South Africa v India, 3rd ODI, Cape Town, Jan 18, 2011

I see Nehra is still going for nearly 6 rpo while SA isn't averaging 4 overall. This loser will lose the WC for us.

Mark my words.

Only thing of interest for me is that SA have a new guy - Faf du Plessis.

Duminy lucky to be still there. Was easily run out but probably 3rd umpire was blind just like Jerling in the last game.

The SA tail looks really long when Kallis isn't playing.

Botha is far too high at number 7. He's a number 8 at best.

The last 6 wickets were lost for 25 runs.

Henry Nolonga wrote:The last 6 wickets were lost for 25 runs.

Aye, you can't have a tail that long in OD cricket.

This match is now beyond India.

Henry wrote:Botha is far too high at number 7. He's a number 8 at best.

8?

Are you pissed?

YESS !!!!!!!!!

Cracker of a match.

Good win by India, helped no end by inept SA selsctions. And Aus think their NSP has no clue.

Superb win. 2 back to back wins from hopeless situations. And that without 3 of our premier batsmen.

Captaincy is the area where India probably pipped SA in both games. Smith was way too defensive in his approach.

This game was never hopeless for India.

Once again SA 20/30 runs short. You cannot bat a guy with an average of 18 at 7 and then have no hitters in the lower order.

It was hopeless considering we had guys like Rohit Sharma, Pathan, Raina, Yuvraj in our lineup. All of them are quite hopeless for one reason or the other.

Plus the pressure of chasing at Newlands. Its never been easy especially for visiting teams. 7 times has a score of less than 220 has been defended successfully at this venue.

PS: Did I mention that SA were undefeated on this venue in their last 10 tries?

I read somewhere that SA are gonna announce their WC squad today.

Do you think they'll go in with the same squad or will there be some (wholesale) changes considering what is happening in this series?

Well since SA didn't play today that is fair enough.

Jokes aside this has to be the worst SA selection of all time.

SG wrote:I read somewhere that SA are gonna announce their WC squad today.

Do you think they'll go in with the same squad or will there be some (wholesale) changes considering what is happening in this series?

Just announced. Tahir, Van Wyk, and Peterson in.

Yusuf's 3 sixes off Botha were monster hits, absolutely huge.

Bhajji's 2 6s were damn good too. He has this knack of hitting 6s off most threatening bowlers in the match out of nowhere. An absolute asset to have in an ODI lienup.

taipan wrote:

SG wrote:I read somewhere that SA are gonna announce their WC squad today.

Do you think they'll go in with the same squad or will there be some (wholesale) changes considering what is happening in this series?

Just announced. Tahir, Van Wyk, and Peterson in.

Van Wyk is a good selection. I'm surprised he isn't already playing in this series.

Tahir? Has he ever played an int'l game? If not, isn't it a big gamble for an event as big as WC is.

Peterson? Which one? The one who opens your test batting or the spinner?

The piece of crap spinner. At least we save the money on a drink carrier.

Then thats perhaps as big a joke of selection as us choosing 3 spinners in a 15-member squad. SA's best chance (in bowling) in WC lies with their pacers.

Just saw the morning highlights. Looked like another unbelievable match. Regret missing it live. Almost a replay of the previous game except it was India's turn for it's tail to pass through fire. The previous day SA tail faced with 30 to get and 3 wickets in hand allowed the bowlers to dictate the terms. They couldn't decide the way to play out the remaining overs and thought hanging in with caution would work. It just built more pressure on them. In the same situation, Indian tail batted with the purpose of not allowing the bowlers to settle and dictate and batted with positive intent. That helped a great deal. Saffie bowlers were a tad unlucky that some edges off Bhajji and Zaheer didn't carry and didn't end up in catches.

Found it impressive that Nehra didn't allow pressure to get to him and didn't throw his wicket away and manage to hit the winning runs. Indian tail is def better the SA's tail. No surprises on Sharma, Vijay and Raina. They are simply not cut for pressure against good bowling. Vijay's fall is most disappointing as his promise was when he first played test cricket. he has had enough chances and wasted them all. A bit of luck SA didn't get.

All in all a good show from India restricting SA to a sub par total again. batting is still iffy and inconsistency of the likes of Yuvraj and Raina makes our WC MO weak. Even if they come good on home wickets good for batting, they simply cannot be persisted with long term. With 2 back to back fighting wins however this young seemingly hopeless team has still performed better than expected [batting is still sub par] and thats saying a lot.

This is turning out to be our best tour yet and with 2 games still in hand, I hope we win this series finally and break the zinx.

And yeah to all Indians who watched the game live, it must have been a kick seeing Pathan hitting those 3 sixes off Botha.

SA has it's task cut out in WC with the spin department.

2 posts up. A new example of Wall of text. FFS Batty, use paragraphs...