Topic: International Cricket 2022 - 2023 - General Thread

[The 5th Benitle]

So it matters when they are ranked number 1, otherwise it is ODI's that people care more about?

Direct hit there DK

[Una cerveza, por favor]

Direct hit there DK

Not really. ODI's and Test's hold different levels of importance to different players, fans, governing bodies. I really doubt Sehwag would be more arsed now that India is number 1 in Tests.

[Ultimate Bromance]

Pakistan have Australia on the ropes here in the T20 game 7/102 after 15.

Considering they're the #1 International team, and based on this performance sofar it's pretty pathetic that they won't feature in the IPL.

[nicholasanthony]

Rana Naved's googly slower ball that bowled Smith was pretty special.

[DK]

Not really. ODI's and Test's hold different levels of importance to different players, fans, governing bodies. I really doubt Sehwag would be more arsed now that India is number 1 in Tests.

But if India were not ranked number 1 (or close to it), this series with SA would have continued be made up of ODI's?

[Ultimate Bromance]

Well well.

Pakistan.

[CheshireDave]

Had money on Aus and went for my lunch fully expecting them to have lost (Aussies were 17/1 at one point, not that I had them at that price mind). Just check my account and saw they won.

Woohoooo

Thanks Pakistan you god damn bottlers!

[sinnermichael]

England's 2010/11 tour of Australia:

5-7 November v Western Australia, Perth

11-13 November v South Australia, Adelaide

17-20 November v Australia A, Hobart

25-29 November 1st Test, Brisbane

3-7 December 2nd Test, Adelaide

10-12 December v Victoria, Melbourne

16-20 December 3rd Test, Perth

26-30 December 4th Test, Melbourne

3-7 January 5th Test, Sydney

10 January v Prime Minister's XI, Canberra

12 January 1st Twenty20 international, Adelaide

14 January 2nd Twenty20 international, Melbourne

16 January 1st ODI, Melbourne

21 January 2nd ODI, Hobart

23 January 3rd ODI, Sydney

26 January 4th ODI, Adelaide

30 January 5th ODI, Brisbane

2 February 6th ODI, Sydney

6 February 7th ODI, Perth

[CheshireDave]

England 3-0 up by Christmas.

Can't wait.

[sat]

The series between India and SA will be really interesting, such a shame that Dravid and Yuvraj are out will be interesting to see how Vijay and Badrinath perform. Really looking forward to it.

[slickman]

India Southafrica would have been a cracking series if it was in S.A, I just expect flat lifeless pitches  and 2 strong batting line ups be lucky to get any kind of result.

[sat]

Well given the India batting lineup I wouldnt say it was one of their strongest, interesting to see how the debutants get on over the next few days once SA are bowled out..Badrinath has been knocking on the door for many a year now, be interesting to see if he takes his chance.

[Walk On]

Well given the India batting lineup I wouldnt say it was one of their strongest, interesting to see how the debutants get on over the next few days once SA are bowled out..Badrinath has been knocking on the door for many a year now, be interesting to see if he takes his chance.

SA 291 for 2 (91.0 overs) on day one.  India failed to take advantage of taking the early wickets and this is going to hurt them.  Kallis is in a cracking bit of form... odds of him getting a double ton?

[slickman]

India Southafrica would have been a cracking series if it was in S.A, I just expect flat lifeless pitches  and 2 strong batting line ups be lucky to get any kind of result.

Exactly what i predicted yawn! for once can't india produce a pitch that limits the teams under 500!

[Crazynumber9]

India Southafrica would have been a cracking series if it was in S.A, I just expect flat lifeless pitches  and 2 strong batting line ups be lucky to get any kind of result.

Exactly, I'd rather  see a green top than a perfect batting wicket 

[sat]

It will be interesting to see how the SA bowlers get on tomorrow on that pitch.

[sat]

What an awesome spell of swing bowling from Steyn, I am expecting an innings defect unless the little master does something very special with contributions for the others.

[Crosby Nick]

Fair play to sa. Solved the problem of negative declarations by enforcing the follow on. can we still slate smith and kallis for something though?!

[Chakan]

Innings win would be 

[StevenLFC]

I'll be honest, although he was world number one, I'd never been really impressed by Steyn but his bowling today was fantastic. Top class bowler.

[slickman]

Brilliant from steyn predict a 2-0 win for S.A , don't think india have enough quality in their bowling attack to trouble S.A, they rely to heavily on their batsman.

[The 5th Benitle]

Fair play to sa. Solved the problem of negative declarations by enforcing the follow on. can we still slate smith and kallis for something though?!

Yes, Smith in particular and I think you know why though I am not allowed to say

[bigbear]

Brilliant from steyn predict a 2-0 win for S.A , don't think india have enough quality in their bowling attack to trouble S.A, they rely to heavily on their batsman.

Had Steyn been fit all series v England we'd have been well beaten. He and Morkel are a great new ball attack and so different.

[Chakan]

Had Steyn been fit all series v England we'd have been well beaten. He and Morkel are a great new ball attack and so different.

Good replacements for Pollock and Ntini

[Redcap]

Steyn's possibly the only mature, world class fast bowler in cricket right now. Back in the 90's there were quite a few knocking around, and even in the early 00's there was McGrath, Waqar, Pollock and Shoaib. Now there's only Steyn. Is there any other paceman that can dominate a team so totally and consistently as he does?

Mitchell Johnson started off pretty brilliantly but he's been indifferent for some time now. Australia's managed to find more consistency from him by taking the new ball away from him, but at the same time he's not been less effective than he could be as a new ball bowler. Hope he can find the control to return to that role soon.

Expect South Africa to win this in maybe 4 and a bit days. I can see Tendulkar and Dhoni pulling together some sort of resistance today and avoiding the innings defeat.

[Ultimate Bromance]

An innings and 6 runs. Wowwweeeeeeeee

[Hyderabad Red]

We really played crap.Steyn was superb.

[LF]

I can't honestly say who will go first out of Dravid, Tendulkar or Laxman all three still have top fitness for internationals but it will be within the next few years I think. The race for the middle order spots are wide open, will be interesting to see who ends up taking them. The new guys this test had their chance, against high rated opposition but they didn't take it.  Still early in their career though but you simply need to take these kind of chances.

 What India truly needs is a world class pacer, Zaks is just below the elite level. Harbajhan has been ordinary for a long time too. I knew SA could beat us but a comprehensive defeat? shameful. Back to the drawing board, I  myself think the batting situation is sorted for the timebeing. The selectors really need to emphasize fast bowling in this country. I'd gladly give up any of the new up coming batsmen to have the old Irfan pathan back.

[

[DK]

The selectors really need to emphasize fast bowling in this country.

That's a tough job when you generally produce flat, lifeless pitches - hardly inspiring stuff for youngsters to watch.  Only brilliance from Steyn disproved that theory this time around.

[buzzing]

India got butt fucked. Why did they play a team with new players in an important game

[Crazynumber9]

A good professional performance from us mixed in with brilliance from Steyn and Amla but we've got to thank the Indian selectors for giving us a weakened Indian team to face. That middle order is suspect and their lack of experience showed in the crucial moments. I think with Laxman probably being back in time for the next test it will definitely be a more imposing batting lineup.

I now thoroughly expect to see a dustbowl in Kolkata in an attempt to force a result

[Redcap]

What's weird is that Indian fast bowlers always seem to start out fantastic in their careers- Pathan, Sharma, Sreesanth. Then most of the time they become extremely ordinary within a couple of years. Why is that?

[indianscouser]

What's weird is that Indian fast bowlers always seem to start out fantastic in their careers- Pathan, Sharma, Sreesanth. Then most of the time they become extremely ordinary within a couple of years. Why is that?

1. Because of lack of proper coaching

2. Too much emphasis on one day cricket and 20-20 which requires them to contain the flow of runs rather than take wickets.

3. General attitude problems - they become super rich over night and then think they can earn their stripes without the five day game,

4. Lack of good pitches in India which aid fast and medium fast bowling.

5. Lack of importance attached to test cricket as compared to South Africa, England and Australia.

6. No injury management and planning.

7. Indian Premier League

8. BCCI

10. Lalit Modi

[indianscouser]

India got butt fucked. Why did they play a team with new players in an important game

Because Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj and Sreesanth were injured. Ganguly and Kumble have recently retired from the game.

[Crazynumber9]

Because Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj and Sreesanth were injured. Ganguly and Kumble have recently retired from the game.

I agree with that to a point, the Indian selectors need to have a serious look at themselves because there has been no continuity in their selections. Yes Ganguly and Kumble retired but someone should have been groomed for at least a year previously to step into their places. India probably have the most talented batsmen but half of them are on the scrap heap aged 25 because they have been mismanaged or burned out by the excessive cricket India play.

Ot of curiousity do politics still play a massive part in Indian selections?

[LF]

Sreesanth and Sharma are ok but they are not really "that" good. Pathan is much more talented. I never understood what happened to him, it's not an attitude problem. He's quite alright. Few years back his bowling suddenly becomes ordinary but he was still a great batsmen so we tried converting him as all-rounder. He wasn't a world class pacer anymore so what, he was still a ok bowler and his batting skills provided us a good all-rounder. We later got bowlers who had exceeded him at that point, wasn't just worthwhile to keep him and when you have batsmen like India does you didn't really need bowlers who could bat though it helps.

Saha was particularly unlucky, he is a specialist wicketkeeper and was never meant to be played. The selectors did mess up this time but a lot of it was extremely unlucky with so many injuries. Overall they have done ok in picking teams since they were setup. Still the team put out should have contested with SA well enough imo. SA were just too good.

[Una cerveza, por favor]

Ot of curiousity do politics still play a massive part in Indian selections?

Can you be more specific? Like there is some politics in that some players get chosen in the squad from powerful regions.

[Crazynumber9]

Can you be more specific? Like there is some politics in that some players get chosen in the squad from powerful regions.

I'd heard of players not being chosen because they weren't certain caste's or from the right regions, does that still happen? A lot was made of Saha being a Bengali, why exactly?

[Una cerveza, por favor]

I'd heard of players not being chosen because they weren't certain caste's or from the right regions, does that still happen? A lot was made of Saha being a Bengali, why exactly?

As far as I am aware caste is not a problem at all. The only issue that arises is from region. When I say region, I mean the 5 parts of the country - North, South, East, West and Central. And when I say issue, it's more to do the inclusion of players from favored regions rather than the prejudiced non-selection of others. Traditionally West(Bombay) has been a powerful zone (more like a lobby) and so has the North (Delhi). And players from these regions have the upper hand when the squad's are announced. Now the thing is, it's not THAT bad because they are all good players but like what the Football fans complain here about the FA being a London XI, the same is partly true for the Indian Cricket team.

To give you an example, Ramesh Powar was clearly selected because of his Bombay background (A link for you - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tms/powar.jpg) And a lot of players from the North are also preferred. Like I said, it's not too bad as the Indian Cricket team will be as good, or as bad as we saw recently, iwhether you pick XI from the same 2 zones or all 5 zones, just that the lobby's by the Zonal selectors are strong - It's a matter of putting one's interests first and one-upmanship.

About Saha, unfortunately I do not know about his situation. Will comment once I get an idea of what his deal is. Interestingly, there was an Eastern (Bengali, really) lobby when Jagmohan Dalmiya was in power (both in BCCI and ICC) and Bengali players were favored. Ganguly was captain at that time but that was incidental. The wicket-keeper, Deep Das Gupta, for example was from Bengal. But yeah, every zonal selector wants their players in the team.

[buzzing]

Because Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj and Sreesanth were injured. Ganguly and Kumble have recently retired from the game.

Cant help but lol

They've got a nation of billion, but cant find a replacement for a couple players. Fine if it was a in a country where it's not the No1 sport. But it is there