Andy Moles has given up on New Zealand already.
It’s a bold new initiative.
And I like it.
Why wait for your team to let you down.
Jump in first.
Draw, draw or draw, New Zealand really win.
Moles should forget cricket, politics is his bag.
I agree with Moles, it will be moral victory for New Zealand.
Its just hard to remember where you put that in the win, lose and draw columns.
hehe… Are u just trying to show us that ur jinx worked !! AYE… SMARTY PANTS!
With no Dhoni, especially being replaced by Dinesh Karthik, in New Zealand, India aren’t that much better than NZ anyway, so a draw was a quite reasonable result here. I figure the home advantage is worth maybe 50 runs over the game, and then you replace Dhoni with Karthik, so that’s 20 runs an innings with the bat and one dropped catch extra per match, and all of a sudden it’s looking very even.
On the other hand all NZ had to do to win was take nine wickets in less than 140 overs, so one would think a draw would be disappointing. And they didn’t even come close – of the three they managed one was a horrible decision and another one was correct but usually wouldn’t be given. Those two could have batted all week.
Ron, Dhoni drops catches too. In the last match he played, he made an important miss – but luckily, that batsman didnt go on. You cant blame Karthik alone there – how many did he drop in this match? Again, I repeat, Dhoni is the better cricketer but he is not much better than Karthik as a keeper – Dhoni is certainly better value for money but dont let that cloud your judgement on specific aspects
I agree with Raj that we can’t blame Karthik alone. How many catches did Yuvraj drop? And how many runs did he score? Yuvraj is the most inconsistent player in world cricket right now and this includes his catching which for some strange reason is considered to be the best in India.
And I pray that this puts paid once and for all to all those rumours about a certain V. Sehwag being the messiah. :-)
This would mean Sri Lanka has achieved many draw-victories, cricinfo needs to open up a new column in their DB, but trying to figure out which draw is a win and which is a loss or possibly a draw being a draw is sure to get everyone thinking.
Rayden, Yuvi and Kaif dropped many in the close cordon costing India matches even few years back. The worst part is their reputation as ‘better fielders’ hence better value than ‘Laxman or Dravid’ still is maintained. Even as a point fielder, Yuvraj’s diving is poor and the only person who talks about this is Maninder Singh – there are just too many missed dives for a classy fielder from Yuvraj. It is all just creating a reputation and then living off it.
M Vijay proved a very effective fielder in the one test match that he played – so are people willing to look upon him as a better package in tests than Yuvraj(the same reason that is applied to Yuvraj vs Laxman, say, in One Dayers)? I guess not – and that tells a lot about the gas that is passed off as analysis in Cricket blogs, newspapers and other media.
Totally agree with you Raj and I am glad at least somebody else has noticed the number of times Yuvraj fake dives or tries to get the ball but misses. There are so many times when I see Yuvraj misfield and Ravi Shastri just goes on praising him and I think, am I the only one noticing Yuvraj’s fielding???
As for M Vijay – I really feel bad for the guy. He played one test and did well, that too against the Australians and now they give Yuvraj a permanent spot and god knows when M Vijay will get his chance next. We need to learn to differentiate between good test players and ODI / T20 players.
You are absolutely wrong to say it is moral victory for NZ. I say it is moral victory for INDIA. With sehwag absolutely clueless Captaincy and batting , and Yuvi’s buter fingers…and total lack of enthusiam for the game put india almost staring at defeat. If gambhir would have fell early ..famous batting line up will be fall like 9 pins. Indians are not good against pressure.
Basically indians are good first inning batsman. I thought india lost when sehwag threw his wicket away , may be gambhir saw that , then took upon himself and save sehwag ‘s arse.
I doubt Indian selectors ever consider sehwag for captaincy. He just can’t think straight. Martin crowe is correct , he is worst ever captain. Not because he has no clue or brain dead , it is just that he don’t care. he says screw you all. That is problem. That mentality is ok with his batting not with captaincy as it is dealing with people.
India just lucked out. If bond would have been there , game would have been over in 4 days. Oh well.
I predict India win 3rd Test if dhoni back as captain. I can’t tolerate sehwag captaincy one more time…it gives to pain to my rational brain. hahahaa.
Alex, India shit in the first test, and were made to follow on in the second. Regardless of what happened that has to be a moral victory for NZ. Not sure you can claim a moral victory when you go from win to draw.