Skip to main content

Editor's Pick (t20): India - South Africa

By
Whoever said ‘don’t make a habit out of it’ was not referring to winning. I do love writing ‘India won’ blogs and it is a pleasure to make a habit out of it as well. The Indian cricket team is most definitely making sure that the habit sticks. We are more than just on a roll in South Africa. We have found what clicks for us and we are making use of it. The best part is that almost all the players are performing. So we are actually open to experimenting and bringing in fresh faces. This way, not only do all the boys get the taste of playing, team South Africa is unable to get used to any one player long enough to figure out the style and a way to defeat it.
Way to go Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli.
Talking about team selection. How is your selection going? Are you also listening to our audio podcast and getting that added advantage?

Let's get back to the matches. We lost the test matches. But we have won the ODI series in a landslide way. And are one up in the T20 series. We are replaying our performance at Sri Lanka where we defeated the Lions at home. And yes this kind of data is most definitely worth repeating. A fantastic conversation starter with any cricket fan if there ever was one.

Some data on the first T20. Bhuvi is the first Indian bowler to take five-wickets in each of the three formats (four in Tests and one each in ODIs & T20Is). He is also the second Indian bowler to take five-fer in T20Is after Yuzuvendra Chahal (6/25).
With 77 victims in 87 matches, Dhoni also leads the list for most dismissals in the T20 international. After he took a catch to dismiss Reeza Hendricks off Bhuvneshwar, Dhoni created a new wicketkeeping record of having taken 134 catches in 275 T20s.
We are not just winning but breaking records and adding our names to the pages of history. Yay.

What happened? India hit 203 runs in 20 overs. Shikhar Dhawan’s 72 along with good support from the rest of the batsmen took the score up. South Africa crumbled. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 5 wicket haul caught the home team red handed. Literally. South Africa opted to bowl thinking they’d restrict the team to a low score. Oh well.
The second T20 - Virat Kohli scared everyone with injury fears. But it is going take more than an injured glute to keep the captain away from taking India to another series win in South Africa. He left the field in the middle of the first T20 as a precaution. He will be part of the team tomorrow. 
South Africa probable Squad Playing XI: JJ Smuts, Reeza Hendricks, Jean-Paul Duminy (c), David Miller, Farhaan Behardien, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dane Paterson, Junior Dala, Tabraiz Shamsi

India probable Squad Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

Venue - SuperSport Park, Centurion
Venue Scoring Pattern
Avg 1st inn score: 170
Avg 2nd inn score: 129
Highest Total: 241/6 (20 Ov) by RSA vs Eng
Lowest Total: 100/10 (12.2 Ov) by RSA vs Pak
Highest Chased: 129/4 (15 Ov) by Aus vs RSA
Lowest Defended: 126/5 (10 Ov) by RSA vs SL

New SA players Junior Dala and C Jonker have an opportunity to showcase their talent and get a good place in the team. AB De Villiers and Klaasen are players to look out for. Morne Morkel, T Shamzi and Aaron Phangiso ( who was on the bench for the first T20) must play a role for their team.

Key Players

Virat Kohli
Shikhar Dhawan
MS Dhoni
Chahal
Yadav
B Kumar

H Klaasen
T Shamzi
Andile P
Reeza Hendricks
JP Duminy

What do you think?
Indu


Reactions:

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 contributed. Like I s…
Post a Comment
Read more

Fan Data Analytics: Key to drive sports company growth

By
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 war…
3 comments
Read more

Why do you run??

By
As the running season for the year 2013 begins, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the subject. I am not a great runner.  Heck - I started running only a few years ago… well past my 35th birthday.  So this is not an attempt to guide or teach or inspire.  I don't have any specific objective in mind as I am writing this.  I am just sharing my thoughts on how I feel when I run long distance which others could possibly relate to.

I have been running relatively long distances (5K, 10K and 21K) for a couple of years now. When I run a half marathon, I take longer than a seasoned runner.  A seasoned runner takes around 2 hours (And here I am excluding the seriously good runners who do it at a much more rapid pace) while I take 25 minutes longer.  But if you think about it… I am on my feet for that much longer.  So in that sense, taking longer to finish is better than finishing faster - right? 
What do I think about when running…  Deep philosophy?  Something that has been occupying my …
3 comments
Read more