Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar, right, and V.V.S Laxman return for the tea interval on the final day of the first cricket test match between India and Australia, in Bangalore, India, Monday, Oct. 13, 2008. AP Photo/Gautam Singh
It will be a Battle Royale. Will India retain her newly acquired No. 1 ranking in Test cricket? They will be sorely tested by former No.1 and current No. 2 nation, South Africa, in the two Test series starting at Nagpur, India on Saturday.
India, under their best ever captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, lead the visitors under the indefatigable Graeme Smith by five points: India on 125 points, South Africa 120 (with Australia on the trail with 118).
Overall, South Africa have won 10 Tests and lost 5 to India, with 7 drawn. But in India, it is even-stevens, with teams winning 4 Tests each, and two left undecided.
India have the home advantage, more spectator support, and pitches with less grass to neutralize to some extent the fiery pace of Dale Steyn.
As both teams have prolific batsmen, we expect high-scoring matches.
India have world-class openers in Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, followed by classy batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, and the dynamic three-in-one skipper-keeper-batter, Dhoni.
However, the absence of The Wall, aka Rahul Dravid, undergoing an operation on his broken jaw, will be felt.
In captain courageous, Smith, Jacques Kallis, AB deVilliers, Hashim Amla, Jean-Paul Duminy, Ashwell Prince and wicket-keeper Mark Boucher, the tourists also have batting talent to burn.
South Africa have an edge in bowling, having the potential match-winner Steyn, the fastest bowler among today’s cricketers. But will the grassless pitches in India give him bounce and swing?
On paper, India’s attack appears weaker, but in Zaheer Khan, they have the best exponent of reverse swing. While tall and skinny, Ishant Sharma, 21, is erratic one day, a match-winner the next.
Both teams lack quality spinners as the rival H’s, India’s Harbhajan Singh and South Africa’s Paul Harris, lack bite and turn these days.
Sehwag is in tremendous touch with the bat and has scored the highest Test score in the South Africa-India Test series. In Chennai in 2007-08, he hammered 319 runs. The highest by South Africa against India is 196 by Herschelle Gibbs at Port Elizabeth in 2001-02.
Daredevil all-rounder, Lance ‘Zulu’ Klusener, has the best bowling spell in an innings against India, 8-64 in the 1996-97 Kolkata Test. Fast bowler Allan Donald has the best bowling in a match in the India-South Africa series, 12-139 (5-55 and 7-84) in the 1992-93 Port Elizabeth Test.
And this brings me to another point, a burning issue.
Since Donald, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath have retired, we have not had a bowler capable of running through a side. Batsmen have gained all advantages in the last few decades: such as helmets, shorter boundary lines, and powerful spring-loaded bats.
But bowlers have received no such “bonuses”.
I strongly condemn Shahid Afridi’s ball-biting incident last Sunday. It was inexcusable. However, do not bowlers deserve some fringe benefits, too?
For instance, a greenish pitch, a slightly smaller ball with slightly raised seam, and a new ball after 65 overs?
Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.
The Crowd Says (11) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
Do you have what it takes to become a sports writer? Write for the roar
Cricket articles
- What we do and don’t know about our Baggy Greens (112)
- Success of Twenty20 spells trouble for ODI cricket (106)
- Channel 9 commentators an annoyance this summer (102)
- One Day Cricket is suffering from Middle Child Syndrome (89)
- Cricket Australia must take a stand against racist spectators (89)
- Dave’s Warner-ful switch-hit panned by precious critics (84)
- Khawaja shouldn’t have been Shaun from the Test side (71)
- Clarke stars as Australia beat Sri Lanka
- Australia vs Sri Lanka, Perth ODI: cricket live scores, commentary (197)
- Hall of Fame for Indian legend Gavaskar
- Sri Lanka to target ‘weak’ Aussie bowlers
- India backing Rohit Sharma to find form
- Game-by-game preview of round 19
- Twenty20 cricket not up to the test (6)
- Australia vs Sri Lanka, Perth ODI: cricket live scores, commentary (197)
- Twenty20 cricket not up to the test (6)
- Pakistan’s win over England a triumph of character (21)
- Steve Waugh is right about cricket’s succession plan (5)
- India vs Sri Lanka, Perth ODI: cricket live scores, commentary (180)
- Let’s talk about selection, Test fans (28)
- Pakistan win shows what’s beautiful about the game (13)
Savvas Tzionis said | February 5th 2010 @ 8:28am | Report comment
It is such a shame that Test cricket is more competitive than ever with FIVE (not one or two) teams vying for top spot, yet its status has dimished with 20/20 cricket having such enormous support amongst the masses.
Whiteline said | February 5th 2010 @ 9:40am | Report comment
A green pitch would help Kersi. Opening is the best spot to bat these days (ask sehwag)
- no movement off the seam or swing
- defensive field
- captains who choose to have sweepers rather than catchers
- no reverse swing initially
I’d love to see the day when a team has to struggle through the first few sessions, like Sydney a few weeks ago.
Brett McKay said | February 5th 2010 @ 10:19am | Report comment
great stuff Kersi, be interesting to see how the Test pans out. Probably fair to say the South African seamers aren’t expecting a raging green-top on the first morning though..
And to answer your question, bowlers are well entitled to the fringe benefit of saliva and the process of shining the ball, or even loading one side with moisture to exploit reverse swing, but there can be no justification, never ever, to tamper with the characteristics of the ball as Afridi did so blatantly last week.
Sadly, that he only has to sit out two token T20Is as punishment, is a bigger indictment than the crime itself….
preciouspress said | February 5th 2010 @ 11:48am | Report comment
Interested in your opinion of Harbhajan Singh’s current form. Do you base this on statistics or from watching him on TV. I have neither on which to argue with you. However I would be surprised were Singh not to be a continuing threat to Test batsmen.
In my view Paul Harris has never been anything more than steady reaching his zenith in recent Tests against Australia. I suspect Hauritz might fall into a similar category. Regarding Swann – I’m not yet sure.
Rather than individual fallibility could it be that the off spinning genre finds it hard to consistently threaten. Laker, Sarfraz hit high spots but not for long. Maybe Gibbs and Tayfield were exceptions to a rule that ‘offies don’t rule for very long’.
vinay verma said | February 6th 2010 @ 8:43am | Report comment
Kersi,Nagpur is known as the City of Oranges. The key will be the pitch. Will it be a lemon? I see Kapil Dev has advocated preparing a dustbowl. This could backfire as India has good spinners but not great spinners. Harbhajan,I agree with you,has yet to stamp himself as a consistent match winner. He lifts against stronger opposition. His carreer strike rate is 65.7 but against Australia and South Africa it drops to around 56. So he has the talent and will to dominate but I feel he needs to “fire” up and sometimes seems distracted. He has the skills but has tended to bowl too many darts..India plays too many ODI’s and not enough Tests. This has hampered Harbhajan’s development.
A dust bowl may also play into South Africa’s hands. Steyn and Morkel will exploit any underprepared pitch. For me the interesting part will be the condition of the pitch. This will tell me if the BCCI is serious about the long term or are obsessed with the immediate.
India look like having a debutant in Badrinath. His plight is much like Hodge and Siddons. They played when Australia had a surfeit of riches. Dravid’s injury gives Badrinath an opportunity.
Both sides have a strong batting lineup but I feel Steyn and Morkel will decide the outcome. If they bowl well it will be South Africa in a close series.
This is also a chance for players to impress the IPL franchises. So the team that is focussed in the middle will win. They can’t afford to think of the money in the IPL. This is Test Cricket and only the strong survive.
Kersi Meher-Homji said | February 6th 2010 @ 9:27am | Report comment
Preciouspress, I think Vinay has answered your question regarding Harbhajan Singh.
Badrinath is promising, Vinay but I would have preferred Raina. Raina is a Test class left-handed batsman but is considered only as an ODI specialist.
Justin said | February 7th 2010 @ 7:56am | Report comment
Guys – Can someone give me the reason for “cricket-mad” Indians pretending this Test series doesnt exist? There must have been only 3k people in the stadium yesterday. It was atrocious and insulting to the players IMO.
What is the Nagpur situation regarding location, ticket prices etc?
Forgetmenot said | February 7th 2010 @ 8:00am | Report comment
I have no answer.
But that is very very bad news for Test cricket. India basicallycontrols cricket, and if t20 becomes big there, then tests will take a backseat.
vinay verma said | February 7th 2010 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Justin,sadly the eminence of Test Cricket in India is a thing of the past. It has been consigned to Museum status and the current generation is not inclined to even visit the museum. If at all there are any viewers they are in TV land. Test and One Day cricket net the BCCI $100 million US a year which is less than the $150 million a year for the 6 week IPL.So the market has already valued Test Cricket lower than the IPL. Tradition be dammed count the ruppees is the mantra.
Nagpur is the home of Shashank Manohar,the BCCI chief. This is the only reason why this Test is being played in this cricketing outpost. You would think he would ensure good crowds for this important series? You would think he could fill the stadium with school children. I am not sure what the ticket pricing is like but the last time around you had to buy a five day ticket. The ground is located more than 40 kms outside the city and if I was living in nagpur I would rather watch it from the comfort of my lounge room. If they had played this Test in Kolkata or Mumabi it would have had decent crowds.
The BCCI is doing a disservice to cricket . Instead of celebrating some of the greatest batsmen in Test Cricket it chooses to eulogise less than pristine Industrialists and cheap Bollywood glitz. The sad part is that it has seduced the current generation. The wizadry of the spin quartet and the heroics of Kapil Dev and Gavaskar do not figure in the current cricket lexicon.
At least Australia still has a love for Test Cricket and for this I am thankful. Test Cricket in India may as well be handed over to the Taxidermist.
Brett McKay said | February 7th 2010 @ 11:13am | Report comment
Vinay, entry to the museum’s probably too expensive too..
vinay verma said | February 7th 2010 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
Brett the entrance fee is Rupees 10 which is around 25 cents. It may be considered expensive to view dinosaurs.