anyone watching Australia/India

kryogen

Good win, delighted with it actually, struggled a little early with the bat but came back strong and 3 half centurys is very welcome, Wade did brilliantly.

The bowlers all did the job well, Watson being back is a good thing for the one day team.

Rjd2

kryogen wrote: »

Plenty of people were hopeless last time around.

You are deluded if you think he can definitely offer nothing, Anderson and co didnt do great against Indias crap recently did they?

Indias crap uninterested bowlers also did a pretty good job against the world beaters in Englands batting line up.

At this point in time, Ponting is showing some of his best Test form in a long time, he is still great in the field too and is a leader. Right now he would definitely get in the ashes squad, we will see how things are when the time comes of course, lot can happen in a year.

People write off players a lot, in the case of Ponting, this has been an awful lot due to the hate he gets, nothing drives him more then an Ashes victory in England. He has had a lot of bad luck in terms of the quality of players in his squads in the last few years. This is of course used as a stick to beat him when clearly there were plenty of underperforming or inexperienced players in the squad and it was a team in transition.

The captaincy being taken away was the right call imo, takes a bit of heat off him and lets him focus purely on batting which is why he is showing some excellent form for me. He is still a leader, he is still someone everyone in that squad looks up to and his experience is vital to the younger guys in the Test squad.

Look at the wealth of talent on the Aussie squad when Ponting was starting out and compare that to the lack of quality he has had to work with and drag performances from in recent years. A lot of blame gets put on him unfairly when it is quite clear that there were huge problems at the very top of the Australian Cricket Board especially in terms of selection policy.

The team is now starting to come out of the dark period and one last winning effort from Punter (Australias most winning captain) in the Ashes next summer would be the perfect way to bow out an international career that will see him go down as one of the very best to ever pick up a cricket bat

England smashed them 4-0 with only Dravid and Praveen offering resistance. he failed miserably in the 4 Ashes matches he played last year and some runs against this Indian batting line up is nothing to get excited about. Not saying he hasn't turned the corner but I'l wait until he dominates a proper bowling line up before I get to excited. I'm pretty sure they play South Africa before The Ashes so if he can get runs against Steyn and Morkel then he should approach The Ashes with great confidence.


Anyways India don't look in a good space at the moment, never seen Sehwag look so uninterested and clueless and Dhoni's innings was just bizarre. Nothing wrong with pacing your innings but rotating the strike especially when what is at the other end is average is common sense.


Wade looks class, no reason not to have a look at him in the longer format in the West Indies tour with haddin's form been so patchy and Tim Paine still injured.

kryogen

I was referring to he last Test series England played v India!

I agree with you, bigger Tests to come for Ponting, the SA series will be a vital indicator as to whether he will be on the plane to England or not.

Washout

what an unreal chase by India today.

321 chased down in 37 overs. Kohli was great...didnt once look like getting out.

Giggsy11

What an amazing run chase. Kohli scored 133 of 86 balls. Highlight of the match has to be Malinga's over where Kohli scored 2.6.4.4.4.4. Amazing batting display from the Future Indian Captain.

If we play to our potential we can be unreal team. Shame about consistency from last 1 year.

Every batsmen contributed, Sehwag start, Sachin's crafty innings, Gambhir's anchor role, Virat's amazing display and Raina's finishing. All round batting display.

Shame we woke up in the last game and most likely will be out

kryogen

Was mental to see India actually bat so well!

Nice change, but then, they do seem to do well against each other too. Always a close game seemingly, (im aware this was actually a blow out basically ) with the bonus point does that mean ye can make the final?

Washout

kryogen wrote: »

Was mental to see India actually bat so well!

Nice change, but then, they do seem to do well against each other too. Always a close game seemingly, (im aware this was actually a blow out basically ) with the bonus point does that mean ye can make the final?

if australia beat SL in the last match then India are in the final

Giggsy11

Yeah, I was not aware of this new rule. Previously if 2 teams were tied on points then Run Rate was considered. But in this series Head to head result counts.

Come on Aussies. Go Aussies.

kryogen

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Yeah, I was not aware of this new rule. Previously if 2 teams were tied on points then Run Rate was considered. But in this series Head to head result counts.

Come on Aussies. Go Aussies.

Thats the spirit!

kryogen

Dan Christian took an excellent 5 for earlier including a superb hattrick against Sri Lanka, Australia bowled them out for 238, nice handy chase eh?

yeah right, Australia were 26/3 after a few overs, now in the 17th over its 68/3 with Hussey coming in an firmly dropping anchor alongside Watson.

Hussey is 8 off 33 balls!

Watson going along at his customary pace, little bit slow actually, 33 of 41.

The partnership is seriously needed though. Dont mind the pace being slow from Hussey as long as he stays in and himself and Watson are more then capable of firing the team over the line when needed.

One ball to go in the 17th, Perrera has pulled up holding his back after delivering the previous ball. Doesnt look great, umpires have called drinks while it gets sorted.

kryogen

Hussey has begun to open up

He is now 25 off 46 with Watson 49 off 59 and Australia 103/3 from 22.1 overs.

kryogen

Coming down to the last over!

kryogen

Last wicket falls first ball of the final over.

Sri Lanka win........again

booth70

TBH I think Hussey kinda messed it up in the 49th over when he took a single off the first ball.....

....but thank goodness Sri Lanka won....they deserved to be in the final ahead of India and should now start favourites for the finals having won 3 of 4 against the Aussies

For India another miserable tour ends with no lessons learnt as evident from their shambolic team selection for the Asia cup starting soon and it looks like SRT will end up making his 100th 100 in an utterly meaningless one day match in Dhaka

Giggsy11

So close, but SL deserved to be in the finals more than us. Hopefully they will win the cup.

kryogen

booth70 wrote: »

TBH I think Hussey kinda messed it up in the 49th over when he took a single off the first ball.....

....but thank goodness Sri Lanka won....they deserved to be in the final ahead of India and should now start favourites for the finals having won 3 of 4 against the Aussies

For India another miserable tour ends with no lessons learnt as evident from their shambolic team selection for the Asia cup starting soon and it looks like SRT will end up making his 100th 100 in an utterly meaningless one day match in Dhaka

I kinda agree, but in another way, its hard to fault his innings, and any run is a good run really at that stage of the match so I wouldnt be too hard on him.

And even though ST makes his 100th 100 in a meaningless match it will still be heralded and held up as a reason for why he still deserves to be in the team.

He will deserve recognition of course whenever he eventually makes it, but it if he had done it any time when it actually mattered it would mean a lot more.

Australia really need to work out how to beat Sri Lanka, this is getting ridiculous!

Giggsy11

kryogen wrote: »

And even though ST makes his 100th 100 in a meaningless match it will still be heralded and held up as a reason for why he still deserves to be in the team.

He will deserve recognition of course whenever he eventually makes it, but it if he had done it any time when it actually mattered it would mean a lot more.

Completely disagree with the 2 points.

Sachin deserves to be in the team irrespective of 100th century. Apart from this ODI series he has done really well. Every time this argument comes up and Sachin answers with his bat. I still can't forget how many wrote him off after 2007 WC, only for him to become the leading run scorer (If I'm not wrong) from 2007-2011.

And re his 100th century, thats a moot point. Every player has scored few meaningless centuries and you are assuming the century he scores (If he does) does matter less than against Aussies or England.

And also who said Asia cup doesn't matter? Games vs Pakistan are the most important matches for India bar none. If he does it against Pak then it would make it even sweeter. Pak matches matters more than against Aussies and England.

If he scores against SL, then you know how tough the team they are. If he scores against Bangladesh, then kind of understandable that it is against weak opponents. But century in ASIA cup does matter a lot.

kryogen

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Completely disagree with the 2 points.

Sachin deserves to be in the team irrespective of 100th century. Apart from this ODI series he has done really well. Every time this argument comes up and Sachin answers with his bat. I still can't forget how many wrote him off after 2007 WC, only for him to become the leading run scorer (If I'm not wrong) from 2007-2011.

And re his 100th century, thats a moot point. Every player has scored few meaningless centuries and you are assuming the century he scores (If he does) does matter less than against Aussies or England.

And also who said Asia cup doesn't matter? Games vs Pakistan are the most important matches for India bar none. If he does it against Pak then it would make it even sweeter. Pak matches matters more than against Aussies and England.

If he scores against SL, then you know how tough the team they are. If he scores against Bangladesh, then kind of understandable that it is against weak opponents. But century in ASIA cup does matter a lot.

I disagree, I didn't write him off in 2007, but you can bet your ass I'm writing him off now, he is no longer a top class batsman imo. Its ok if thats not everybodys opinion like, and I'm sure he will still put in a good performance here and there, more than likely in the sub continent and against the weaker teams, but hey, it will help the stats.

Maybe you misread my point about his 100th century, or probably I didnt make it well enough, I said, it deserves recognition of course, it is a fantastic achievement (when he does do it) but he is clearly hanging on for it im afraid and it is not doing any of the younger batsmen needing to be getting exposure to international cricket with India any favours, him picking and choosing which games he will play isnt ideal either.

I would be afraid that if and when he does put in the performance, gets the century, that it will paper over some cracks and keep him around even longer!

He is not a young man, he has had a fantastic career and I always like to see my sporting legends retire before they become stale. I actually think he probably should have went after the WC tbh, would have been a very fitting end to his career, he isnt going to get another chance to do it in such a memorable fashion.

I dont mean to offend you, but when your day is done its done, and for me, his day is done, you are perfectly entitled to disagree. Im sure there is a case for both sides of the argument. People never agree on everything! Sport would be boring if that was the case. This is the first time I have said he day is done. I do not make the statement lightly

Edit: to your other part, I am not sure

He was the highest Test run scorer in 2010 with 1562, not ODI (he wasnt in the top 50 from my quick search) and in 2011 he was neither, nor anywhere near the top 513 runs in ODI's and 756 in Tests, this year he has 182 Test runs (avg. 38) and 143 ODI runs (avg. 20), a very clear drop in form if nothing else!

Id probably have to go to a small bit of effort to go through all his stats from the last 5 years so so cant go into more detail for you!

This year in Test cricket he has passed 30 just twice, and 50 once both of them came in each innings of the same match.
In ODI he has gone past 30 twice and high scored with 48.

So in his last 13 innings he has made on half century, in a Test match
None in ODI's

He has gone past 30 runs 3 times in the 12 other innings.

Besides that first Test match on 3rd January he has scored a total of 204 runs in 11 innings, somebody else would very likely be under pressure for their place in the squad.

Think Im starting to repeat myself!

Giggsy11

That's the problem. The standards are so high for him even if he plays well people expect him to do even more.

This was his first ODI series after WC. He was the second highest runs scorer in WC. He had only one poor ODI series. Isn't that normal for any WC player to have dip in form?

Coming to tests, He averaged 34 and 35 against England and Aussies. He underperformed. But lets not forget before England series he was in hot form scoring for fun. Averaging over 50 in 8 plus series. Again just a average series against England and Aussies.

Leading run scorer in Tests in 2010 and Top 10 run getter in 2011. If that is classed as finished then it only says about the standards he has set himself.

I'm not offended by it, if people take offense for counter argument then they shouldn't login to any forums You have tried your best to present your view and I'm trying my best to give counter argument.

Btw, I'm not pin pointing at you. This is not the first time Sachin was written off. He always had the answers and I'm sure this time also he does. He should give up ODIs after Asia cup and concentrate on Tests only.

kryogen

I agree with the last point, he may still have a year or so left in Tests in he cuts out the ODI's

booth70

There is no greater admirer of SRT than me but IMHO he should have retired from ODI cricket on a high after that fantastic night in Bombay last April....

Now , given that (by his high standards) , he has had a miserable last 10 months , he is caught between a rock and a hard place and surely in his mind he himself does not know when is the right time to bid adieu and NO Indian selector has the guts to to make that decision for him like the Aussies did with Ponting's ODI career

It takes my mind back to when Kapil Dev took about 10 tests to take the 5 or 6 wickets he needed to break Hadlee's then Test wicket record and India kept playing him even though he was way past his best to purely allow him to break that record

I am just hoping that SRT makes the right decision (about playing on) for Indian cricket and not for his own personal milestones....

Giggsy11

booth70 wrote: »

There is no greater admirer of SRT than me but IMHO he should have retired from ODI cricket on a high after that fantastic night in Bombay last April....

Now , given that (by his high standards) , he has had a miserable last 10 months , he is caught between a rock and a hard place and surely in his mind he himself does not know when is the right time to bid adieu and NO Indian selector has the guts to to make that decision for him like the Aussies did with Ponting's ODI career

It takes my mind back to when Kapil Dev took about 10 tests to take the 5 or 6 wickets he needed to break Hadlee's then Test wicket record and India kept playing him even though he was way past his best to purely allow him to break that record

I am just hoping that SRT makes the right decision (about playing on) for Indian cricket and not for his own personal milestones....

Wrong, I'm the biggest admirer of him and the lad who goes to every game with Sachin's name painted all over him is just ahead of me

Yeah he should have retired after WC finals, winning the biggest prize in his hometown was the perfect script written in stars but he didn't. Hopefully he will win us the Asia cup then retire. I never want him to retire on losing note. His career deserves better than that.

He even plays in IPL, so I really hope he retires from ODIs after a series win and concentrate only on Tests. Maybe in a year he will retire from that also.

booth70

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Wrong, I'm the biggest admirer of him and the lad who goes to every game with Sachin's name painted all over him is just ahead of me

You mean this guy.....:D:D

http://www.projectsjugaad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Sudhir-Kumar-Chaudhary.jpg

Giggsy11

booth70 wrote: »

You mean this guy.....:D:D

http://www.projectsjugaad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Sudhir-Kumar-Chaudhary.jpg

Yeah. He is just unbelievable fan. I saw him in Bangalore, it was India vs Australia test. He was just awesome. When the crowd went silent (Which rarely happens even in Test match ) he used to make them make more noise. Shame he was in adjacent stand and we had a big fencing so couldn't meet him to get a pic.

I read that Sachin himself gives pass for him every game.

booth70

Australia cruising to a win in the first final.....

Warner 163....he was out to the last ball of the innings.....you would think that if Warner batted 50 overs he would get to 200 at least:)

kryogen

The run chase got so much closer then it should have though!

Delighted to get a win on the board

dfx-

Very slow set up despite the Warner and Clarke hundreds. Warner in particular...

Sri Lanka probably could've chased 325 instead of 272

booth70

SL throwing away a great chance to finally win a major ODI tournament outside of the sub-continent......the top order gone to some very poor shots

53/4 chasing 232 in the decider

kryogen

Take a bow McKay, take a bow, some teams for drama!