Cricket - FOREVER

lol, the famed Dhoni midas touch.  On the other hand, it deserted him during 8-0.  Which way will the dice roll this time.

Plum Saab maximum cover panniteer  

Dhoni is one lucky sob, first test's forecast shows complete washout, 
with weather gods by his side he might scrape through with a 0-0 result.

If Ash phails in Durban he could very well lose his place to Razool/HArbhi for Kiwi tour.
this will be Zak's farewell series and Miami Singh looks a cert to replace him.
Ashes, Oz dominance in the series thus far    , only a month ago odds of them winning the series were 6/4   
Warner/Pup/Haddin's slogs aside their batting is still thin
they always had the bowling, even during the last Ashes it held up well. unlike what Sky commies
led us to believe, Eng is/are over-reliant on Jimmy/Swann for wickets and their tail to wag for runs. to think Ind lost to this side home/away   
KP should have followed Trott and taken a 'break', with Eng supporters/commies baying for his blood, he could be the bali for the series.

series highlights thus far

- Beefy's flip-flops/Usain bhai mournings.wish ESS had given us the option of listening to them.
- Cook getting cleaned up time and again. think he needs a series against Ind to resurrect his avg. so that Eng scribes could
  dust off their Sach comparisons.
- Barbie being shown his place, looks stoned/mindfucked each time he faced upto Mitchell.guess he will stay injured for rest of the series.

Barbie stared down Mitch the first time a bouncer went shooting past him at Gabba.  Then Mitch hit him on the back of the helmet with another and since then he's been trying his best to stay away from danger.  Now we know why he played that bizarre shot to get bowled first ball at Adelaide.  He literally feared Mitch would crush his toes, and so he did!  This series has been one sided but all the brutality on show from the Aussies has made it very dramatic.  Even Watto was serving up some chin music yesterday!  They have sensed that England are down and they look like they want to knock them really hard so they lose the next few Ashes!  

Aus arent that good. India will beat them at their home next year

Forget modern Bradman. We have the new SObers folks. Arise, Sir Ben Stokes

are the Ozzies choking or the fear of winning a Ashes series after a long time got to them 

crimson king wrote:Barbie stared down Mitch the first time a bouncer went shooting past him at Gabba.  Then Mitch hit him on the back of the helmet with another and since then he's been trying his best to stay away from danger.  Now we know why he played that bizarre shot to get bowled first ball at Adelaide.  He literally feared Mitch would crush his toes, and so he did!  This series has been one sided but all the brutality on show from the Aussies has made it very dramatic.  Even Watto was serving up some chin music yesterday!  They have sensed that England are down and they look like they want to knock them really hard so they lose the next few Ashes!  

This is Scyld Berry version of that event listed in 10 key moments of the series  

After Johnson dismissed Ben Stokes and Prior in the same over at Adelaide, there was a long delay before he bowled the final ball of the over to the new batsman Stuart Broad. The longer the delay went on, the more frenzied the crowd became. It also affected Broad, who was bowled round his legs jumping across his crease. Johnson bowled a triple-wicket maiden that lasted 15 minutes.

Er, not a word about who effected that delay in the first place.      Poor Poms, what will they do...have to salute their ingenuity in inventing excuse, though.  Chanceless!

an excellent day of cricket    Saffers paid the price for not bowling attacking lines, almost all
Indian bats were on autopilot mode to leave anything outside off trusting the bounce and only 2 slips/3rd man after 10th over
not even Dhoni is this defensive :banghead:

Mijay- can see him slip into Akashwani style of batting 15 overs for 5 runs, can surviveuntil India find a better opener. surprisingly seemed less perturbed by Steyn. may be those were bannana outswingers were too good for him. Morkel gave him working over and he fell for his 2 card trick.

Dabaang- shoulder'a erakku man, has fallen into his own hype.

Che- took most of the heat in the morning session, shielded Kohls when Morkel was all over him. could have digged in for a big score
     if not for Kohls brainfade.

Kohls- came after 15 overs still got worked over Morkel, feasted on Kallu/Thayir/Duminy. good knock nevertheless,
       hardly drove in this innings which has been his bane in test cricket, need to score daddy 100s.

Rohit- looked good, undone by shot selection again.

Ajinkya- find of the test for me, Unlike Kohls had to play to second new ball/shield the tail. played with straight bat most of the time
        and hardly got beaten. had issues with tall bowlers in the past so got to see how holds up against Morkel. If he survives Morkel may as  
        well get him to open or least swap position with Rohit.

SA have to look to bowl some off cutters to change up things.  Everything was swinging away from off stump or even further to the off. Sure the pitch was quite benign for all the Bullring hype (forget Perth, Gabba was bouncier than this) but attritional tactics won't work against India.  They are used to this kind of slow cricket at home.  I think had the openers not batted so badly, India could have done even better.  They had the chance.  Would still take 250/5 though.

Sure the pitch was quite benign for all the Bullring hype

even the odi wicket was nippy, may be after India's non-show in odies Saffers thought
Ind can be rolled over easily or they aren't confident playing on a green top given their previous history of
collapsing at this ground. most visiting sides would have taken this score at the end of day 1 but given Isshaant is in the 11/Zak
is making a comeback Ind might need 325-350*

*having said all that won't surprised if India get cleaned up for 280 and Saffers end the day with 50 run lead  

Damn right on the first count but on the second it is India that looks like they could get a big lead (unless they let the tail wag bigtime, which they are capable of).  Very good bowling performance by India and Ishant found that sweet spot all over again.  So it is confirmed in a way that SA bowlers did get their length wrong yesterday and they may have to pay a huge price for it.

EDIT:  Philander has batted well and it's 213/6 at stumps.  Honours even but if this partnership flourishes some more, SA could get into a lead and regain the upper hand.  Would be a pity if India squander this opportunity to pin them down, having done very well to demolish their middle order.

Morning session was a deja vu of MCG test, Saffers bowlers found the length alright and Indian tail expectedly fold up.
Dhoni should wake up to the fact he just can't hack it overseas with his hockey tecknik, should swallow the pride get
Ash @ 7. else no way you can justify Ash's place in 11.

compare noob Oz slip cordon to Indias, we were dropping lollies,
in VKR voice ezhavu edhula karuppu kannadi vera

Isshhant- from where did that come from   he can safely retire now, can't see him repeating this feat ever again.

Zak- he really just had to turn up for Smith's wicket. nice setup   
still question mark on his fitness, was clocking Unadcat's speeds in his last 2 spells.

Shami- again needs to work on bowling with new ball. held his own with the old ball

expectedly Dhoni just went overtly defensive after 6th wkt and let the game slip away as he often does with no square leg for pacers with most of the balls been darting in. needs to watch how Pup used Singam as wkt taking option, here Philandarval/Faf were milking Ash for 5 singles a over  

Even in the last tour of SA when Zak bowled at Cape Town, he was well below his earlier speed. I am not sure if he can get it back at this point.  He has a variety of tricks with which he keeps getting wickets but he is not really lethal anymore.  Ishant suddenly got it right.  Not sure if even he can explain these purple patches, how or why they happen and how or why he runs out of them just as suddenly.  The Kallis delivery was flawless, fast-ish inswinging yorker first up, nearly unplayable.  

India have stopped grooming specialist fielders and the more they continue with this approach, the more catches they will drop.  Somewhere down the line, they started the practice of forcing newbies to become the new short leg/silly point.  A shameful contrast with the times I have seen Punter, as captain, stand at short leg often without a helmet!  This bade log culture has to end.  Dravid and VVS were excellent in slip or close in positions.  India has to find who are the fielders best suited to that role from within the lineup and get them to work extensively with the fielding coach if they are not yet good enough for that position.  Kohli is a good fielder to have in point/cover, not slips.

India have stopped grooming specialist fielders and the more they continue with this approach, the more catches they will drop.  Somewhere down the line, they started the practice of forcing newbies to become the new short leg/silly point.  A shameful contrast with the times I have seen Punter, as captain, stand at short leg often without a helmet!  This bade log culture has to end.  Dravid and VVS were excellent in slip or close in positions.  India has to find who are the fielders best suited to that role from within the lineup and get them to work extensively with the fielding coach if they are not yet good enough for that position. Kohli is a good fielder to have in point/cover, not slips.

think Dhoni's needs to cop a lot of blame for it, remember Che dropped Cook @Eden in the slip with his shin pads on?
he constantly rotates his slip fielders and stands tad too far hence slips who take
cue from wkt keepers take catches @ half volley or people like Ash drop those when they have to bend down.
in that slip roster Kohls most times find himself in slips for spinners inspite of him drop so many lollies in the past.

India hammering home the advantage now.  189/2, leading by 225.  Pujara racing towards a century and Kohli towards a half century.  Hopefully many more to come from both.  SA look like they have been caught napping.

crimson king wrote:India hammering home the advantage now.  189/2, leading by 225.  Pujara racing towards a century and Kohli towards a half century.  Hopefully many more to come from both.  SA look like they have been caught napping.

Oru phlow'vula read it as India hammering the home advantage actually the respect these 2 have shown for the good/very good balls and the disdain for the poor balls (many, especially from the slower bowlers) has been quite phenomenal. Also, Simran Thayir and Dean Paul Juminy have gone for 158 off their 30 overs this match thus far. Bloody mediocre stuff. Getting its just desserts. MOrkaLLan getting injured has affected the balance. KALi aNNan Gounder (coinage ubayam Plum) will fill in the 3rd seamer, aah oo naanunga. Onyum kANOm idhu varaikkin. Idhula Simran drop catch off Pujara just after his 50 vEra.

I think Tahir was simply shell shocked to find one coming back with his name on it, so he didn't know what to do with it.   

They could have played a fourth seamer in De Lange or Kyle Abbott instead of these embarrassments they call spinners.  Some of those balls were like net practice for batsmen who have grown up playing this stuff...tossed up invitingly to be clouted for four.

is this bizarro world , Mijay batting 25+overs against SA away whilst Ranji bowlers were all over him   
the last session it was Che auditioning for ODi place   Saffers can always count on Indian bowlers to save this test.
with rain threat on day 5, wouldn't bet against them saving it.

They could have played a fourth seamer in De Lange or Kyle Abbott instead of these embarrassments they call spinners. 

surprising that none of their leftarmers are test class. there is inherent sameness in attack with everyone looking to take it away.
Steve Harmison/Paul Allott on Sky studios were gushing today,  want young Eng bats to watch and learn from Mijay/Che on leaving on length  

Rain has once before stolen a win from India at Joburg.  It could happen again.  I hope Dhoni doesn't lust for a mountain of runs and takes a calculated risk with the declaration....that is, provided they don't collapse like a pack of cards tomorrow morning which would settle the issue anyway.  The sooner they can make SA the bat, the better.

^ Dhoni never risks losing a test, remember this http://www.espncricinfo.com/nzvind2009/engine/match/366629.html
 ideally India should bat for 20 overs or look to bowl just before lunch.knowing Dhoni he might move up the order and look for some cheap runs
and declare around tea

Ditto.  I want them to wind up the innings about half an hour or so before lunch.  What I think will happen is Dhoni will bat on till tea given the chance.

Wiz enna idhu kali muththi pOchu. adharmam jeyikkaRadhu

^Aye, you know its kali when a homewrecker Mijay ends up 'blunting' Steyn gun @ Wanderers  when Ranji trundler like Unadcat was over all him and perennial spraygun Isshaant gets 2 in 2 and be seen as a threat by opposition...though Che deserves every bit of success for all his donkey work in domestic cricket, looking forward to Kohls game against second new ball today.

also never seen Saffers be so far behind the opposition in a home test, Smith had horrid time as skipper, nothing explains him opening with Steyn/Duminy after tea or  playing catchup with fieldsets/getting Abdv to bowl before tea was Dhonisque. If their bats don't show any fight in 2nd dig and  lose this test badly, this test could very well be start of their fall into realms of mediocrity after years at the top.