South Africa v India, 3rd Test, Cape Town, 2-6 Jan, 2011

Bring it on.

Should be a cracker.

Gambhir for Vijay, if fit. Be interesting to see what kind of pitch this one turns out to be. Initial instructions probably were to use the outfield itself.

Gambir should be back, based on what we have seen Vijay seems to have a pretty good technique though.

Vijay's technique tho 'pales' by comparison to what Harbi and Banshree use when it comes to zinc cream and the ball

Hope we get another reasonably lively result oriented wicket.

Sehwag is out of ODIs due to recurring shoulder injury. Rohit Sharma is replacing him. Sehwag would play this test though.

Worrying times for Indian WC team as it means that Sehwag would open for India in WC without any match practice under his belt.

SG wrote:
Worrying times for Indian WC team as it means that Sehwag would open for India in WC without any match practice under his belt.

no warmup games?

No substitute for int'l games.

India loses toss.

[doremi] DOOMED [doremi]

F*ck me has this thing started?

Edit - not by a long shot.

Nah Furry

relax

Seems strange that this test is starting on the 2nd but the one in Sydney doesn't start until the 3rd.

Yeah, it was some sort of collective bargaining agreement by (I think) Australia's players that the soft little puddings must have three days between matches.

That seems more likely that India and South Africa agreeing to spurn ICC guidelines.

And Frommie... poor form old bean, Rikki'ing the Ashes 5th Test, but not this one. Poor form Cheesey.

If Indiia can maintain the on field intensity and aggression they showed in the second test then they should win.

Zat wrote:Yeah, it was some sort of collective bargaining agreement by (I think) Australia's players that the soft little puddings must have three days between matches.

That seems more likely that India and South Africa agreeing to spurn ICC guidelines.

And as it turns out, they would have had three days between the tests anyway......

So would this be India's greatest series win ever? (still a big if but there is definitely a chance)

PlanetPakistan wrote:So would this be India's greatest series win ever? (still a big if but there is definitely a chance)

No, as they're going to lose.

Event if they won, beating Illingworth's invincibles in 1971 was a better result. They were undisputed number 1 at the time.

I wonder what the Cape Town pitch will be like. Producing a green seamer at Durban backfired on South Africa a bit. Reckon CT might be a flattie and South Africa will hope they can chip away with their superior pace attack.

PlanetPakistan wrote:So would this be India's greatest series win ever? (still a big if but there is definitely a chance)

...of course they still have yet to beat Oz over here..

I think that just about any series win for the bannies outside the subicon represents an amazing achievement

horace wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:So would this be India's greatest series win ever? (still a big if but there is definitely a chance)

...of course they still have yet to beat Oz over here..

I think that just about any series win for the bannies outside the subicon represents an amazing achievement

Surely India will beat Aus in Aus in a year's time. They'll definitely start the series as favourites. They beat England in England in 2007, and will be favourites to do so again next Summer. They Should have beaten the Kiwis 3-0 in NZ last year but for some negative captaincy from Dhoni.

The belief that India are woeful outside the Sub Continent hasn't been true for about 10 years now.

rubbish...they still have not beaten decent opposition away....yes they may well beat the vin ordinaire australians here in the series...but unless changes are made Australia does not provide decent opposition

Henry wrote:I wonder what the Cape Town pitch will be like. Producing a green seamer at Durban backfired on South Africa a bit. Reckon CT might be a flattie and South Africa will hope they can chip away with their superior pace attack.

If SA wants to avoid a defeat it could produce a flat track as Dhoni admitted yesterday that his side struggles to take twenty wickets on flat pitches as they rely on swing, not bounce and pace. In CT against us, SA produced a flatter track but with a tiny bit in it on the first morning. We collapsed and then they made mountains of runs as our pacemen struggled to penetrate. They seem to shoot themselves a bit in the foot when the produce greentops as they can come out on the wrong side of the conditions and it brings the opposition's pace attack into a position where it can nullify Steyn. Their batsmen seem to prosper almost like no others when the conditions are good for batting.

with dhoni around they can be pretty safe if they prepare a track thats good for bowling on the first day. theres no way he's ever winning a toss

Didn't Smith lose all the tosses in Australia?