Our man has gone MAD!!!!!!!!!!

[PAFAce]

is test cricket making a come back ?

It doesn't have to. Test cricket, especially with even tracks, has always been attractive. I've made my point clear above, when it's Bat vs Bat, on flat dead tracks, it's no fun at all. when you get the right track to play on, then there is nothing like a weekend afternoon in front of the telly, watching the magic of good bowling or the fineness of good batting technique. You can get so engrossed in it, it starts feeling like a chess match. You plan things not just balls, but sessions ahead. You're thinking, "if they go into lunch with this, and come out and do this, then tomorrow they'll do this, and so on". And, despite all this, one session, or one spell, or even one ball, can flip the match on its head.

Frankly, the most boring and annoying thing about Test cricket is not the game itself, it's the damn commentators. They never shut up, and they're never right about anything! There is a reason they don't let you drive and talk in many countries, it's because when you're speaking, you can't concentrate as well. When you can't concentrate on the game, you can't comment intelligently. It's simple logic man! Can someone please tell the damn New Zealand commentators that nobody gives a crap about the Plunket series or the damn All-Whites and All-Blacks. I am a fan of Rugby, but, for crying out loud, shut up for once!

 

[jaunty]

Yes you are. You've earned the right to be called the number 1 team in the world. Please accept my congratulations.

Thanks

Though, you too must agree, these wickets are graveyards for bowlers. Of course India will win on these tracks, all you do is bat bat bat! If you caught the post-match interviews with Yousuf and Vettori in New Zealand, they both agreed with me, the track in Basin, New Zealand is the ideal test track. For the batsmen it's got true bounce, and it doesn't deteriorate too much over the 5 day period, but, if you're consistent with your line-and-length, it will reward the bowler as well.

First you cannot win test matches by just bating. You have to take 20 wickets as well and do you think batsmen like Sanga, Mahela , Samarwera, Dilshan, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Hayden, Gilchrist are so toothless that they still lose their wickets on these bowlers graveyards. I am talking about last two home series against SL and Aus. Against Aus we won 2 out of 4 matches. other two were close draws. In Bangalore we survived and in Delhi they survived. Against SL the 1st pitch in Ahmedabad was a disgrace. But go through the news paper columns in India and also in cricinfo. Everyone in India criticized it and even took potshot at BCCI for trying to subvert est cricket.

In the next test in Kanpur a faster bowler won us the match, not that he got some great help from wicket, but that wicket was still better than the 1st test and do search in youtube. Sangakara, Sachin praised the wicket of this test match. It was indeed a very good wicket with something for everyone. India reached 700+ on the back of Sehwag's innings. Give people to bat on concrete. How many batsmen in the world do you truly believe will be able to play like this? BTW for your information he played a similar innings in Pakistan as well and also in Melbourne.

Now, in Pakistan they try very hard to make neutral or bowler friendly wickets, not because we are "fair" or anything, but because that's where our strengths are. Our batsmen need help from the wicket, but our bowlers can rip through any line-up on a slightly helpful track (example Basin and Dunedin)

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I am a avid sports lover, I always like to see quality cricket. So I always prefer a sporting wicket giving everyone a chance and please believe me the wicket in Mumbai was exactly that.

Secondly about Pakistani wickets last time India toured Pakistan we scored 600 runs in Pindi and 675 in Multan. So basically in two of the three tests we scored 600+ runs and won both. So please don't think that wickets have to be rigged to score such high totals. I don't think Pakisanis would rig to favor India.

Again as I said before Pakistan has always produced better fast bowlers than India. Only a fool will not accept that. That said we recently won a test series against NZ in NZ.

Unfortunately in India, because you guys are always so good in the batting department, the track is heavily rigged to favor the batsmen. Takes all the fun out of test cricket if you ask me. It should be a contest between Bat and Ball, not Bat and Bat.

I fully disagree with you here. The soil in most part in India is such that the pitches are not so much friendly for fast bowling. The only way to make them favorable is by leaving grass. But then why would India do that. You yourself said that you make pitches to favor the needs of home team and that is true in every other country. You expect a fast and bouncy pitch in SA or Aus for a team from sub-continent. No one cries foul then. So why single out India. Spin and batting has been India's strength over the years and fast bowling is not and so pitches are made accordingly. I think it's the beauty of the game and challenge to the players to perform well in different conditions. You can have a contest between bat and bowl in a spin friendly wicket too.

Having said that I am completely against pitches which genuinely are unfair. Like the 1st test in Ahmedabad where there was nothing for any bowler or a dust bowl like Kanpur test against SA, which ended in 3 days.

But you just cannot bag Indian pitches just for the sake of it. If you are getting results, its fine with me.

That said, I will once again give you your due credit. In a Bat vs Bat contest, you just can't beat India, at least not easily, especially in Test cricket. The rise of Indian cricket has coincided with the fact that cricket has become more-and-more batsman friendly over the years, especially over the past decade. Ask any old-time bowler, it's a nightmare for them. Every month, almost, a batting record is broken somewhere in the world. Bowling records are much rarer now. As a Pakistan, of course I will complain. Just like you guys have a factory there in India that keeps turning out technically sound batsmen, we've got a factory here that produces fast bowlers like no-body's business. The recent demands for your good have gone up, our goods are having a slightly tougher time.

When we talk test matches a Bat vs Bat contest more often than not produces a draw like we saw in the first test.

Yes I fully agree with you that more or less pitches in all over the world are becoming batsmen friendly.

But I do not accept that this is the sole reason for the rise of Indian cricket. Many other teams have very good batsmen. We have own test matches in swinging condition in England also. For me the reason for rise of Indian cricket since 2000 are--

1. Less dependence on a single man for batting. Players like Viru, dravid, Laxman, of late Gambhir have performed really well all over the world.

2. Better fast bowling attack compared to the past. Zaheer, Sreesanth, RP, Ishant etc have performed well although some of them have not been very consistent but at any particular time we are getting bowlers who can take 20 wickets.

3. Most importantly mindset and confidence. A lot of credit goes to Ganguly and it still is continuing under good leadership of Dhoni.

 

[Red Dwarf]

Why Dravid didn't get the Man of the series. He played well in all the tests. It was because of him India could draw the first test. India is always partial to Dravid.

Why it is called man of the series if its going to be awarded for the highest run getter. A player of the series is who performs in the entire series. Sehwag(even though I'm a fan) was a failure in first test.

 

[jaunty]

Why Dravid didn't get the Man of the series. He played well in all the tests. It was because of him India could draw the first test. India is always partial to Dravid.

Why it is called man of the series if its going to be awarded for the highest run getter. A player of the series is who performs in the entire series. Sehwag(even though I'm a fan) was a failure in first test.

I completely agree with you. He almost single-handedly rescued India in the 1st test and performed consistently in all the three tests. I also think that MoS should have been given to him. But I am sure he won't think about these petty issues. The main point is we won and now no-1 in the world. Let's just hope that England somehow beat SA so that the ranking is sustained

 

[jaunty]

ICC official media release---


India achieves number-one Test position




ICC Media Release
Sun, Dec 6, 2009 12:39 PM


India has achieved the coveted number-one position in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship for the first time after winning its three-Test series against Sri Lanka 2-0 on Sunday.

India is only the third team after Australia and South Africa to surge to the top of the ladder since the Test Championship was first introduced in May 2001.

India had started the series in third place on 119 ratings points trailing top ranked South Africa by three ratings points. But victories by an innings and 144 runs in Kanpur and by an innings and 24 runs in Mumbai have earned Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side the much-needed five ratings points which have given it the number-one position.

The 2-0 series win also means India will finish 2009 as the number-one ranked side after starting the year in third place behind Australia and South Africa. Although Australia's ongoing series against the West Indies will conclude before the year ends, even a 3-0 clean sweep will not be enough for Ricky Ponting's side to challenge India's top spot.

South Africa, who had gone top of the Test rankings in August after Australia lost the Ashes to England, will have an opportunity to regain its position when it goes head to head with England later this month in a four-Test series. A series win by 2-0 or better will give Graeme Smith's side back its number-one spot but anything less will result in an increase to India's lead.

The number-one ranking in the most challenging and demanding format of the game should bring smiles on the faces of India players and its millions of supporters as Dhoni's side last month had missed out on an excellent opportunity to topple Australia from the top spot in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship.

While the 2-0 success has put India on top of the world, the defeat has dropped Sri Lanka from second place to fourth spot in the Test Championship table which is only updated at the end of a series.

 

[Awesome]

Mathematics to the Rescue!

Well a look at these figures confirms that Sachin Tendulkar is a World Class batsman, regardless of venue:

Test Matches Mat Runs HS Bat Av 100
Career 162 12970 248* 54.72 43
Away 90 7165 248* 54.28 24

Thankfully, his second lowest Batting Average is against Pakistan (lowest against South Africa), which, I guess, is testament to our bowling over the years.

However, the rest of the Indian team is a different story altogether, as Asim Aquil has pointed out above. They are kings at home, but not so much away from home. If you would like proof of this, then I invite you to use Cricinfo's Statsguru.

Ace, what about one days?

I did say he is above average... 7100 is good and 54 runs average is above average. But certainly not GREAT as he is often referred to. Don't get me wrong he is still a better batsman than any of Pakistan's, I'm merely referring to his "greatness".

 

[brahmastra]

Ace, what about one days?

I did say he is above average... 7100 is good and 54 runs average is above average. But certainly not GREAT as he is often referred to. Don't get me wrong he is still a better batsman than any of Pakistan's, I'm merely referring to his "greatness".

so, according to you,what should be the average of the batsman in ODI and test cricket to be conceder best (ofcource, one of the best),higher than above average batsman.

 

[Awesome]

99.94, comes to mind.

 

[brahmastra]

99.94, comes to mind.

that one for the best batsman and I said tobe concedered in one of the best.because your logic will also put warne,akram,walsh and other great(again,one of the great) bowler to just above average bowler.

btw, great batsman whose batting average is 99.94 said sachin plays like me.and only current player who claimed his place in his dream team.

 

[Iggy]

99.94, comes to mind.

Asim Bradman is the greatest player but you have the consider the differences in the technology at that time and this time..There are lot of supporing staffs with teams now to check and recheck the weaknesses of every players and every action by a player in the field is recorded and suitable plan is decided to counter them...And Sachin is still playing surviving all these..Does it count for something??