quote:

Originally posted by mynah:

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Troy Coolie

This is a REAL name?!

Sorry for the mistake. It is Cooley.

This is the man!

quote:

Originally posted by doremi:

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Originally posted by *Chandan*:
Selectors committed a crime in ignoring Chopra for this series. It should have been horses for courses policy. But Vengsarkar isn't one of the brightest, is he?

That's a bit harsh Chandan. Before this series Jaffer was playing reasonably well as an opener, so couldn't have been dropped. Gambhir was playing really well(better than Chopra) and was thus picked for the last remaining spot.

I'd still play both Jaffer and Pathan in the first test atleast. If Jaffer fails, ditch the specialist opener in place of a stop-gap. Short term I know, but priority should be winning this series, or atleast finishing even, no matter what combination plays.

If you checked the recent scores, Chopra was the in-form man and Gambhir had scored extremely poorly in last 2-3 matches. I was expecting Chopra as the 3rd opener in the squad.

quote:

Selectors committed a crime in ignoring Chopra for this series

I'm confused as to why Akash Chopra was dropped in the first place. He seemed the perfect foil to Virender Sehwag and played very well on the 2003/04 Australia tour.

He was in terrible form during Pak series in 2004 and also during BG trophy in 2004. As it happens in India, batsmen had lost form collectively during that series and team needed runs.

Hence Chopra was dropped.

doremi, how are you planning to play both pathan and jaffer in the same 11..i mean..what's your bowling combination going to be? If you're considering Pathan as one of 4 bowlers...then that'd would be a bad idea, imo. Going by his form, he can be one of 5..but not 4.

I agree with SG. Opening with Dravid can go either way. And like he said, Dravid would virtually be opening anyway..since Jaffer/Gambhir/Sehwag are likely to get out very quickly. So why waste a slot that could go to Pathan, who can bat well as well as provide us with a 5th bowling option?

Pathan opening is ridiculous. That will never happen. Even tho it has happened before and he scored a good 93. But that was one a flat pitch against SL..and that too on day 4 of that test match.

2nd Test: Ind vs Srl, Dec 2005

so once the match starts is this thread officially dead?

sure

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/indiainsaarticleshow/779953.cms

Broken arrow seeks his healing
BOBILLI VIJAY KUMAR|
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

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JOHANNESBERG, Dec 11: At the best of times, Munaf Patel seems like he has drifted away from his moorings and is living an unfamiliar life; for the last few days, as he sat on the sidelines with a flared up ankle, he has been looking even more baffled.

Dutifully, he comes to the nets almost everyday and quickly finds himself a quiet corner; from there, indifferently, he watches his new friends train and have fun. He doesn't talk to too many and rarely laughs. There's a vacant look in his eyes and he almost gives the impression of a little kid lost in a big city.

Tall, rugged and usually sporting an unkempt mane, he is not your regular cricketer with the airs of a star. Fast cars, fast girls, fast life, it all might feel strange to him. There's probably only one thing that he likes really fast: bowling. That's what he used to do when he first emerged on the horizon: he was quick, raw and dangerous.

Since then, he has come a long way. The little village in Ikhar might seem like a blur now; after all, he is today India's best fast bowler, striking doubts in opening batsmen around the world. For almost a year, he has been something that the team sorely missed since Javagal Srinath's retirement: a spearhead.

Over the last few months, however, there has been a perception that he has sacrificed pace and speed, that too at the behest of the team management. That from a raw speed machine he has become a conventional and boring line-and-length bowler. "That's not true at all," said a senior member of the Indian contingent. "We have never asked him to cut down on his pace or change his approach to bowling. He is one of our quickest bowlers and we need him to stay that way. You will see the normal pacy Munaf once the Tests begin," he said.

He revealed that the problem has been a niggle in his bowling shoulder; it has been playing dirty tricks on his mind. " He is too wary of the catch in the back of his shoulder. That's why, you can see, he doesn't throw confidently from the deep. He is very wary of throwing. He is scared that his shoulder might give away anytime and disrupt his career ," he explained.

The source, who didn't want to be named because of the distrustful ambience here, said that Munaf might be taking the safer road because of that. "Because of the amount of cricket being played nowadays, he is concentrating on his line and length in One-dayers. That's all there is to it. He will bowl definitely fast in the Tests," he reiterated.

At the moment, though, nobody knows when that will happen. He has been out since he injured his ankle during the Cape Town One-dayer. Even the source expressed surprise at the amount of time Munaf's injury was taking to heal. "We thought he would be fine in a few days. Even the doctors felt that he would start bowling soon. But the ankle has flared up and is just not getting better. "That may be because he doesn't have any fitness regime. No gym work or the other things that the others do. He gets his fitness purely by bowling . As he hasn't been bowling, it's possible that it's taking such a long time to get better," he said.

The team management has already resigned to the fact that he can't play in the first Test; it can only hope that he will be back in action soon. After all, India desperately need an out-and-out fast bowler. Munaf is one such unexpected find: the team management knows his worth; it knows he needs to be preserved. " Yes, we need to protect him. But there's no system in place to take care of these young guys," he rued. Sadly, that's one of the big problems of Indian cricket: it relies too much on accidents and raw talent for sustenance.

India's highest score in a test innings also came at Jo'burg, when they scored 410 all out against SA in '97.

Also, India is yet to be defeated at Jo'burg in tests. Both tests India have played here, ended in draw.

if past stats turn you on..go for it. Whatever floats your boat. Just be aware of our batting form tho. Just a tip.

Hopefully we will win tho..and give those stats a boost.

cricindia,

Since I don't've anything else to turn to, I can only bask in past glories.

quote:

Originally posted by cricindia4life:
doremi, how are you planning to play both pathan and jaffer in the same 11..i mean..what's your bowling combination going to be? If you're considering Pathan as one of 4 bowlers...then that'd would be a bad idea, imo. Going by his form, he can be one of 5..but not 4.

I agree with SG. Opening with Dravid can go either way. And like he said, Dravid would virtually be opening anyway..since Jaffer/Gambhir/Sehwag are likely to get out very quickly. So why waste a slot that could go to Pathan, who can bat well as well as provide us with a 5th bowling option?

Pathan opening is ridiculous. That will never happen. Even tho it has happened before and he scored a good 93. But that was one a flat pitch against SL..and that too on day 4 of that test match.

2nd Test: Ind vs Srl, Dec 2005

At the moment, I'd take Pathan in the team as one of four bowlers as I'm not very happy at the prospect of watching VRV and Gopu spraying the ball in tandem and letting SA notch up 400 in a day. Whatever his other faults he has a tad more control that either of them. It's a shame Munaf's not fit, I wouldn't be having this discussion if he was. I'm hoping the back-up part timers in Sachin, Ganguly and Sehwag make up for Pathan.

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VRV and Gopu spraying the ball in tandem

I object to that casual statement !

VRV sprays only after 4 overs. i.e when he gets tired.

S(pray) Sreesanth sprays from his first over.

Agree with doremi. I just fear the sight of Sree and VRV spraying the ball all over, with Zaheer and Pathan to give them company.

I think our attack for the Jo'burg test should be,

Zaheer
Sree/VRV
Pathan
Bhajji
Kumble

Our batting lineup should be,

Dravid
Sehwag
VVS
SRT
Ganguly
Dhoni

But since no less, but Vengsarkar himself ruling out the idea of India going in with makeshift openers, our final batting order just might look like,

Jaffer (subject to fitness, otherwise Gambhir)
Sehwag
Dravid
SRT
VVS
Ganguly
Dhoni

And in this case, our bowling lineup may look like,

Zaheer
Sree/VRV/Bhajji, with Ganguly/SRT to bowl their gentle seamers
Pathan
Kumble

Lucky for you guys Boje won't be playing. I bet you all breathed a sigh of relief when you heard that news.

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fear the sight of Sree and VRV spraying the ball all over,

How could you ?

I just dont see Pathan as our 4th bowler. Unless Akram has created magic and restored Pathan...it;ll be a very bad idea to play him as our 4th bowler. And on bouncy wickets, we need three in-form pacers. So if three out of the four that we play can produce some wicket-taking balls often enough, our bowling may just be able to take the 20 wkts. However, batting is still a concern. It feels wierd to be concerned about battng when we hvae 3 55+ averaging test batsmen along with two very experienced players in VVS and Ganguly. *sigh*..i hate the concept of in-form and out-of-form.

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i hate the concept of in-form and out-of-form.

Gotta have em, otherwise there'd be no purple patches

saffies are threatening to go for a 4 quicks attack.

Dale Steyn
Ntini
Pollok
Nel

yep add to that kallis and the word 'relentless' comes to mind.

im clueless what team india should play. we could either pack the batting in a safety first approach:

jaffer, sehwag, dravid, tendulkar, laxman, ganguly, dhoni, pathan, kumble, zaheer, sreesanth

or pick 5 bowlers (3 pace + 2 spin or 4 pace + 1 spin) in which case jaffer would make way for VRV or harbhajan with dravid going up to open and laxman at 3

quote:

jaffer, sehwag, dravid, tendulkar, laxman, ganguly, dhoni, pathan, kumble, zaheer, sreesanth

that bowling combination will never win you a match.

India needs 2 quality quicks like VRV and Munaf *in tandem* to prevail over the opposition on their home grounds. Zaheer is like a Hoggard, but can never be a Flintoff or Harmison.

dravid opening is the best proposition with pathan + 3 pacers + kumble. Sehwag and Tendulkar can both provide us with spin options.

The Wanderers is a happy hunting ground for Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs. Smith averages a massive average of 79.33 in four matches while Gibbs scores more than 62 per innings in six games. Kallis, however, hasn't had as much success averaging 41.75 in 11 games, 14 less than his career average. Among the bowlers, Shaun Pollock has an excellent record, with 46 wickets in 12 Tests at a miserly average of 23.32.