South Africa v India | 2nd Test | Durban | Day 1 | 26/12/2013

[James]

our James?

Nein

 

[sticky_wkt]

This short series is turning out to be a nightmare for SA at the moment. Steyn loosing No.1 ranking after 186 tests at the helm (trolled by some IPL rookies), Kallis retiring from tests etc. etc.

Feeling sorry for SA as the No.1 test team getting humiliated at home.

 

[Batman]

So that's Stumps - Day 1! India ahead at this stage!

 

[prayas]

Well it is stumps on day 1 now. Play will begin at 9:30 AM tomorrow to make up for lost time.

 

[Ims1]

So that's Stumps - Day 1! India ahead at this stage!

surely but with at least 60 overs to be lost in next 4 days , a result is almost a impossibility .

 

[lilFlip]

This short series is turning out to be a nightmare for SA at the moment. Steyn loosing No.1 ranking after 186 tests at the helm (trolled by some IPL rookies), Kallis retiring from tests etc. etc.

Feeling sorry for SA as the No.1 test team getting humiliated at home.

Are you kiddin' me?

 

[leatherface58]

Wow a day completely dominated by India. Who would have thought?

 

[battler]

Wow a day completely dominated by India. Who would have thought?

This is mumbai

 

[Saeth]

surely but with at least 60 overs to be lost in next 4 days , a result is almost a impossibility .

I don't think bad light will come into play again..2nd, 3rd and 5th day are forecasted to be sunny and clear .
So all going india's way.big score in 1st innings and they will only bat once...and sa will be batting last on
This pitch which would be spinning big time and reversing.so i think India is winning this test........;

 

[mithun_minhas]

If India manages an over 400 score, it will be a draw.

My prediction is that India will get a 50 run lead in the first innings and will again set a 400+ target in the 2nd innings. SA will grind out a draw with Kallis scoring a century. A fitting sendoff for the legend.

 

[battler]

If India manages an over 400 score, it will be a draw.

My prediction is that India will get a 50 run lead in the first innings and will again set a 400+ target in the 2nd innings. SA will grind out a draw with Kallis scoring a century. A fitting sendoff for the legend.

Just desparately hoping for an indian victory.
1st ever test series win in sa,that is akin to winning a wc!

 

[Ims1]

I don't think bad light will come into play again..2nd, 3rd and 5th day are forecasted to be sunny and clear .
So all going india's way.big score in 1st innings and they will only bat once...and sa will be batting last on
This pitch which would be spinning big time and reversing.so i think India is winning this test........;

4th day is like half a day lost btw .

 

[mithun_minhas]

Just desparately hoping for an indian victory.
1st ever test series win in sa,that is akin to winning a wc!

India missed a trick by not picking another spinner. There is nothing in this pitch for the fast bowlers.

India has to heavily rely on reverse swing again to get SA wickets. I know Shami can be great at it. But on a slow track with some turn, India should have dropped either Rahane/Rohit or even drop Ishant and picked either Ashwin or Ojha

Too many one dimensional fast bowlers on a dead pitch in Indian squad.

 

[battler]

India missed a trick by not picking another spinner. There is nothing in this pitch for the fast bowlers.

India has to heavily rely on reverse swing again to get SA wickets. I know Shami can be great at it. But on a slow track with some turn, India should have dropped either Rahane/Rohit or even drop Ishant and picked either Ashwin or Ojha

Too many one dimensional fast bowlers on a dead pitch in Indian squad.

Fair enough,but india have a long tail and dhoni din't want to make it longer by playing ojha and i can understand that.

 

[mithun_minhas]

Fair enough,but india have a long tail and dhoni din't want to make it longer by playing ojha and i can understand that.

In that case Ashwin could have been played. He can fill the role that Rahane or Rohit can do on this tour.

I know Ashwin bowled badly in 1st test, but on Day 5, even though his bowling was toothless, he kept it tight. IIRC, he only went at 2.5 RPO.

May be Ashwin keeping it tight from one end and Jaddu with his variations could trouble SA batting lineup who are suspect against spin.

I think a combo of Ashwin-Jaddu could be more lethal than Ishant-Shami.

 

[OZGOD]

Let's hope we get a result this time. It would be disappointing if this ended up as a 0-0 draw.

 

[battler]

In that case Ashwin could have been played. He can fill the role that Rahane or Rohit can do on this tour.

I know Ashwin bowled badly in 1st test, but on Day 5, even though his bowling was toothless, he kept it tight. IIRC, he only went at 2.5 RPO.

May be Ashwin keeping it tight from one end and Jaddu with his variations could trouble SA batting lineup who are suspect against spin.

I think a combo of Ashwin-Jaddu could be more lethal than Ishant-Shami.

Yeah dropping rohit and picking ashwin would have been a brave and attacking move.
But Rohit has failed in only one test and dhoni probably din't want to down his confidence by dropping him after only one failure.
Rahane should be persisted with,he has shown a good solid technique and could have been pretty useful had we suffered a collapse.
So no real complaints regarding team selection.
Just hope dhoni keeps attacking SA with good attacking fields,if and when we post a good total on the board.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Yeah dropping rohit and picking ashwin would have been a brave and attacking move.
But Rohit has failed in only one test and dhoni probably din't want to down his confidence by dropping him after only one failure.
Rahane should be persisted with,he has shown a good solid technique and could have been pretty useful had we suffered a collapse.
So no real complaints regarding team selection.
Just hope dhoni keeps attacking SA with good attacking fields,if and when we post a good total on the board.

A brave and attacking move by Dhoni? His defensive captaincy almost lost us the 1st Test when we should really have beaten them comfortably. 2 spinners should have been the way to go considering that Ashwin may score runs unlike Rohit.

 

[mithun_minhas]

A brave and attacking move by Dhoni? His defensive captaincy almost lost us the 1st Test when we should really have beaten them comfortably. 2 spinners should have been the way to go considering that Ashwin may score runs unlike Rohit.

The 8-0 Phainty we got recently in Eng and Aus has seriousl scarred Dhoni's confidence in Indian batting outside of SC.

At this stage MSD feels that a drawn series is as good as a win especially in SA.

I still do not understand what a batsman like Rahane can score or help batting so low down the order. If Rahane could bowl spin decently like what Sehwag or Duminy does, it makes sense to go with 4 bowlers. But Indian bowling looks weak and I doubt if they can bundle out SA again for under 300 on this dead pitch.

 

[IndianWillow]

Yeah dropping rohit and picking ashwin would have been a brave and attacking move.
But Rohit has failed in only one test and dhoni probably din't want to down his confidence by dropping him after only one failure.
Rahane should be persisted with,he has shown a good solid technique and could have been pretty useful had we suffered a collapse.
So no real complaints regarding team selection.
Just hope dhoni keeps attacking SA with good attacking fields,if and when we post a good total on the board.

Asking for bold move from Dhoni? India is playing for a draw, they will take a win as a bonus if the Saffers make mistakes. If they were looking for a win, they would have gone for more bowling resources.

 

[battler]

A brave and attacking move by Dhoni? His defensive captaincy almost lost us the 1st Test when we should really have beaten them comfortably. 2 spinners should have been the way to go considering that Ashwin may score runs unlike Rohit.

To much is being made of team selection,remember in hindsight things look much clearer than before.I was very critical of dhoni's captaincy in the last test.
but not gonna criticize him for team selection today.
If he can be a bit more attacking in his bowling changes and field placements,I won't complain at all.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

The 8-0 Phainty we got recently in Eng and Aus has seriousl scarred Dhoni's confidence in Indian batting outside of SC.

At this stage MSD feels that a drawn series is as good as a win especially in SA.

I still do not understand what a batsman like Rahane can score or help batting so low down the order. If Rahane could bowl spin decently like what Sehwag or Duminy does, it makes sense to go with 4 bowlers. But Indian bowling looks weak and I doubt if they can bundle out SA again for under 300 on this dead pitch.

Rahane showed very good temperament in the 1st innings last Test. Quite impressed by this guy. Also his fielding was excellent. Effected a runout of Smith i think. Rohit neither showed the desire to bat nor did he hold on to catches. Even the much maligned murali vijay showed better application than "talented" sharma. Which is why I felt the right decision was to drop Sharma and include Jadeja as the 5th bowler. I'm not too sure of Zak either. Umesh for Zak would have been the only other change I would have liked.

 

[Buffet]

Let's hope we get a result this time. It would be disappointing if this ended up as a 0-0 draw.

Based on the team picked here by Dhoni, It seems he will be happy with a draw. It looks like 0-0 specially due overs lost and rain later. This should have been a series with 4 tests. Pathetic to have 2 tests among any high profile teams.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

To much is being made of team selection,remember in hindsight things look much clearer than before.I was very critical of dhoni's captaincy in the last test.
but not gonna criticize him for team selection today.
If he can be a bit more attacking in his bowling changes and field placements,I won't complain at all.

I've been bleating about the '2 spinners drop Rohit' selection since before this Test began. Certainly not hindsight.

 

[battler]

Based on the team picked here by Dhoni, It seems he will be happy with a draw. It looks like 0-0 specially due overs lost and rain later.

I think he wants to use jadeja as an attacking option,not a defensive one.

 

[Buffet]

I think he wants to use jadeja as an attacking option,not a defensive one.

I thought Jadeja is more of a containing bowler but can bowl really well on pitch with a sharp turn. Here, pitch will have some turn but not that much. Anyway, let's wait and see. With all time lost and rain, one of the team has to now bat badly or bowl out of their skin to get a result here.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

I thought Jadeja is more of a containing bowler but can bowl really well on pitch with a sharp turn. Here, pitch will have some turn but not that much. Anyway, let's wait and see. With all time lost and rain, one of the team has to now bat badly or bowl out of their skin to get a result here.

He outbowled Ashwin in the series vs Australia. Not saying he is that good a bowler but he might be a handful in the 4th innings of this Test.

 

[battler]

I thought Jadeja is more of a containing bowler but can bowl really well on pitch with a sharp turn. Here, pitch will have some turn but not that much. Anyway, let's wait and see. With all time lost and rain, one of the team has to now bat badly or bowl out of their skin to get a result here.

He should do well in the 4th innings were there definetly will be turn on offer.
Tbh I do expect jadeja to pick up a few wickets here.

 

[Buffet]

He outbowled Ashwin in the series vs Australia. Not saying he is that good a bowler but he might be a handful in the 4th innings of this Test.

On pitch with lot of turns, he is is as dangerous as anyone due to his tendency to attack the stumps. I am not sure how well he can do when pitch is not turning much. Even if Jadeja can pick up few, I don't expect him to be that big a factor to influence the final result. Just a conjecture on my part.

Anyway, I was commenting on Dhoni's mindset. If Indians were looking for a win badly then they could have played Jadeja and Ashwin both on Durban.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

On pitch with lot of turns, he is is as dangerous as anyone due to his tendency to attack the stumps. I am not sure how well he can do when pitch is not turning much. Just a conjecture on my part.

I'm not sure how he will do either. But during that series, he seemed to impart more revs than Ashwin so i'm hoping he does well. He needs to incorporate flight variations though as he tends 5to spear it in most of the time.

And yes, you are absolutely right we should have dropped Rohit to accomodate Jadeja not Ashwin.

 

[Bhaijaan]

South Africans would now stoop to any level to save this game, it being Kallis' last test. Expect more Usain Bolt sprints back to the pavilion at the very hint of bad weather/light.

 

[giri26]

Asking for bold move from Dhoni? India is playing for a draw, they will take a win as a bonus if the Saffers make mistakes. If they were looking for a win, they would have gone for more bowling resources.

I don't know what you guys are talking about. India traditionally have never played 5 bowlers even with the batting lineup of Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Ganguly. So why do you think that India will now play 5 bowlers with an inexperienced batting lineup? This statement of yours would have made sense if India before Dhoni was playing 5 bowlers all the time but that was not the case. Even during our so called golden phase (Ganguly/Wright) we never played 5 bowlers, why does everyone think we will do it now?

 

[IndianWillow]

I don't know what you guys are talking about. India traditionally have never played 5 bowlers even with the batting lineup of Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Ganguly. So why do you think that India will now play 5 bowlers with an inexperienced batting lineup? This statement of yours would have made sense if India before Dhoni was playing 5 bowlers all the time but that was not the case. Even during our so called golden phase (Ganguly/Wright) we never played 5 bowlers, why does everyone think we will do it now?

I did not say Dhoni would do that. This is exactly why India is only likely to draw a test match when an opportunity to win presents itself. For example, the first test.

 

[Romali_rotti]

Dhoni missed a trick here by not dropping Rahane, Ashwin should have been picked instead of him as both Jadeja and Ashwin can hang with the bat while making the bowling a lot more stronger....

 

[Sherlock]

India's day and gotta say the pitch is very dry. India looked comfortable but anything over 400 will always put pressure on the side batting second even if it's a batting strip.

Still it looks like a draw if the weather is anything to go by.

Both teams will be cursing their tactics/luck during the 1st Test, if indeed it does end up being a draw

 

[Saeed]

What a boring day. Hopefully today it will be better.

 

[joly]

Dhoni missed a trick here by not dropping Rahane, Ashwin should have been picked instead of him as both Jadeja and Ashwin can hang with the bat while making the bowling a lot more stronger....

exactly, this decision could change the match