India in South Africa, January 2018

[PKBasu]

Rahane is a poor player of spin. He couldn’t pick googlies from Tahir, and he fell to Duminy. His quality is needed against the pacers overseas.

[S_K_S]

Huh? Dhawan played a fantastic innings. Not at Kohli levels but did very well.

I missed Dhawan on the scorecard. Fair play to him.

[PKBasu]

Dhawan has made scores of 35, 51* and 76 in the three ODIs -- each innings at quicker than a run a ball.
Rohit has failed in all three matches. And Dhawan made 16 in both innings of the test he played in a notoriously low-scoring series -- and yet he is always the first one dropped.

[prasen9]

Rahane is a poor player of spin. He couldn’t pick googlies from Tahir, and he fell to Duminy. His quality is needed against the pacers overseas.

If this continues, he may find it hard to retain the #4 spot and may be back jockeying for the opener spots, which seem to be sewn up by Rohit/Dhawan for now.

[Sin Hombre]

Huh? Dhawan played a fantastic innings. Not at Kohli levels but did very well.

I missed Dhawan on the scorecard. Fair play to him.

Even Bhuvi batted reasonably well.

All of our middle order is not good enough (Kedar, Pandya against non-spinners, Rahane against spinners) or has-been like Dhoni.

[PKBasu]

Rahane is a poor player of spin. He couldn’t pick googlies from Tahir, and he fell to Duminy. His quality is needed against the pacers overseas.

If this continues, he may find it hard to retain the #4 spot and may be back jockeying for the opener spots, which seem to be sewn up by Rohit/Dhawan for now.

Outside India, it may make sense to have Rahane open with Dhawan, and let Rohit come in at #4.

[PKBasu]

Brilliant century by Dhawan in his 100th ODI. He and Kohli set up the match beautifully, until the disruptive lightning break.
Sadly the rest of the middle order (with the notable exception of Dhoni) failed again.

[S_K_S]

Sounds like a missed opportunity to score more with Dhawan getting out after scoring a hundred and Kohli falling in the 70's.

[PKBasu]

Poor score on this belter of a pitch with a fast outfield. We will need a miracle from the wrist spinners again.

[PKBasu]

India were 150/1 after 25 overs. Should have made at least 340 after that blistering start.

[PKBasu]

Brilliant captaincy by Kohli to trap AB at deep square leg (off Pandya, the surprise choice of bowler for that over).

But Chahal committed the ultimate crime for a spinner -- bowling a no-ball (on which he had clean bowled Miller, who is now on the rampage).

[S_K_S]

How many times do we need to suffer from no balls before we learn our lesson?

[prasen9]

Rahane stopped the momentum along with the lightning break. Dhoni did fine given the circumstances (loss of wickets on the other side). This is why we need sixth bowler. The short boundaries seem to be a challenge for Chahal. Or for whatever reason he is being hit. We do not have a backstop. I would drop Rahane and bring in Kedar. Yes, I would prefer to have a Yuvi but we don't have anyone yet. Between, Manish, Kedar, Rahane, Iyer, Karthik, we would have to choose two. I would choose Kedar for his bowling and the fact that he does not waste balls like Rahane is prone to doing. Between him and Manish. Give Kedar a few chances and switch to Manish would be my strategy. On paper, Dhawan should not be good in RSA but he is doing fine. Maybe Kedar may also surprise given a few chances to figure things out. He basically got one match coming in to bat with a few overs left.

[VReddy]

I think the Miller catch dropped by Iyer was crucial, as ofcourse the no-ball. It took me back to the Pakistan final where we got Fakhar Zaman early off a no-ball and he went onto get a 100. I knew something bad will happen and it did.

In the overall perspective, it is good that we lost this match. Now it will be special if we eek out a win in one of the next two matches. Its good to be against the wall at this stage anyway when we have tougher challenges awaiting us in England / Australia

[Sin Hombre]

Well deserved loss.

Better to lose here and work on a lot of clear issues than having the top order mask them.