[rock18]

Another reason to celebrate!!
Sachin Tendulkar becomes No.1 player in ICC test rankings again after 8 years.
Sehwag is in 3rd position.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by lloydofcochin

Awesome performance from Team India and happy to see Sachin scoring the winning runs.

Now where are the perennial Sachin critics??

Sachin critics are currently in hibernation

Originally Posted by rock18

Another reason to celebrate!!
Sachin Tendulkar becomes No.1 player in ICC test rankings again after 8 years.
Sehwag is in 3rd position.

Well 8 years is a long time. But then he is in a purple patch right now.
Really hope he stays like this till next world cup.

Btw does anyone else feels we have named a very weak side for odis?
Without sachin,sehwag,bhajji,zaheer i don't see indian winning the series comfortably.

[ravi@64bhp]

History is made again. TONdulkar scored the 50th test century. Even the heavens opened up to celebrate the occasion (hope it saves the test tomorrow).

[harry10]

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

History is made again. TONdulkar scored the 50th test century. Even the heavens opened up to celebrate the occasion (hope it saves the test tomorrow).

Memorable dayclap
Hopefully tommorow will be wash out day.

[lloydofcochin]

Originally Posted by harry10

Memorable dayclap
Hopefully tommorow will be wash out day.

Hope so! And if that happens it would be a sweet revenge for that 1997 Joburg Test where Cullinan's 122 & Rain saved South Africa from a certain defeat.

And Congrats to the "Little Master" for conquering yet another Landmark

It's extremely sad that we did not play any 3 day matches to get acquainted with the conditions in SA.

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by lloydofcochin

Hope so! And if that happens it would be a sweet revenge for that 1997 Joburg Test where Cullinan's 122 & Rain saved South Africa from a certain defeat.

It is said that it was raining almost only over the cricket stadium that day. the rest of the city was bone dry

[amitoj]

50 test centuries and the guy does not know how to farm the strike with tail-enders??
Exposing the tail by taking easy singles from first or second ball of an over is plain stupidity and to me, shows no will on Tendulkar's part to prolong the game as long as possible.
Agreed defeat was imminent once Dhoni departed but, the least he could have done was protect the tail and save the team an innings defeat.

[ghodlur]

Update:

South Africa has won the first test by an innings and 25 runs. Feel very bad that Sachin's hundred has gone in vain. I think the poor bowling gave away India, hopefully the Indian think tank can realize that and work towards strengthening it.

[rock18]

Originally Posted by amitoj

50 test centuries and the guy does not know how to farm the strike with tail-enders??
Exposing the tail by taking easy singles from first or second ball of an over is plain stupidity and to me, shows no will on Tendulkar's part to prolong the game as long as possible.
Agreed defeat was imminent once Dhoni departed but, the least he could have done was protect the tail and save the team an innings defeat.

Even i was wondering why he did not protect the tail. Atleast we could have saved the innings defeat.
I am an ardent fan of sachin and go any length to support him but i don't have answer for this.

May be sachin wanted to show Sreesanth and unakadat that what real fast bowling is all about.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by rock18

May be sachin wanted to show Sreesanth and unakadat that what real fast bowling is all about.

Me and some friends from office were talking about Sreesanth just now over coffee. One of my friends mentioned an article that had done the stats analysis of Sreesanth before and after he got slapped. It seems his performance was good till the slap and post that, it just deteriorated. We agreed that Bhajji should have another go at him and it may improve his performance

Above was just in jest, by the way.

Another angle to consider from today morning's events was that remaining not out is more beneficial to your batting average than getting out. Although i have my doubts about this being the cause, still, Sachin is human only after all (although many many people will disagree with me on that)

[harry10]

Dont tell me you guys were expecting him to protect the tail for 90 overs today!!
The only thing to save us was rain and sadly as that didnt happen the defeat was inevitable.

However i believe the situation will be different in 2nd test and only if bowlers support the batsman we can level the series there(zaks return helps immensely).
This Indian team wont accept this defeat calmly and will bounce back for sure.

P.S = Hpw about dropping raina and giving Pujara/vijay a chance in 2nd test?

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by amitoj

50 test centuries and the guy does not know how to farm the strike with tail-enders??

Originally Posted by rock18

Even i was wondering why he did not protect the tail. Atleast we could have saved the innings defeat.

Have you guys played competitive sport ever? Its just a question I am not making a personal attack.

Have you heard of a lost cause in a game? In every game you need to come back to play another day.

How long to protect the tail? And for how many overs?

If the same yardstick needs to be used to judge a player then Suresh Raina needs to be send back home to play Ranji again. You play that shot at the highest level? He lost it for us.

Originally Posted by amitoj

Me and some friends from office were talking about Sreesanth just now over coffee.

You should meet this guy. He and Virat (he is getting better though) don't have too many friends in Indian cricket. He is around because of a god father.

Another angle to consider from today morning's events was that remaining not out is more beneficial to your batting average than getting out.

That's just below the belt man...

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by harry10

Dont tell me you guys were expecting him to protect the tail for 90 overs today!!

Nobody said that. But definitely 4 overs was below par.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Have you guys played competitive sport ever? Its just a question I am not making a personal attack.

If it is not a personal attack, then what is the relevance of this question to the current scenario?

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Have you heard of a lost cause in a game? In every game you need to come back to play another day.

How long to protect the tail? And for how many overs?

Have you heard of not giving up? Protect the tail till as long as you can. Any other senior player, like Dravid or Laxman, would have definitely done a better job.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

If the same yardstick needs to be used to judge a player then Suresh Raina needs to be send back home to play Ranji again. You play that shot at the highest level? He lost it for us.

Completely agree with you.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

You should meet this guy. He and Virat (he is getting better though) don't have too many friends in Indian cricket. He is around because of a god father.

Not interested in their off field life.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

That's just below the belt man...

Its only as fair as your question at the top

[hemanth.anand]

I agree with people that Dravid or laxman would've fared better with the tail.

But in the recent past they did it with Ishanth or ojha or Zaheer.

Sreesanth and Unadkat are much weaker and they cannot play as much deliveries as the other three bowlers.

Loss was inevitable but maybe innings defeat could've been avoided. Ifs/buts/mays will not work ultimately.

Even I was of the opinion till today that sachin's are more in the losing cause of the team. but 20 hundreds in winning matches 11 hundreds in lost matches and 19 hundreds in drawn matches proved me wrong and more concrete proof of sachin's ability is the average.
50+ in winning and drawn matches and around 38 in loosing matches.
This shows his importance in the team's results.

Lets accept that we played really bad in this match but sachin's approach today is not the reason for that.If we criticise him its like criticising the last runner in a relay of say 4x100m.
Let's not argue just for the sake of it and let's stop criticising the maestro.

I for now am waiting for the Boxing day and forget this loss.

[rock18]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Have you guys played competitive sport ever? Its just a question I am not making a personal attack.

Have you heard of a lost cause in a game? In every game you need to come back to play another day.

I am still a sachin fan and can't take criticism against this man but......

I will not hold sachin for this loss but he could have atleast tried to protect them from taking unwanted singles of the 1st over. May be we could have avoided the innings defeat.

Commentary from cricinfo:
"126.3
Steyn to Unadkat, no run, bouncer on middle, ruffled him up there, didn't duck, didn't sway out, played at it off the back foot with his eyes off the ball, not the way to go.
126.6
Steyn to Unadkat, no run, swinging in and he's not sure whether to play forward or back, stays rooted to the crease and plants his bat out, is fortunate to get an inside edge onto his pads. Not sure if Tendulkar would want to give him the strike first ball
Next ball.
127.5
Morkel to Unadkat, 1 run, 86.4 mph, good length ball just outside off, defended wide of cover and Tendulkar calls to take the single.
(Why single in 5th ball of the over?)

Next over he is out 1st ball.
128.1
Steyn to Unadkat, OUT, 87.2 mph, All over! Banged in short on the body and Unadkat looks to fend it into the off side, finds gully, didn't look too comfortable against the short one and it seemed it was only a matter of time

JD Unadkat c Prince b Steyn 1 (11m 10b 0x4 0x6) SR: 10.00

Unadkat's surrounded

Article from cricinfo:
"The length of South Africa's wait was going to be determined by Tendulkar's approach, and once he showed no intention of farming the strike, exposing Sreesanth and Jaidev Unadkat by taking singles, the home team knew Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn wouldn't make them field for too long."

Here are some stats:
"This was South Africa's first innings win against against India at home and third overall against them. Four of India's seven innings [COLOR=#0000ff]defeats[/COLOR] since 1990 have come against South Africa."