[Eddy]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

And on this being considered bigger than the WC? What the hell are people smoking?

Pratyush, this guy talks sense most of the time. This is his explanation and it is hard to argue against

"I was part of 2011 World Cup team," Kohli said, "but I didn't have the emotion of not having been able to win a World Cup before. Playing at home and winning it eventually... a lot of the senior players had that emotion. Yes, it was a great moment for me but if you ask me which moment is more emotional, I would say this one because this is my third tour here and I have seen how difficult it is to win here. And all the struggles that we have gone through in the past 12 months as well as the team.

"So, from that point of view this one is more emotional for me. It will definitely be more special, purely because of the fact that we really wanted to win a series away from home. We didn't want to be a one-match-wonder kind of team. So, having stuck to our task and executed what we wanted and got the result, we, as a team, feel absolutely complete now that we have done what we set out to do...not to show to anyone else but to prove ourselves that yes, we could do it and we have done it. From that point of view this one is more special for me."

Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/...lia-win-higher

PS: Ignore what Shastri says, he is DUI most likely

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Pratyush, this guy talks sense most of the time. This is his explanation and it is hard to argue against



Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/...lia-win-higher

PS: Ignore what Shastri says, he is DUI most likely

Eddy, I understand his emotions. Him not feeling the high that 2011 brought us. Hell, I remember 2007 T20 WC - after the beating we took in the 2007 WC was such an exhilarating thing. Also that Tests are far more special. I understand all of it.
The point here is that we've not beaten a great team, at best it was a mediocre Aussie team and if India did most things okay - we should have won and that's what happened.
Meanwhile, he also stated that the 'world is against you'. I was like Indian fans desperately wanted a series win overseas. I was rooting for them all the time, however when I see this constant boorish behavior and chest thumping is when I become indifferent.

Remember, India in cricket is not a victim anymore (like in the past), we 'are' the powerhouse as it stands.

[Arjun Reddy]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Remember, India in cricket is not a victim anymore (like in the past), we 'are' the powerhouse as it stands.

Records and statistics don't lie. We have 3 world cups vs first series win in Australia. ODI vs Test cricket. Give it to the boys and let them have their glory.

We won the T20 World Cup as rank outsiders. No one called us as the weakest team. We were missing Sachin, Rahul et all on that team.

So what is the all the talk off the weakest Aussie team? It is their problem if they brought a knife to a gun battle.

[Oxy]

Next world cup format is very exciting, the proper 1992 format where every team plays everyone else and the top 4 go to the semis. No groups nonsense.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by Arjun Reddy

Records and statistics don't lie. We have 3 world cups vs first series win in Australia. ODI vs Test cricket. Give it to the boys and let them have their glory.

We won the T20 World Cup as rank outsiders. No one called us as the weakest team. We were missing Sachin, Rahul et all on that team.

So what is the all the talk off the weakest Aussie team? It is their problem if they brought a knife to a gun battle.

I know, for each it’s own, but still I cannot believe that a series win against one of the weakest Australian side is being compared with a WC win! I can list down many test series wins by us like first series win in WI, ENG, PAK, 86 series against ENG, etc. And if I really have to pick the test series, I would any day pick 71 series win against WI at the top of my list.
For me, 83 and 2011 WC wins top the list and none of the test series can come close to those victories.

[Eddy]

For me, 83 and 2011 WC wins top the list and none of the test series can come close to those victories

For me also. But we haven't lost thrice before winning vis a vis winning it the first time.

[neofromcapone]

Why can't we just savour the victory, instead of dissecting it.

Virat is saying what he feels and that is right, according to him, nor everyone has to agree with him.
But let him have his say.
For once.
He has earned it.

Enjoy the series win, it took 71 years in coming.
(don't really care if it wasn't a full strength Aussie team, they still had to play hard to win)

[ninjatalli]

While we dissect the shortcomings (in attitude or in skills) with the Indian team, here's an interesting background data driven analysis on the cause of the current state of the Australian batting unit. Although it doesn't talk much about the Aus bowling attack; but I guess they didn't do that bad; atleast not in the first 2 matches.

They also (try to) analyze what would have been our state if Kohli and Pujara hadn't clicked basis first-class averages, as well as other scenarios/excuses being thrown around; overall not a bad analysis.

[sachinayak]

While, I personally am a big fan of test cricket, i think it has become a little farcical off-late. Earlier, results would be so dependent on the home conditions, but now its almost completely dependent on the toss.

Look at the last three series India has played outside the sub-continent.

IND vs SA 1st Test, Toss SA, Winner SA
IND vs SA 2nd Test, Toss SA, Winner SA
IND vs SA 3rd Test, Toss IND, Winner IND
IND vs ENG 1st Test, Toss ENG, Winner ENG
IND vs ENG 2nd Test, Toss ENG, Winner ENG
IND vs ENG 3rd Test, Toss ENG, Winner IND <<<<
IND vs ENG 4th Test, Toss ENG, Winner ENG
IND vs ENG 5th Test, Toss ENG, Winner ENG
IND vs AUS 1st Test, Toss IND, Winner IND
IND vs AUS 2nd Test, Toss AUS, Winner AUS
IND vs AUS 3rd Test, Toss IND, Winner IND
IND vs AUS 4th Test, Toss IND, Match Drawn due to rain.


There was a single result, in which the team losing the toss won the match. This does not make good reading.

India's test matches at home, though have been a different story, wherein India did manage some wins despite losing the toss, but such a high dependence on winning the toss just removes the fizz from the game. When you have teams competing so fiercely over 5 days, the last thing you would want is the luck factor to play such a large role in the result.

[ampere]

I think it basically points to 2-3 hints.

1. This is all India specific. (Hence sample space may still be anecdotal ?). But still a very good observation!
2. Indian team does not do well when batting second. May be goes on to say, we need to be prepared better when batting second ? (Home or away)

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by sachinayak

There was a single result, in which the team losing the toss won the match. This does not make good reading.

And even this win was due to wrong decision by Root to put India to bat. Otherwise, the result would have been different.

Originally Posted by ampere

2. Indian team does not do well when batting second. May be goes on to say, we need to be prepared better when batting second ? (Home or away)

This may be true while playing away. But when we play at home, I don't think toss matters a lot these days. If you remember IND-ENG series, we lost 4 tosses, but still won 3 out of those 4 matches and drew the other one.

[rovingeye]

I can understand the chest thumping et all. Today, cricket is big business and the players have to manage their stock. Unless a win is marketed with some amount of hoopla, the next fair-and-lovely contract will not come.

Some people see through it, some tend to get puzzled by the razzmatazz.

*I'm bracing for the attack now!*

[am1m]

Originally Posted by rovingeye

Unless a win is marketed with some amount of hoopla, the next fair-and-lovely contract will not come.

Fair point. Not just wins, ANY news item will not grab eyeballs or clicks/views/likes unless the headline or lead-in sentence contains some superlative or the other. So each victory (even the IPL, or rather, especially the IPL!) is always 'the best ever', each team member will always 'jump off a cliff for the team', each event is always 'historic', each series has to appeal to our patriotism...and so on. Any criticism is 'being negative' or worse, being 'anti-national'.

SOP for the media and celebrities these days. The days of a thoughtful, balanced response to anything and thoughtful, analytical people being asked for sound bites is long gone.

[Chetan_Rao]

It's a bit like saying your mom's dal-chawal is your favorite food in the world, and nothing will ever compare to it.

Is there objectively no better food than dal-chawal? Sure there is. Does it evoke the same emotion for everyone? Who knows.

Keyword: Objective. When were emotions supposed to be objective?

Win's a win, why does it matter where it ranks among someone else's personal favorites? To each his own.

[mac187]

Not surprised to see the comments here. I usually only read comments as most of the critical points are made by one or many Tbhpians'. However, wanted to highlight few points which others seems to have overlooked.

- I hear that Aus fortunes will turnaround after Smith and Warner return? This effectively means that two guys is all it takes for a team to win!

- In the same breath we had, in an given team, atleast 4 greats and yet couldn't win in Aus. Doesn't this fact highlight what this team has achieved?

- This was a team win, compared to what we are used to. Pujara, Agarwal, Pant stood up when needed. Bowlers were given a platform to launch their attacks and they did it really well.

- Kohli-Shastri combo is largely accepted as not the best one. The problem is the current board doesn't have the spine to push back these two, especially with wins like these under their belt. This will be a big problem in the future.

I think we should be happy with this win as Indian cricket fans. Sometimes, feeling good is completely upto us.