliveries to get rid of Pietersen & Collingwood were fantastic!

yes he is an exciting prospect all right but he better learn to turn his leg spinners and learn fast.

Robin Singh

Speaking of Robin - the English guy - Mascarenhas certainly reminded me of the way Robin used to bat. Hoick the b all as soon at it lands - not allowing it to turn or swing or deviate.

[khaadu75]

Its strange but I dont see many of the Gurus having posted so far .... the ones who come in , crib about the team but VANISH when the team does win !!!

Also suddenly there seems to be NO FLAK headed towrads the Fab 4 .... the same 4 who have been getting stripped the past few months !!! Just goes to show how quickly things can change in this game ..... so LETS JUST ENJOY THE GAME & not become critics and bitch like sore losers ..

CUMON INDIA ........

[rks]

Originally Posted by khaadu75

Also suddenly there seems to be NO FLAK headed towrads the Fab 4 .... the same 4 who have been getting stripped the past few months !!!

The conditions on this ground (Bristol) were more or less like those on the subcontinent, and the ground was very small. Anything less than a run a ball is below par for these conditions. Sachin was just about OK, but not Saurav. Dravid played beautifully and saved India from embarassment, but he plays like this once in a blue moon. He does have one of the fastest 50's, in 22 deliveries, scored under Indian conditions. If he keeps up the aggressive style of play, nobody would complain.

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by khaadu75

Its strange but I dont see many of the Gurus having posted so far .... the ones who come in , crib about the team but VANISH when the team does win !!!

Also suddenly there seems to be NO FLAK headed towrads the Fab 4 .... the same 4 who have been getting stripped the past few months !!! Just goes to show how quickly things can change in this game ..... so LETS JUST ENJOY THE GAME & not become critics and bitch like sore losers ..

CUMON INDIA ........

Khaadu - why would anyone get flak if they perform the way they should ? I still felt that our openers were too slow on a patya wicket. And it is not that we do not enjoy the game or bitch like losers - it pains us to see the players who have loads of potential not perform to that potential and get thrashed. So just chill.

[khaadu75]

NC -- You should know it more than anyone else that its not necessary that every bad day entitles for the heads to roll ... sometimes the best may not be good enuff . Also by watching them on TV will not allow us to know what exactly the situation is out there .

Basically what Im saying is that when India loses there are 20 ppl who come in and scream for heads to roll .. but when they win only a few come in and say WELL DONE -- wonder why ????

Cheers

[MaserQ]

Originally Posted by khaadu75

NC -- You should know it more than anyone else that its not necessary that every bad day entitles for the heads to roll ... sometimes the best may not be good enuff . Also by watching them on TV will not allow us to know what exactly the situation is out there .

Basically what Im saying is that when India loses there are 20 ppl who come in and scream for heads to roll .. but when they win only a few come in and say WELL DONE -- wonder why ????

Cheers

curse them or cuddle them, they are still OUR team. yes khaadu, i sincerely wonder if we have forgotten to savour victories and get behind them when they are down. A bunch of cynics we are.

[mclaren1885]

Brilliant performances by the Fab means they will cement their places for another decade. It also goes to show how short lived the memories of fans are. Those who wanted their blood a couple of days ago are going gaga over the show. Needless to say, they will back to their old folly by the next match. And we will have this entire session once again.

Chawla needs to be groomed. He has a lot of potential. The sooner we get rid of Munaf the better. Last I hear he is down with some injury yet again. And Karthik is a clever cricketer who places the ***** in the gaps, runs quick runs, and plays beautiful loft shots. Don't rely on him to get 20+ runs of the last over from him. He can't, unless he has edges flying past behind the keeper. And Yuvi with this cameo of an innings will either cement his place for another 100 matches or use it as an excuse for getting dropped unfairly. He needs to learn to play consistently. If people think we cannot afford to have fab 4 in the team for inconsistent show, drop Yuvi too I say. Be fair.

Originally Posted by rks

Can India afford to send Karthik at such a low spot in the batting order?

Ever heard of Lance Klusener? Now I really do not want to put Karthik in the same league, he doesn't come anywhere close. If Lance could be sent that late (read 7 or 9), why not Karthik?

The question here is about team composition and the ease to change the batting order according to the situations. Some teams are very comfortable doing that for eg the Kiwi's. Some teams prefer sticking to their batting order.

[rks]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

I still felt that our openers were too slow on a patya wicket.

I agree. India 39-0 after 10 overs. England 75-0 after 10 overs. This time around, Sachin managed to stay on and make up to some extent for his initial slowness. Similarly Ganguly was beginning to open up and if he had stayed for another few overs, he would have been scoring at more than a run a ball. The point is that unfortunately Ganguly got out and was left with 39 off 54 deliveries, not good enough. Sachin also gets out these days quite often after a painfully slow start; in fact this time also he was dropped in his fifties. That is why it is not advisable to start so slowly, because that could easily backfire and set back the team's cause.

Rahul Dravid saw the writing on the wall and fired on all cylinders, saving the day for India. If Dravid has scored, say, 75 off 62 deliveries (instead of his 92), India would have lost and we could hardly blame Dravid. Who would have been blamed by our pundits and the Press? Not Sachin or Saurav, probably our bowlers would have taken the flak ("They could not defend a total of 310").

Where did England lose it? Apart from the blunder of leaving out Panesar, I would single out Pietersen and Bell. Pietersen managed to play all around a fairly innocuous leg-spinner from Chawla, not turning much. A top class batsman should not have got out that way, bowled through a huge gap between bat and pad. Ian Bell was struggling against the spinners and his score of 64 in 96 deliveries sealed England's fate.

[normally_crazy]

I wonder if the senior players have cemented their places in the team for the next 4-5 years because of the formation of the ICL ? BCCI cannot afford any senior player to migrate to ICL and thus we may still have the chance of watching Rahul, Saurav,Sachin in the next WC. Possible ?

[rks]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

I wonder if the senior players have cemented their places in the team for the next 4-5 years because of the formation of the ICL ? BCCI cannot afford any senior player to migrate to ICL and thus we may still have the chance of watching Rahul, Saurav,Sachin in the next WC. Possible ?

I would say very likely. Gavaskar has already asserted that in his view, Sachin should retire after the next WC. The seniors are very popular with our public and probably bring in huge revenues to BCCI. And at least Sachin and Saurav are politically well connected, so Sharad Pawar will not have the guts to drop them (look at the ruckus created in Parliament when Ganguly was dropped).

From a purely cricketing point of view, I would say that if these guys move to ICL, it would be the best thing that happened to Indian cricket.

[rks]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

And Karthik is a clever cricketer who places the ***** in the gaps, runs quick runs, and plays beautiful loft shots. Don't rely on him to get 20+ runs of the last over from him. He can't, unless he has edges flying past behind the keeper.
[...]
Ever heard of Lance Klusener? Now I really do not want to put Karthik in the same league, he doesn't come anywhere close. If Lance could be sent that late (read 7 or 9), why not Karthik?

The question here is about team composition and the ease to change the batting order according to the situations. Some teams are very comfortable doing that for eg the Kiwi's. Some teams prefer sticking to their batting order.

You are right. There was a clamour about Klusener batting too far down the order, but when he was sent up, he failed. Same thing could happen to Karthik and then the team management will be blamed for tinkering with the batting order. But I still feel that Karthik as opener will keep the scoreboard ticking as you point out, by playing into the gaps; with Ganguly and Tendulkar, there are far too many dot ***** in the first few overs.

[khaadu75]

Originally Posted by MaserQ

curse them or cuddle them, they are still OUR team. yes khaadu, i sincerely wonder if we have forgotten to savour victories and get behind them when they are down. A bunch of cynics we are.

BRILLIANTLY SAID ... we are a nation of cynics , jump the minute we win and whimper the min we lose !!! Its like me trying to tell Ferrari how to build a car .... same way the whole nation is full of great selectors and the best part is that 99% have never played anything more than gulli cricket ( nothing against gulli cricket ) .

Why can't we stop hollering for heads to roll the min we see defeat .... also i see mclaren , what makes you say that Yuvi shud be dropped ?? Who wud u want to fill his slot -- or do you wanna drop him , fill his slot with some guy who may and just may after a few yrs of persistence perform the way Yuvi does !! We have always had a weak fast bowling line up ... and the ones who do develop a bit of pace are mostly on teh injured list before they even finsih their quota of 10 overs . Its just a trend in our country ... and to have a super fast bowling line up , things have to be sorted at at ground level ....... only then can we think of having bowlers with the speed of Bond, Lee , Akhtar .!! Also pitches across our country are suited more for spin bowling , have always been like that and that needs to be changed .

The other thing is the I luv the concept of ICL ... if this league does come up -- then we just may see a lot more players coming up the ranks !! Due ti ICLs formation -- th BCCI overnight raised the money for local players .... with coffers over flowing this should have been done ages ago . If a player at the age of 10-11 can dream of surviving on the money made from playing cricket , then he would follow it more diligently .... and that in the long run is gonna be beneficial for the Men in Blue ( if they stay at blue ) !!!

Its a long road with no short cuts ... as for the Fab 4 , as long as they perform they shall play -- and there is nothing wrong in that at all !!! Given Sachin had cowed down ,... but the other day he did show glimpses of the old Sachin and who knows -- he just might have decided to retire in a Flurry of big shots , knowing he has nothing to lose at all ...

As for blaming them for sticking around ..... if they really had their self interest in place , they wudn't have OPTED out of the 20 - 20 world cup !! Just goes to show that they do have an interest in the fuiture of the team .... unlike what a lot of ppl may think or feel !!!