[harry10]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Alright, so having beaten what was at best an A team with disappointing scorelines, India now travels to NZ where the host team and conditions will stretch our boys and make it a really tough series. Looking forward to it without much expectations.

That's right. Players just showed up and were given trophies for fun. No hard work was put in. Did you even watch any of the matches to know the quality of cricket which happened on the entire tour? And what's your definition of disappointing scorelines? As far as I can see it's been a great scoreline. Just cos for a change it's in our favor so the opposition becomes an A team automatically. If we would have lost all formats you would be saying how strong Aussies are and how weak our team is as usual. People can't be pleased whether we win or lose.

And why even watch Home team matches if you got no expectations? If they win you will again say NZ fielded an A team and if they lose you will pick some blame. A true fan will always believe their team will win even if they are underdogs and this time we are the favorites.

Sorry if I sound a bit rude but I am appalled by our own people for not giving credit to our team which has made history. No team has came back undefeated in all formats in an Australia tour ever. We did it and I am damn proud of that.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Alright, so having beaten what was at best an A team with disappointing scorelines, India now travels to NZ where the host team and conditions will stretch our boys and make it a really tough series. Looking forward to it without much expectations.

To everyone who talks about how this is a second rung Australian team. Or how this result would have not been possible had the Smith/Warner been in the side.

Remind yourselves: why were they not in the team? Because they were a bunch of cheats.

The T20 series could well have been 2-1 in our favor as well had rain not washed away the match. The team played well. No room for hypotheticals.

Originally Posted by srishiva

Not completely about cricket. This morning I though about Sachin getting a photo with Roger Federer and Federer losing his wimbledon match next day or something.
Now photo with Kohli and poor guy loses :( Bad co-incidence.

Dude. You have got to be kidding.

[joslicx]

Kohli creates history.
https://m.rediff.com/cricket/report/...r/20190122.htm

Virat Kohli has become the first player in history to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, the ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year and the ICC ODI Player of the Year awards following an extraordinary 2018.

Not only is Kohli the first player to win these three major ICC awards together but he has also been named the captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year for a fabulous run in international cricket.

[hemanth.anand]

Wonderful start to the New zealand tour!
Bowlers bundling up the hosts in 38overs for 157. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw spinners taking 7 out of 10 wickets in NZ!
Shami started it well though. he crossed 100 career wickets too making him the fastest Indian and the 6th fastest player to that mark.
That made the chase a walk in the park for the batsmen. Fielding was really bad from Indians dropping 2 sitters and a couple of run out chances.

Dhawan notching up a 50 and also crossing 5000 ODI career runs (2nd fastest Indian after Kohli and 5th fastest player to that mark).
Kohli, although missed a 50, did it easily in a chase...so stereotypical of him!

In a first, the play was suspended for 30min due to Sun!!! This meant 1 over was lost and India have to get 1 run less than NZ to win this.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw spinners taking 7 out of 10 wickets in NZ!

These two (Chahal and Kuldeep) when on song can run rings around batsmen on any pitch. They did the same in SA, traditionally not known to assist much of spin bowling. But these two did wonderful over there followed by Australia and now NZ which again was usually a forte for fast bowlers. I hope they continue their fine form into the World cup as well.

Good to see Dhawan among runs finally after the not-so-good Aus ODI series.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw spinners taking 7 out of 10 wickets in NZ!

Correct me if i am wrong, these two being wrist spinners, they do not depend on pitch, weather conditions to spin the ball. That is one of the reason they have been successful even outside subcontinent?

[mac187]

Honestly, I expected a tough fight from NZ. Their middle order has some quality players, today they didn't click and neither did the openers. Awesome spell by Shami, wonder why he isn't the first pick in a playing 11 for India! Dream spell by the spinners, those two C&B by Chahal was amazing to watch.

I will remember this one for, 'Play stopped due to Sun' :

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Correct me if i am wrong, these two being wrist spinners, they do not depend on pitch, weather conditions to spin the ball. That is one of the reason they have been successful even outside subcontinent?

It's just good spin bowling. Combination of flight, deception, skill and some good cricketing brains. I love watching both bowl in ODIs and I think that they should be picked regardless of pitch conditions. Most ODI matches are played on flat decks anyway. They pick up wickets in the middle overs and that is such a big asset. When they flight the ball, batsmen really seem to struggle. Sometimes they come under pressure when the batting side is on top and start pushing the ball through. That's when they go for runs. Wrist spinners are really a joy to watch.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

It's just good spin bowling. Combination of flight, deception, skill and some good cricketing brains. I love watching both bowl in ODIs and I think that they should be picked regardless of pitch conditions.

Agree with you. And I just wanted to add one more thing about Kuldeep, he bowls at very slow pace (around 20mph less than conventional spinners) and because of that, it is extremely difficult to generate pace for the batsmen.

Also, as you mentioned above, both these does not fear to give lot of flight when they bowl. It's really joy to watch when they bowl those loopy flighted deliveries. I think, that's where Ashwin lost the plot in ODIs when he started bowling flat to stem the flow of runs and lost his wicket taking abilities.

Overall, Indian bowling looks great with lot of good seamers and these two spinners.

[Oxy]

I think Bumrah, Shami, Kuldeep, Chahal, Pandya is a fantastic bowling attack to win us the world cup. Our problem is middle order batting. People like Rayudu and Jadhav don't cut it. We need Pant and maybe Shubhman Gill.

Was looking forward to Gill getting a game today, disappointed to see Rayudu slot straight back.

[rajivr1612]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Alright, so having beaten what was at best an A team with disappointing scorelines, India now travels to NZ where the host team and conditions will stretch our boys and make it a really tough series. Looking forward to it without much expectations.

I didn't see the match today but seriously hope that it was a full strength NZ team that Indian team has thrashed. The supposedly tough home team and conditions were demolished by our spinners.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

I didn't see the match today but seriously hope that it was a full strength NZ team that Indian team has thrashed. The supposedly tough home team and conditions were demolished by our spinners.

Though NZ played with their A team, I would still like to wait for the series to get over before we can comment on our middle order. I am sure, their batsmen will start reading our spinners (same thing happened in England as well) and they may come back strongly in the remaining matches.
If an opposition scores more than 350, then I am still not sure whether Rayadu and Dhoni are right players in the middle order.

[srishiva]

I am still skeptical about our batting line up. After number 3, can we really depend on others in challenging chases against good bowling. Only Dhoni cant to everything. We need someone else who is dependable and can bat through if situation demands.

With wrist spinners, we do see some flight which is missing with finger spinners now a days. It can be used deceptively even without much turn.

[redCherry]

Originally Posted by srishiva

I am still skeptical about our batting line up.

Me too. Our middle order isn't stable, and our tail is long too.
Our team is too dependent on first 3 for most of the runs. And I'm not sure Rayudu is a good option at 4 (or in playing 11).

Regarding this NZ ODI series, I am guessing it will be 3-2, either way.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by srishiva

I am still skeptical about our batting line up. After number 3, can we really depend on others in challenging chases against good bowling. Only Dhoni cant to everything. We need someone else who is dependable and can bat through if situation demands.

This will be one of the problems for which a solution (batting lineup) needs to be identified before the world cup (I think we have just 9 more ODI's to play before that).
After the openers and Kohli at number 3, it would be between Dhoni, Rayudu/Dinesh Karthik/Shubman Gill?, Kedar Jadhav/Jadeja/Hardik Pandya? and then the tail comprising our 5 bowlers (not considering that some of these tailenders may be above average batsmen) Or will the team consider 4 specialist bowlers and a bowling all-rounder ? That's another possibility.