[sukhoi]

An interesting read n perspective which is backed by data.

http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/spa...n-the-90s.html

Cheers,
S

[NPV]

Australia got 330, par score I think. Now let's see if our batsmen can win this for us and avoid a 0-5 whitewash. If Dhoni does decide to call it a day after this, it will be good to sign off with a victory

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Before someone says it's the climate and the nature of our cricket, our neighbors play in nearly identical (or potentially worse) conditions and have never had trouble producing world-class fast bowlers. Baffling indeed!

In our country, since ages, sports is not a priority for kids to spend their time on. Whatever the miniscule kids who dedicate their time for sports, most of the focus goes to cricket. Within them, everyone wants to be a batsmen. After all these eliminations, whoever is left, given their body take the hardship, focus on bowling.
Also, in our cricket culture, batmen are celebrated. Commentators remember them, stories are written about them. But same cannot be said of bowlers.
Mind you fast bowling is very hard work. Requires physique. For instance, Mitchell Johnson travelled 23 Km on 1st day of a test match in Melbourne while fielding and he had to bowl around 20 overs. He reached speeds of 35 Kmph in sprints. Thats hard work.
Ref: GPS data shows Mitch's motor

In Pakistan, every kid wants to be a bowler and bowl fast. That is the culture difference.

Originally Posted by Eddy

So, why did we lost the series down under ?

Batting is evenly matched, so is fielding (both teams have dropped catches, mis-fielded, etc). So it comes to bowling. India's strength is spin and by creating flat decks, Australia has negated India's key weapon. Aussie bowler have better pace and experience bowling in their pitches. Indian bowlers don't have the pace and hardly any practice matches to adjust their bowling. Hence Aussies have higher winning percentage.

Originally Posted by NPV

Australia got 330, par score I think. Now let's see if our batsmen can win this for us and avoid a 0-5 whitewash. If Dhoni does decide to call it a day after this, it will be good to sign off with a victory

Dhoni's number is 6. Why he wants to ahead beats me. He is failing at No 4 and the team doesn't have strength at No 6. Hope he bats at right number today.

[NPV]

After another good start by the openers I thought this will also end with India on the losing side but Manish Pandey and Dhoni manged to pull it off
Some luck as well along the way with dropped catches of Rohit sharma, Dhoni.
After a long time watched part of a game and glad it ended with an Indian win
I thought Dhoni struggled a bit to put bat to ball and the game seemed to be going away when he turned it around with a six!

[Hatari]

Wonder how the Rohit haters are enjoying their humble pie. If the haters had their way we would never have him scoring the tons of runs in ODI/T20s.

Shameful the amount of bashing he is subject to. Given his success in ODI and T20 cricket, he deserves a long rope in Tests too. Just like he took his time to find his groove in the shorter formats of the game, Tests could be a matter of time too.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Hatari

Given his success in ODI and T20 cricket, he deserves a long rope in Tests too.

Rohit is flat-deck monster. Any assistance from pitch, he is walking wicket (in all forms of cricket). Till they start preparing flat decks in tests, he is better of not playing, to keep his existing average of 33.xx intact

[nilpat]

Besides all criticism received from Indian Fans it is good to see improved ICC Test and ODI Ranking

http://www.icc-cricket.com/team-rankings/test
http://www.icc-cricket.com/team-rankings/odi

I hope the discussion will now shift in diffrent direction.

[Eddy]

Rohit deserves all the criticism he gets for his play in test matches. His technique is loose and all the edges get gobbled up unlike in limited overs where the fielders are mostly in defensive positions.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Rohit is flat-deck monster. Any assistance from pitch, he is walking wicket (in all forms of cricket). Till they start preparing flat decks in tests, he is better of not playing, to keep his existing average of 33.xx intact

Originally Posted by Eddy

Rohit deserves all the criticism he gets for his play in test matches. His technique is loose and all the edges get gobbled up unlike in limited overs where the fielders are mostly in defensive positions.

All our cricketers struggle on non flat pitches!

Gone are the days of finished products (our Big 4) entering the team to take on the world. We must invest time into players for Tests.

Given the long rope in ODIs, he's blossomed into a top notch performer.
So goes it for Tests.

[harry10]

Rohit isn't test material. He loses composure too soon in tests. It's not necessary a good player in odi and t20 will be good in tests too. Like Yuvi and Raina. We should better concentrate in finding specialist test batsman.

Coming to today's Match I hope rain doesn't play spoilsport and we win the series today itself.

[nilpat]

I believe it is all about mindset of the players. We cant expect players who excel in shorter version of cricket and do well in loner version too !! Its like we are asking them to shift gears depending road conditions. Curenrly we are living in T20 era so Its totally unfair to compare fantastic four :-)

[anand_hc]

Amount of chances he got, am sure Manish Pandey would have had better success than him, how many chances Dinesh Karthik or Robin got ! He is so talented.. is the buzzword..

[mukul32]

Originally Posted by anand_hc

Amount of chances he got, am sure Manish Pandey would have had better success than him, how many chances Dinesh Karthik or Robin got ! He is so talented.. is the buzzword..

Well, I'm not so sure. Would Manish Pandey or Utthappa have scored two double hundreds in ODI's? These guys have performed consistently only in domestic cricket, where the bowling and fielding standards are nowhere near what we see in internationals. And as for domestic cricket, Rohit still outbats them all. He has a first class average of 55 (despite such a hopeless recent test record), and a triple ton to his name too, which neither Utthappa nor Pandey do. Their first class averages are 42 and 50 respectively (Yes, despite being in red hot form recently, Utthappa averages just 42). As for limited overs, Rohit reigns supreme in both ODI and T20, while Utthappa doesn't have a T20 hundred despite opening the innings for eight years in IPL and domestic tournaments; and Pandey hasn't done all that much after showing some serious promise once a while.
Utthappa got his break in Zimbabwe, and struggled like he didn't deserve it. Pandey is having his moment, just like Rohit had his a couple of years ago. Among the two, I'd say Pandey has a much better chance of settling into the Indian side, given that he can bat anywhere and is four years younger to Utthappa.
Let's just give it a break and enjoy the match. Fingers crossed, hope Yuvraj gets a bat today.

[carwatcher]

I have heard a lot but today I witnessed the bias by Gavaskar while commenting in favour of Yuvi. While Yuvi was batting poorly, Sunny didn't utter a single word as though he lost his voice.
While he started hitting shots, it was only Sunny all over the commentary.
I am mentioning about Hindi Commentary on Star.

[PPS]

It would have been a huge setback to Yuvraj's career & more importantly his confidence if he hadn't hit those 2 hits in the final over! Feel Bhajji will get a spot in the 11 in the next few T20 tournaments instead of Pandya as they will be played in sub-continent pitches.
Watched the entire match live after a long time, a Sunday well spent.