Day 1 @ the centurion, pakistani batting seems to have so far outclassed indian batting in South Africa. India did not play a test match at the centurion but they did have a ODI here and apart from Tendulkar none of the other indian batsmen did anything worthwhile.
India has bowled pretty well in SA so it will be interesting to see how a supposedly better pakistani bowling line up (atleast on paper) fares on the same grounds.
The purpose of this thread is to see how these subcontinental giants (apnay ghar may sher) both fare up in a good testing ground i.e. SA.
Re: Your Analysis: India in South Africa vs Pakistan in South Africa
Centurion wicket is not as crispy as Durban, J'Burg or Port Elizbeth. But on Pakistan's own record in SA in general, we are proceeding with caution at this point. If we pull 350+ tomorrow with the remaining wickets it will be somewhat satisfying result. But wait for the our bowling and the second innings batting to make a comparission with India's recent performance.
Re: Your Analysis: India in South Africa vs Pakistan in South Africa
I will still say depleted Pakistani side in the absence of some key players such as Akhtar, Gul, Razzaq, Malik and then Sami and Afridi, which mean in the absence of more than half the side, with unsettled openers, faired up better than India, who had the services of all the principle players.
Imagine, having Malik and Razzaq in the test squad along with Akhtar and Gul. I think Pakistan even had chances to win the series.
Re: Your Analysis: India in South Africa vs Pakistan in South Africa
Although I agree looking from the results perspective, however Pakistani team was really depleted.
So I would give Pakistan more marks for fighting it out better in the Tests. As for the ODI they just lost complete momentum after the 3rd washed out game with INZI saying in the pre 4th game interview that "
the boyz are really upset and tired with so little time between games."
I believe the team just plain gave up.
So for the ODIs we had a rare flourish but showed no grit.
Hence the marks would be even for the ODIs between India and Pakistan.
This is clearly reflected in our ODI ranking now. We are in a league within a league as a report put it just a point or two apart from 3 down to no 7 with SA and Aus. standing clearly apart from the rest.
Re: Your Analysis: India in South Africa vs Pakistan in South Africa
We played bad.. and if we play the same, i dont see us playing late in the WC.
Totally agree, we should not measure PAK performance with respect to India performance, especially looking at the fact that India got their best batting line up in the history of Indian cricket, with three members with more than 10,000 runs, and Kumbli and Harbajan at their peak, while on other hand, Pakistan in a rebuilding phase with depleted bowling resources due to injuries. Having said all this would agree with some of the above comments that if Pakistan had the services of Akhtar and Gul along with an aggressive and positive leadership, they could have made the history by winning test series against SA. They were in the position in both lost matches (first and last test) but they couldn't finish it off. But when it comes down to ODI, the way Pakistan bowling performed and batting to some extent, I think SA should have allowed Zimbwave to chase the Pak targets.
Re: Your Analysis: India in South Africa vs Pakistan in South Africa
we werent whitewashed, so thats the huge consolation for me. infact one win was all i was looking for this tour. as far as im concerned, mission accomplished.
Re: Your Analysis: India in South Africa vs Pakistan in South Africa
I think the basic message is for Pakistan's middle order to click as a unit the openers need to do a lot better than what they have been doing lately. A start of 50-60 is essential esp. against top-ranked teams like SA and Australia. If the openers don't fire in the WC, our middle-order will continue to fail just as it did against SA. I would rather Pakistan consistently score 260-280 in every one-day game than run amok with 300+ one day and get bowled out for less than 150 in the very next match . 260-280 might not be enough on certain days but it atleast gives the bowlers something to work with.
Re: Your Analysis: India in South Africa vs Pakistan in South Africa
the odd 350 scores are a positive sign...hopefully 2 or 3 good days over the span of the worldcup will get us into the final...just like in the 92 worldcup...our last 4 games were good (aus, nz, nz, eng)...the rest were, well, complete bs!
yes i think wit my heart...my brain tells me pakistan has no chnace of semi's...but my heart says we will get to the final for sure...
fingers corssed guys, cup starts in less than a month, we will know for sure by then...
