The strategy of saving wickets and going for big shots was adopted by Australia against NewZealand. In the third test at Perth during 2001/2 series Australia was chasing imposing 440 in 110 overs. In last 30 overs or so they needed 200+ with lot of wickets in hand. They went for big shots in the final session and finally match was draw.
in my eyes jaffer showed that if he is taking ganguly's place it is worth it... in first innings also he nearly made the century, that show's his character a tough one... i want to congratulate him and also the Indian team for playing a good match...
I didnt like the way Dravid batted. He made it very clear from the starting that he is playing to save the match. If India wants to win test matches they should take some risks and should be confident. If Dravid and Kaif would have batted at slightly more than 3 runs per over to lunch time or to tea time. From there others should have taken the attack with run to ball or atleast they would have tried to win it. I believe they should change their game plan, especially Dravid, who faced nearly 100 balls to hit 25. See Australians they nearly score at the rate of 4 per over in tests thats the reason they will lot of tests. Indians should know that its not waiting for bad balls and hitting boundary now and then. The main bulk of the score should come from singles. It shouldnt be very difficult to rotate the strike by taking two or three singles in a over and hitting boundaries on bad balls.
I think due to superb batting show of dravid was responsible for this result. The test match that can be won at last ended in a draw. 370 runs in 78 overs is not impossible task. Indian captain i guess passed all night just thinking of how to draw this test match and end up advantage provided by pratice match. At last indian selectors rose up and selected munaf patel, i hope he won;t be treated as like VRV singh. Simply meant he will be included in final team any how at cost of either sehwag or kaif. No doubt guest are still fearing of him and this will provide good chance for indian team to win test match.
You may say that Dravid rightly wasted time but not everyone will agree. Till he had crossed his 50s TheWall did no scoring and only Jaffer did everything to move score board.He had 3X score of Dravid's. Only after Dravid got 50 and Jaffer stuck in 80s(naturally)did RD start something. In the process RR was abt 2 or less.So after Pathan had started the fireworks RR climbed to 3.3 yet asking rate was more than 8.It RD & Jaffer had maintained rate of 3.5-4 then asking rate would have come down to 6 or less and may be Pathan, Dhoni & Sachin would have accomplished the task. If one doesn't keep hopes of winning at all costs then late thinking will never realise any goal.
The thinking of Indian think tank has dramatically changed. Call it the ingenuity of coach Greg Chappell or the aggresiveness of skipper Rahul Dravid, the Indian team today showed why they are considered a dominant force in world cricket. They play as a team. Each member performs the task he is cut out for, and the contingencies are worked over. Just when it looked like the match was heading for a boring draw, out come the big guns of the famed batting line up. One wondered if Diwali was being celebrated in March for some reason. At a time when loosing was considered improbable, winning suddenly looked within reach. The little master once again showed that no bowler can get the better of him so easily. Keep nothing away from Pathan, the guy's gifted. It was quite evident that a team playing their own roles the way they know it best is all that is needed to attain victory. My opinion of what would be good for Indian cricket, please get rid of that excuse for a panel of analysts that we have in Amarnath, Wassan and Srikant. I mean you want to know what will not happen in the match, listen what they think will happen. A panel of fair & lovely models might make more sense.
It was indeed painful to see The Mighty Indians become pigmyies before a depleted almost second string team.Problem poor team selection and customary complacency by the senior players whose morbid inconsistency is costing India dear.With a weak bowling attack as exposed in Pakistan we have to go with 5 regular bowlers.Also we need to think hard about the star batsmen who are completely out of form and replace them with in-form young players who are keen to perform.Everytime a change has been made the players have performed to their full potential like Kaif,Jaffer and co.Over-security is as bad as lack of it.We need to keep the interest of the players alive and kicking all the time by a carrot and stick policy.May be even adopt the Australian rotation policy.
Prem, i was disappointed at the quality of this report. I am not reading cricket out of it. It really sucks to read this stuff. You use only ur english in ur reporting. A rediff reader really just don't want this english, rather we want cricket information.
