India Vs South Africa ODI series (March 2020)

[India1989]

Vir seems to imply that only Calcutta has soul when compared to other cities in the list... To me that looked like criticism, may be I am wrong!!

Common guys don't get mad if Calcutta is praised. What is wrong with that. It is an Indian city anyways. WHy do you guys get upset if Calcuttans are praised a bit. It isn't saying that Chennai or other cities doesn't have soul, it is saying that it is really really prominent in Kolkata.

[*sridinats*]

I think this is what makes cricket a game of luck... No other big sports has its outcome decided by the spin of the coin...

Kumar surely you dont mean to suggest that all games in cricket are decided by the toss?!?!?..jus coz in the last 4 games the victors had also won the toss doesnt mean it' a game based on the toss....

IN cricket the ratio of those winning the toss and going on to win the match is only 50-55%
Sridhar

[Sandeep]

Sridhar, in Day/Night matches toss is the most important factor. It happened in world cup too, it was almost literally impossible to win chasing under lights!

And even otherwise there is no other sport AFAIK, which is so influenced by toss. Toss plays a very very important role in cricket. But yeah, no complaints, that is the beauty of the game.

Synthetic pitches are the need of the hour for Day/Night matches.

[paulo_eddie]

i wouldnt go all the way to say that it would be impossible to win under lights in calcutta but yes it would be very hard. for example a team like australia wuld have definitely made a match out of it somehow knowing the high standards they adhere to in all departments of the game, batting, bowling and FIELDING
the way we lost by 10 wickets was just bad. i mean picking up a few wickets just for sake of respectabiliy wa expected of our team. i guess the team was really demoralised during the match that they didnt give their best while defending.

[PKBasu]

The last time I was at the Eden Gardens for an ODI match, India were chasing 236 to beat Australia under the lights (in the TVS Cup tri-series final, November 2003). When I left the stadium to catch a flight back to Singapore, India (led that day by Dravid after Ganguly got injured) were comfortably placed at 158/4 in 34 overs. By the time I reached my car, the fifth wicket had fallen and India were crushed by 37 runs.
And of course, India were also chasing under the lights in the 1996 World Cup semifinal against Sri Lanka, when Jayasuriya rank amok on a crumbling pitch.
So I think India simply seems to do badly in Calcutta in ODIs (people there still remember Salim Malik's match-winning innings from nearly two decades ago). Ironically, India usually does very well in tests at Calcutta, but not in ODIs! (The 1987 World Cup final -- which was supposed to pit India against Pakistan at the Eden -- never happened, as both subcontinental giants lost in the SF unexpectedly).

[Sandeep]

Well I don't know how true it is, but there is a talk that more dew is seen these days due to global warming effect and all!! I guess the D/N matches these days are very one sided.

[prasen9]

South Africa is back for ODIs. Since this is not a full tour but one with three ODIs only, I decided to use an existing thread. Kagiso Rabada is injured. Hardik Pandya is fit.

I would like the following XI:

Dhawan, Rahul, Kohli, Iyer, Jadhav, Pandey, Hardik, Kuldeep, Chahal, Shami, Bumrah.

If you want to take out the proven performers and put in youngsters, then it should look like:

Agarwal, Prithvi, Gill, Iyer, Pandey, Shankar, Pant, Dube, Khalil, Saini.

These are people who have not given a full fair run. Interestingly, in the youngsters XI, we do not have any spinners. Who are our next gen spinners? Sundar has been tried in T20Is and seems like a limited player. Who are the genuine young spinners after Kuldeep and Chahal?

[prasen9]

The team announced: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (capt), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill

Given this, my XI would be: Prithvi, Gill, Iyer, Rahul, Pandey, Pant, Hardik, Bhuvi, Chahal, Kuldeep, Saini

There is not much information we can gain from playing Dhawan, Kohli, Jadeja, Bhuvi, and Bumrah. Bumrah and Bhuvi can alternate to keep them fresh.

[Sin Hombre]

Kohli ignoring an opportunity to score some easy runs after completely failing in NZ, never.