[AtheK]

Cracker of a match. Superb Win.

Bumrah is God Level, we are just so lucky to have him in our team. Man of the match for me.

Edit: He is indeed player of the match!

[SoumenD]

Just one name - Boom boom Bumrah!!!

What a player.

[pritanshchandra]

While everyone is praising Bumrah(he deserves every bit of it), I would like to say that Arshdeep Singh played a very critical role today. What a match!!!

[harry10]

OUT BEST EVER WIN AGAINST PAK.

Their WORST against US.

Pant is a God send this year.

Bumrah is undoubtedly the best bowler in the World. Proven again and again.

Kohli and Rohit needs to join the party soon and when will SKY perform in an important match for a change.

Dube should be benched and never played again. Jaiswal needs to be brought back in and Rinku is sorely missed as finisher. Jaddu selection again and again over Kuldeep makes no sense. Axar is so much better.

[Vinod_nair]

On paper PAK is nearly eliminated from Super Eight, they need all prayers to crawl back.

Associate Nations top notch.

[NomadSK]

This was the only game I was going to watch as have few Paki friends coming over and it's fun to watch with them.

Yesterday's wicket was clearly a sticky one, double paced, ball wasn't coming on to the bat and we tried to play the shots on the rise. All we needed was conventional cricket to be played. There was a technical flaw with almost all of our star batsmen, when they tried to go hammer and tongs and emulate IPL cricket. This isn't the batting what's expected at that level. They needed to grind while batting, I guess because of batting first, they missed to evaluate the pitch and the playing conditions. If these are the wickets going forward, we need basic cricket, that's it. If they would have taken the Pant's catch on time, we would have struggled to make even 100.

I don't know how the coach and ground staff missed this. It was a backfoot playing wicket. Singles/doubles and in-between boundaries was the requirement of the pitch. Pakistanis played well at the backfoot and hardly committed to front foot drives.

Happy that we are on the winning side, but Pakistan played better cricket almost all the game, bowled extremely well, waited for the ball while batting, cheeky singles and doubles, except Bumrah was their nemesis.

[deathwalkr]

We had a fun time watching Pant play. Some of the shots he was trying to make was absolutely ridiculous and i guess that's just who he is. Took some time and luck, but thankfully some of those shots started converting to runs.

Axar had a nice bit of batting early on having to face the pace battery with a relatively new ball. Sky and his chewing gum can go jump! Dube looked so woefully out of place and well Jaddu and Pandya as well.

So looks like this is going to be a bowlers tournament after all

[Shumi_21]

A little superstitious but I was texting a friend after Pakistan were 57/1 in the 11th over, when the second wicket fell. So we ended up texting through the rest of the game to "ensure" India won


Ash was spot on. It was a fearless, audacious innings from Rishabh. It was the right approach for this pitch as our middle order collapsed trying to play conventionally and we went from 89/2 to 96/7. Rishabh holding on to Fakhar Zaman's catch while diving over his helmet was superb too.

Dube had a horrible match. Didn't try to go for a single six while playing 8 balls of left arm spin and got out to the first ball of pace he faced. Was a liability in the field too. Pandya while batting let Arshdeep play 13 off the 20 balls their partnership lasted and then got out trying to hit against the wind! But Hardik bowled brilliantly and made up.

Axar proved yet again he is better than Jadeja in T20's. His 4 run 16th over to left handed Imad Wasim, following Bumrah's 3 run over was the turning point of the game. Axar had a good day with the bat too.

Arshdeep definitely made up for his Asia cup drop catch with a brilliant take in the 19th over. His helter skelter running with Siraj during India's innings ended up being the difference.

And what to say about Bumrah. Delivered spectacularly everytime he was called upon. Would have killed the game earlier if Dube didn't drop a sitter from Rizwan. While we're at it, I thought it was extremely stupid of Rizwan to try to hit Bumrah of all people after blocking everyone else.


It's safe to say Bumrah's performance is equivalent to what Kohli pulled off last time.

[AtheK]

They should just fake injury for Dube and get Rinku sigh as finisher. Dube just does not look he belongs at this level. Hopefully he proves me wrong and plays few very good innings, other option of-course can be to replace him with Samson.

[Bibendum90949]

India's fascination for having a long batting line up for T20 is baffling. India just can't do an England in that aspect. I just wonder what's the rationale behind both Axar and Jadeja in the eleven, who are very similar players. One of them should make way for Kuldeep or Chahal to add more variety. It's important to get some bowling under their belt before the caravan moves to Caribbean, where they're poised to play a bigger role with pitches assisting their trade.

Also, Dube is susceptible on pitches as yesterday, where one needs to apply themselves to score runs. The technique also comes to the fore. Sanju or Jaiswal(being a test opener) would've been a better choice. That also allows VK to come at one drop and anchor the innings, and it is the need of the hour in such unpredictable surfaces.

[ghodlur]

Although I was thrilled to see India win against their arch foes Pakistan but the way it was won was not interesting and shows the cracks in the team. The batting was at its all time worse with so many star IPL players. Rohit Sharma was is and will be unpredictable, he just doesn't manage to stay at the crease. I hope the team will think about the shortcomings and not allow them to be repeated.

Pant although the star with the bat gave a lot of dollies which Pak team could not pick up. The total could have been even lower had the catches been taken.

[harry10]

2nd Fielding Medal and thoroughly deserving.
Couple of changes in team and we can have a good unit for rest of the games.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaCricket/s/iIhwc2beBW

[redCherry]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

I just wonder what's the rationale behind both Axar and Jadeja in the eleven, who are very similar players.

Also, Dube is susceptible on pitches as yesterday, where one needs to apply themselves to score runs.

Since a long time now I always thought Jadeja has long gone past 'sell-by' date in T20Is, especially in batting, and considering we have a better like-for-like replacement in Axar.

As far as Dube is concerned, THE WRITING IS/WAS ALWAYS ON THE WALL just that the team-management is either ignorant of that, or they are going by the hype media creates when this guy has few knocks in IPL
To some extent, this is true for even the much hyped-up SKY

As far as this match is concerned, I didn't think we should have won after being bundled out for such a low score, with an over to spare, just we got lucky to win, defending a small total

[PPS]

I slept off around 12:30am thinking its all over for Team India but then after a while checked the score with Rizwan just having got out so watched last 4 overs on my mobile! Pakistan got the best of conditions & yet failed badly. This was a hard fought win for Team India.

Originally Posted by harry10

when will SKY perform in an important match for a change.

Don't have the stats before me but can't seem to be remember when last he performed well in a big game in a marquee tournament. He seems to be a Bilateral Basher only! He badly needs to raise his game since the Management shielded him by sending Axar at no.4 !

Dube should be benched and never played again. Jaiswal needs to be brought back in and Rinku is sorely missed as finisher.

I too would prefer Jaiswal but if that happens Virat would have to drop down to no.3 with SKY at no.4 & Pant at no.5 so the entire top 5 would have to be shuffled after a few games which isn't exactly ideal!

Originally Posted by NomadSK

Yesterday's wicket was clearly a sticky one, double paced, ball wasn't coming on to the bat and we tried to play the shots on the rise. All we needed was conventional cricket to be played. There was a technical flaw with almost all of our star batsmen, when they tried to go hammer and tongs and emulate IPL cricket. This isn't the batting what's expected at that level. They needed to grind while batting, I guess because of batting first, they missed to evaluate the pitch and the playing conditions.

If they had played conventional cricket they would have been criticized for having a timid approach. We were 89/3 all thanks to the cavalier approach of Pant & Axar to an extent. On such a pitch it was better off taking an attacking approach which sort of succeeded until there was a collapse. Still feel on this NY pitch we needed an anchor like Virat. Pakistan played conventional cricket & tried to grind out & dug themselves a hole!

Originally Posted by AtheK

They should just fake injury for Dube and get Rinku sigh as finisher. Dube just does not look he belongs at this level.

Now that Dube has got a look in its only fair that the Management gives him a few overs to bat in the next 2 games & then figure what needs to be done. He has to bat as if its his last game for India!

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

India's fascination for having a long batting line up for T20 is baffling. India just can't do an England in that aspect.

You mean India should have 4 number 11's in the team ? England had batting till no.10 in the ODI WC but what happened! Ideally in a T20 you need some batting till no.8 atleast.

I just wonder what's the rationale behind both Axar and Jadeja in the eleven, who are very similar players.

Only rationale is that they both are all-rounders! And they lengthen the batting lineup. Jadeja is horrible in T20 format though.

One of them should make way for Kuldeep or Chahal to add more variety. It's important to get some bowling under their belt before the caravan moves to Caribbean, where they're poised to play a bigger role with pitches assisting their trade.

Once the games move away from NY, expect Kuldeep to play instead of 1 of the Seamers.

Sanju or Jaiswal(being a test opener) would've been a better choice. That also allows VK to come at one drop and anchor the innings, and it is the need of the hour in such unpredictable surfaces.

More chances of Samson being included in the XI if Dube is dropped. To fit in Jaiswal entire top 5 will have to be shuffled!

[harry10]

I understand the criticism of our batting collapse but we need to understand something, highest score on this New York pitch is 137 by Canada batting first against Ireland and Ireland couldn't chase it. No one has made 150 here. So, 135-40 was a safe score. We were 15-20 runs short for sure and team selection was a primary reason.

Again playing USA on same pitch. These are the changes need to be done to make sure it's smooth sailing this time -
Scenarios- Dube has to go. Then-

Jaiswal opens with Rohit. Kohli at 3, Pant 4, SKY 5, Hardik 6 and so on.

Or

Samson Plays instead of Jaiswal. Then Rohit and Kohli opens, Pant 3, Samson 4, SKY 5, Hardik 6 and so on.

Everything could have been solved if Rinku was in squad who could easily have slotted at 5th or 6th place. That man is a born finisher plus he can bat sensibly if wickets are falling as he showed in 1 game for India in which he came to Bat in 9th over. He has a solid technique and that's why his domestic test records are so good. Add his brilliance in the field and he becomes a very valuable assett. Idiot selectors have 0 foresight about players capabilities.

We don't need Dube and we didn't need Chahal at all in main squad with Axar, Jaddu and Kuldeep as 3 spinners already. Dube and Chahal could have been in reserves. I swear every time we go into a major tournament, there are selection blunders. Incompetent selectors and sleeping management has lost us so many trophies.

Also, I love to watch SKY bat. But he needs to understand one thing. Not every match and pitch is a 200 SR thing. Play the situation, play the conditions, have some match awareness. Sometimes a 30 ball 30 is more valuable than a 5 ball 10. He needs to get out of his own hype cos he has the most number of shots in our batting line up and he can play both Pace and spin alike quite well. Coach needs to have a talk with him.