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

Chennai beats Mumbai and clinch thriller

By
It is not just about coming back. It is about the impact you make in the process. And Chennai team knows how to with a bang.  The Chennai team beat the home team by one wicket in what was an absolute sit-at-the-end-of-the-chair thriller. It was one of the best chases the tournament has seen and it most definitely won't be the last. The player who made the difference in the end - Jadhav - literally came back from the dead after retiring hurt to take his team to the finish line by hitting the ball in style with a six and a four.  Batting on one leg and playing an absolutely unbelievable shot, this player leveled the scores first with a six and finished the match with a four.  Key Points  MI has never won their opener since 2013. This was Chennai's first win against MI in an opener of this T20 League  DRS used in the league for the first time  Bravo : It was a great team effort. I want to dedicate this win to the CSK fan, they have waited long for
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Time: How I won my Fantain Fantasy Cricket

By
I played the Sri Lanka – Zimbabwe match and I won more than six times what I put in. That is a really good investment, isn’t it? I have been asked by Fantain to share what I did and how I planned my lineup. This is how. Kusal Perera  – I made him captain. I won a massive 120 points. My vice-captain was Dinesh Chandimal .  So I got 43.5. In hindsight, I could have picked Perera. He did fabulously well and earned a whopping 89 on the app. The other player in my lineup who helped me win was Sikandar Raza . He got 88.5 on the app. These four players are a must be in the next match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.  Dinesh Chandimal is one good consistent player that I always have. So it’s like this. I have four categories when I play fantasy cricket. One is the must-have players who will be on my team no matter what. For this match that I played, they were Kusal Perera, Dinesh Chandimal, and Upul Tharanga. For me, old is gold. Experience speaks volumes. The second category is ba
Post a Comment
Read more

Need for co-ed sports

By
Now, this is hardly a feminist piece. I am not here to tell you that women can do anything that men can and better too. One, you know it too. Two, this is hardly about women. I am not here to praise women and demand better rights. I am talking about the possibility that the entire field of sports can take a whole new meaning if gender is not made the criterion. So this is how the idea for the blog started. The Women’s Indian Cricket Team performed really well at the world cup this year. Mithali Raj praised her team for their hard work, persistence, and passion for the game. She also added that there should be an IPL tournament in the country for the women’s team now. Raj believes that the team’s fantastic game has increased the fan following for the women’s team as well and that they have earned their place here. While I am honestly not sure about an IPL tournament for women, it did get me thinking. Why not mixed sports? Now that girls play almost all the games that the guys do, w
3 comments
Read more