As the other sports forums seem to have taken old to some respect, well here is a cricket forum. NOTE: This forum will be heavily moderated and can be revoked at any time is discussions go out of hand.
Altough my last post was not targeted to any one in particular but since sanjay has addressed his to me so
Sanjay,
I am not saying that one should target Dravid for the failures but often in our hatred towards someone we become negatively biased and loose objectivity. This is some thing that leads to stone pelting and effigy burning in extreme cases(Of course no one in our forum ).
Yes I also beleive that Indian team is better than BGL and probably Dravid also beleive so. Wicket must have been slow low(I donno as I have not seenthe match) and probably that is why Indian batmen could not do better that 56 runs in 10 overs(Some of hese have scored at more than 10 an over in almost darkness in england few years back). Dravid must have known that in case he need to stop the flow of runs he can easliy resort to the defensive fields. any kind of contets is better than the so called dead batting practice. Especially when those whoneeded practice(read Jaffer was already back in the hut.)
I really don't think it was a bad move by Dravid.
BSharma wrote:3. Jay’s words of wisdom ring more and more true of why batsmen should not gift their wickets away after scoring a century. If Tendulkar and Ganguly had scored another 50 runs each at a fast clip in the first innings, the entire complexion of the game would have changed.
Well, I did not really think of those kinds of reasons, and was simply irritated that bastsmen would just get out immediately after a 100, which is extremely shameful and anti-team (just IMHO). The fact is that if everybody keeps team interests as prime and drops everything else, good karma normally follows -- almost invariably. This is known in all team sports. Now it turns out that in this particular case also, it could have given us the crucial extra cushion to simply go for the jugular against Bangladesh, which we could not, in the end. In funny ways, that is how it works in team sports - bad karma never fails to follow after players forget about the team objectives even inadvertantly - as would be the case for SRT and Gangs, whom I don't really blame; after all they got out only in the time-tested tradition of test cricket where batsmen always get huge applause while walking back at 102 or 108 and are never questioned harshly about losing focus after the coveted "ton" (whatever the heck that means) ... So we have SRT with some 35 tons and we still have to fight/argue about whether there are *any* innings he played that really helped the team win - of course there are - but, that such an argument still goes on is itself amazing, and there is no better proof for how worthless an "achievement" a century is.
Jay,
You have a point about stats of a century. It definitely does not take into account lots of things and that really makes it worthless..But again it is arguable..
But Jaffar making gloden duck in both innings in test definitely should not be forgiven. He did the same thing in SA too...
We expecting Gangs and SRT should have made more runs( although they already made most) while not having the same expectation from Jaffar( atleast 50 together from first and second), Dravid( 2 runs in second innings in some 18 balls), Karthik( having 54% strike rate in both innings) escapes scrutiny from this forum for the same test. That is quiet odd.
I absolutely agree though that getting out at 100 or 101 is a big crime especially if that offence has been committed many times in their career. Somebody might want to pull up such stats.
Cooling his heels in the pavilion for the first test. Laxman was edged out of selection for the first test team, partly based on recent form in test cricket. Ganguly was picked as he scored more runs in South Africa. Laxman was unlucky to miss out as India went in with five bowlers -- but one of them (the key one, Kumble) fell ill and couldn't bowl in the match.
Oh, I guess I am not following cricket closely enough. I thought he was not even picked to go to Bangladesh. He should be playing. Send SRT in to open and have him in. Sounds simple to me.
Yepp. Laxman should be playing test. One of the trio Dravid, SRT or Ganguly should open and perform. SRT and Ganguly prefers opening in ODI. Does not matter whether ball seams or swings. You need to make runs if you have to be in the team and especially when you are evaluated as one of the world's best batsman. Infact, if you compare with both openers, any day Laxman and Yuvraj is better than them. Why don't you select your best 5 batsman and ask two of them to open. In the past, yuvraj, ganguly, tendulkar, dravid, laxman all of them have opened for either in ODI or tests.
Well sending SRT for opening and taking laxman in, which sounded so obviously simple choice for us doesn't seem to be so for the team management.Jaffer is in for 2nd test too.Did Mr.Dravid show his leadership skills again by defending Jaffer this time around for a change(last time he did it for sehwag).Laxman may better giveup playing in this politics driven BCCI and start playing for Zee league..That seems the only way to counter this nonsense now.
Last edited by srini on Fri May 25, 2007 1:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
Well, with both openers fighting to keep their place on the flight to England in a couple of months, we've finally got an excellent opening partnership going. India are 166 for no loss just past the midway point of the first day of the second test (49 overs). Karthik struggled in the pre-lunch session, but came back a transformed man after lunch -- including slamming Mashrafe "Koushik" Mortaza for 14 runs off 4 balls (until that point, Koushik had figures of 8-3-9-0!). India went to lunch at 67/0 (with Karthik on 22, Jaffer on 40) off 26 overs, and have added another hundred runs in just over 23 overs during the second session (which is not yet complete). Nice work!
So India have added 108 runs in 26.5 overs in the post-lunch session, and tea has been taken early with Karthik being treated for cramps.
India have given the 18-year-old 6' 4" Delhi pacer Ishant Sharma his test cap. I think he is an excellent prospect, but I hope we haven't blooded him too soon. It would be awful if another hugely promising prospect goes the way of Irfan Pathan (and, to some extent, Piyush Chawla until his recent ODI rehabilitation). It is always better to spend some time playing real first-class cricket (NOT just junior cricket) before entering the test arena.
India are 318 for no loss with Jaffer added as casualty - retired hurt - cramps again. This is great going. With both both openers retired hurt, Dravid and Tendukar are batting - Dravid being the dominating partner.
In the interest of quick runs, I hope the rest of the batting order is Dhoni, Ganguly, Karthik, Jaffer. It gives the injured players more rest and gets Dhoni out early, so that he can get some rest after he gets out before having to keep wickets.
Just as we are discussing the misplaced importance of centuries and half centuries, the weiredest thing I have ever seen happened today. Dravid was convinced that our our score of 590 is good enough for Bangladesh but didn't declare just because Dhoni was nearing his half century!!!! And our batsmen made it so evident when Sachin refused singles and allowed Dhoni to bat from there on till he completed his half century!!! Declaration immediately followed. What a pity
Between, how many of you are following cricinfo's commentary? I feel it has considerably degraded. Leave alone quality they are not even reporting the events correctly. Like Sachin refusing singles was not mentioned anywhere which I think is very important for us to know. Such a shameful act should have been immediately reported!
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