How come he says Zaheer was head and shoulders above other bowlers? I thought all bowlers were inconsistent though each one had some good spells. Is taking wickets the only yard stick? Please bring back Prem Panicker for cricket match reports, this other guy sucks.
Also I don't understand why our team management didn't pick Ramesh, that seems quite unfair to him. I hope Akash/Sehwag utilize the trust shown in them by Ganguly.
Dear Rediff you mentioned Umpire Mr.Bucknor turned down 2 appeals against Ponting from Khan abd Agarkar on the first day. Both were perfect decisions from the best umpire in the world, no complaints at all. It is really disgusting to see your report saying he turned down the lbw appeal where the ball pitched shade outside the leg and straightened..well, it pitched shade outside the leg, there ends the matter, no further question of the ball straightened or not, I saw that ball and it was a perfect call from Bucknor. Coming to the caught behind decision you mentioned where ponting induced a faint edge, there was no edge at all in that context, the bat hit the ground and that produced the misleading noise which everyone thought is an edge but replays clearly showed that there was no edge at all and another gem of a decision by Mr.Bucknor. Also the bowler, Agarkar in that instance, was not appealing confidently, it was just the keeper who thought of the nick and then Agarkar realised the keeper was appealing and joined him. So don't simply put the blame on the umpire, do give the correct match report Rediff!!
Australian hava proved thats it is not necessary to have hi fi record holders to play and win at any part of world.Every selected players plays in spirirt and have improved their performance in every game.Indian players should lear this from them.
the first day put to rest all notions of an indian victory or a well fought series coming our way. i think we have to be realistic and accept the fact that the indian bowling is not good enough.some of our bowlers may have the talent but lack consistency.so no point just marvelling at their talent and hoping that some day they will perform . the fact is even after 2-3 yrs.of experience at the top level , if the bowlers cannot bowl six decent deliveries then they never will.some of the bowlers of this side might not find a place even in the inexperienced pakistan side,forget a place in any australian first class team.so just forget the bowling and enjoy some great australian batting tommorow.
There is a fundamental errror on part of captain on part of selecting the final 11.Knowing the poor form of Agarkar he has been selected ahead of young prospect like irfan pathan.Ramesh who was easily the best opening bat on the tour is left out.kumble is left out.India is going to terribly loose the series if it goes this way.
This is what happens when you leave out your most effective bowler(Murli Karthick), especially when he was very successful against the same opposition less than a month back.
262 for 2 is a huge score on the first day itself , but the man who can make a diference is agarkar. what ganguly should ensure is make agarkar start tommorow with a medium pace and ball just 10 inches before crease , make him work on the same line and length upto a limit of 8 overs , only then increment speed starting from 128 units , agarkar is an excellent paceman but tends to get overexcited , if ganguly keeps confidence on zaheer and nehra , why doesn,t he do it much with agarkar , scold him if he balls short ,pace is ok , shoulder movement is excellent but what is lacking is some scolding and improvement in point of bounce , i am sure ge will improve and perform excellent . i would also like to say that whenever you have to ball fast you should begin with medium pace , medium pace includes bowling 8 to 10 inches before crease , this will improve your shoulder movement and bounce and then pace increases gradually , zaheer suceeds only due to this technique .
Faisal, Are u blind, man? Does it really matter if India bats first or bowl. Ultimately they'll go to the backfoot. They batted first a lot of times. Then also they had "world class batting line-up". What happen ultimately? BCCI should plan for everything, starting from bowling coach to psychologist, much earlier. Otherwise it'll not work at all.
"Cricket is a game played by 11 fools and watched by 11,000 fools" or so goes the famous quote by G.B.Shaw when quizzed on cricket. This has been very clearly proved by the "Great Indian Selection" for the first test match. which team worth its salt will leave out an inform "opener" in favour of a makeshift opener(sehwag ofcourse) and an exprienced bowler in favour of a medium pacer?
Thank god, i am in chennai which has the set-top box effect and i need not see this class clown act by my fellow countrymen.
the much awaited day has arrived.. to be frank enough, to my passion towards indian cricket, the images of Ramesh and Sachin in full flow in the dreams is no surprise....
I expected a lot in the team composition and in my rediff team selection, i pushed kumble and ramesh in eleven in place of chopra and nehra...
but, great surprise to me in the morning, as i heard of the team composition.... i didn't get the logic yet behind this... oh, no....
yes, somebody rightly pointed out the moral right of ganguly to be in playig eleven of test team...
i fully agree with him.............
hope this step may not dent the confidence levels of ramesh and no further damage to moral of kumble, who since a while is getting step-motherly treatment from the captain.......
