[PPS]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Playing Dhawan and Rohit in the same XI in an overseas game is too much of a gamble. Ideally, I would swap out both of them for Rahul & Rahane.

Completely agree with you.
But i feel the Captain will give one more chance to both Dhawan & Rohit. Seeing the batting performance in this Test, Rahane will have to come in place of Ashwin.

[Chetan_Rao]

I understand the need for a positive attitude, but the Indian captain's comments about takeaways from this game bring only one word to mind; Delusional.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

SA lead 207, Target 208, India 1st innings 209. Interesting match. I feel this match may be over today itself with either one of the teams winning it.

As I had expected the match got over on the 4th day itself

My observations are pretty much inline with many others.
1. Rahul and Rahane dropped for Dhawan and Rohit...seriously! they got what they deserved. They say Dhawan was the inform player and Rahane wasn't. But that form was against a very weak team in home conditions. It's a reality check. Anyway I don't think they'll drop them now itself. but they'll be forced to do it later
2. Pandya's luck in the first innings gave a hope to the team in this match. IIRC, he had got 4 lives in the first innings before he collected 93. But his luck ran out in the second innings and with it the team's hopes. He is still the bits and pieces cricketer and has got a long way to go to be called an all rounder.
3. This was supposed to be the least lively pitch among the 3 test matches. The team has to fight really hard to make up for this loss.

[Oxy]

Dhawan and Rohit should be exclusively preserved only for ODIs and test matches in Asia. They are sitting ducks overseas.

[msdivy]

Both Rahane & Rohit made their test debut 5 years back. Their test stats,


Kohli was kidding when he said Rohit was selected to test match based on his ODI form. To Rohit defense, after his stupendous performance in home ODI series or IPL, he gets selected to overseas test series and he flunks badly. I think the folks in this thread are too fatigued to talk about Rohit - just search this thread for NoHit

Link: Rohit Sharma chosen over Ajinkya Rahane on current form, says Virat Kohli

[selfdrive]

I think with Anil Kumble, Virat Kohli may not have been able to proceed with selecting Rohit over Rahane for this match.
Maybe it is easier for him to influence Ravi Shastri.

[Chetan_Rao]

I'm sure Mr. Sharma is very useful in certain situations, but the man has ZERO temperament for Test cricket against comparable or better teams. When Armageddon finally comes, we'll probably still be waiting for his 'talent' to convert to actual performances.

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

I'm sure Mr. Sharma is very useful in certain situations, but the man has ZERO temperament for Test cricket against comparable or better teams. When Armageddon finally comes, we'll probably still be waiting for his 'talent' to convert to actual performances.

Ouch

I have a simple solution. Make him captain for one match and get his wife to watch. He will score heavily. Double century pakka. And meanwhile we need to send Anushka back to India.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Ouch

I have a simple solution. Make him captain for one match and get his wife to watch. He will score heavily. Double century pakka. And meanwhile we need to send Anushka back to India.

Mrs Kohli was already back in India even before the match was lost.

https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/a...irport-1796887

If it was intentional, then the couple have made a very good decision. In fact this couple has done everything right compared to other celebrity couples. From being open about their relationship to this. Virat had once in the past also hit out at people attributing his failure to Anushka. He turned many of his critics to his fans by that act.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Ouch
And meanwhile we need to send Anushka back to India.

Man, don't know if you mean that as a joke, even as a joke it's not a very good thing to say. Let's keep our observations to the game.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Mrs Kohli was already back in India even before the match was lost.
He turned many of his critics to his fans by that act.

Completely agree. His personal life is no one's business.

Now coming to this Test. I had no hope the moment the target was over 150. It was great bowling in the 2nd innings that brought us back to a sliver of a chance. But, honestly, how many of even the ardent Indian fans believe we deserved to win this?

SA had the worst of the conditions and the result actually looks but better than we fared. Playing Dhawan/Rohit together, what are we even thinking. I am one of those who believe that Rohit can play, but not when we are playing with only 5 (so-called) proper batsman. Rahane will be back, so will be KL Rahul in place of Ashwin and Dhawan. Don't see the logic of playing a spinner with the pitches coming up.

I also firmly believe India will win atleast a Test (somehow) on this tour.

OT: Did someone remind Pujara about the team chasing 350?

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Man, don't know if you mean that as a joke, even as a joke it's not a very good thing to say.

Of course it was. Chill, no need to be sanctimonious. If I can laugh at myself, I can laugh about cricket team also

Sigh. Folks with the short allele of 5-HTTLPR.

[msdivy]

Though ODIs came into being in the 70s, the same team played the test and ODI series. Selectors had to come out of the deep mental block to create separate Test & ODI teams in 90s. Now we have a separate T20 team. Earlier the assumption was a good cricketer was good enough to play any form of cricket, Test, ODIs or T20. That assumption has gone out of the window.

On the same lines, right now the assumption is same player is good enough to play home & away series. We have to toss that assumption now.

[PPS]

Kohli continues to surprise with his team selection. Bhuvi who bowled so well in the last test is dropped in favour of Ishant! Logic given by Virat at the toss was that Ishant will extract more bounce from the pitch.

In the last game Rohit played ahead of Rahane because of current form, wonder what happened to that theory with regard to Bhuvi in this match.

Its looking like a belter of a pitch right now with no hint of steep bounce.

[NPV]

South Africa have played the first session quite well and the pitch seems just fine, not troubling the batsmen or should I say our bowlers don't seem to have troubled them much ?
Let's see how the team changes pan out in this test - KL Rahul for Dhawan, Ishant for Bhuvaneshwar and Parthiv for Saha. Was surprised with the latter two changes.

[Eddy]

The U19s were very impressive today. The quicks were quick (140+ kmph), the spinners looped the ball and the batters batted sensibly.

Go Dravid !!