India in South Africa * kohli!

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when india started its south africa (SAF) tour, most of Pakistanis were secretly smiling anticipating brutal treatment Indians were going to get from SAfs. after-all, with bouncy pitches and SAF’s pace battery, India, the flat track bullies, stood no chance. right?

They did get some laughter in first 2 test matches where india was beaten by SAF but it was pretty obvious that indians were giving SAF a tough time. SAFs were bowled out in every innings. both test matches were relatively close but indians lost some key sessions

and then came the 3rd test match. on a brutal bouncy pitch, such was india’s pressure that SAFs chickened out and tried to run away making excuses but couldn’t and finally lost embarrassingly. i have no doubt if it was a 5 test match series, India would have won the series because the momentum was completely on their side.

and then came the ODI series…and there was not even a competition. india treated SAF like a 3rd class team. I have willow, so i was able to watch highlights of the full tour. Indian dominance was so complete that SAFs looked like helpless jokers. they didnt know how to play spin, couldnt handle swing either and their pace attack was demolished by kohli and dhawan. indians won 5-1…yes 5-1 and that too against SAF in SAf! unbelievable

I have to give it to Kohli and his team…kohli is unbelievable. he has broken every ODI record in this series. averaged 186 in 6 mtches. 3 centuries, god knows how many fifties. his fitness, passion to win, ability to score under pressure when chasing…unbelievable and his young team is responding. amazing. SAFs had no clue what hit them. Kohi bomb!

this is the type of performance i always dream one day Pakistani team will give but alas, never got it and now our cricket is going down. sarfraz acts like an aggressive skipper but first he needs to lose weight and improve his fitness. he is a fat plump potato totally unfit for today’s brutal cricketing culture.

india’s future is secure under kohli plus their u-19 is solid under dravid. we on the other hand have no structure. while india u-19 is being coached by genius dravid, we didnt even know the name of our U-19 coach.

glad we are not plying against india these days. yes we beat them in CT but to be completely honest, we will loose 8 out of 10 times in current status!

Well played Kohli…you are the man who wants to win so passionately every game..every game!

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

Not sure why the thread started with the reference of Pakistanis smiling over the Indian tour to SA. May be I’m unable to comprehend sarcasm.

But the ODI series ended up with a surprise to even Indians. A pleasant one ofcourse. Beating SA 5-1 is kind of a shock itself. So yea if we stick to the topic, yes great performance by India with a complete knock out.

A ton of cricket that Indians play round the year is paying off. They have found the talent who are delivering too. Good for them.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

As PD states one of the first two tests was close I forget which one. And in first two tests lots of umpires call went SA way with ball grading outside of leg stump with India batting.

Instill wish India gives others a chance rather than stick with Dhoni all the time. And Rahane probably should not be let anywhere near an odi ground with his 78 pct strike rate.

Today India beat SA in its t20 comprehensively.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

well i shd have said “Pakistanis/Bangla/lankans” instead of pakistanis and I shd have a bit more context..

this SA-India series was probably one of the most watched series globally both by experts and by followers from every cricket playing nation. the reason being: india played last 18 months or so in india playing close to 18-20 test matches and probably 25-30 ODIs and they beat everyone comprehensively…but they still had a label of flat track bullies and everyone was waiting for this tour of south africa to see how indian team performs in SAF on bouncy tracks against a tough opponent.

and if you follow cricinfo threads or pak passion, you would have observed that pak/bangla/lankans supporters couldn’t wait for this SAF tour anticipating indian team to be thrashed miserably by SAF team… there were literally thousands and thousands of comments to this effect…indians on the other hand were relatively quiet as they also expected their team to be humiliated in SAF

but what followed was a total anti-climax for Pak/bangla/lankans. indians actually hold their nerves in test matches and ended up winning the 3rd test match on a super bouncy track and then demolished SAF so bad in ODIs that SAFs were looking like pathetic jokers and now they are destroying SAFs in T-20 as well.

and it is all because of Kohli..he wants to win so bad. and he is himself performing so good. he has taken everything to a different level and his team is now responding. bravo..i love this type of fearless passionate characters who lead from front and who wants to win every game..and i mean every game. yes, you shd come into ground with only mission: WIN THAT DAMN GAME. not like Pakistan who will sleep in few games and then win next few and the call themselves mercurial! BS. Kohli has his own flaws but he is a real deal. Much much better than tendulkar as Kohli is a true match winner.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

^ PD lets not bring “fans” into this and their comments on websites. You give me a number and i can copy paste that many indians commenting nothing but curses for Pakistani players.

But yea Kohli is a great batsman and indian team is in a good shape. But we need more teams to play cricket in this world. With hardly 8-9 teams there is not much on global scale to cherish honestly

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

When pakistan plays I have seen videos of Indians going to their temples and praying for pak victory, great team, great fans nothing like the sportsmanship shown by Indian fans. Having seen them in England they are the worst fans anywhere in the world, should have seen them after they lost CT final in England, even you would not have missed the great sportsmanship shown by Indian fans when they were being whipped by Pakistan and when the player from mars was out twice on two balls how they rushed through the exits even before the match finished. Someone said they were going outside to greet the victorious Pakistani team. Great Indian fans.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

Check out this latest list:

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27973378_10155261058727555_5640045457718088313_n.png?oh=fbca29561b42a2673c641090e5453121&oe=5B22B7A0

The top 6 batsmen are those faced the most fierce bowling lineups in the deadliest era where bowlers practically ruled the world. Very less coaching and no scientific help to read bowlers either.
So tomorrow if Kohli even reaches the top position, there is no way you can rate him better than the top six.

Now, I’m not taking away anything from the level he has achieved. He is great. But he’ll never be greatest.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

I have the honor of watching all top 6 live in ground and on TV of course. With an exception of Richards and maybe chappel, Kohli is far better than any of other top 6. remember, this is the highest ranking which these players achieved in one given year. so zaheer may have achieved this ranking by scoring heavily in one year against india in pak on dead pitches but the real question is how did these players perform over a longer period. here are my 2 cents

zaheer was terrible against fast bowling…averaged i think 25 against WI. never scored heavily in Australia, nz and WI. failed in india miserably too. only scored in pakistan and england

dean jones better than kohli? really…no way. Kohli has 33 centuries in ODI and i think 20 test centuries. and kohli has always scored so heavily while chasing…a big big achievement. jones was a good ODI player but not so good in test matches

Gower/miandad…well miandad was also not so good against genuine pace. never scored against mighty WI until 1988 series when WI had a weaker attack. gower was not good in pressure. never scored in 2nd innings. and struggled against genuine pace.

VIV was class act…no question…and so was greg chappel although chappal never really bothered touring india and pakistan on regular basis, so not sure how good he was against spin

kohli scored 4 test centuries in 4 test matches in Australia…and i think 5 or 6 centuries in SAF so far. all on bouncy tracks. and like i said above, he has scored so many runs chasing which is amazing… and scored so many runs as skipper under pressure. anyway, just my opinion. you can disagree

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

that i agree. indian fans are horrible plus arrogant. their team is having a good time, so they are even more difficult to bear

but I am just reflecting my opinion on kohli and his impact on this young Indian team

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

Lol Dean Jones amongst the top 6. Flawed rating. Zahir Abbas was not a great, neither was Gover. Agree with Viv, arguably the best batsman ever, both tests and ODIs.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

well these are the rankings which these players achieved within a certain 12 month period. for example gower scored 730 runs in an ashes series (i think in 1986) and based on that, he would have gained this ranking score for that year.

Zaheer abbas scored 580 runs in a 3 test match series against india in 1978 and then again i think over 600 runs against india in 1982…so zaheer would have gotten this ranking score for any of those years

but the real question is that…were these players greater players than kohli over a longer period of time say 5-8 years in different conditions? and the answer is NO. I mean zaheer only scored 14 test centuries in 79 test matches and most of them in pak and few in england. gower was also pretty one-dimensional. Kohli has scored everywhere heavily except england plus scored much more consistently and that too under pressure

now both gower and zaheer were 5 times more stylish than kohli. nothing comes close to zaheer when it comes to grace, style, suppleness…but that is a different topic.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

Zaheer Abbas’s then 25 average against WI mighty bowling is equivalent to today’s 60 average. So I’ll take it any given day.

And Miandad never good against pace? Jeez. OK!!

Theek hai bhai, Kohli behtar hai. Aap khush rahen, hamara kya hai :fbp:

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

Right! All Bengali fans are declaring this list flawed too. There is no mushfiqur bradman and sabbir tendulkar in this list. Rejected.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

^Celebrations erupt in Bangladesh even on winning the toss and that’s so funny.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

Zaheer and Gover were all style than substance, Miandad was ugly but rightfully considered a great. Kohli is probably better than all on the list apart from Viv (definitely) and Lara (probably)

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

now how shd i respond to this statement Sid..i am seriously lost :). i dont think you understand the full dynamics. its as if dale styen, morkel, philander, rabada are some cheap medium pacers… :confused: and scoring 6 centuries against these bowlers on bouncy tracks (in 2014 and 2018) is a joke?..and zaheer who hardly scored anything against WI is still a huge task…

and then obviously Mitchel johnson was just a joke…right? a cheap medium pacer i reckon..and scoring 4 test centuries against Australia in Australia by kohli against johnson was just a joke :bummer:… and zaheer who hardly scored anything meaningful in australia is still a huge task!!!

miandad was ok against pace but yes he never scored against WI pace attack from 1976-1988. not even on pakistani pitches pls go check the record..finally when holding, garner, roberts everyone retired, miandad scored 2 centuries in 1988 series.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

I am surprised part of this thread turned into which fans are less sporting. I think PD original point was lots of fans, especially from Pakistan Sri Lanka and BD questioned whether India would do well in SA. And the Indian performance showed that they did better than expected.

Am I missing something, chapter 2?

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

India playing a lot of cricket is also helping but the broadcast audience is the real thing. Not only Pakistanis, fans from other countries were also expecting India will be thrashed. Imagine what amount of money the series would give you where India being thrashed or white-washed?

When Australia humiliated in India last time, even Indian fans were saying that all the teams are home track bullies, the only exception is SA. So what happen to SA all of sudden?

Pitches are being prepared to serve the business purpose.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

Turning the eyes to the most successful wicket-takers in ODIs, one sees a similar scenario. The top 10 highest wicket-takers include names who Tendulkar had faced but not Kohli. Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Chaminda Vaas, Shaun Pollock and others are the ones. Muttiah Muralidharan and Brett Lee were still playing when Kohli started but they were at the fag end of the respective careers.

So with the current Indian skipper playing almost none of the top 10 bowlers in ODIs, it is not absolutely fair to compare his tons with those of Tendulkar who had faced all the names mentioned above in their prime days. A similar caution applies to the Gavaskar versus Tendulkar debate for the latter had not played the likes that his predecessor had faced up front during his playing days.

However, having said this, we can still defend Tendulkar vis-à-vis Gavaskar and Kohli vis-à-vis Tendulkar. When we say Tendulkar played a weaker bowling attack compared to Gavaskar and Kohli compared to that to Tendulkar, the counter question can be: There are many others who are playing/have played the same bowling attacks during their times but they couldn’t replicate either Tendulkar or Kohli in their performances. This in itself is an evidence strong enough to suggest that the greatness of either Tendulkar or Kohli cannot be belittled by statistics only.

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Re: India in South Africa * kohli!

come on sarkar

this is all what we are capable of…conspiracy theories.never give credit where it is due, always come up with excuses. the fact of the matter is that pitches were extremely bouncy. the 3rd test pitch was so bouncy and dangerous that umpires wanted to abandon the match…but guess who won that game. india.