India still a formidable opponent at home.

South Africa won the T20 and One day International Series and India are about to clinch the Test series. It has been a mixed bag of luck for both the teams.

When everyone thought that India would put up a strong performance against the South Africans in the shorter formats of the game, the opposite happened, the talent of some of the big hitters of the South Africa team, took the games away from the hosts. 

And when everyone expected a humdinger of a Test series, the visitors were found lacking and went down for some record low scores like 79 all out on typical sub-continental pitches.

I recollect Shaun Pollock mentioning during the course of the match in the ongoing series that South Africans need to play out of their skins now, but the visitors just ran out of strategy.

Through out the series Indian spinners in Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra have probed the South African batsmen to the hilt and it proved that home team exploited the conditions very well. Imran Tahir did had good stints too.

Ajinkya Rahane was the standout batsmen in the final Test of the match, at a position when India were 200 plus runs for 7 wickets he kept the wicket at the other end and built good partnerships to steer the hosts out of trouble in the first innings that gave Team India a huge leverage against the visitors.

Though this South Africa line up looks bleak without the likes of Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis both retiring from the game and Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander out due to injury, the new comers have plenty to take home from the Sub Continental tour. Rabada, Harmer, Pleidt have good memories of the series for sure.

On the final day of this memorable tour the visitors would be looking to draw, but it will be a very difficult proposition considering the final day Kotla pitch to achieve that target.

No matter what the result is, India showed that it still remains the formidable opponent at home and Skipper Virat Kohli has one more feather in his cap with this series win.

It will be a series worth remembering for the captains of both the teams who have something to take home for the new year.

Valleyz.Blog

Are the batsmen to blame in the IndvsSA Test series? Too much T20 cricket?

India faces regular seaming and bouncing tracks away from home and infact India did a splendid job in away conditions off late.

But is it the same case with the visitors Who always play with the strength of their pace bowlers ? Is it not the case that Imran Tahir did perform well in the series and the fact that South Africa batsmen were found wanting with the bat?  Indian batsmen faltered too, that indicates the mindset. And moreover Indian batsmen were found wanting and look to be more comfortable with T20 type wickets.

South Africa will have to cope up with the spin playing tracks in the sub-continent. How far India can stretch the home advantage is the question? Did India went far and presented pitches as being reported or did the batsmen of both the teams did not perform?

Narendra Hirwani in 1988 once bamboozled West Indies team and set a record on Test debut by taking 16 visitor's wickets, even so Anil Kumble took 10 wickets against Pakistan. 

Hindustan Times reports that the pitch has been referred to the committee by ICC. 

ICC says pitch for the Third Test in Nagpur was poor, Report under review - Hindustan Times

ICC should take a holistic view and strike a balance with the fact that Sub Continental teams teams too face fast and pacy tracks not best for their comfort while playing away from home. 

 Valleyz.Blog

Match Reports

Rest of India vs Delhi Irani trophy match
Rest of India scored an assuring victory over the Ranji champions Delhi, in the end it was a good result for the ROI team. Bowlers specially did well, notably Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel had good stints.

Gautam gambhir played a sensible knock of 91 in the second innings but could not help stop Delhi losing the game, his innings will be a bright point in the match with the other notable performers in the form of Chetanya Nanda in the Delhi side who took the only five for of the match.

Australia A vs India A at Chennai September 26 2008

In the other final match of the triangular series in Chennai,India, Australia A won easily by a margin of 156 runs, the pace combination of Shaun Tait, Brett Greeves and Mark Cameron snatched the match early sending back 4 batsmen with just 33 runs on board inside 7 overs. None of the India A batsman put up any resistance. Earlier Australia posted a strong total of 303 with Ronchi, Hussey, White and Voges scoring half century. Suresh Raina put Australia A into bat after winning the toss.