[PPS]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

I want India to lose really badly. I want England to get in excess of 600 and then win by an innings. And then I want England to destroy whatever is left of our team in Nagpur.

Only then will we see any change.

Even after that there wont be any change! It will again be dismissed as a one-off bad series as had happened on our away tours to England & Australia where we lost 6 on the trot!

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by anand_hc

I would love India lose this & next one & badly too. But expecting something to change is wishful thinking. I

Originally Posted by PPS

Even after that there wont be any change!

As an ardent Indian fan, one can only hope.

It's not enough that the English batsmen are bludgeoning our bowling, we're happily giving them byes as well. 8 runs in byes in the last couple of overs.

So much for it being labeled 'The Revenge Series'

[PPS]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

It's not enough that the English batsmen are bludgeoning our bowling, we're happily giving them byes as well.

More than our bowlers it is our batsman which should take the blame! On a flat pitch there's not much our average bowling could do but certainly our batsman should have ensured a 400+ total atleast!
Our batting which was supposed to be our strength has turned into a weakness as can be seen in the past couple of months.

[vinu_h]

Anyone watch Cook being run out ? He'd almost reached the crease but stopped to make way for the bullet from Kohli and was caught short. As an Indian I'm delighted but I wouldn't have mind giving him those 10 runs that he deserved.

[Rufus_M]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

Anyone watch Cook being run out ? He'd almost reached the crease but stopped to make way for the bullet from Kohli and was caught short. As an Indian I'm delighted but I wouldn't have mind giving him those 10 runs that he deserved.

Yes! A bizarre dismissal indeed. Indians had already dropped him twice. Maybe this was the only way he could've got out :-)

Theoretically he was out. He could've grounded his bat atleast. A pro-active Kohli there. His wicket kinda lifted the sagging spirit of our team.

[faustus77]

Anand hc/Suhas307
Hi.
A bit of trivia.
After turning 28 years Dravid has the highest number of runs scored followed by Ponting and ST.
Kallis has the highest average.
Suhas
Hi
Your point about byes.
In one of the matches in Pakistan the hosts scored around 630 runs.
Not a single bye was conceded.
Wicket keeper:Syed Kirmani
Regards

[StarrySky]

In the last decade or so, India has had an average or maybe slightly above average bowling attack (esp. at home), but had an excellent batting lineup which masked some of our weakness in the bowling department.

Now 3 guys who were part of that batting lineup are retired, the other two are off their peak. Our best bowler of the last decade has retired. What's left now is a below average bowling attack and an average batting lineup. The combination is not going to win us many games in the near future.

I think it's going to be quite some time before we become a formidable team again. Even Australia (with all their cricket infrastructure) has not successfully replaced the greats from their all-conquering teams of the last decade.

I think all the talk about Pujara being the new "Wall" is very premature. Come to think of it, Ganguly retired a few years ago and we still don't have a replacement for him in the test side.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by PPS

More than our bowlers it is our batsman which should take the blame! On a flat pitch there's not much our average bowling could do but certainly our batsman should have ensured a 400+ total atleast!
Our batting which was supposed to be our strength has turned into a weakness as can be seen in the past couple of months.

Exactly.

The only saving grace was our batting that used to somewhat make a match out of it. Now, it seems like our players are tired and giving up too easily. That fighting spirit isn't there. They don't seem like they want to hang in there and chip away. I see it in some batsmen but in little quantities. Batsmen like Pujara and Gambhir. I'd say even Ashwin is keen to make a mark when he comes out to bat. The rest of them seem to enjoy throwing away their wickets.

I'd blame the IPL. it has allowed players from elsewhere to settle down quickly and get used to the conditions easily.

I've given up in the BCCI being proactive. I believe some of our players should take the initiative to go and play County-Cricket so that they mold themselves into players that can face conditions other than our flat-tracks. With the sort of skill they have, they can potentially be World-class players. Off the top of my head, I think Kohli, Pujara and Gambhir should get some exposure in County-Cricket.

Unfortunately, the life here is too comfortable for them once hey become Cricketers. The ads roll in, the money they get from the IPL is huge. Plus, BCCI pays them well.

Originally Posted by faustus77

Anand hc/Suhas307
Hi.
A bit of trivia.
After turning 28 years Dravid has the highest number of runs scored followed by Ponting and ST.
Kallis has the highest average.
Suhas
Hi
Your point about byes.
In one of the matches in Pakistan the hosts scored around 630 runs.
Not a single bye was conceded.
Wicket keeper:Syed Kirmani
Regards

Excellent! Thank you faustus

[harry10]

It seems England will declare with the lead of 250.
Now the question is can India bat for 5 sessions to save the match. Need 2 batsman to repeat history.

Also did anyone noticed after second test that 'Angrezon ki Pungi ad' has disappeared from tv.

[vinu_h]

India will need to be up by 200 at the least before they can declare; that is if they last that long.

[hemanth.anand]

all experienced test batsmen gone.
Remaining are a wicketkeeper and 4 bowlers who are batsmen by force apart from two young test batsmen have got an opportunity to prove themselves.

i'm just hoping against hope that i get live action tomorrow

[NPV]

Sad state - India will definitely lose this test, most likely by an innings.
Seems like a complete circle - from a time when India would hardly lose a test on home soil to now losing 2 in a row and the series
Let's see if all this has any impact at all on Tendulkar & Dhoni after this series.

Action tomorrow ?
It's gonna be a paid vacation day off for our team, just like the previous test when they had 1.5 days off!

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

i'm just hoping against hope that i get live action tomorrow

[vinu_h]

They might win if they stopped trying to fix pitches. BCCI should be derecognised like IOA, Boxing and Archery have been.

[karty_83]

There you go Sachin fails yet again when the team needed him the most. This time he was in form too. Yes, it was a collective batting failure, but hey, he is God, isn't he ?
I bet, if Dravid was asked to leave the commentary box and bat for the team, He would have probably done a much better job than Sachin, Dhoni and Yuvi all put together. Even Ishant lasted longer and defied all 4 bowlers when they were on top and going for the kill.

Hats off to Ashwin for saving India from an innings defeat. How well he farmed the strike. Some lessons for a couple of our selfish top order batsmen who were busy exposing the no 11 batsman first ball of the over to bolster their averages.

Dhoni doesn't deserve a test spot leave alone captaincy. Its high time selectors realized that.

[anand_hc]

Looks like this team is going only one way that's downhill. I was wishing against my brain that Mumbai was an aberration. I am now convinced that they should stop playing tests. Team is made up folks who are keen on shorter version of game. How else could you explain success of Kohli, Yuvi, Dhoni & Ashwin in those formats.

Gambhhir - lesser said is better about him causing run outs.

Ashwin - I am glad you are scoring runs, but I would be more glad if you could pick up wickets. Interesting trivia - at this hour ( based on him being not out ) he has better average in test cricket @43 than Yuvraj ( 34), Kohli (38) & Dhoni (37) or may be even Gambhir(44). So should not we select him as batsman