welcome to the new millenium, the "instant" bug hitting people instantly. T20 killing tests even though test is the real test. bludgeoning cricket balls on flat track is T20.
its sad to see people nt appreciating the true value of an anchorman. if people remember the glorious partnerships forged by saurav, tendulkar, and laxman - all of these above said men scored big centuries and made the newspaper headlines. but on the other end almost on all occasions was rahul dravid. comfrting, pushing, and accompanying in the long innings, and countering and taking the wind out of venomous attacks of great bowlers.
test match is more like chess. T20 is like rapid chess.
With all respects to Dravid, India's chance of winning and drawing the test match hinges on the dismissal of Dravid tomorrow..if he sticks around for a long time, we can only draw the match. If he gets out, the strokeplayers can come in and put the game beyond England's reach and give the bowlers time to bowl them out
Re: match result
by Raghavan on Dec 21, 2008 08:14 AM
Kamal Harish
WHat is your comment now, after the end of day 2?. Where are all the so called hitters - - Dhoni, Yuvaraj etc? When the pitch is like this and conditions are bad for batsmen and favouring bowlers (seamers) it is grafters who will help the team. Hitters are good in one day match, where stamina is not in question,with - - limited overs, limitation in field placing, limitation in bowlers run in etc restrictions. It is not the true test of skills compared to test match cricket.
Re: match result
by Maximus Decimus Meridius on Dec 20, 2008 12:23 AM
Remember Melbourne, 2004? Sehwag ratched up 195 in a single day, and we got for @375 around lunch the next day. That gave the aussies sufficient time to post a huge total that India could not overhaul. We ended up losing that game, primarily because we scored too quickly (we were leading 1-0, and a draw would have been a fine result for us). Bat big, bat once... ~8 sessions to bowl out england twice should be more than sufficient.
It is regrettable that people have no appreciation for a grafter. I should ask you to go back in time to many victories that this grafter set up, primarily because of his batting style (Headingley, Jamica where Lara said he hadn't seen anyone bat better than dravid on a pitch with pathetically uneven bounce). Gambhir said that the conditions favoured seamers, which also explains the scoring rate.
With all due respect to Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni, they are not a good test batsmen (yet). Both are flat track bullies, who can cream an opposition on placid pitches but are clueless otherwise. Yuvraj can't even play good spin bowling, which makes him even worse (think Murali). With Dhoni, he's a keeper first, so runs scored are a bonus.
The unfortunate side effect of ODI and T20 is that people equate good batting with hitting. While hitting is definitely useful, it's not everything. You need sensible batsman around, and Dravid and Tendulkar these days fill that role. That said, he does need to speed up a little bit, and get the S/R near 50.
"I think he bowled pretty well but our batsmen handled him well too. It's never easy for a spinner to succeed against India. In Chennai, we negotiated him well and that gave us the confidence here," he said. PLEASE RECALL MENDIS MENACE!
Re: It's never easy for a spinner to succeed against India. Is it true?
by Maximus Decimus Meridius on Dec 19, 2008 11:54 PM
He said it wasn't easy. He didn't use the word impossible :D
He is really playing great; he should stick around and make a double. He deserves it. I have full sympathy for Rahul; but crime pays. He was not fair to Ganguly; he was hypnotized by his guru called Gred Gadhdha.
It is too early to speculate, I am wandering why does Dhoni not use Tendulkar and Sehwag often for sharing the bowling. He is using Yuvi, but not Tendulkar. Is T'kar hurt? He and Viru had reasonable success in getting wickets under Dada's captaincy. Is Dhoni worried of Viru looking better by capturing few wickets along with his massive innings.
Re: Gambhir is Great
by Maximus Decimus Meridius on Dec 20, 2008 12:05 AM
He was totally fair to ganguly. Ganguly was playing utter rubbish cricket for 2 yrs or more, when he got dropped. He deserved to get dropped. Dravid is in a similar situation that Ganguly was, in 2006. There are two HUGE differences though: 1) Dravid has an impressive resume, which is hard to overlook. He has won more matches overseas for India, than, dare I say, Tendulkar. There are no obvious chinks in his armour, unlike Ganguly who was an average test batsman and struggled against hostile fast bowling (not just the bouncer, but his reaction after that... nick to slips). 2) India was losing games in that period (coincided with a loss of form for Sehwag, and a lull in Sachin's run scoring).
A winning team can carry an under-performer with a stong resume (Damien Martyn, Hayden for a while?). A losing team cannot afford to carry an underperformer, with serious shortcomings in the long version of the game.
In many ways, this series was Dravid's make-or-break series. If he had failed in these two innings, I suspect he wouldn't have played for a while, and perhaps never (and quite justifiably so). As things stand, the current performance, while slow, still might be sufficient to allow him to stay on. If he does regain form, he will be of great service to Indian cricket. Number 3 is a specialist position, almost like an opener. Most of the time, Dravid was effectively playing as an opener, due to a brittle top order. We also need to find a good replacement (probably R.Sharma)
Re: Re: Gambhir is Great
by Susobhan Ghosh on Dec 20, 2008 01:24 AM
I never intended to compare batting skill of Dravid and Dada. Dravid is definitely a better batsman, but Dada on his own earned a berth in the team otherwise he could not have 10 K and 7k in ODI and Test respectively. Dada had a lull period and it got exaggerated by Greg's personality and back stabbing by Dravid to sneak in to be the captain. But the qualities that Dada had is: 1> aggressivenes, and 2> recognizing talents such as Yuvi, Bhajji, using Dravid as wkKeeper, using Viru and T'Kar as change bowlers, etc. Unfortunately Dravid did not have these qualities, and he can instil confidence in others by his body language. It is like a student who is the top in his class not necessarily become successful in running a business and/or organization . Dravid is a skilled player but he is also a loner, and is not able to mix in the crowd, and does not have the leadership quality.
Re: Re: Re: Gambhir is Great
by Susobhan Ghosh on Dec 20, 2008 01:29 AM
I meant to say with Dravid's personality, one can not instill confidence in other team mates.
Moreover now we have Sharma, Pujara, Vijay, Raina, Kohli in the making; they are the future of Indian team, and they are almost ready to take the challenge. with Dhoni these kids can develop to their full extent in 1-2 years. Let them have their chances. With Laxman and T'kar in the team for next 2 years, the team will be ready to take on any one without Sachin and Laxman also.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Gambhir is Great
by Denzil Rajan on Dec 20, 2008 02:11 AM
"back stabbing by Dravid to sneak in to be the captain"
REALLY???... if he wanted it that bad.. why the hell did he step down??... that too at a time when India was winning overseas under him. It would have been difficult for the selectors to drop a winning captain, even though he is underscoring as a batsman (which is what DADA always was- great captain but a poor batsman). Ganguly always held onto his captaincy even as his average as a batsman kept spiralling down. By relinquishing his captaincy, Dravid allowed a more consistent player (at that point of time)to take over the reigns as he started to work on his speciality.. viz his batting.
Indian cricket hasn't seen such a selfless gentleman as Mr. Dravid in a long long time.
Re: Gambhir statement.......
by Anand Kumar on Dec 19, 2008 09:27 PM
Dravid played very well and gave perfect platform to a big score on second day when pitch will play mush easier..
