Faisal as usual praises his gods and ridicules his tribesmen. A distinct Indian cricket reporter syndrom. These self procalimed experts beleive that ridiculing their own team will make them look good. Indian reporters and commentrators are the only ones who does that in the whole world. Under the conditions, India batted at better level then any team can bat including Australia. If you look at the score and scoring rate there was not much difference till 2/3 of the way. India didnt fold. They fought valiantly. Yes, as i see it Indian team has 2 problems and one is our culture and second is the attack. We are soft, we dont have killer instincts. This crept in us because of Smarat Ashok and Gautam Buddha. We forgot Aryan culture. This demised us and history tells us that we have been regularly defeated by lesser people. Samething is happening insports. We take sports as fair competition event. West do not. Western influenced culture beleives in winning at any cost. And this give them that edge. Secondly if bowlers cant restrict the batsmen from piling runs this will always happen. Our critics led us on the wrong path. Now we dont have either pace or spin attack.
Tendulkar's innings was just another ordinary innings filled with dot balls, wasn't a great strike rate and didn't even stay till India was anywhere till the half way stage. Yet, the media potrays it as a "valliant" effort? why? He is being glorified for nothing. He can't perform under pressure. Thats why he insists that he open & now he doesn't even perform in crucial matches but still gets glorified! play it down, media! He is just an ordinary batsman who started on a high note but just a shadow of the way he is projected, can't standup to pressures - be it big matches or captaincy responsibility. But all said, he is very level-headed and composed and never trash-talks. He is a great sportsman but nowhere the best batsman in the world
I would rather say, Indian think-tank has forgot about the bowling department. They always seem to bother about the 7th batsman. That shows how bad their confidence is about the so called big guns in the batting line. Following questions are to be answered::
1.Why does Ganguly not want to play a keeper. (finally he is finding fault with Dravid's keeping, which by all means true. He is not a natural keeper). 2.Zaheer hasnt been performing well in this whole tournament (I would rather say he bowled well very rarely in his career yet. World-cup is one prime example. Excuses can be given as EXCITED.)
3. Anil Kumble - For haven sake , he has lost his touch with the ball long long ago. - Can any1 take him for a beer and tell him this. if not ganguly.
4. Sehwag - He has to improve a lot. Though many have pointed his flaws and techniques. WE dont want just blind hitters. Hitters will lose 95% and he is. So others can be given a chance. (atelast for test match he shld be dropped with immediate effect).
5. Nehra was poor guy- but no excuse for his way-wayed line in bowling. Why not Balaji be included as he is in form since challenger trophy. Groom him for Aus trip .
Quite true Aussies are world champions. But that doesn't mean Indians have to be crushed with Aussies back up players, That too in India with top class batsman.
At this same period against aussies Newzealand are performing better than indians. If India has to qualify for final, India has to cheat either teams by doctering pitches, giving free lbw's in favour of india. Indians were performing poor time and again. I remember the pace with which india were pre-world cup, pre-Natwest series, and in almost all tours.,
Better dissolve cricket Teams, Ah, All indians go back to work. Forget cricket and let all concentrate on something useful.
"India scored 26 boundaries to Australia's 28 but played 151 dot balls to Australia's 126. Australia had 8 sixes to India's three.
India lost the match in the mind at the halfway stage and it is worth considering what would have happened had India had scored singles off half those dot balls (151) or, maybe, if had matched Ponting's seven sixes".
is the best way to analysis, and this is what they have to answer! and while chasing 300+ if you are wasting 25 overs (151 balls)? How can you manage to reach target of 300+ ?
There were many points in Faisal Shariff's report. I would just touch on one point. He wrote "What does one do with Mohammad Kaif's awful form?
I am amused at the way he has brought this conclusion. Is he not realising what is happening. The constant shuffling of his batting order has indeed made life very difficult for him. In most of the matches he has been doing the painful job of "Waiting in the dressing room", yet whenever he has been given the responsibility, he comes good. How would you justify his again coming at no. 7 inspite of playing a sensible knock of 64 in just previous match coming at no. 3?
His form is no-problem, the problem lies in the shorter role he has been given in the play. Ravi shastri has just written the same thing in his newspaper column while commenting on the match against Newzeeland "Kaif has been suffering from lack of opportunities, but when he found one, he proved his worth"
In HT, Dhiman Sarkar wrote "Kaif played responsibly making capital of the opportunity to go at no. 3. He raced between the wickets and was involved in 2 biggest partnership."
So, when people are appreciating his efforts, you are writing about his form??
RE:Stop shuffling kaif up & down the order
by Srikar on Nov 13, 2003 03:12 PM
Meeraj could not have hit the nail any better... India needs to take a close look at batting order... murali karthik is very sensible batsman... the kind which rotates strike and can put the bad ball away.. he is wasted at no.11 he is definitely better than kumble atleast... and when u r out of form u try to take singles will some 1 tell sehwag this...
the things to do is to do the unexpected... may b ask laxman to bowl an over.... ask sachin to bowl a bouncer... and main thing is that Indian bowlers lake discipline and consistency in anything...
thats it...but we now how unpredictable the team is.. and by the way wht is deep dasgupta doing i the probables... may b u really need Nayan Mongia for tests. or Vijay Dahiya for one dayers
RE:Bowling
by Murali on Nov 13, 2003 01:53 PM
Its perfect. Kaif deserved to be recognised in better batting slot. He is not a hitter but a good player with cool temperament. Where as Sehwag was given upteen chances to get into form and he didnt prove himself. I wud rather say Sehwag should sit out and Parthiv shld be in as keeper. Balaji be in and Zaheer holds the 12th man post.
RE:Bowling
by Sherry on Nov 13, 2003 05:25 PM
Well, the first thing to do is to have discipline in line and length, and after that we can plan surprises. If a bowler can bowl 6 balls at the same spot, then he may move on to variations, etc. If any Indian bowler tried something different, he just puts it wide and the batsman gets an easy hit.
