If you have just written CAT, then you will be thinking on the lines of arithmetic progression or geometric progression or some such math stuff. Anyway, those blanks will get filled on 3rd December. Get it now?
Except for the first match, we had South Africa in our grip in the last two matches. I think the margins are not entirely a reflection of how well our bowlers have done. 76/6 and 154/6 are dream situations to be in against a team of South Africa’s calibre. In fact, I don’t think they are a team of very great calibre. They have a good set of bowlers who can be quite a handful on a friendly pitch. And that’s about it.
In this particular series what has happened is this: Ball rises above blue pyjamas, blue t-shirt is scared. Bat comes in handy as a tool for self-defense. Helmet which is worn for saving your head is used as a black box for recording the information. And also used for adding to the total through accidental leg byes. The master blaster had come with arm guard, chest guard, elbow guard, and what not! Thank God, he didn’t come with his usual Z level security guards! ;)
On the bowling front: Zaheer Khan bowls incisive first spells to create inroads into the SA batting lineup. At the other end, we have the awful Agarkar/ pathetic Pathan (inspired from here) combination striving to negate whatever little Zaheer Khan has gained. Kumble and Harbhajan are our saviours anyday. Bhajji wasn’t given a fair deal and so weren’t many other people. So, let’s leave this at that!
Overall while our bowling lacked in finishing skills, and our batting – neither would it start nor sustain nor wag at the end. We needed one person in our batting lineup to just be there for the entire 50 overs. (Overheard: When entire 11 people couldn’t sustain for the 50 overs where is the question of one guy being there?!) Well, ahem… err…
With Laxman back in the side for the final ODI, let’s hope he conjures up some magic and pulls one back in our favour. Highly improbable though.
Breaking News: Saurav recalled for test team. Laxman named Vice-captain (??)
The team:
Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman (vice-capt), Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, VRV Singh, Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh.
Source: http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/rsavind/content/current/story/270425.html
Adi: For the South Africans’ at least ONE guy hunkers down and plays the anchor….
In our case everyone thinks the other guy will do it… Dravid attempts it but he cannot succeed all the time…
this should settle the ganguly debate once and for all. while i am now hoping he succeeds, i doubt very much he will.
looks like pathan has cemented his place in the side with this 47 n.o.
- s.b.
Vijay:
You are right.
Potential is there to stay at the crease and do whatever’s required, but sadly they are not performing to the level.
S.b.
Ganguly will perform or not is the million dollar question! He is known for his strong will and ability to play it hard. Let’s hope, for India’s sake atleast, that he succeeds! Personally, and maybe on a practical level, I find it improbable too.
If Pathan fails during the test series, be assured he will be kicked out. You should have seen Vengsarkar speak about him at the post-selection press conference. He said that Irfan was “getting there”. So, we can safely conclude that if he doesn’t “get there”, he will atleast “get out” of the team!
s.b.:
i am not there right now, but will be there to suffer through one or more of the tests! the last time, i sat through the 6-1 drubbing (or was it 7-0) that windies handed to us four years ago. gayle was king then. isn’t it weird watching the pakistanis and west indians rediscover form when they play india? happens all the time!
i agree with greatbong on most issues (and he is much more eloquent than i can ever be), but ganguly is one where he and i differ. isn’t it also weird that even most erudite desis still have parochial attitudes? [having said that, maybe i should not say that i like dravid too! :-)]
and i was being sarcastic with pathan. i don’t know about cementing the place, but that is a typical indian player. he plays well (ok, very well) for a game, and then sits and allows the others to perform.
maybe, we should have the horses for courses policy (or players for pitches). send laxman to australia, agarkar to west indies, don’t send jaffer to south africa or australia, etc.
- s.b.
i mistyped greatbong’s link. let me try again.
S.b.
I seem to like your ‘horses for courses’ policy. Sounds very relevant for the situation that we are in right now!
All these rants about Ganguly is going to die down once dada himself decides to retire. It is obvious that he is going to fail in the series unable to handle the rising deliveries. If he’s dropped after that, people like this greatbong will start crying that he wasn’t given a fair chance. If he’s retained then you are keeping out a talent like Yuvraj Singh which is plainly put – injustice. So, picking dada is a mistake that’s going to cost Vengsarkar a few nights worth of sleep.
Cricket for India has never been as bad as this. Hope yesterday’s victory in Twenty20 will make a difference. Now what do we do if Ganguly doesn’t score? Whom will we blame?
pradeep:
that “victory” in the twenty20? check out the names of the sa bowlers. except for one or two, they could have just landed from timbuktoo for all i know!
and it took india 19.5 overs to chase down 120 something at about 6 per over! remember, sa has been routinely scoring 100 off the last 10 overs in this series!
- s.b.
adi:
here are the e-mail addresses of our cricketers. yenzoy!
- s.b.
Pradeep:
Cricket has definitely been worse than this for India and there have been many many instances in the past of the same. As soon as our cricket team sets its foot on foreign soil, we are quick to write orbituaries. We need to believe in the potential of the team to achieve victories on foreign soil. I am sure the time will come. It’s a young team afterall.
From the time of your comment, till the time of this reply, we have won another 3-day game also against a Rest of SA team. I sincerely hope the batting gets its act together to complement the bowling and that will signal the beginning of a winning Indian touring team!
S.b.
I got that somewhere as a fwd. Where is the original from? Any idea? Must be some blog for sure!