Skip to main content

Blog Time: South Africa wins by 72 runs.

By
India vs South Africa, Highlights, 1st Test: India Lose To South Africa By 72 Runs In Opening Test




Had we won, I would have said we did something really really awesome. Now that we lost, I can say “yeah we tried. It was a tough pitch. The boys did their best”. But what they can do is leave the ball outside off stump. Just leave her alone. Not to mess around. Also, another fact - India had better second innings batting conditions at the pitch. We still fell short by 72 runs. That is a fairly big margin. Batting was relatively poor. Most of the runs were scored by the lower order players. Matter of nerves too, I guess. Our batting let us down. The bowlers, in comparison, didn’t do that bad.

Historically, our batsmen have struggled in South Africa. That is a fact. That is why Kohli opted out of the warm-up matches insisting on more practice for the players. Well, all is not lost. We still have two more test matches apart from the ODIs and T20s. Let us hope to make a difference.

As it happened.

South Africa came in first. And they did quite well considering that it was not a batting pitch and all. 286 runs on board with ABD’s 65 and Faf du Plessis’s 62. The top order did fall. But the mid and lower batsmen did not drop the ball. That really matters in a team that wants to contribute well. India replied with 209. Inconsistent batting but one outstanding contribution from Pandya. His 93 made all the difference in the world. The team fell short by 77 runs. When South Africa came in next, they gave India a target of 207. Now that was really not a hard target at all. We could have made it. Fell short cos the batting fell. 13. 16. 4. 28. 10. 8. 1.
Need I say more?

We should have done much better on day one. Things just went downhill from there, I guess. Philander’s career-best haul of 3/33 and 6/42 helped seal South Africa’s victory. He deserved the man of the match award. So did ABD.
India may be down but most definitely not out. Especially if we learn from our mistakes and work on them for the next match. The series will be really something to look forward to. Pandya’s 93 runs and three-wicket haul is something to be inspired by.

Good luck with the next test match - 13th Jan.

Indu 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peshawar Zalmi vs Multan Sultans - Post Match Blog.

By
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Ain't it true. Newcomers Sultans thrash Peshawar Zalmi by 7 wickets in PSL 2018 opener sending shockwaves through the league. Being a defending champion did take a toll on Peshawar Zalmi. Not easy walking into a tournament with everyone looking at you assuming you will win. When the Sultans came in to bat, they had an early upset when they lost the opener for a duck. With a target of 152, it took the experienced Kumara Sangakkara to set the ship on course towards the target. He was calm and composed as he has been throughout his international career. Singles and doubles. And planned boundaries. By the time he was out, caught behind, the team was fairly stable. Shoaib Malik’s captain knock along with Kieron Pollard finished the match in style. Earlier in the day, Peshawar Zalmi came in to bat. Apart from Mohammad Hafeez’s 59, with twenty-something runs from Dwayne Smith and Darren Sammy; the rest of the batsmen barely contri
Post a Comment
Read more

Fan Data Analytics: Key to drive sports company growth

By Anonymous
Over the last several years, the buzz word in business and IT circles has been "big-data" and analytics. Many many articles and write-ups talk about them so I won't go into the details. You could get enough to last a lifetime with just the first few results of a Google search of these terms. But do you really know how it applies, specifically to a sports company? For long, sports franchises have been one of the biggest users of analytics. Before this was a buzz word, coaches and managers have relied up numbers and finding patterns in them to drive on-field performance. Indeed, the major leagues of the world have relied on performance analytics for everything from scouting for talent to calling the action on the field of play. But that never transcended to the off-field, more mundane but equally important task of managing the sports business. As more and more options come up vying for the fan's attention - live events, travel, other sports, TV, the Internet - the
3 comments
Read more

IPL 2014 - Mumbai Indians team analysis

By Anonymous
The Mumbai Indians have always been the high-flying team of IPL.  They had the big buys in almost every year of IPL and kept a very high profile.  And over the last couple of years, they have started matching their performance with their profile – with wins in IPL 2013 and Champions League in 2011 and 2013.  Let us see how their team looks this year. Rohit Sharma, Mike Hussey, Ambati Rayudu and Apporv Wankhade are the pure play batsmen in the team. Corey Anderson, Keiron Pollard, Shreyas Gopal and Jalaj Saxena are the all rounders. CM Gautam, Ben Dunk, Sushant Marathe and Aditya Tare are the wicket keepers. Lasith Malinga, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood, Marchant de Lange, Krishmar Santokie & Puwan Suyal are the bowlers.  The bowling looks pretty good with Malinga, Zaheer, Bajji and Ojha.   The batting is strong at the top – with Rohit Sharma and Mike Hussey, but looks weak beyond those two.   The power in the team comes from
2 comments
Read more