Dravid's obsession with Kumble is nauseating. He was not looking like he was going to take wickets but Dravid just refused to give the ball to someone else. At this point of time, with 11 runs required, look at this statistic, Munaf and sehwag bowled one over!!! and tendulkar none!!! i think under pressure, Dravid's brain just blacks out and when taken by surprise he is a real cropper. He should have attacked Pollock more... seriously, not batting is one, but loosing it tactically by absolute stupidity is another.
If the umpires were giving wrong decision favouring SA what captain can do?? Ordinary umpiring marred fourth day's play. Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged leg before to Shaun Pollock when the ball was missing leg-stump. Last man Munaf Patel was dismissed off the seventh ball of a Dale Steyn over. Umpire Asad Rauf erred on both occasions. team india did not win series in SA in last 3 tours it did not happened even when ganguly was captain.where was ur criticism and harsh comments that time?? Dravid does not need anybodys specially fanatic gangulys fans certificate for his captiancy excellent captaincy by rahul he managed resources verywell and his bowling change field placement were very impressive. dravid proved he deserved to win the cap for icc test team dravid won recently CASTORAL cricketer / batsman of year 2005-2006 ( ind media never highlight dravid s hardwork or achievements.) Even SA commetrators and ganguly himself praised dravids captaincy.Dravid is best captain. Team India under dravids captaincye won the multan test (without ganguly) and Sabina park won test series after 35 yrs ( without ganguly and tendulkar and dravid won mom and mos) and in SA first test.
India, opening with Sehwag was a tactical blunder. I cannot understand great analyst and players such as Gavaskar, Shastri, Harsha got it totally wrong. I mean how on earth can you send a person who has been struggling with a moving ball? It was clearly seen that he was able to score those 40 in the first innings because the ball was not moving and the spinner was bowling. Sehwag on his part could have been more murderous in the second innings had he come before Kumble. I thought of this the moment Shastri and Gavaskar said 150/1 on the third day evening about Sehwag. But thought greg chappel and dravid and are far more shrewd brains but alas all for nothing. Karthik would not have failed in the first place as an opener and even if he failed, the same 38 and by chance a bit more would have been scored by Sehwag. Finally Sachin, as Akram pointed out, I am not sure was he playing with WC-07 in mind? By showing caution and no agression, I guess he paid the most inevitable price. A victory that looks next to impossible in the series' to come in SA for all eternity. Only God can plan a win from here as I see SA are in no mood to let go. If you guys say win over our dead body then.......
At the end of the South African innings it is deemed that the umpire has called time. hence Law 15.3 Duration of Interval is in force. The law clearly states that an interval between innings shall be 10 minutes from the close of innings to the call of Play for the start of next innings. Hence this 10 minutes should have been deducted from the 18 minutes that Sachin was away from the field of play therby leaving only eight minutes Wasim Jafer's wicket fell at the eight minute after commencement of play. Further Law 2.5(C) states that
if a fielder is absent for 15 minutes or longer, he shall not be permitted to bowl thereafter, subject to (i), (ii) or (iii) below, until he has been on the field for at least that length of playing time for which he was absent.
It does not mention about commencment of batsmen' s innings. Hence the instruction to the Indian Team itself is wrong about time for Sachin's further participation is wrong. Time to pull up Ranjan.
Disguisting is the way in which senior players like Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman played in second innings when India had clean edge over their opponents. The negative batting especially by Tendulkar and his confusion in scoring are the mainreasons for India's pathetic show. Dravid should not have sent Sehwag for opening when his confidence was low. Karthik would have repeated his batting prowess as in the first inning. The top five in Indian team deserve soul searching and follow Australian greats who retired with grace!
I THINK KARTHICK can be to the indian team, like no one else has shown till now. His running urgency while batting, his fielding energy shown in wicket keeping N all the more the positive manner in all his displays, thrown at him - CAN PUT INDIA INTO FRESH HOPES in future matches. I mean, when he is slated to play in future for india.
He does, which all the cricketin media asks from a real auusie like attitude player. First, he makes india into its first win in the 20-20 ODI in South africa with a six. Mind u - what was that!! - a rare 6 when india needed it, n to win!!!. And Then this whole test match has been fought mainly on 1 Man's shoulders from the Indian side - DINESH KARTHICK.
This is a teat match of lost opportunities. First on day-2, Stupid Sehwag threw his wicket and with that a 550+ total. Then on day-3 strangely Rahul Dravid stuck to the old ball to give a 69 run partnership to Boucher-Pollock Combo. This actually took the match away from India. On day-4, the decision to send Sehwag to open was bad. Karthick was a better bet any time. Losing Sehwag early again left India with no options other than bat for a draw. Then came the strange Tendulkar crawl. How many times have we seen this in recent years? I have lost counts. Sachin Tendulkar the Master Blaster was batting like a novice. He was only intent on surviving. This partnership between him and Dravid was a shame. It is this period where India lost the initiative completely after Ganguly had done reasonably well to lift the morale. Now India need a miracle to win this test. I had predicted on day-2 after Sehwag's harakiri that India have thrown this test. Sadly I have been almost proved right. Come on Kumble do something! Only a Magic on day-5 morning can save us. Otherwise it is all over. Raj
Why is Tendulkar so much low in confidence. He has really lost his touch in this whole series. He is having extreme difficulty in batting against Paul Harris who is a rookie spinner in his First test. In those earlier days, he loved to bat and capitalize against the spinners such as Warne, Saqlain , Murali and thrash them to the fence. Now the body language shows that he is extremely nervous to even hold his bat. He takes a long time to rotate the strike. What is wrong ? Why Vengsarkar or Chapell don't have a word with him on his batting technique and some words of motivation to show some improvement? Or is it Sachin is a demi god so nobody can touch him or pass some few tips on his batting improvement. Is he getting jittery that Ponting and Lara are approaching his 35 centuries record and no longer he has the upper hand.
According to the article "....match referee Ranjan Madugalle ruled that.... " Please get the facts right- ROSHAN MAHANAMA is the match referee for the 3rd test.
In the final test between SA and India the exact total of runs comes to 171 - Total runs scored by batsmen 164, extra 7. I am not sure whether I have missed anything. Extras are not added to Batsman's score. If that yardstick is applied the total score comes to 171.
