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Satyam, Please ignore the above comment. I agree with your feelings about not having separate thread dedicated for politics. It is really hard to keep that discussion civil for more than few minutes 😀
Satyam’s idea about this blog was to classify stuff into 3 categories – the good, the bad and the ugly! Today he just reinforced and created that 3 threads, you pick the one you relate, Lol! 😀
wont work Coolguy becoz it becomes such a maze that I always want to do a quick check on BO updates – but by the time I find ’em – it is almost the next day 😉
Lol, I’m sure there will be many who won’t purposely go on China thread or sports thread to discuss Padmaavat or new releases. Whereas folks from China will surely pop in other threads to show their presence on the blog. So, its inevitable but in that sense and they will try to come to the main thread where many folks discuss movies.
I agree…I am definitely interested to know China gross but i have no interest in knowing it on an hourly basis…Like other Movies overseas gross i am fine knowing it weekend basis etc…This structure makes it easy….Anyone who wants to read details of China movies, SS and Lolita monkey man hourly gross can go into the china thread
“IPL Auction Deeply Humiliating, Players Paraded Like Cattle”
Updated: 31 January 2018 14:02 IST
580 players were up for auction ahead of the season which runs from April 7 to May 27. The IPL has been boosted by a new five year $2.5-billion media deal.
The New Zealand Cricket Players Association has hit out at the Indian Premier League Player Auction process, describing it as “undignified and cruel”. This is the first time cricket administrators from a country have openly criticised the auction. “”I think the whole system is archaic and deeply humiliating for the players, who are paraded like cattle for all the world to see,” Heath Mills, chief executive of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.
Mills backed the views of Peter Clinton, a former chief executive of Wellington Cricket, who tweeted: “The IPL Auction is such an undignified, cruel and unnecessary employment practice. Ridiculous that it exists today, belongs in the medieval ages.”
Mills stated that there was a need to change the system in order for it facilitate greater engagement with players.
“There’s a lot of good things about the Indian Premier League and it’s been great for cricket but I’d like to see it mirror the rest of professional sport in the way they engage athletes,” Mills said.
“Some players do exceptionally well out of if but the vast majority would like to see the system changed. They would like to negotiate with coaches and owners behind closed doors.”
According to Mills, the auction system renders the players helpless, with no control over their destinies.
“The players enter the auction not knowing where they are going, who their team-mates are going be, who’s managing them, who the owners are — no other sports league in the world engages players on that basis,” he said.
The IPL Governing Council is likely to discuss the feasibility of an alternate model to the auction going forward.
“Going forward, the thinking is that we will reduce, maybe not have mega auctions, but consider having a draft system for new players to come in, which acts as feeder system to teams. Hence, IPL Governing Council is thinking on the lines of how to cut down on the big auction and have the continuity with teams,” Hemang Amin, the IPL’s chief operating officer, said at the end of the latest auction in Bengaluru last weekend.
Rising pace bowler Jaydev Unadkat joined Ben Stokes in the Rajasthan Royals for $1.8 million but a host of foreign stars failed to get deals in the IPL auction.
The Rajasthan Royals made Unadkat the second most expensive player in the auction behind England’s Stokes who they bought for $1.96 million on the opening day.
Stokes — still facing an assault criminal case in England — and Unadkat will join Australian captain Steve Smith at the Royals as they return to the lucrative T20 league after a two-year illegal gambling ban.
Indian batsmen Manish Pandey and Lokesh Rahul both pocketed $1.7 million after being sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab respectively on Saturday.
580 players were up for auction ahead of the season which runs from April 7 to May 27. The IPL has been boosted by a new five year $2.5-billion media deal.
Not really if they want it to be NFL and do the bidding behind closed doors then Ambani will have the best team. The whole point of fairness comes when everyone is given same budget and then you make your team. If there is no limit or cap the budget then 1 team will have best players and then it will not be fair tournament. With the current format, any team can win the tournament anytime.
They should have band..
X number of players could be in this band, Y in another band…
You shouldn’t be allowed to give a lot to some players…
It feels awkward when some known good players don’t get bids and some players are paid too much. Some bidding was happening by non-interested parties just to increase the price. It is good tactics but you are diluting the overall quality.
I felt that way from day one. How can they not even ask someone who they want to play for. I thought this will change. But it never did. Though auction for viewers is fun, but players ought to have some say. Anyways I also felt for 5-6 weeks they get good money and they are aware of the deal and process when they send out their names to play in IPL. And they get paid sometimes 10 fold then their basic expectations due to auction process. So in a way it benefits them too. And it’s matter of only handful of weeks which they get to skip a few games too. I think more players would be liking this than we think.
I must admit I started to understand and then enjoy NFL / American Football only due to Tom Brady. This Sunday will be his 8th appearance at the Super Bowl. Patriots have played in 7 Super Bowls with Tom Brady and they’ve all been instant classics. Last few times the final 15 minutes of the game involving the Patriots became nail biting with Brady being the catalyst with four-time Super Bowl MVP. He is right up there with all the GOAT in any arena ranks close to Michael Jordan and Lebron.
Patriots of Bill Belichick, Tom Brady rank among greatest sports dynasties of all time
“……They are some of the most iconic names and teams in sports history, and their greatness has become the standard by which all others are judged.
The Yankees of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, who from 1949-64 won 14 pennants and from 1949-53 won five consecutive World Series.
The Bill Russell-Red Auerbach Celtics, who won 11 titles in 13 seasons in the Fifties and Sixties.
The Bulls of Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson, winners of six rings in the Nineties.
And now the Patriots have taken their rightful place among the all-time dynasties.
Win or lose against the Eagles on Sunday, the fact that the Patriots are in their eighth Super Bowl in Tom Brady’s 17 seasons as Bill Belichick’s quarterback is remarkable in and of itself. Should they win a sixth Super Bowl — which would make Brady unique and extend Belichick’s lead among coaches — it would add yet another magnificent accomplishment to a mind-boggling run.
Where should the Patriots be put in historical perspective? At the very top of at least one important category.
Although they haven’t had the sustained success of the Yankees (27 world championships) or the Montreal Canadiens (24 Stanley Cups), you can draw a line of demarcation at free agency. Before it changed professional sports irrevocably, teams could keep players under contract indefinitely, so there were no concerns about having to break up championship teams.
But free agency drastically changed the competitive landscape, starting with Major League Baseball in 1976 and continuing with the NFL in 1993, the NHL in 1995 and the NBA in 1996. Keeping great teams together became virtually impossible, greatly diminishing the chances for sustained success……”
Initially it was the same for me but once you start following this sport it gets very interesting and so many technicalities with each plays. Brady is one of those great athletes and just the charisma and his body language on the football field makes one watch this very physical sport. He is cool as a cucumber like the other greats.
Due to Super Bowl mania these days, TV is full of these debates where they are now equating him to all time greats like Jordan, Ali, Pele, Federer and Messi.
I watch news bulletins on UK TV. But I find it loud and prefer Rugby. Just haven’t got into it. Maybe one day. Not to be prejudice against American sports but I dislike the excruciating long breaks. Watched baseball and basketball live – utterly bored. Plus maybe I’m old school, I like the trash talk in crowd, swearing and chants. Baseball they showed happy families on the screens like a big family day out. Too family friendly for me.
The NFL is trying to popularise the game outside the United States and I think they play an International series in London every year….but it’s an expensive sport in terms of gear etc and will never take off elsewhere….
Though I am from a cricketing mad nation but still find Baseball not only boring but look at it as a chance sport in the category of Golf….
( may be I haven’t grasped the fine technicalities yet )
NBA is always right up there along with few high profile NHL games but only after the playoffs kick in….. Surprisingly I have lost interest in Soccer which I was used to be mad about and played actively until school and college level. Was following actively it till Zidane etc were there and when it was still more skilled than set pieces…. Last World Cup was a total bummer esp that German- Brazilian match…..
This year there was a brand new American talent Christian Pulisic and I was thinking he is destined for big things but then the Americans failed to qualify…… so lost whatever little interest I regained in the prelims. But that guy is electric in field and wish the americans qualified for world to see…..
American Football is the best. It is like Chess played on a field. Every play is a scheme, fully designed, practiced, orchestrated and executed with super athletes. It has really sophisticated playbooks and evolved especially when you compare against Soccer, hockey basketball etc. Soccer hasn’t changed since bunch of cavemen kicking around a coconut into their caves. Kidding.
Due to privacy reasons, I don’t wish to disclose the reason I started to understand and then enjoy this sport but once all the technicalities and each play from offense and defense point of view were explained, it became not only engaging but enthralling…..plus all the hoopla on TV cannot go unnoticed. Just this season the Divisional Game between Vikings- Saints went into annals of history….no wonder it’s the most popular sport in US at the moment and not losing steam anytime soon inspite of the concussion fears….
“…Vikings beat the Saints and erased their playoff misery with the most spectacular comeback possible…”
No trying to nitpick but going back to my previous convo with Saket, hypothetically a 35-45 would not have sealed the deal….like what a certain ‘god of cricket’ would normally do in such situations of the past and walk away with i have done my part.
“Kohli hundred dismantles South Africa” – espn
A big one was needed from team’s No 1 player – Delivered
It was facile victory. Australia needed 300 to challenge India. Indians were sloppy on field. Merlo could have been run out couple of times.
Having said that, I looked at line up of 2012 final and didn’t see anyone at national level. Head and Bancroft are in national side. As Dravid said this is just start and they need to do more to be successful later in life.
Dravid will eventually ascend to becoming India’s best ever coach (I hope and predict). He has the right combination of pedigree. Famous, respected, dedicated, reliable, gritty, skilful, warrior like. Totally wish he gets there but this is a tiny step. Plus that stat of the 2012 team and no one there today doesn’t surprise me. Cricket is not like football in this sense. The latter you actually play together and can end up at the same youth team early on. Plus the youth setups in football are formidable nowadays. In cricket it’s much more on your individual development and circumstances.
Rahul Dravid is world’s best coach at the moment: Virender Sehwag to India TV
Head coach Dravid’s innate passion and dedication for the sport has finally paid off as his young India U-19 team lifts the coveted world cup trophy beating Australia by eight wickets on Saturday.
If there is one cricketer who deserves this honour more than anybody else, it is Rahul Dravid. Dravid’s tryst with the World Cup is an old one – from being the vice-captain of the team that lost the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup final (against Australian side) to crashing out in the group stages in 2007 edition where he was the captain. The 45-year old’s long impending dream of holding that coveted world cup trophy eluded him in his 16-year international career where he achieved many laurels for the country.
However, as they say – those who work hard write their own destiny and the saying has finally become a reality in case of Rahul Dravid. On Saturday at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, the fate brought him back into the limelight once again when his young brigade took defeated Australia by eight wickets in the title clash of ICC U-19 World Cup. And, the result is history now, Dravid is a World Cup winning Coach – an honour many cricketers dream or just think of.
During our exclusive show ‘Cricket Ki Baat’, India TV’s cricket expert and former India opener Virender Sehwag believes Rahul Dravid is the most appropriate man for the job and with this win, he has proved his calibre as the world’s best cricket coach. Sehwag said: “In his 16 or 17 years career, Rahul Dravid never managed to get his hands around the world cup trophy, but as a coach, he has lived that dream with the help of this young U-19 team.”
He added, “Dravid is world’s best coach at the moment and as a player, his records speak for themselves. He prepared his wards for the big game and taught him the nuances to handle the pressure of a big final.”
Speaking about playing the pressure of playing a World Cup final, Viru said, “More than physical, it’s the mental pressure which players need to absorb of playing the final of a world event. Every player who dreams of representing India has a long-live dream of winning the coveted world cup in his career.”
Sehwag also added that playing the senior cricket world cup is more difficult as compared to the U-19 competition. If it would have been easy, India would have lifted the 50-over world cup more than twice just like Australia who have won it five times.
Lets just say, I am a bigger Dravid fan than you are Akshay’s fan.
But I think Best label comes with time and how you manage resources you have along with accompanying strategy. I think U19 team was strong and kids needed mentor who could guide them. To be called best you need to deliver at pro level. Having said that, I don’t want him to coach the senior team; there is too much politics.
It was nice of Dravid to go to Pakistan dressing room after crushing loss to India and talk to kids. That tells more about the person than coach or cricketer.
Munna , I am not at all a fan of Dravid. I admire him a bit more than other coaches 🙂
My observations are not based on results but have been based on Rahul’s conduct and thought process evident via his post match interviews and media briefings + narrations from the players who were coached by Dravid.
I also dont agree that time will tell who is greatest contemporary coach. I humbly ask why?
Please tell me which of the current coaches in cricket world are better than Dravid?
“narrations from the players who were coached by Dravid.”
Which players are you talking about? He has been coach of India A , Under 19 and mentor in Delhi Devil and Rajasthan Royals.
To be called best:
1. How long you have achieved success?
2. Strategy
3. Marshaling your limited resources.
Of course responsibilities overlap with Captain. In cricket Coach has long term vision (including match) and captain short term on field.
Pakistan need mentor like Dravid for youngsters, says Ramiz
“I am impressed with the temperament shown by some of the Indian players. They have a fine find in Shubman Gill and others. Rahul Dravid deserves lot of credit for preparing and grooming them so effectively,” he said.
Ramiz said having someone like Dravid as their coach and mentor was a big boost for the Indian youngsters.
“They learn such a lot from him not just about cricket but about everything else. How to conduct oneself, how to develop game sense and so on,” he said.
Smriti Mandhana scores a century vs SA-W at Kimberly to register huge win, while Kohli scores 160 at Cape Town, results awaited for men’s match. Both Women and Men cross 300 runs team total.
So biopics have been made on Dhoni, Tendulkar, Azharrudin and Kapil in pipeline (’83 win) who else will get one among those who retired.
Ganguly, Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Kumble, Sehwag? I think the first two – Dada and Jammy are a possibility. Especially in Dada’s case Chappell can be vilified for screwing his career. Jammy can end with his win in U19 World Cup as coach
Virat Kohli is a genius and best in the world: Javed Miandad
“In Virat Kohli’s case his batting method is what allows him to score runs not just once but almost every time he comes in to bat. If a batsman’s technique is bad, he can put some runs on the board once in a while, but he will not be able to do that consistently which is exactly true in Kohli’s case. To me the mark of a great batsman, like Kohli is the fact that he can vary his technique by quickly understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the bowlers. Kohli is a genius who is the best batsman in the world,” said Miandad, who scored 7381 runs at an average of 41.70 in 233 ODIs.
“The loss to India in the ICC Under-19 World Cup was by a big margin of 203 runs which is hard to take but if truth be told, our team was lucky to have progressed that far given the inexperience of our players. Of course, victory and defeat are part of any sport, but we need to accept that there was a huge difference in terms of skills between both teams. India is a huge country with a bigger population than Pakistan, yet our players are able to challenge India in cricket which tells me that we have the potential, but we simply do not have the system that can support and get the best out of that potential,” said the 60-year-old who captained Pakistan in 34 Tests and 62 ODIs.
What is noteful from Miandad’s read – “The Pakistan great singled out Kohli’s technical prowess and ability to rescue India from difficult situations and steer them to victories as the hallmark of a “great” batsman”
This to me is the key. One more here…
Michael Clarke thinks Virat Kohli is the greatest ODI player of all time and he is not alone
Very likely. If he was thinking beyond 2018, I doubt he would be playing at Rotterdam and Dubai in a bid to regain #1 ranking (perhaps for the last time). The target maybe to play as much as possible till year end and say final goodbye. He possibly cant go on forever.
he walked in at 210/4 in 36.3 overs. In 13.3 overs (81 balls of which Dhoni faces 43 to score 42 runs), 79/3 is ok..? with Pandya, Dhoni, Iyer – India should have finished better.
India should have done better but he still added crucial runs at the end. Obviously he’s at the very fag end of his career. He’s not gong to have too many great days. Don’t even think he should be playing at this point. A guy who’s known the fame he has shouldn’t just be more or less a journeyman on a one day team. 20/20 is fine.
His ability to win matches with strike rate is gone. He brings stability in lower order when things are not good. His intangibles in guiding youngster is invaluable. Can he be replaced, yes. But his replacements are not significantly better.
Dhoni is undeniably one of India’s greats. I think after giving up captaincy he could let loose and play a bit like when he burst onto the scene, like the loss of this responsibility should liberate his game. But I think he’s still playing and thinking like a captain. Still India’s best option as a genuine all-rounder.
to be honest I would not have minded retaining him as captain. I like Kohli in this role too but if Dhoni is going to be on the team might as well use his greater experience in this sense. And kohli isn’t the sort of guy who needs too much grooming anyway. Having said that Kohli seems to find the job motivating. Unlike many others who are not cut out for it.
He is superb as a captain. But his game has slowed with that responsibility. I agree Kohli himself doesn’t need to captain but Dhoni’s voice is less relevant once he gave up tests. Plus I think Dhoni wanted to play 2019 and captaincy may have hurt those prospects.
Like munna says he can strike at 100 or thereabouts but rarely does. But he is so unique as an ODI batsman that you think he can turn it on if it’s a big occasion. You’d put him in ahead of anyone except Kohli if you needed 20 off 2 overs, at least I would.
He just cannot hit the ball coming at crease. He takes time to settle. Probabtwith age your ability to time the ball wanes. He could have scored 10 ball 10 but then India score would have been 250-260. His significant innings are when India chips are down; be it dharmshala one day or one where he partnered with Pandya. If things are all rosy at top, you typically don’t need him.
I said exactly the same thing to someone today! The ground looks beautiful but the pitch almost looked pink enough to match the pink SA were wearing as well as some of it elsewhere!
quite a match. After de Villiers went (and specially given how dangerous he looked) I thought the match was over. But they came up with some incredible hitting. specially at the end. Didn’t expect Phelukwayo to have a 460 SR! When the match was over they said SA have never lost playing in pink!
This is where Kohli need to learn…One over from Bumrah was enough to suggest that they need fast bowlers than spinners to stop the run flow. Moreover spinners were straying. All pitches are not going to assist you so they needed to change strategy. When Chahal bowled straight and good length he got miller. You will hit couple but when you miss, you will be out.
SA were quite lucky with Miller…A catch dropped then a LBW and then a catch on the free hit…That’s like getting a batsman out thrice in a over. IF miller had fallen then we would have won. I don’t really believe SA has worked out the spinners. Just that it was a T20 game kind of scenario and they were throwing bat at everything sweeping or reverse sweeping….In a normal 50 over game they wont be taking so many risks
When is Rohit Sharma going to show up and make himself counted? Why doesn’t he roll his arms in limited overs game nowadays. For God’s sake he has an IPL hattrick.
Get back Yuvi, if he is ready to bowl part time. Since we need somebody who can fill in some overs.
Question marks on Ajinkya Rahane utility in limited format as well
At one stage, we had Sachin, Sourav, Yuvraj, Raina, Sehwag. Now there are no part timers besides Kedar Jadhav
Rohit is out of form and South African fast pitches are not made for him…
I am not a fan of his batting..but he is one of best timer of ball when he is on roll…
Very interesting read for non cricket enthusiasts too.
Most celebrities are media made. Especially in the times of internet. Before that, newspapers and magazines.
Both Dravid and Anand(conservative families) are from south of Vindhyas where education is given utmost importance since the times of Macaulay. But the most interesting ones come from the swashbuckling north like Sehwag, Yuvraj and others. But there are exceptions everywhere. Like Sreeshant.
It seems media likes masala giving types who provide them with interesting personal stories by attending parties, creating speculations, even twitter activities etc. than purely professional sportsmen who just do their job and talk about their job only. Yes, they want sportsmen to be like filmstars.
One thing the article says and probably true is that you can not be casual viewer/watcher/follower (not cricket elite ) of cricket and fan of Dravid. You need to understand cricket to appreciate Dravid. Simple question to identify: love for Test cricket, ODI and T20 and fans they have.
I am somewhat circumspect with this 5-1 winning..I think South Africa batting has been very weak. Their bowling has been decent (Rabada and Morkel are good but the next best bowler was Ngidi). It could have been better. Even the first two test wins by South Africa was 1 good inning by ABD and FDP. Amla has been out of form.
Kohli batting has been good…But I think India will struggle on pitches like the one in test. One day wickets were flatter, probably for entertainment.
Rohit is total misfit on fast wickets. Comparatively Dhawan has been decent. Rahane and Panda need to be more focussed. They tend to lose their wickets instead of bowler taking the wicket.
Anushka has had a very good influence on him in terms of calming him down off the field and channeling his energy with various goodwill projects he is now involved with. Only wish that he tones it down a bit on the expressions on field but may be that is something which gets him going.
“….Kohli, Man of the match and Man of the Series: It was a day where I felt really good. Last game, I was not in the right kind of mindset. This is a beautiful place to bat under lights. That’s the idea behind bowling first. I like setting up for the short ball. It was a blessing in disguise, and they kept bowling short. I think the pitch got better to bat on under lights. It has been a rollercoaster till now. People who are close to me deserve a lot of credit. My wife has kept me going throughout the tour. I am grateful for that. Obviously, you want to lead from the front, and that’s a wonderful feeling. I have got eight or nine years left in my career and I want to make the most of every day. It’s a blessing that I am healthy and getting to captain my country. They have shown great character – especially the two young spinners. Shikhar at the top, Rohit. The way the series went augurs well for us. We’re looking forward to the T20s. The tour is not over yet. As a team, we felt we did not play with the right frame of mind in the first two Tests. Come Johannesburg, we made up our mind that we will not take a backward step. After losing the Test series, I was talking to you. I am here taking to you after winning the ODI series.”
And he did it after a gap of more than 5 years. It is an amazing story of a great comeback (to slam glories and #1 ranking) after years of hanging on there.
Another such story of great comeback is Salman’s run since Dabangg. He did very well in the nineties, then just hung on through noughties. And then finally started his best run at box-office in his mid forties.
Great stories of resilience shown when chips were down.
Salman always had a big fan following. Why and how it wasn’t working from 2000 to 2009 and how it started working all of a sudden since Wanted that too is such a big way is still a mystery to me. I don’t think he has too many hits between 2000 and 2009. He had a Tere Naam and Partner and couple of others may be, but he probably wasn’t even in top 5 during those years.
Salman has no doubt played his cards well since Wanted. But his comeback is a mystery to me too. It probably had something to do with the comeback of masala at that time with the success of Ghajini, Wanted and Dabangg. Perhaps the audience were also tired of SRK’s iterations at family romance, which left a void (Aamir can never fill the void of a pinup star with his slow working style).
Anyways, I see Salman’s run extending for another 2-3 years with his lineup of sequels – Race 3, Dabangg 3, Kick 2, Tiger 3, etc. Only suspect is Bharath, which may turn out to be another Tubelight. But he is wise enough to already pad it up with a bunch of sequels releasing around it.
Wanted was a small hit. Salman always had B and C centers. He lacked support of A centers. With Dabangg he got support of A center and he still holds it. And why A centers started supporting him? A centers suddenly started liking B and C center song “munni badnaam”!
His movie has always good songs and somewhat coherent story around bhai image..He tried to come out of Bhai image in Tubelight and fell flat.
Bhai was always popular in B and C centers. Even before Wanted there used to be processions in these centers when his films would release on Eid.
During Wanted these centers went into overdrive. But that is understandable because southern masala caters to their taste and Salman’s remakes were bound to excite them.
The surprise was when A centers accepted his Bhai image from Dabangg onwards. Attributing that to ‘Munni Badnaam’ is not correct imo. The sudden change in taste for these A centers remains a mystery.
Dabangg was not just about masala or munni badnam. It has the UP bad-ass-giri in the required doses and was a generally well made movie. It definitely started a trend for Sallu.
However, none of his other actioners measured upto Dabangg, and could not compare to even a average Aamir movie such as Dhoom3.
Sultan was the custom-made role for Sallu, which is why it clicked. BajrangiB was off course an emotional movie and had to click. Have’nt seen TZH, so cant comment.
But IMHO, other than Race 3, he will need some excellent scripts in these other sequels for them to work. Remember, Dabangg2 was hardly a patch on the original and could not muster the dreamt up results. Race3 might work due to the novelty. He couldve perhaps done a Dhoom4 and made it work.
But, now that age is catching up, I wonder how much longer all this can continue. Plus, younger stars are finally catching up.
Much like SRK at his peak, Salman does not have much to offer. He is in an iterative mode and will take all that he can from the sequels till the public stops showing up for his nonsense.
His only chance of sustenance is to make Bharat work well. Something like another Bajrangi Bhaijaan may give him a fresh lease of life. Else he is racing towards sequel fatigue.
By his own words, Federer’s great run got over when he ran into great forms from Rafa and Novak. Being older than them, its tremendous tenacity to outlast their run (specially Novak’s) and again give it back to Rafa at this stage.
One personal milestone he may be after is 100 ATP titles (currently at 96). He has a chance to win at Rotterdam. There is talk that he might play in Dubai too. Last year he played (and won) both Indian Wells and Miami in March before skipping the entire clay season. Lets see what he does this year.
Skipping clay will be the best way to go IMO. Three months of rest and then try to defend Wimbledon. I am not sure if he will play all three of Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami in the next few weeks; probably just one or at best two of them.
Unless he wins another slam this year, I somehow dont see him playing next year.
Anyways, glad that he has regained his #1 spot. Last year he played a lot during the end of the year in a bid to get there (although the plan went haywire at US Open with his injury, Del Potro and all that).
96 Vs Connor’s 109. He’s on 8 Wimbledon’s and if he wins this year he might think X. If anything he can play just because he wants to and it makes him happy. I wish an injury doesn’t force retirement and he just does it winning a slam.
He is playing for personal milestones. Nothing else can explain his participation at a ATP 500 level tournament at this point. I guess he will keep pushing for more, till his body strongly says no more. And he knows it can happen anytime.
Like him or not (I dont), but Kohli is the most aggressively successful cricketer ever in India. He puts Saurav Ganguly’s antics (and batting) to shame!
Humor with false equivalency.
Dravid did not play, he just coached.
Kohli plays and is ABSOLUTELY required to hold up an otherwise suspect Indian batting line-up. His fitness regime inspires his team-mates, and his aggression lifts their spirits. His aggression can sometimes be cringe-worthy, but he clearly gets to the nerves of all his opponents, and does what the Aussies did in their dominance decade. IMHO, he perhaps contributes to as much or more than 50% of every Indian victory.
Therefore, if the wife of the guy is required for him to have the mental stability for contributing that 50%, why not give her the credit??
True, That tweet has taken it out of context. Kohli was crediting Anushka for his own batting form and not the team victories, but than that’s what many people do
With an away series win of 5-1 against South Africa, Virat Kohli has put his name in the history of Indian cricket. He became the first Indian captain to win a bilateral series in South Africa. He has scored a total of 844 runs in the tour so far and no other batsman even comes close to those runs. The next highest scorer of the tour is Hashim Amla with 357 runs. Virat Kohli also closed in on Sachin Tendulkar’s 49th ODI tons record. In the sixth ODI, he notched up his 35th ODI hundred making him just 14 shy of the little master. Kohli’s purple patch has been the highlight for India’s pure domination in the ODI series in South Africa but one can’t look away from the role the Indian spinners played in the series. The spin duo of Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav got 33 wickets in the ODI series. That makes them account for more than 50% of the Proteas wicket. Kohli currently is scoring a ton in less than 7 innings and broke Tendulkar’s record of scoring the fastest 500 runs in a calendar year as well. (HT Correspondent)
Virat Kohli is well and truly on his way to break most batting records in world cricket, there is no denying that. The Indian skipper is in the form of his life and no team seems capable of stopping his scoring spree. South Africa was being viewed as an acid test for the Indian run machine, and not only has he passed that test but aced it. During the sixth and final match of the ODI series against South Africa, Kohli smashed his 35th century and in the process broke a plethora of records and now he can add another feather to his already illustrious cap.
Kohli is 130 runs away from scoring 1,000 runs in total in South Africa, which would make him only the second batsman in the history of cricket to do so on an international tour.
The Indian skipper was the top run-getter in the Test series with 286 runs and then became the first ever batsman to score 500 runs in a bilateral series, ending with a mammoth 558 runs. In the first T20I in Johannesburg, Kohli managed 26 taking his aggregate on the South Africa tour to 870.
Only West Indian legend Viv Richards has managed to score 1,000 or more runs on an international tour, achieving the feat in 1976 when he plundered a total of 1,045 runs on West Indies’ tour to England.
The West Indian great had scored 216 runs in ODIs and a whopping 829 runs in four Tests.
Cricket great Don Bradman had scored a total of 974 runs in five Tests in Australia’s tour to England but since there were no ODIs at that time, he couldn’t breach the 1000-run mark on an international tour.
In the Tests against South Africa, Kohli registered a high score of 153 with a century and a half-century to his name in the series. However, the Indian skipper took his game to another level in the ODIs, decimating the South Africans single-handedly.
Kohli scored 3 centuries and half-century with a high score of 160 not out. His 558 runs in the ODIs came at an average of 186 and a strike rate of 99.46.
The second T20I between India and South Africa will be played on Wednesday at Centurion while Newlands, Cape Town will host the final match of the tour on February 24.
If Nadal remains injured till then (which I really doubt), he may have a decent shot at winning his second French. But he wont have the stamina to be at his best at Wimbledon. Odds for him winning will be far higher at Wimbledon.
This was an outrageous knock. Watching this with commentary on that day, Robin Smith the South African commentator was just salivating on Tendulkar. This is easily the best non century knock I’ve seen period. He hit 3 boundaries in a row at one point, all different shots. The streak fell apart after a drinks break if I recall, the first bowl after – Akhtar got him and Tendulkar had cramp! I think!
The match was practically a knockout match in group stages. This was Tendulkar at his peak at 29 years of age. Few months later people called for him to retire after a torrid start to the Australian test series despite terrible umpiring decisions by Bucknor. Then he played a 241 odd not out in Sydney in Steve Waugh’s final test match and 60 odd not out followed by 194 not out in Pakistan to shut everyone up.
8 years later he walloped Steyn around in India before 11 WC with the first 200 and Shastri called him India’s superman!
Ganguly : “No. I still think I made the right decision at the toss. We just didn’t play well enough—bowled too short on a pitch which offered a lot if the ball was pitched up.”
Well it’s obvious they didn’t bowl well. The first few overs were embarrassing but in a final I could never understand a team wanting to chase – especially a team that boasted a great batting line up.
I liked only two things about Ganguky batting..off side batting…and effortless sixes down the pitch…
I don’t think he was a good captain..he was better than previous captains but there was not much strategy which showed in inconsistency (even with winning record)..I was always scared that India will lose even when they were in good position…
For me, Dhoni in India’s best captain till date, until Virat or someone else can create a super overseas record (outside sub continent record) in Tests. For that seam bowling needs to be strong – It is heading right way with Bhuvi, Shami, Bumrah, Umesh, Ishant and seam all rounders like Pandya
Dhoni was hardly an impressive captain in test matches (ODIs is a different story): he was far too defensive IMO, with un-imaginative, by the book bowling changes and field placements. And easily unnerved: he was always a couple of fours away from removing a slip fielder. I would pick Ganguly and Dravid over Dhoni as test match captains any day of the week. On Virat, I can’t even get to captaincy since the chap can’t seem to get the basics of team selection right — that being said I’d likely pick him over Dhoni in test matches but we need more time to tell…
India probably had the best batting during Ganguly times (still not good enough for overseas in terms of consistency)…And best bowling now in Kohli time..tests are something where skills are tested to maximum…ODI needs strategy where you can perform good even with limited resources and some luck..T20 – .one guy can change the game. Luck on that day
You need to defend runs even in Tests. With the quality of our pace attack then except Zak, others were unreliable – Sreesanth, RP Singh, Nehra, VRV Singh, Arun Varon, Praveen Kumar. Bhuvi was only coming up then.
With essentially the same resources in bowling, Dravid was much better as a test captain than Dhoni — the issue was that MSD just didn’t “feel” test matches, the ebb and flow of the match, the rhythm, the way he did with ODIs. Stated differently, Dhoni’s defensiveness did not emanate from bowling per se, but from his ODI-orientation (ODI is in essence a more defensive form of the game, and Dhoni brought that mindset to test matches as well). In general, Dravid’s captaincy has been written out of Indian public memory, and this is a huge shame: his batting suffered, it is true, but purely as captain he had results. I would certainly pick Dhoni as India’s greatest-ever ODI captain, but not “best Indian captain”; his test match captaincy is too poor for that.
Accuser and Kobe settled outside and charges were dropped. He went through the process but there are many people who said it was kind of anti #Metoo…But his comment during acceptance was political..against Foxs new anchor comment…Kobe comment was organic in his acceptance speech..
Personally I think politics should be kept away from awards…Your politics should be in movies..As a viewer, I may not interested in their politics during award shows.
Kobe paid $1 million …There were inconsistencies in victim’s version…prolonging the case was not good for Kobe’s career….There were no witnesses except clothing (against the victim) and physical examination of victim (against Kobe)…The lawyers of both sides discussed out co court settlement..Since the victim was not testifying..prosecutor couldn’t take the case any further.
Shaq moved to Miami Heats in 2004, then to Phoenix, Cleveland and then Celtics. Didn’t Bryant retire with the Lakers? Lakers have a lot of support of HW stars.
Shami….caught behind or hit wicket ? Messages circulating on Whatsapp are much more raunchy then carried here.
Joins the fallen hero club. As per BCCI – ” While paceman Mohammed Shami’s name has been withheld on allegations of domestic violence and adultery by his wife..”
“…..Married to Shami since 2014, Hasin Jahan reportedly claimed that the bowler is having several extra-marital affairs simultaneously.
Read: India pacer Mohammed Shami denies wife Hasin Jahan’s adultery charge
Notably, the post, which was uploaded from an unverified account, was titled as ‘Shami’s enjoyment’ and had several pictures of the pacer’s text messages to multiple women….”
“…Hasin Jahan then went on to state that she was tortured by Shami’s mother and brother and they tried to kill her.
Jahan, who is also a mother to Shami’s three-year-old daughter Airah, claimed that she found some male contraceptives hidden in his BMW car.
“Whatever I have posted is just the tip of the iceberg. Shami’s acts are far more heinous. He has relationships with multiple women,” Jahan was quoted as saying by ABP News….”
At one end of the world you have a Warner-De Kock tiff because the Saffie wicketkeeper passed a comment on Warner’s wife.
In another end of the world, the wife of Shami is washing dirty linen in the open about Shami’s shameless affair. As a result BCCI withholds announcing him a contract
Hi I'm Mohammad Shami. Ye jitna bhi news hamara personal life ke bare may chal raha hai, ye sab sarasar jhut hai, ye koi bahut bada humare khilap sajish hai or ye mujhe Badnam karne or mera game kharab karne ka kosis ki ja rahi hai.
People have messed up their professional career because of problem on personal front. Tiger career went in downward spiral after infidelity rumors surfaced. Shami is in deep problem with BCCI still thinking what to do.
The infamous Tiger charge happened too late on hole 17, a blast from the past birdie.
Headlines galore I’m sure are coming for him. Great return. How great depends on his next few events. If Tiger wins a major (he’ll be thinking this already) it will be one of the greatest comebacks ever in sport.
I think I posted earlier in this thread…And I think Akram has point…
B Kumar action is conventional and beautiful..Bumrah has awkward action but he is very effective especially with older ball…Shami running style is not good but he is consistently 140+.
Federer’s best ever start to a season – 17 wins in a row and into the final at Indian Wells.
Woods joint 9th which is a pretty solid follow up to last week. It looks as though he’ll challenge at some point for wins and this is not a false alarm.
Karthik the hero. It looked like Shankar was playing for a defeat. Ravi should have a word with him. 48 in 4 overs with the ball and playing a maiden in the 18th over with the bat. Looks some shady dealing that would need to be investigated. Also why he was batting above Karthik?
Anyone can be hit for that amount in T20..that is why I have said previously , in T20 one man can change the game. ODIs need strategy. Test cricket is more about who has better team.
In PSL today, Ronchi was hitting everything thrown at him.
Going by the after match interview, it seems it was Rohit decision to hold back DK and send VS. VS and Rohit almost ruined it for India. Plus Rohit did not use Raina as a bowling option when the seamers where leaking runs. This final has exposed Rohit as a captain. Rohit needs to be stripped of VC and somebody else eg DK handed the VC when Kohli is back.
Bancroft using sandpaper to tamper the ball for reverse swing. Once he realized he was caught red handed on camera, he tried to hide the sandpaper in his underwear since that is not a place anyone will check
Smith is finished as a captain IMO. Australia should be embarrassed by this. For years they have sledged cricketers in the most harshest ways, this is a moment no opposition fan or opponent will never forget! The ammunition is enough to ruin this generation of Australian cricketers. Even their PM has called for heads!
Organised ball tampering! Geez! SA players probably can’t wait to sledge! They’ll bring sledgehammers!
Payback’s a bi*&h!!!!
The press conference sounded like a couple of kids caught stealing and blaming it on some higher power (leadership group LOL).
Clarke has basically said he’d comeback. Gilchrist is seething. Ex players will want blood, ex opponents will laugh like never before. Commentary boxes will be fun, Botham can just call Warne a cheat and he’ll have to deal with it.
Seems this incident is worse than the underarm and body line incidents. Because both at that time were legal but not regarded as fair play. But this was neither legal nor fair play.
Seems Rabada’s verdict has made Aussies take such steps. They were pretty certain Rabada was going to be sitting out. But his appeal and verdict of the same hit the Aussies badly
In the non social media environment of 20 years ago this kind of stuff might not be scrutinized so much but today it’s going to ruin Smith – forget captaincy for sure but I think even his presence in the side can only surround negative vibes and cause damage to the entire team. I don’t know what he was thinking, any cheat in sports today must be pretty thick to think they can get away with it in the long term. More so live sports with all these cameras everywhere.
Smith and Warner stand down for rest of test match, a day after Smith says he won’t resign – this shows how toxic such events become so quickly. He should have gone yesterday.
You cannot compare this to match fixing/spot fixing. One match is fair. But he has lost 100% credibility and whatever CA give him. Definitely losing his captaincy.
Why Warner is not punished? He was also a party to this cheating.
Smith is obviously lying when he says this is the first time. However, there is no evidence of it, apart from the brain fade incident when he was seeking help on DRS from the dressing room.
Lehmann to resign as Oz coach; 12-month ban for Smith and Warner: Report:
Darren Lehmann is to announce his resignation as head coach of Australia before the fourth Test against South Africa begins on Friday, Britain’s Daily Telegraph has reported.
The report claims that Lehmann is ready to stand down with immediate effect and his decision is partly why James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, suddenly announced on Monday that he is flying to South Africa.
Sutherland is due to meet the players and coaching staff in Johannesburg today.
Australia was plunged into turmoil after captain Steve Smith admitted on Saturday that senior players conspired with opening batsman Cameron Bancroft to tamper with the ball during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.
Smith has been fined and suspended from the fourth Test by the International Cricket Council and he and David Warner have been stood down from their positions as captain and vice-captain pending a Cricket Australia investigation.
While severe penalties like life bans are being talked about for Smith and Warner, Daily Telegraph claims that the two players may receive a 12-month ban each as part of their involvement in the incident http://news.rediff.com/commentary/2018/mar/27/liveupdates.htm
My question is where were the ICC and CA during Smith’s brain fade incident at Bengaluru? Who no action was taken then? If CA had acted then, this situation would not have arised now. He would not have the b***s to cheat again.
I agree with Vaughan on the video, this team will be remembered for cheating whatever they achieve.
A 12 month ban would be about fair. Severe but would restore some integrity. This is huge news in Australia; believe it or not the Australian captain job is only 2nd to PM for many!
Problem with Lehmann is Smith has said he knew nothing. Either way Lehmann is finished. Either he willingly knew and supported cheating or he doesn’t have control of his team. Unless there are deeper problems Lehmann is aware of like player power.
And that goes for bowlers as well..They are at such level that they know when it is reverse swinging…They have to bowl in certain way to get reverse swing…That is how Fannie figured they are doing something out of ordinary for ball to reverse swing so early (before 30 overs).
Yea bowlers must know. I can’t see captain progressing reverse swing by cheating and then saying to bowlers try it now – magically it works and bowlers accept it.
Also the TV reaction of Lehmann and Warner was enough to figure the guilt. If was a bowler caught then, there is plausibility he is doing in isolation..when junior most player doing it..most likely most of the team knew..
Steven Smith and David Warner, formerly captain and vice-captain of Australia, have been banned for 12 months by Cricket Australia for their roles in the pre-meditated plan to tamper with the ball on the third day of the Cape Town Test against South Africa. Cameron Bancroft, the player to actually tamper with the ball, has been banned for nine months.
An official announcement of their penalties is expected to be announced soon.
All players will have the right to challenge their verdicts and also the durarion of their penalties via a CA code of behaviour hearing with an independent commissioner, who can also choose whether the hearing is public or private.
Smith is due to depart for Australia today and will speak publicly upon his arrival home in Sydney.
Yes, Expected CA to come out hard with a zero tolerance message to it’s players, coach and support staff. Wonder how BCCI would have handled the issue if Virat was at the center of a similar conspiracy
It is serious for players banned but I think it is not “isolated” as claimed by CA. Even the English players are complaining that ball was reverse swinging very early during their series. What is the chance that only time they did , they got caught! If it is not isolated then more people need to go but the team will take long time to rebuild. I think CA doesn’t want that as there is money involved in terms of sponsorship .
That’s Steve’s father standing behind, who coached him till 16 years by throwing balls (fast, spin, bouncers) in their backyard. What an emotional and sad moment for the family. I think he is genuinely pained by his actions in Cape Town
Very sad indeed. I think he should have waited as it seems too raw and early for him. The culprit really is Warner here, Smith made a poor choice as Captain. The punishments are harsh but CA has taken into account the importance of cricket in Australia and the public really felt let down.
Smith has tarnished his legacy and part of his personal sadness is he knows he was on the verge of being amongst the greats possibly but that’s ruined now.
Thats why they have the ACA who can fight for them…He has every right to appeal the ban….And he should…The stigma still sticks whether the ban is for 6 months or 1 year
This is huge news in Australia. The moment the PM spoke, it was going to be a big ban. 6 months was fairer but I can’t see the benefits for an appeal. It would undermine CA and prolong the story further. At this point Smith gains empathy but he’ll risk that if he carries on. I doubt he will. His interview suggests he knows his destiny.
For English media in some sections this is like Diwali and Xmas on the same day! But generally this has easily been the #1 sports story of the year even the top headline news.
Only 3 people knew that the ball was tampered. So poor Starc genuinely believed that he's Wasim akram while bowling with that tampered ball. #SandpaperGate#SAvsAUS lmfao James Sutherland you liar. @CricketAus
When Dhoni plays like this it’s impossible to be a critic. 7 sixes, strike rate north of 200, solid running – I don’t know why so many times he is pedistrian with such strike power at his disposal.
His reflexes have slowed and if pitch is bowler friendly he takes time to settle.. I saw last match and this one..he said couple of important things in post match interviews..
1. You are paid to do your job. You have to give more than 100% each time.
2. You pick which bowler to attack..it is process..you will win some and lose sometimes..but you keep on improving on the process, you will improve your chances on winning.
ps – “It’s Important To Know How Many Overs Are Left And Who Will Bowl The Death Overs, Who Is Their Best Bowler On That Particular Wicket & Who You Can Take On. You May Win Or Lose, But It’s About Getting The Process Right”
he has been in good form…One of his sixes went outside the stadium!
Unfortunately Kohli doesn’t have good bowlers…They have been putting good score but not able to defend.
Ashwin has been excelling with enthusiastic captaincy..
In general I’ve paid more attention to this IPL than to any in the last several years: several good matches, pitches with something for bowlers… I’m really rooting for Sunrisers and their mellow, old-school vibe (Kane Willliamson has been handling them well too)…
“…..Dhoni’s presence in the Indian limited-overs team has been under the scanner for quite some time now but in Michael Vaughan’s opinion, the former Indian captain should by all means be included in the side for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Virat Kohli would be very keen to have MS Dhoni in the Indian team for the 2019 World Cup, Michael Vaughan told India Today in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The former England captain said Kohli would be desperate to have Dhoni in the team for next year’s mega-event in the UK…..”
19.4 – Anderson to Dhoni, SIX runs, crackalicious! How’s that to win the match – a six over wide long-on with so much strength it’s landed into the crowd
Ranveer Singh
@RanveerOfficial
6m6 minutes ago
What a match! What a chase! What a player! The LION @msdhoni ROARS!!!
#RCBvCSK
Aakash Chopra
@cricketaakash
9m9 minutes ago
If there’s ever a book on cricket, Dhoni must write the finishing chapter. Unbelievable. Take a bow 🙇♂️ #RCBvCSK #IPL
On the Brisbane match the writer references from way back in 1992, it must have been a pretty tricky pitch to bat on since WI won with only 8-10 balls to spare even against India’s rather feeble attack. And despite the vast difference in the attacks, no one except for Richie Richardson on either side had a higher strike rate than Tendulkar — but what is most remarkable is that Tendulkar’s strike rate of 60+ featured only five 4s, underscoring his maturity in running singles even at that young age (not to mention those vast Aussie grounds and the fact that the cricket bats used back then were much less powerful, with thinner edges). As for the rest of that Indian scorecard, well that’s pretty familiar to us from the pre-Dravid days overseas.
Interesting, stimulating read all round. The conclusion is also pretty important. This is not a point one comes across too often if at all. Thanks for posting this.
Not even Sachin Tendulkar could do what Virat Kohli has done: Shane Warne
“I think the way Virat plays and you look at his numbers and it’s uncanny how many times he has got hundreds in ODI cricket chasing totals down. I don’t think anyone, not even Sachin could do what Virat’s done,” Warne was quoted as saying by India Today on Monday.
This is not ‘that’ controversial if you read it properly. The world cup draw has always been designed in such a way that 2 table topping teams can always avoid each other till the final. Platini is attracting silly attention – even in Russia by design a draw always splits teams in half, just like tennis slams. France 98 is like seeding Brazil as #1 and France as #2 – anyway IF either team failed to top their table, the dream final never would’ve happened – it’s very possible for top seeds not to finish 1st.
Platini has ruined his reputation with the FIFA fiasco. This revelation is silly as he would never say this if he was FIFA president, he’s just grumpy now.
As a footballer, he’s not really in the greatest ever which is arguably 4-5 names. History will be kinder to Cruyff and that ilk. He could have left a great legacy like Cruyff if he didn’t mess up FIFA.
As someone was telling me earlier quite rightly Chennai have been the best IPL team ever. 7 finals (in 9 seasons), 3 wins. And this time they beat Hyderabad in every match. Must say Dhoni is a charmed guy in this sense.
having said that cricket fans shouldn’t be upset if I say that for me the big game today is the Cavs (game 7)! Hopefully LeBron has another incredible moment tonight.
LBJ will come through…his teams have won 5 game 7s in a row and his average in games 7s go up across the board! I’m a ” Jordan is the GOAT” guy..but LBJ is making a strong argument this year to be considered the greatest. I mean half of his team was traded at the all-star break and here we are again with his team on the verge of going to the Finals!
Just a bit nervous they haven’t won on the road in this series. But yeah no denying LeBron’s incredible will this post-season. And you’re quite right, they shouldn’t even be where they are. As one of the commentators said during game 6 if he gets to the finals this time it might be a greater achievement than his previous wins.
Would disagree with that statement on Dhoni being a charmed guy. He is more of an astute tactician and man manager. He saw to it Watson did not bowl and pull up his hamstring. Also brought in Karn Sharma over Harbhajan as a bowler to take the ball away from right handers.
Have you wondered why those who work close with MSD speak so highly of him. Sachin Tendulkar, Gary Kirsten, Stephen Fleming. Even somebody like Greg Chappell.
Yeah people have been saying that the real deal is the Western Conference and this winner will be the champion. This makes perfect sense but I’m not going to bet against LeBron!
If Houston wins and CP3 is still injured then it will be a toss up…but if GSW win…it will be either a sweep or Golden St. in 5 against the Cavs. This isn’t anything against LeBron…it’s just looking at it realistically…although betting against Lebron has come back and bitten me MANY times lol.
2-0 for GSW versus Cavs. GSW will in all likelihood win this year unless LBJ can produce some of his magic for a terrific comeback for Cavs. But GSW look too strong with current line-up
I’m a Lakers fan…so I watched Kobe play on a nightly basis…but sorry Kobe…LBJ has long surpassed you…he’s on the quest for becoming the greatest!
We can enjoy one without tearing down one. I love what he’s doing. Don’t debate what can’t be definitively won by anyone #enjoymy5#enjoymj6#enjoylbjquest
For what surveys are worth, a recent ABP one projected NDA to win just 275 seats is election was held right now. And the way things are going, these projections will change over the coming year. I really doubt if BJP and allies will get a clean mandate this time.
Getting a hung parliament may be the best that Pappu can possibly achieve. And Modi’s world touring days are well over with gas prices continuously increasing.
For Ramos fans – same foul last year against Alves in the CL final (again)! These are definitely deliberate attempts to injure opponents, you can see he is pulling on the opponent’s arm and attempting to push his entire weight on them when they fall. The Salah foul is looking worse and worse the more you see it. It’s wrestling.
Glad for DK. I hope he and Murali Vijay are able to forget and forgive their history and play for the country. Rather than having ill feeling for each other.
If he is fit and plays the French Open he will win. Beating Nadal at the French Open final seems the toughest job in world sports! No one’s getting 11 in our lifetime!
he’s the greatest ever on this surface. No doubt about it. The stamina and will required to maintain this kind of domination on the slowest tennis court around is just beyond belief. Specially given his knee issues and so on. He’s played 87 matches here and only twice has he been stretched to 5 sets.
The problem is that Nadal’s greatness is limited to clay surface. He won 4 out of the 5 ATP tournaments he participated in the 2018 clay season – a fantastic feat! Yet, Federer can regain #1 ranking if he reaches the Stuttgart Open final this weekend.
Nadal’s achievement at Roland Garros is simply out of this world. Anybody who doesn’t put him in the same league as Federer is simply biased. What he has achieved on clay, which probably is the most difficult surface to play on and adapt to, is simply extraordinary. What people forget is had he not had so many injuries, he could have easily achieved the grand slam double. Just to put it in perspective, amongst the big three of this era (big four is a term most likely coined by the British media. Murray doesn’t even belong in that league) he was the first to win all the four gland slams.
Being greatest on one surface dont make you GOAT – thats not bias not just illogical. Also, Novak isnt in the league of Federer/Nadal because of longevity issues.
Remarkable decision, but why the hell would you announce yourself as the new Real Madrid manager days before the WC. His advisors should be sacked! Spain had a good record under him, now they immediately become a potential scalp. If Madrid forced it to be public they as the most popular/powerful team in Spain should be embarrassed.
232 and 5/17 in an ODI. All round performance by Kiwi Amelia Kerr. Youngest to hit a double century in any format, she is only 17. Add to this a fifer with her leg spin bowling.
On reflection this was the right decision by Spanish FA. Real Madrid and Lopetegui made a huge error here and they deserve the repurcussions. It’s make or break for Lopetegui now. He’s already following Zidane after 3 CL’s in a row. Perez knows now Madrid have all of Spain hating them even more now.
I don’t like putting someone else down to prove someone else is better. But since you are so insistent to take that route, here are my two cents. A ‘GOAT’ is not a true ‘GOAT’ if under the garb of longevity, he skips playing the whole season of a certain ‘surface’. A ‘GOAT’ is not a true ‘GOAT’ if his biggest opponent, who according to you is a ‘one trick pony’ has kept this ‘GOAT’ in his back pocket for most of his carrer. The ‘GOAT’ was so scarred that he quit playing on clay. So much for being the greatest. You don’t quit. You try to compete, even if you can’t win.
Also, I never said Nadal was greater than Federer. Far from it. I said he should be put in the same league as Federer.
I don’t think Federer’s motives to quit clay are because he is afraid of Nadal. More likely is the gruelling schedule and his age. In essence he is prolonging his career by skipping clay & increasing his chances of winning slams. It’s common sense and a very practical decision. Even great footballers retire from international football or great cricketers give up on short or long form of cricket to increase longevity and play better quality.
I’d say it’s sensible and even more so if he’s going to get bruised by Nadal! He won Wimbledon last year with this strategy. So totally vindicated.
I agree with you only to an extent. But your analogy that someone skips the longer version of cricket or international football to prolong their career is equivalent to Federer skipping the clay season is slightly flawed.
His decision is more like, since my performance in English seaming conditions or hard bouncier tracks have been patchy, I might as well skip that tour and concentrate on my strengths.
If he had quit playing let’s say all Masters 500 on all surfaces then it could have been equivalent. In his case, it’s a specific surface. And he could have chosen hard court as well. But he didn’t, since he has the chance to compete on that surface. On clay, if Nadal is fit, your chances are virtually nil.
Well I’m not denying that the Nadal factor be completely ignored. You can take it as an acknowledgement of defeat if you want but if he’s won Wimbledon & Australian since it’s not a poor decision. Ultimately if he plays clay it will reduce his time in the game, increase chance of injuries, harm his chances at Wimbledon. He’s going 37. This is career management – it’s what Zidane did for Ronaldo. And there isn’t an example of how to do it in tennis men’s historically. Federer is the example. It’s a first. If he keeps winning on his strengths he’s 100% vindicated. Clay for him is over because he’s completed the career GS.
Federer is a genius who has earned the right to do whatever he wishes to. There is absolutely no debating that.
The issue is people bringing down Nadal to prove Federer is greater. I think we are privileged to see these players perform at the highest level. Similar to Messi and Ronaldo.
In pure tennis terms, irrespective of whether Nadal wins more or Federer wins more grand slams, Federer will be the greatest.
Nadal’s a great – 11 GS’s at one venue will never be broken in our lifetime. I don’t like his tennis personally but his achievements have grown on me like Ronaldo’s – mainly because they both work hard and are extremely driven individuals.
Have you checked Federer’s schedule? Is he really playing all ATP 500 tournaments in other surfaces? Whats the point in arguing without checking the facts?
Since his comeback from injury, he is eyeing only slams (except Garros) and arranging his calendar accordingly. It is exactly equivalent to saying bye to test cricket and focusing on ODI due to age factor.
Why is your great Nadal not playing in Stuttgart or Halle? Is it because he is afraid to face Federer? LOL
You won’t find better inspiring courageous piece thn this.
Piece of the week
“I knew we were struggling. But when she was mixing in water with the milk, I realized it was over, you know what I mean? This was our life.” – Romelu Lukaku
People are asking for Sachin inclusion , basically ICC induct great player in a sequence of their retirement year and Sachin retired after couple of years later than RD.
Players who have been included in the Hall of Fame have not played at any international level in five years. (Sachin Tendulkar retired from international cricket in November 2013.) Maybe next year he should get there
looks like it’s clearing up for Federer at Wimbledon. Cilic is the latest casualty. Of course Nadal is still around but a fit Federer will be fine against him. And it remains to be seen whether Djokovic can go deep here.
He’s a heavy favourite and he is playing wonderfully. Saw brief highlights of his 2nd round – he looked as good as ever. Djokovic seems to have injury issues still so Nadal is his main rival.
Wimbledon: Bertens sends Venus out of Wimbledon
There was no great escape for Venus Williams on Friday as the five-times champion became the latest top-10 seed to perish at Wimbledon after she was beaten 6-2, 6-7(5), 8-6 in a pulsating third-round match by Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens.
Why Dhoni was not given MOS award? 2 stumping victims in first match at Manchester (32 not out of 24 balls), an useful knock in second match at Cardiff to make that match competitive and 5 catches and 1 run out at Bristol
32 sets in a row for Federer at Wimbledon. That stat is fast catching up to his age!
Odds on favourite unless something goes massively wrong. Nadal’s draw is tough, he might have to go through Del Porto and Djokovic before facing Federer.
djokovic seems to be playing well finally. Yeah it’s great for Federer that he could only face Nadal in the final. And the latter to get there would have to go through Djokovic!
It’s the 10 years anniversary of Nadal Vs Federer Wimbledon final so might be destiny. Plus they are 3-3 on last 6 slams. Does seem that Djokovic has resurrected his career here. Whomever wins Wimbledon it’s going to be overshadowed on that day by England winning the World Cup 😀😀😀
Sorry to break your heart but England not winning the FIFA World Cup at least till 2022, and by the way they are handling Kuldeep their chances in cricket WC next year ain’t that rosy too
I’m not really a huge England fan at all in sport especially cricket. Football was different this time as I think they played well and atmosphere was great. I’m quite happy to see India thrash England all over the cricket field!
Anderson is piling on the pressure. He has really played well – Federer has lost strength here with Anderson hitting him with some heavy groundstrokes.
whatever happens in this set it’s still amazing that a guy one month shy of his 27th birthday is leading 10-9 in the 5th. Might not be the best news if he makes it given there are two more matches. But I’m sure he’d rather worry about that later!
haven’t been watching this but apparently the first set nadal won was grueling as well. Not that a clay court champion like him has a problem with ‘grueling’!
My plan was to watch that match but Anderson has ruined it! I think Anderson deserves to win this match. He’s never given up at all. Federer definitely checked out thinking he’d won.
Federer out. Huge shock but Anderson played well and deserved it. Totally outplayed Federer for 3 sets.
I hope now England don’t lose otherwise my perfect day is a nightmare!
yeah federer just blew this one. A great tribute to him that he could stretch it out so much at his age but there was no excuse to lose it given where he was. Not to take anything away from Anderson though who was so cool throughout.
Djokovic certainly cannot match Nadal’s mental toughness, he’d have to really play much better. there was talk that Wimbledon is even slower this time than normal (already it’s been slower than in the 90s for years) because of all the heat. This of course works for Nadal. But leaving this aside it’s still the most problematic surface for him.
Age is a factor in sports that will always catch up. Fed gave it away in 3rd set but put a good fight in 5th. He isnt going anywhere, but days of slams may be over. But 20 is plenty. A younger nadal would always catch up even if he made it 22. Anyways, after the uniqlo deal he has enough motivation to play as long as he can. All that talk about playing for loving tennis has now taken backseat.
This was hilarious, saw this in the morning. It would be even better if Hitler knew Spain and Brazil are not in the final but France are just to rub it in more!
So fellow cricket lovers, how good is this Kuldeep Yadav? A genuine star in the making? First I’ve seen of him. Pleasantly surprised that India may have found a special spinner.
He seems to be the real deal. Wrist-spinner who can turn the ball both ways and has very good control over his length, doesn’t bowl too many freebies and seems to have a good attitude as well. Should replace Ashwin/Jadeja as the no.1 spinner in the Test side when India are playing outside the sub-continent.
Has a middling first class record though. But the kid is mentally very tough — loves to flight the ball even when he’s hit for a six or two!
Don’t wish to jinx anything but IMO, Sir Jadeja is still the first choice spinner outside India. He offers the kind of control (and economy) that Captains/Coaches would love to have at one end. It also helps that Sir Jadeja is more than a handy bat down the order. And an absolute gun fielder. Ideally, the team would have both Jadeja and Kuldeep, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
It’s really tough on Ashwin, but unless the opposition is full of left-handed batsmen, he’d have to sit out — such is the rich vein of form displayed by Kuldeep!
Anderson 2 break points finally! Insane – would feel for both. Isner lost that marathon already years ago & Anderson knocking out Federer would be tough to lose here.
Has anyone played more long fifth sets in his career than Jon Isner?! Recall, this is Mr. 70-68 from a few years ago. The current match is the longest Wimbledon semi in history.
On a more serious note, in the era of big servers in the 1990s, a guy like Isner would have had a lot more success — might have won a Slam or two (a la Ivanisevic, Krajicek); made for boring tennis for the most part, at least when the languid elegance of Pete Sampras wasn’t involved…
the winner of nadal-Djokovic should be very afraid. If they don’t finish it in 4 sets Anderson will keep playing till they lose! I guess it could’ve been worse. They could have got Isner!
Djokovic is back to his best…I didn’t think he’d ever get there, silly to right off a champion. He’s giving Nadal headaches in all of his service games & finally breaks.
Actually can’t see how Nadal wins here. In this form it won’t be long before he is #1 again. I would say 3-0 here such is the subtle dominance being shown.
Actually Federer is lucky, if Djokovic hadn’t been having those physical (and mental) problems don’t think Federer could have won his recent titles. At his age he couldn’t really have beaten an in-form Djokovic. He wasn’t able to do it beyond a point even when he was younger than this. getting back to this match normally I wouldn’t expect Nadal to lose in straight sets but yeah it does seem one-sided at the moment.
Federer is damn lucky. Djokovic was on course for overhauling Federer’s total slam records before injury hit. But he made hay, nabbed 3 while he could. When these 3 actually retire, tennis will be boring!
He has 12 and I doubt he can win the French whilst Nadal is around but if he sticks around for 5 years he can win enough from the others. He seems like a player where it’s down to him.
LOL, this is why you can never count Nadal out. Think Nadal is putting more pressure with his returns, a bit deeper now and Djokovic is making some unforced errors.
Pause in normal play benefits Nadal as if they carried on Djokovic would have momentum but as both players knew play would finish at 11, that tie breaker was huge for whoever won it.
but to repeat your point no question on the greater refinement of Djokovic. In any case I’v never been a Nadal fan. One can hardly deny the obvious but he’s not a finesse player. I’d say even historically the most refined players are generally good on grass. And of course there’s a reason why Wimbledon is still first among equals.
Nadal is the best fighter
Federer the most pleasing to watch
Djokovic probably pound for pound the best player
At their best I prefer watching Federer, he’s the best combination of technique, shot making, fight and humbleness. Djokovic a close 2nd and Nadal a distant third.
yes, except for that rain-interrupted quarterfinal to Krajicek one year. He could have had 7 but for this loss. But yeah on very fast grass and his incredible serve it was easy for him to get out of a hole.
Wimbledon 2018 has turned out to be a story of tenacity than finesse. McEnroe actually predicted this before Fed’s quarters and I was smirking at his comment.
Next time will catch up Garros instead. And dont be surprised if Nadal pulls through today.
Never ever thought I would see a day when Dhoni would be as defensive as today. Without resorting to hyper-bole, whether I should even remember Gavarksar’s 36 off 174 but that would be unfair since India had hardly played even 6 -7 1-day matches before June 1975. But they were chasing 336 then and today, in a completely hard-hitting and aggressive format of one-day cricket, they were chasing 323! The greatest players of spin were done-in by spin when the ground turned dry. Kudos to England.
It was baffling to see the Indian players from the deck as though it meant nothing. Only when Dhoni getting started booed did they wake up. God knows what happened here..
Yeah, it was a crap innings. No two ways about it.
Having said that, the situation was pretty hopeless when Dhoni and Hardik Pandya were at the crease. The pitch, in a span of an innings, had gone from a batting beauty to an uneven surface with spinners coming into their own.
I think the English spinners are pretty mediocre — and when they bamboozle Indian batsmen, it means the pitch is misbehaving — a lot, to be precise.
Kohli misread the pitch. He would have bowled had he won the toss. Morgan knew what to expect from the pitch. There in lies the difference.
Will say this about Dhoni though. His batting powers are on the wane even if he had an exceptional IPL season.
He’s still the defacto captain in white ball cricket. It’s he who sets the field for spinners. He’s still world-class behind the stumps. He’s the best keeper when it comes to keeping wickets against spinners, perhaps the best the game has ever seen.
He’s the one who guides Kuldeep and Chahal. He’s the one who decides whether to go for DRS or not.
In short, he still brings a lot of value to the team.
Fans expect miracles from him every single time he finds himself in a hopeless situation. And these days he doesn’t deliver on that count. And he gets a lot of flak for that.
He’s the reason the team is competitive in the first place. But it’s foolish to expect him to bail the other 10 guys out with his bat, now that he is 37 years old.
Indian cricket fans are really fickle. I’m sure the same fans will talk the same tripe when Virat Kohli’s game is on the wane…
Agree with you totally on his role behind the stumps and his importance in being a mentor on the team. After, Gilchrist, at par or even at a greater level, if anyone an be mentioned of in the same breath as one of the greatest wicket-keeper/batsman ever, it is Dhoni.
It was just that his batting was so uncharacteristic of him. He got a hint from the pavilion and it was then that he decided to go big! I have to say it was a very unusual performance from Dhoni.
Rohit Sharma will most probably end up with 40 ODI hundreds at the end of his career. People will hail him as a legend of the game.
In reality, he’s the biggest flat-track bully in recent times. Not even a bully, he’s a super-bully!
The minute the pitch starts misbehaving or when faced with great bowling, he’s always found wanting.
People need to get on his case more often. Dhoni, on the other hand, has bailed the team out on numerous occasions when the entire team was on the brink of collapse. It happened in the past, but still…
Rohit, Dhawan et al are false heroes. Kohli & Dhoni are not!
Messi will never end up with World Cup glory; De Villiers never won anything of note in major championships. That means nothing. It’s a TEAM sport. And one man can’t play on behalf of the other 10.
Agreed — I would add a coda about Kohli’s captaincy: the moment Rohit has a string of good scores on these sorts of pitches Kohli is often tempted to try him out in test matches (his selection in South Africa was appalling, and probably contributed to India losing a series it had a decent chance of winning)…
And to top it all, he(Rohit) is regarded the modern day Mark Waugh, utterly sacrilegious!! And that’s when Mark had 20 test centuries against one of the most lethal bowling attacks from Marshal, Donald, Akaram, Ambrose, Walsh, Waqar, Saqlain, Kumble to Muralidharan to name few deadly bowlers on bowling friendly pitches!! Besides, he was, if not the best all round fielder, at least the most effortless one taking mind blowing catches without any fuss as if nothing happened!!
Rohit has got big psychological issue which gets concealed when he gets going, but it gets exposed under testing conditions & against good bowling line up. patience isn’t his virtue & under trying circumstances, he gets impatient and throws his wicket by playing some silly, idiotic shot just like how he got out playing that ugly heave yesterday. Virat, Dhoni have it in abundance which is what separate them from gifted and talented yet reckless and impulsive Rohits and Dhawans!! Talent alone doesn’t make one great unless it is backed by perseverance, grit, patience and street- smartness which are the hallmark of a truly great player.
He’s quite a weak looking flat track bully, not Hayden like. In full flow Sharma is a good watch but he’s Jekyll and Hyde thus is utterly unreliable in test cricket.
In ODI and T20 he deserves a spot as up top he is capable of hitting 6’s for fun.
I found Dhoni’s actions silly more than anything, don’t know what/why he was doing.
Rohit is treat to watch where ball movement is not much…In South Africa or second T20 in current series with England he could barely play.
I think today Dhoni didn’t believe he could win the game. So he kept on playing. Of course it doesn’t look good to paying public. I think India lost way after Kohli’s wicket and Raina who was well settled, started defending. Running between the wickets came to halt. I think they should play someone else than Raina..
Rory’s comments are sensible. Golf is the most wide open sport, the idea of dominance like tennis is out of question. Tiger Woods is back but it’s not easy to win a tournament let alone a major. He’s shown enough to suggest he can but no guarantee he will. Unlike Djokovic where you could assume easily IF he got his 15-16 form back he’d win a slam. It only takes one bad shot to ruin a round and at this level a tournament. The precision being sought is a huge difference. It’s like Messi not playing football for a decade and being asked on his comeback to be as good. It won’t happen. I think just the ‘chance’ that Woods is back playing competitive and up the leaderboard is quite remarkable.
His ‘lethal’ winning instinct might not be there but might be something that slowly arrives. If from here he plays to 50 and manages 1 major win it’s a big enough story. Plus he is a streaky player like Stieth and McIlroy. So if he gets going he might take 2-3 in a row.
Quite embarrassing that India have requested their warm up match Vs Essex be reduced from 4 to 3 days due to hot weather! It’s certainly hot here but surely this is an edge for India and they are used to this weather!
Virat Kohli was booed by the Edgbaston crowd when he walked out to bat during an England surge, but by the time he was done – 149 out of 220 scored while he was at the wicket; the next-best score was 26 – the crowd stood up as one to applaud one of the great ugly-but-beautiful innings. Not just the crowd, the England team were perfect hosts for the second day in a row: after the run-out and soft dismissals when they batted, they dropped three catches – two of those Kohli’s – and then looked clueless when the India captain turned it on with the tail. Just like on day one, Kohli was waiting to accept the gifts, this time turning what at one stage looked like a 150-run deficit into just 13.
Going by first innings by Indian batsmen, anything over 100 will be tough. Get Kohli early and pocket a win will be mantra for English. Kohli was all at sea against Anderson
England have the edge in bowling. Anderson, Broad, Stokes and even Curran.
Poor show by the Indian batsmen…even worse is the selection, which strangely does not get questioned at all. Shikhar Dhawan amidst swinging conditions in a Test match? There can’t be a bigger case of self-sabotage…
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This Indian team desperately needs a coach like Kumble — rational, analytical and a strict disciplinarian. Not to mention an all time great in the annals of Test cricket.
Even with bad warm up match, I would have picked Pujara.
Agree on coach comment. I don’t know but it feels like there is no overarching strategy for series. Players are suppose to go and perform to best of abilities.
Shikhar is getting into the team by licking Kohli and Shastri’s ass. Only explanation or Test centuries against minnows or flat tracks should not be counted
In India these days (and for a while) people don’t care much about any effort that isn’t part of a win but Kohli has done as much here in both innings as anyone humanly could.
Kohli the batsman is great; Kohli the captain, not so much. His match selections are shambolic…I’m afraid there is no other word for it. He did it in South Africa and he’s doing it again in England.
And Shastri, what do I say about him. What exactly is his role in the team? Except for being a glorified cheerleader? Damn, in the days of Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and Sehwag we had coaches like John Wright, Gary Kirsten. And now there is Ravi “tracer bullet” Shastri.
Vijay and Rahane were our best batsmen on the last England tour. Unfortunately Vijay seems to be the fag end of his career and Rahane has regressed alarmingly as a Test batsman.
It’s not a cricketing culture that is in the least introspective: this was only 2nd first class game of tour. And with all the limited overs cricket the Indian batsmen play, they clearly seemed under-cooked for the tests; how many times have we seen that?! Need to learn from the example of Pakistan earlier this summer: multiple practice first-class games prior to first test. For years, we have been treating our 1st and 2nd tests as a way to find our feet.
It’s such a shame: both Shastri and Kohli said before the series they believed the two limited overs series were good preparation. Do they honestly believe that?! Why self-censor?! I’ve been seeing this happen for the last several series (think of Zaheer ambling in in the first test in 2011, clearly no match practice, then we were a bowler short most of that match: before you know it 0-1 down). It is such a waste of the resources India has in cricket (wealth, power at ICC, talent). Let’s put this in context: the T20 and ODI series they played prior to the tests don’t have any broader meaning or significance— why not have ONE of them, ie the ODI series or T20 but not both. Of course, knowing our board even if they agreed with me they would be like “hmmmm we could have made it a five match series”!!!
That is actually not true: bowlers win test matches for the most part, batsmen, even great ones, rarely do. Zaheer and Kumble and Sreesanth and others were the reason we started winning at a retain point (Dravid had been great for years prior to that). More to the point, one can say one misses a guy who retired a month ago, not one who retired half a decade ago! We have who we have — it isn’t this team, we are being let down by the folks who run the game. This series, and the one in SA earlier this year , was winnable for sure, but you can’t play well in these conditions if you play the first test with basically no match practice.
It’s quite unprofessional and arrogant really. I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if India capitulate now. Home advantage has become a bigger advantage. India’s batsmen lack patience barring Kohli.
There should be some mandatory rules for 3/4/5 match test series. Your choice or 1 match or 2 matches for practice respectively. The limited overs series should follow the test series as it traditionally use to. Only the Ashes series get taken seriously. India has no excuse considering their status and power. Unfortunately they have created this big beast of IPL that is a long term killer of test cricket.
Football is the opposite. So many useless friendlies but at least players get into fitness. Problem is they travel to USA or Asia now purely for commercial reasons.
Great comment. All sports is run for money BUT the BCCI (unlike the folks who run world football) is vey vey focused on short-term profit, a loot and strip mentality.
India will probably play tests for as long as required, the first chance where an opportunity to not play for an alternatively more lucrative format I think they will walk or play tests with little care. One has to believe a cricket mad country with all these riches should be dominating the game with some ease. At least having a period of dominance but clearly other things are priorities.
India should have a production line of Kohli’s. Brazil in football is a similar aspirational analogy of where they should be.
Even in the limited overs formats, India has a good track record the last few years but since the golden generation retired, we have been under-achieving: the team squad and machine is very healthy, and that typically will enable India to do well in bilateral series, but in the major tournaments I think the machine is vulnerable to being disrupted by the unpredictable or eccentric: witness the Champions Trophy final or the T20 World Cup semi-final prior to that when we were suddenly undone by a hail of sixes. In fact we have no major tournament victory since the 2012 champions trophy, in either ODIs or T20s (we have made two finals and two other semis, losing all four).
In ODI’s there is enough time in tournament play or 50 overs to dominate, West Indies & Australia have shown this. But the reality was they had world class bowling attacks. Even Pakistan could have dominated with the bowling riches they had in the 90’s. Mentally the subcontinent teams seem to crumble under pressure despite the talent at their disposal. Some of it is mental, some self inflicted through bad choices by the boards/captains and sometimes it’s unlucky. That winning mentality is not there. India had an extraordinary batting lineup – one to six was strong in 00’s and all of a sudden everything has returned to the 90’s where the game is decided by taking one player’s wicket. I find this pretty complacent from India.
The fans are also to blame: today when confronted with an overseas defeat, instead of trying to figure out where we went wrong tons of people say things like “even England and Australia are losing away from home”; what mediocrity! And yet we will pat ourselves on the back about the team’s “new attitude”, as if brashness can substitute for victory. Contrast with the most successful Indian teams, the ones people like Shastri implicitly criticize for not having had the right attitude — well in the early 1980s and early 1970s and earlier this century, those teams won!
Test cricket should kill some things. Home teams can prepare pitches for their liking (that is fair game as it is ‘test’ cricket) but the away side should decide to bat or bowl – kill the toss.
A minimum of 3 match test series should be established – these 2 test series are stupid but really 5 matches is what makes things compelling.
Countries have to play 12 tests every year and just establish a league table for every 4 years, after everyone has played each other home & away and award a trophy. Give some structure on who should play who and contract countries into it to save the game.
Dravid has saved matches in seaming conditions in foreign soil. Adelaide, Leeds, Perth wins come to mind. Plus he was an excellent slip fielder. Unlike Dhawan who dropped three to four
Of course, who would doubt it. But the difference even in those matches was we had the bowlers take twenty wickets (eg Agarkar’s 6 at Adelaide kept us in the hunt). For sure Adelaide is among the test matches where the batsman’s contribution was the maximum, but that is still a rare one.
India’s bowling unit is as good as any in the world. Remember they are playing without Bhuvi and Bumrah here. But man, how can these batsmen look themselves in the mirror each night?
I’m sure there will be excuses given. Won’t find any takers anywhere…
Fed turn 37 today. Will be competing in 5 tournaments till the end of season. I guess he will try to hang around as long as possible, even if he does not win any more slams. So expecting him on ATP tour for next 2 seasons, and the uniqlo deal suggests that too.
First slam in 2003 and 20th in 2018. Been a gascinating decade and half.
He turned pro in 98 and spent 5 years in circuit without winning a slam. Maybe he will spend next 5 years playing without winning another slam? Life will be symmetrical for him then! And uniqlo probably wont mind.
It is more mental than technique…well that is what Kohli has been saying..
I have been on saying since India was on winning streak on home ground that we cannot play good fast bowling in overseas conditions..It is not a new problem.It has been there for long time…It is same as overseas player find difficult to play spinners in subcontinent. Only solution is that we should have some fast pitches for Ranji matches selected randomly so that you don’t favor particular team.
I think the mental thing is certainly important, even for a talented person. At the same time you really do need technique in certain conditions. But I do agree completely with your longer paragraph. They needed more practice in England. Once upon a time this used to happen. Not anymore.
mental thing is important in test but you cannot claim that excuse if you keep failing in certain conditions.
Also at one time most tests use to be draw. But now we have many tests that don’t even go in 4th day. That tells us that people have forgotten how to be there on wicket.
Indian batsmen should play in county cricket not just in England but other countries too. 107 all out is terrible considering this is the #1 team in the world – apparently. ‘Blocking’ is an art, so is sticking around scoring 5 off 40 balls. If the first day’s a washout and 2nd day is practically half day I think you have to play the % game – find a way not to lose the test match. Now England need 1 big innings and India can lose again.
Till the time Shastri is the coach, you’ll get exactly these kind of results.
Kohli has never fielded the same squad in 30+ tests as captain. He has single-handedly destroyed the confidence of all other players batting around him.
This is the worst management in any elite sport…ever!
Yes, the series in SA earlier this year and the current one in England were/are winnable. But India don’t want it enough — not enough to practice, prepare, etc.
PS — on Twitter one sees a lot of loser comments from fans (who are really doing a disservice to Indian cricket) whining about the double standard on pitch ratings etc. (“why isn’t this considered a sub-standard pitch?!” Etc etc). These morons need to explain how is it that India won here in 1971, 1985, and 2007, and why, this decade, we seem to be doing WORSE in England than either Sri Lanka or Pakistan! The latter’s example is most instructive: they prepped for a month in a camp in Lahore, played 3-4 county matches before the first test, and tied the two test series 1-1 despite having a team that is honestly not as good as this Indian team. But we have a cricketing culture that refuses to learn — so we haven’t learned anything from the last decade’s failures, we will insist on bloviating, a la Shastri, that playing T20s and ODIs was great prep for this test series. Even if we were to achieve some miracle in this series these points would stand. Heck we didn’t have to HAVE Shastri, Kohli basically chose him and dumped Kumble!
Absolutely! It’s not that the other teams are full of great players at the moment — international Test cricket just doesn’t have the quality that it had a decade ago. And even then this Indian cricket team finds innovative ways to lose! All thanks to Kohli and Shastri.
I keep on mentioning that Kohli is a great batsman. He’s also a terrible manager of his resources. To further qualify the last sentence, he’s done a good job with the bowling, but an absolute terrible job with batsmen. Shastri’s fault lies in the fact that he lets it happen. That’s one among his many other faults.
The batsmen true did not do all that well, but this generation of Indian batsmen is more likely to be undone by swing and seam, than by pace and bounce — hence they are a shade likely to do better in SA/Australia than in England. Of course, if you have someone who has all of these (pace, swing, bounce) on a consistent basis, or the ability to play them, you are talking about an all-time great. [That isn’t Jimmy Anderson by the way: he is a wizard in English conditions but his stats away from home or so far from that impressive that he cannot be considered a great IMO; by contrast, there is Dale Steyn.]
Aside: the batting conditions are so much easier today than yesterday (definitely something in there for the bowlers but nothing like yesterday) that it has to be said India have bowled very well indeed thus far today.
Can’t believe India gave up 4.5 runs per over for an 80 over period! England’s run rate has significantly diminished any chance of a draw here (hope I am wrong!)
The toss is silly. Home teams prepare tests for home advantage. It could ruin a series if the home team wins each toss. It’s better to give the decision to bat or bowl to the away side, naturally the home team will prepare a more 5 day friendly pitch. No harm in trialling it.
Huh? Kumble had many things, but the power to set international cricket’s rules was surely not among them — actually the power to dictate to India’s team was evidently ALSO not among them!
Trump would say this is another dirty immigration trick.. first become a child prodigy and then have ‘chain immigration’ for the family ! (Melania’s parents are excluded from these considerations.. but then they’re white anyway).
With this kind of cooperation from the English team even in such sunny weather perhaps India need not worry so much after all! 107 is of course too low even so but neither side seems to be able to bat in this series irrespective of conditions.
India need to bowl then out for 150 odd and they have a chance to win. Obviously you’d hope India can return more than 107 next time round whatever deficit.
Agreed completely Jeeves: many Indian fans on Twitter live in denial (or: can’t get their head out of their ass!) and talk about things like “home pitch advantage” and “hey everybody loses away from home”. Firstly, the good teams don’t (I don’t just mean all-time great teams, but even solid/very good teams — e.g. Pakistan in the late 1980s/early 1990s; India in the first decade of this century; South Africa at various points this century; India in the early 1980s); they might lose SOMEwhere (e.g. Pakistan and India have never ever won series in Australia or SA) but they tend to win SOMEwhere (England! In fact this is the only country outside the sub-continent where desi teams have ever won test series, (until WI very recently, India being the honorable exception on the strength of its 1971 tour)!). This Indian team hasn’t come close (going back to the last gasp of the golden generation, we have lost 9 of the last 10 tests in England, an astounding record; common themes include lack of prep — not only insufficient number of prep matches but more generally (remember Zaheer in the 1st test in 2011?) — and batting failures, NOT bowling failures). Second, forget comparisons with history: what possible excuse can there be for India to do WORSE than Pakistan or Sri Lanka on its RECENT tours of England? Pakistan’s last two tours read: 2-2 and 1-1 — unlike when India had the great batting line-up, we cannot blame the bowlers (India’s attack is pretty good, and has mostly delivered; frankly with these bowlers India would have won a lot more in the DRavid/Sachin/VVS/Ganguly/Sehwag era); heck, I will go out on a limb and say India’s bowling attack is not inferior to Pakistan’s at present (Amir excepted) — it is Pakistan’s batting that showed more grit and fight in England, even after Misbah and Younis retired, than ours did, something I would never have predicted. Third, Indians cannot console themselves with limited overs success: we have not won any major tournament (T20 or ODI) since 2012 (not even the Asia Cup!) — that’s over half a decade in the richest, best funded era in Indian history, when India is more powerful than ever before. Yet our fans content themselves with silencing dissent, complacently wallowing in home victories, and even many of our experts are cowed by the BCCI and won’t dare to criticize any powerful player or Shastri or BCCI on air (contrast with how well Nasser Hussain does this). It is high time the “after glow” of our early 21st century success, and the World Cup/Champions Trophy victories in 2011-2012, faded, and we demanded accountability* — that is different from just blaming players, it’s about looking into how we prep for tours, how we are developing first-class batsmen, selecting them etc.. It’s incredible the number of fans one meets who seem to believe we are an elite team (based on ICC rankings, a strong home record, and mostly a very powerful hype machine), when actually we aren’t an elite team in any form of the game: at most we are among the 3-4 best ODI / T20 teams, not even there with test matches, and are a very strong test team at home. It’s a middling position.
*I ain’t holding my breath: our 0-4 (Eng 2011), 0-4 (Australia 2011-2012); 1-3 (Eng 2014); 0-2 (Aus 2014); 1-2 (SA 2018) defeats led to no introspection — in fact the whole culture had the temerity to treat a dead rubber victory in the third test in SA earlier this year as a turning point, epochal etc. (sadly Amitabh himself has become complicit in this mindless chest-thumping), which shows how content we all are with mediocrity, with the spectacle of the IPL (and I admit it IS a most entertaining and impressive spectacle) as a substitute for any other kind of achievement. Stated differently, reminds me of the Akki ad for a dance show on Colors TV: he slides onto a sofa and the child performer asks him if he’s heard about India winning gold, and he asks which one; yeah, we prefer to make movies on past teams that have won gold rather than think about how golds are won!
It was evident in second T20 match where Indian batsmen had no clue when ball was moving in English conditions. Indian bowling has been doing good. But then you select two spinner and one part time bowler for test where it should have been all fast bowlers, it tells more about team management (I am not sure of D Chahar is in test squad or not but he would have been ideal in these conditions.). Management is where you need someone who has vision or can say no to Kohli. Kohli will always do good as bastman but captaincy (and coaching) requires managing, vision and collaboration.
Spot on — of course they removed the one guy (Kumble) who had the stature to say no to Kohli. Of course the likes of Dravid, Ganguly will not take this job.
LOL — Dravid has more stature in his little finger than Shastri does. He is such a blowhard, and so different from some of his team mates (eg Vengsarkar, a very fine batsman indeed)
PS — yes, and the results are there for all to see: Dravid has done very well with the U19s. And this despite the fact that as he would be the first to admit, the longer format is his favorite format — so imagine what he might do if he were given even 80% of the power that these guys have been given.
There is too much politics at senior level..Personally, I don’t want gentleman like Dravid in all this mudslinging. You need to be politician to do your job and survive.
but home countries do have an advantage these days when it comes to test cricket….england being the only exception because england is the only country that offers assistance to BOTH seamers and spinners. Asian countries just destroy the outsiders on their spin friendly wickets and Asian teams have no clue when they go to fast tracks in Aus or SA (and even NZ now). I knew that India would struggle in England but didn’t think it would be the batting (and to this extent). This is now turning to the Sachin era of the early 90s when it was game over for india whenever the little master got out. Time for indian batsmen to wake up before 2-0 turns into 5-0 with Australia tour coming later this year.
This is pretty much like the 90’s. Kohli is a nailed on great but you need support ALWAYS. Cricket is not a team sport like football. There are individual battles & points when momentum can swing quickly and you need players and coaches who can make the right decisions in a flexible manner. This Indian team is barring a couple of players a bit wimpish.
Former captain of Indian cricket team Sunil Gavaskar, on Saturday, 11 August, turned down the invitation to the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan to be held on 18 August in Islamabad.
Gavaskar attributed his unavailability to a Test match between England and India where he is due to be present, reported India Today.
Former Indian cricketers Navjot Singh Sidhu and Kapil Dev have also received the formal invite to the ceremony.
what kind of batting technique is this? face some 20-30-40 balls and make 2-3-5 runs only??? Kohli is he only guy who keeps running the 1-2 runs….the rest of the people have got weird idea that block as many balls as you can and score little! Pujara 87 balls and what 19 runs??? vijay-rhane-karthik-and all are paper-tigers on English pitches!!! what a shame!
Vijay’s failures have been mysterious — perhaps he is in decline as a batsman — but Rahane seems to be in bad form. I wouldn’t say he is a paper tiger on English pitches (he had a century at Lords in 2014, when Kohli was miserable all series), and does average more outside the sub-continent than within it. Obviously it has been all pathetic this year, but a large part of it is insufficient red ball / first class practice. People like Rahane should be ordered by the BCCI to play county; same with Vijay — they aren’t even crucial to the IPL “economy”!
Wishful thinking, India have now found another potential way to lose a test match. They bat out the first session they near enough ensure a draw, now England post a big 1st innings and India are in the mire again.
Man that’s the day of test cricket I have been waiting for for a long time. Imagine what the batsmen could have achieved with a bit more match practice…
Result looks good..But I am not sold on Indian batting. Rahane scored 80+ plus with some exquisite shots but was error filled. Bowling has been decent to good.
agree, without Rahane’s contribution they would be in the very same position. Nonetheless it does prove once again that with proper first class match practice they might have been much better from the very first test. They are getting a bit used to the conditions. It’s been too gradual for sure. On the other hand if they win this one as they seem likely to it will be a series! After the first two it looked dire. Again I do agree that victory or defeat you have to learn the right lessons.
I saw every ball today, and by the time Hardik showed up the bowlers had done a lot of damage — BUT again some pretty average captaincy from Kohli , both at the beginning of England’s innings and at the very end.
Kohli has 400 runs this series already (3 tests), only the 6th Indian to do so in a series IN England (Murali Vijay did it in 2014, a sad regression for him this year; the others were Sachin, Dravid, Azhar, and Sunny). Sachin and Dravid did it twice. Vengsarkar certainly would have gotten there but only got a 3 test series in 1986 (he had 360 runs and two centuries that year; conversely, Sachin did it in 3 tests in 1996 and Kohli has done it in the third test here).
As an aside, if Kohli gets a 100 today, it’ll be the second time he’ll have had a 90+ and a 100 in the same test (he did it in SA in 2013).
India will win this test with only bad weather stopping that from happening and quite frankly the weather will help India – they should declare half way through after tea session.
More BollyTrick Retweeted BollyTrick
म्हारी छोरिया छोरों से कम हैं के!!!
#VineshPhogat wins us the 2nd #Gold Medal 🤼🇮🇳🥇in #AsianGames.
She continues the great #PhogatSisters legacy & a great prospect for Olympics after completing a double by winning Gold in both #CommonWealthGames2018 and #AsianGames2018
SATYAMSHOT
January 30, 2018 at 5:08 PM
Ok, I’ve created the sports thread. This will be ended when there are too many comments and then a new one will be begun.
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January 30, 2018 at 5:17 PM
Thanks Satyam.
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January 30, 2018 at 6:08 PM
Good idea. You need couple of recurring sticky threads. Sports and Politics 🙂
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January 30, 2018 at 7:23 PM
Satyam, Please ignore the above comment. I agree with your feelings about not having separate thread dedicated for politics. It is really hard to keep that discussion civil for more than few minutes 😀
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January 30, 2018 at 7:49 PM
I am laptop guy, so it doesn’t bother me much but I guess folks who are on small footprint may have problem traversing.
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January 30, 2018 at 9:53 PM
Congrats to India on the absolute beat down of Pakistan in the U19 WC. Good luck against Australia!
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January 30, 2018 at 10:09 PM
But everything on one forum was so much more fun. We can’t chat here. At least we can have thread where everyone goes.
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January 30, 2018 at 10:18 PM
Satyam’s idea about this blog was to classify stuff into 3 categories – the good, the bad and the ugly! Today he just reinforced and created that 3 threads, you pick the one you relate, Lol! 😀
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January 30, 2018 at 10:23 PM
wont work Coolguy becoz it becomes such a maze that I always want to do a quick check on BO updates – but by the time I find ’em – it is almost the next day 😉
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January 30, 2018 at 10:35 PM
It’s inevitable. Eventually all will end up on one thread.
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January 30, 2018 at 10:55 PM
Lol, I’m sure there will be many who won’t purposely go on China thread or sports thread to discuss Padmaavat or new releases. Whereas folks from China will surely pop in other threads to show their presence on the blog. So, its inevitable but in that sense and they will try to come to the main thread where many folks discuss movies.
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January 30, 2018 at 11:12 PM
I agree…I am definitely interested to know China gross but i have no interest in knowing it on an hourly basis…Like other Movies overseas gross i am fine knowing it weekend basis etc…This structure makes it easy….Anyone who wants to read details of China movies, SS and Lolita monkey man hourly gross can go into the china thread
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January 31, 2018 at 2:29 AM
What if it’s both Bollywood and sports news like this
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/bollywood/revealed-inside-details-shraddha-kapoors-upcoming-saina-nehwal-biopic/
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January 31, 2018 at 3:42 AM
“IPL Auction Deeply Humiliating, Players Paraded Like Cattle”
Updated: 31 January 2018 14:02 IST
580 players were up for auction ahead of the season which runs from April 7 to May 27. The IPL has been boosted by a new five year $2.5-billion media deal.
The New Zealand Cricket Players Association has hit out at the Indian Premier League Player Auction process, describing it as “undignified and cruel”. This is the first time cricket administrators from a country have openly criticised the auction. “”I think the whole system is archaic and deeply humiliating for the players, who are paraded like cattle for all the world to see,” Heath Mills, chief executive of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.
Mills backed the views of Peter Clinton, a former chief executive of Wellington Cricket, who tweeted: “The IPL Auction is such an undignified, cruel and unnecessary employment practice. Ridiculous that it exists today, belongs in the medieval ages.”
Mills stated that there was a need to change the system in order for it facilitate greater engagement with players.
“There’s a lot of good things about the Indian Premier League and it’s been great for cricket but I’d like to see it mirror the rest of professional sport in the way they engage athletes,” Mills said.
“Some players do exceptionally well out of if but the vast majority would like to see the system changed. They would like to negotiate with coaches and owners behind closed doors.”
According to Mills, the auction system renders the players helpless, with no control over their destinies.
“The players enter the auction not knowing where they are going, who their team-mates are going be, who’s managing them, who the owners are — no other sports league in the world engages players on that basis,” he said.
The IPL Governing Council is likely to discuss the feasibility of an alternate model to the auction going forward.
“Going forward, the thinking is that we will reduce, maybe not have mega auctions, but consider having a draft system for new players to come in, which acts as feeder system to teams. Hence, IPL Governing Council is thinking on the lines of how to cut down on the big auction and have the continuity with teams,” Hemang Amin, the IPL’s chief operating officer, said at the end of the latest auction in Bengaluru last weekend.
Rising pace bowler Jaydev Unadkat joined Ben Stokes in the Rajasthan Royals for $1.8 million but a host of foreign stars failed to get deals in the IPL auction.
The Rajasthan Royals made Unadkat the second most expensive player in the auction behind England’s Stokes who they bought for $1.96 million on the opening day.
Stokes — still facing an assault criminal case in England — and Unadkat will join Australian captain Steve Smith at the Royals as they return to the lucrative T20 league after a two-year illegal gambling ban.
Indian batsmen Manish Pandey and Lokesh Rahul both pocketed $1.7 million after being sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab respectively on Saturday.
580 players were up for auction ahead of the season which runs from April 7 to May 27. The IPL has been boosted by a new five year $2.5-billion media deal.
(With inputs from PTI)
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January 31, 2018 at 3:44 AM
The do have a point for sure.
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January 31, 2018 at 2:04 PM
Not really if they want it to be NFL and do the bidding behind closed doors then Ambani will have the best team. The whole point of fairness comes when everyone is given same budget and then you make your team. If there is no limit or cap the budget then 1 team will have best players and then it will not be fair tournament. With the current format, any team can win the tournament anytime.
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January 31, 2018 at 2:44 PM
They should have band..
X number of players could be in this band, Y in another band…
You shouldn’t be allowed to give a lot to some players…
It feels awkward when some known good players don’t get bids and some players are paid too much. Some bidding was happening by non-interested parties just to increase the price. It is good tactics but you are diluting the overall quality.
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January 31, 2018 at 3:45 AM
Too much money for 5 weeks work.
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January 31, 2018 at 12:45 PM
I felt that way from day one. How can they not even ask someone who they want to play for. I thought this will change. But it never did. Though auction for viewers is fun, but players ought to have some say. Anyways I also felt for 5-6 weeks they get good money and they are aware of the deal and process when they send out their names to play in IPL. And they get paid sometimes 10 fold then their basic expectations due to auction process. So in a way it benefits them too. And it’s matter of only handful of weeks which they get to skip a few games too. I think more players would be liking this than we think.
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January 31, 2018 at 1:55 PM
I must admit I started to understand and then enjoy NFL / American Football only due to Tom Brady. This Sunday will be his 8th appearance at the Super Bowl. Patriots have played in 7 Super Bowls with Tom Brady and they’ve all been instant classics. Last few times the final 15 minutes of the game involving the Patriots became nail biting with Brady being the catalyst with four-time Super Bowl MVP. He is right up there with all the GOAT in any arena ranks close to Michael Jordan and Lebron.
https://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/bob-glauber/patriots-dynasty-brady-belichick-1.16429350
Patriots of Bill Belichick, Tom Brady rank among greatest sports dynasties of all time
“……They are some of the most iconic names and teams in sports history, and their greatness has become the standard by which all others are judged.
The Yankees of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, who from 1949-64 won 14 pennants and from 1949-53 won five consecutive World Series.
The Bill Russell-Red Auerbach Celtics, who won 11 titles in 13 seasons in the Fifties and Sixties.
The Bulls of Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson, winners of six rings in the Nineties.
And now the Patriots have taken their rightful place among the all-time dynasties.
Win or lose against the Eagles on Sunday, the fact that the Patriots are in their eighth Super Bowl in Tom Brady’s 17 seasons as Bill Belichick’s quarterback is remarkable in and of itself. Should they win a sixth Super Bowl — which would make Brady unique and extend Belichick’s lead among coaches — it would add yet another magnificent accomplishment to a mind-boggling run.
Where should the Patriots be put in historical perspective? At the very top of at least one important category.
Although they haven’t had the sustained success of the Yankees (27 world championships) or the Montreal Canadiens (24 Stanley Cups), you can draw a line of demarcation at free agency. Before it changed professional sports irrevocably, teams could keep players under contract indefinitely, so there were no concerns about having to break up championship teams.
But free agency drastically changed the competitive landscape, starting with Major League Baseball in 1976 and continuing with the NFL in 1993, the NHL in 1995 and the NBA in 1996. Keeping great teams together became virtually impossible, greatly diminishing the chances for sustained success……”
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January 31, 2018 at 2:04 PM
I don’t follow NFL, don’t even get it. Heard Tom Brady is great. His records sound great too.
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January 31, 2018 at 2:14 PM
Initially it was the same for me but once you start following this sport it gets very interesting and so many technicalities with each plays. Brady is one of those great athletes and just the charisma and his body language on the football field makes one watch this very physical sport. He is cool as a cucumber like the other greats.
Due to Super Bowl mania these days, TV is full of these debates where they are now equating him to all time greats like Jordan, Ali, Pele, Federer and Messi.
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January 31, 2018 at 2:20 PM
I watch news bulletins on UK TV. But I find it loud and prefer Rugby. Just haven’t got into it. Maybe one day. Not to be prejudice against American sports but I dislike the excruciating long breaks. Watched baseball and basketball live – utterly bored. Plus maybe I’m old school, I like the trash talk in crowd, swearing and chants. Baseball they showed happy families on the screens like a big family day out. Too family friendly for me.
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January 31, 2018 at 2:39 PM
The NFL is trying to popularise the game outside the United States and I think they play an International series in London every year….but it’s an expensive sport in terms of gear etc and will never take off elsewhere….
Though I am from a cricketing mad nation but still find Baseball not only boring but look at it as a chance sport in the category of Golf….
( may be I haven’t grasped the fine technicalities yet )
NBA is always right up there along with few high profile NHL games but only after the playoffs kick in….. Surprisingly I have lost interest in Soccer which I was used to be mad about and played actively until school and college level. Was following actively it till Zidane etc were there and when it was still more skilled than set pieces…. Last World Cup was a total bummer esp that German- Brazilian match…..
This year there was a brand new American talent Christian Pulisic and I was thinking he is destined for big things but then the Americans failed to qualify…… so lost whatever little interest I regained in the prelims. But that guy is electric in field and wish the americans qualified for world to see…..
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January 31, 2018 at 2:54 PM
NFL is hard to understand…Plus it requires different skill sets…
I watch soccer regularly..La Liga/French/Italian leagues are shown in Being.
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February 1, 2018 at 4:14 PM
American Football is the best. It is like Chess played on a field. Every play is a scheme, fully designed, practiced, orchestrated and executed with super athletes. It has really sophisticated playbooks and evolved especially when you compare against Soccer, hockey basketball etc. Soccer hasn’t changed since bunch of cavemen kicking around a coconut into their caves. Kidding.
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January 31, 2018 at 3:38 PM
NFL played matches at White Hart Lane and will do at Tottenham Hotspur’s new ground too.
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January 31, 2018 at 3:12 PM
Due to privacy reasons, I don’t wish to disclose the reason I started to understand and then enjoy this sport but once all the technicalities and each play from offense and defense point of view were explained, it became not only engaging but enthralling…..plus all the hoopla on TV cannot go unnoticed. Just this season the Divisional Game between Vikings- Saints went into annals of history….no wonder it’s the most popular sport in US at the moment and not losing steam anytime soon inspite of the concussion fears….
“…Vikings beat the Saints and erased their playoff misery with the most spectacular comeback possible…”
https://www.sbnation.com/2018/1/14/16890528/saints-vikings-divisional-round-2018-nfl-playoffs
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February 1, 2018 at 12:54 PM
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18065/game/1122279/south-africa-vs-india-1st-odi-india-tour-of-south-africa-2018/
Virat Kohli(rhb) 86 95 7 0 90.52
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February 1, 2018 at 1:07 PM
Comfortable win for India likely.
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February 1, 2018 at 1:34 PM
No trying to nitpick but going back to my previous convo with Saket, hypothetically a 35-45 would not have sealed the deal….like what a certain ‘god of cricket’ would normally do in such situations of the past and walk away with i have done my part.
“Kohli hundred dismantles South Africa” – espn
A big one was needed from team’s No 1 player – Delivered
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February 1, 2018 at 2:00 PM
It’s a dumb argument. Dhoni scored the winning runs so he won the match. That’s the idiocy of this debate.
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February 1, 2018 at 5:03 PM
India won the match but I didn’t like Kohli and Rahane throwing their wickets at end. I wanted them to finish it.
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February 1, 2018 at 5:34 PM
Munna – 6 months ban for that referee in France
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42913053
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February 1, 2018 at 5:37 PM
It was funny but He deserves it…
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February 3, 2018 at 1:18 AM
India U-19 86-1 (13) | Manjot Kalra 42(35) Shubman Gill 6(3)
Need another 131 run(s) to win
C’mon India, C’mon Jammy
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February 3, 2018 at 1:56 AM
Damn, Shubman Gill gone for 31. India U19 needs 86 more runs to win
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February 3, 2018 at 2:03 AM
Target for Ind – 217
Ind – 143/2 in 25 overs
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February 3, 2018 at 2:56 AM
India U19 win. Kohli and Rahane should learn finishing from Kalra and Desai 🙂
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February 3, 2018 at 6:20 AM
yes fantastic win. Not unexpected though. They’ve been very dominant this entire tournament.
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February 3, 2018 at 4:25 PM
It was facile victory. Australia needed 300 to challenge India. Indians were sloppy on field. Merlo could have been run out couple of times.
Having said that, I looked at line up of 2012 final and didn’t see anyone at national level. Head and Bancroft are in national side. As Dravid said this is just start and they need to do more to be successful later in life.
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February 3, 2018 at 5:04 PM
all fair points..
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February 4, 2018 at 2:47 AM
That they won because of the pacers is heartwarming. Good to see Nagarkoti, Porel, Mavi develop so they can be spearheads of the senior team
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February 3, 2018 at 2:26 AM
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/sourav-ganguly-reveals-how-ms-dhoni-convinced-him-to-lead-india-in-his-final-test/story-aftIl1nl0kq0Kv5MW4rD0N.html
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February 3, 2018 at 11:17 AM
The greatest batsmen of all time
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February 4, 2018 at 2:29 AM
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/rahul-dravid-s-secret-message-after-india-won-the-under-19-cricket-world-cup/story-eNTaWJMS6cqCQ17UARHI5K.html
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February 4, 2018 at 9:09 AM
Good win in Centurion. Wrist spinners knock 8 wickets out of 10, reducing the target to 119. Achieved for the loss of Rohit Sharma’s wicket only
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February 4, 2018 at 1:05 PM
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-south-africa/2nd-odi-icc-left-red-faced-over-archaic-playing-rules/articleshow/62779150.cms
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February 4, 2018 at 11:16 PM
Congrats Eagles…
Well done.
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February 4, 2018 at 11:55 PM
They didn’t buckle under pressure!
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February 5, 2018 at 12:24 AM
Is Dravid the best Coach ever and the greatest cricketing legend now?
https://sports.ndtv.com/icc-under-19-world-cup-2018/icc-u-19-world-cup-rahul-dravid-a-great-mentor-says-shahid-afridi-after-indias-win-1808409?pfrom=home-cricket
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February 5, 2018 at 12:30 AM
I will not say best coach (he has to prove with the senior team)…But he certainly is inspirational and admired.
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February 5, 2018 at 2:24 AM
Dravid will eventually ascend to becoming India’s best ever coach (I hope and predict). He has the right combination of pedigree. Famous, respected, dedicated, reliable, gritty, skilful, warrior like. Totally wish he gets there but this is a tiny step. Plus that stat of the 2012 team and no one there today doesn’t surprise me. Cricket is not like football in this sense. The latter you actually play together and can end up at the same youth team early on. Plus the youth setups in football are formidable nowadays. In cricket it’s much more on your individual development and circumstances.
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February 5, 2018 at 12:50 PM
The same is said by Dravid:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/rahul-dravid-wants-prithvi-shaw-and-co-to-step-up-and-play-men-s-cricket/story-QskdpTWFNpPvJ7pW6uw27H.html
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February 5, 2018 at 12:43 AM
Munna – More view here on this. 🙂
Rahul Dravid is world’s best coach at the moment: Virender Sehwag to India TV
Head coach Dravid’s innate passion and dedication for the sport has finally paid off as his young India U-19 team lifts the coveted world cup trophy beating Australia by eight wickets on Saturday.
If there is one cricketer who deserves this honour more than anybody else, it is Rahul Dravid. Dravid’s tryst with the World Cup is an old one – from being the vice-captain of the team that lost the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup final (against Australian side) to crashing out in the group stages in 2007 edition where he was the captain. The 45-year old’s long impending dream of holding that coveted world cup trophy eluded him in his 16-year international career where he achieved many laurels for the country.
However, as they say – those who work hard write their own destiny and the saying has finally become a reality in case of Rahul Dravid. On Saturday at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, the fate brought him back into the limelight once again when his young brigade took defeated Australia by eight wickets in the title clash of ICC U-19 World Cup. And, the result is history now, Dravid is a World Cup winning Coach – an honour many cricketers dream or just think of.
During our exclusive show ‘Cricket Ki Baat’, India TV’s cricket expert and former India opener Virender Sehwag believes Rahul Dravid is the most appropriate man for the job and with this win, he has proved his calibre as the world’s best cricket coach. Sehwag said: “In his 16 or 17 years career, Rahul Dravid never managed to get his hands around the world cup trophy, but as a coach, he has lived that dream with the help of this young U-19 team.”
He added, “Dravid is world’s best coach at the moment and as a player, his records speak for themselves. He prepared his wards for the big game and taught him the nuances to handle the pressure of a big final.”
Speaking about playing the pressure of playing a World Cup final, Viru said, “More than physical, it’s the mental pressure which players need to absorb of playing the final of a world event. Every player who dreams of representing India has a long-live dream of winning the coveted world cup in his career.”
Sehwag also added that playing the senior cricket world cup is more difficult as compared to the U-19 competition. If it would have been easy, India would have lifted the 50-over world cup more than twice just like Australia who have won it five times.
https://www.indiatvnews.com/sports/cricket-rahul-dravid-is-world-s-best-coach-at-the-moment-virender-sehwag-to-india-tv-icc-u-19-world-cup-final-prithvi-shaw-manjot-kalra-kamlesh-nagarkoti-425908
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February 5, 2018 at 1:53 AM
Lets just say, I am a bigger Dravid fan than you are Akshay’s fan.
But I think Best label comes with time and how you manage resources you have along with accompanying strategy. I think U19 team was strong and kids needed mentor who could guide them. To be called best you need to deliver at pro level. Having said that, I don’t want him to coach the senior team; there is too much politics.
It was nice of Dravid to go to Pakistan dressing room after crushing loss to India and talk to kids. That tells more about the person than coach or cricketer.
http://www.timesnownews.com/sports/cricket/article/icc-u-19-world-cup-rahul-dravid-does-it-again-praise-from-pakistan-u-19-management-for-gesture/195620
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February 5, 2018 at 2:35 AM
Munna , I am not at all a fan of Dravid. I admire him a bit more than other coaches 🙂
My observations are not based on results but have been based on Rahul’s conduct and thought process evident via his post match interviews and media briefings + narrations from the players who were coached by Dravid.
I also dont agree that time will tell who is greatest contemporary coach. I humbly ask why?
Please tell me which of the current coaches in cricket world are better than Dravid?
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February 5, 2018 at 1:02 PM
“narrations from the players who were coached by Dravid.”
Which players are you talking about? He has been coach of India A , Under 19 and mentor in Delhi Devil and Rajasthan Royals.
To be called best:
1. How long you have achieved success?
2. Strategy
3. Marshaling your limited resources.
Of course responsibilities overlap with Captain. In cricket Coach has long term vision (including match) and captain short term on field.
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February 8, 2018 at 1:20 AM
Few people can sense an achievement early.
Others need proof.
The latter gets less time to experience glory.
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February 5, 2018 at 12:46 AM
Pakistan need mentor like Dravid for youngsters, says Ramiz
“I am impressed with the temperament shown by some of the Indian players. They have a fine find in Shubman Gill and others. Rahul Dravid deserves lot of credit for preparing and grooming them so effectively,” he said.
Ramiz said having someone like Dravid as their coach and mentor was a big boost for the Indian youngsters.
“They learn such a lot from him not just about cricket but about everything else. How to conduct oneself, how to develop game sense and so on,” he said.
http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/pakistan-need-mentor-like-dravid-for-youngsters-says-ramiz/article22609768.ece
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February 7, 2018 at 10:18 AM
Smriti Mandhana scores a century vs SA-W at Kimberly to register huge win, while Kohli scores 160 at Cape Town, results awaited for men’s match. Both Women and Men cross 300 runs team total.
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February 7, 2018 at 11:47 AM
India all over SA.
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February 7, 2018 at 1:17 PM
They have no idea how to play wrist spinners..
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February 7, 2018 at 1:19 PM
Given that they have Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi as wrist spinners in their side
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February 7, 2018 at 1:21 PM
Jhulan Goswami first woman to 200 ODI wickets
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February 7, 2018 at 10:35 PM
So biopics have been made on Dhoni, Tendulkar, Azharrudin and Kapil in pipeline (’83 win) who else will get one among those who retired.
Ganguly, Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Kumble, Sehwag? I think the first two – Dada and Jammy are a possibility. Especially in Dada’s case Chappell can be vilified for screwing his career. Jammy can end with his win in U19 World Cup as coach
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February 9, 2018 at 3:58 AM
Ganguly’s biopic will make a great masala movie titled ‘Nanga Naach at Lords’!
Dravid is a boring personality (for entertainment purpose).
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February 9, 2018 at 4:02 AM
boring can be portrayed as a serious personality
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February 8, 2018 at 2:31 AM
Virat Kohli is a genius and best in the world: Javed Miandad
“In Virat Kohli’s case his batting method is what allows him to score runs not just once but almost every time he comes in to bat. If a batsman’s technique is bad, he can put some runs on the board once in a while, but he will not be able to do that consistently which is exactly true in Kohli’s case. To me the mark of a great batsman, like Kohli is the fact that he can vary his technique by quickly understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the bowlers. Kohli is a genius who is the best batsman in the world,” said Miandad, who scored 7381 runs at an average of 41.70 in 233 ODIs.
“The loss to India in the ICC Under-19 World Cup was by a big margin of 203 runs which is hard to take but if truth be told, our team was lucky to have progressed that far given the inexperience of our players. Of course, victory and defeat are part of any sport, but we need to accept that there was a huge difference in terms of skills between both teams. India is a huge country with a bigger population than Pakistan, yet our players are able to challenge India in cricket which tells me that we have the potential, but we simply do not have the system that can support and get the best out of that potential,” said the 60-year-old who captained Pakistan in 34 Tests and 62 ODIs.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-south-africa/virat-kohli-is-a-genius-and-best-in-the-world-javed-miandad/articleshow/62831133.cms
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February 8, 2018 at 9:12 AM
What is noteful from Miandad’s read – “The Pakistan great singled out Kohli’s technical prowess and ability to rescue India from difficult situations and steer them to victories as the hallmark of a “great” batsman”
This to me is the key. One more here…
Michael Clarke thinks Virat Kohli is the greatest ODI player of all time and he is not alone
http://www.dnaindia.com/cricket/report-michael-clarke-thinks-virat-kohli-is-the-greatest-odi-player-of-all-time-and-he-is-not-alone-2582760
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February 8, 2018 at 5:49 PM
Akram’s comment on India’s three pacers!
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/mohammed-shami-s-run-up-a-problem-jasprit-bumrah-should-play-county-wasim-akram/story-ObqCK8ZohgxaYbTIjIgmxH.html
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February 9, 2018 at 4:03 AM
Federer wants to be ‘Budhha Number 1’ next week at Rotterdam. Agassi must be scratching his bald head.
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February 9, 2018 at 4:13 AM
And after that I expect Nadal to get really fired up to win everything in sight during the play season!
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February 9, 2018 at 4:14 AM
typo – *clay season*
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February 12, 2018 at 10:49 AM
For Fedex fans – after Rotterdam (and hopefully world rank #1 again at 36), he is considering to play at Dubai and maybe Garros!
http://zeenews.india.com/tennis/roger-federer-quietly-hoping-for-dream-return-to-no-1-at-rotterdam-2080680.html
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February 12, 2018 at 12:20 PM
It would be a big mistake to play the French. He should really follow last year’s format.
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February 12, 2018 at 1:02 PM
Maybe he’s going to retire this season and say adiós to Roland Garros.
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February 12, 2018 at 10:23 PM
Very likely. If he was thinking beyond 2018, I doubt he would be playing at Rotterdam and Dubai in a bid to regain #1 ranking (perhaps for the last time). The target maybe to play as much as possible till year end and say final goodbye. He possibly cant go on forever.
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February 9, 2018 at 9:09 AM
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22376859/indra-nooyi-becomes-icc-first-independent-woman-director
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February 10, 2018 at 10:31 AM
What is happening to Dhoni, past his use by date as a batsman?
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February 10, 2018 at 10:52 AM
did well today..
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February 10, 2018 at 11:02 AM
he walked in at 210/4 in 36.3 overs. In 13.3 overs (81 balls of which Dhoni faces 43 to score 42 runs), 79/3 is ok..? with Pandya, Dhoni, Iyer – India should have finished better.
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February 10, 2018 at 11:55 AM
India should have done better but he still added crucial runs at the end. Obviously he’s at the very fag end of his career. He’s not gong to have too many great days. Don’t even think he should be playing at this point. A guy who’s known the fame he has shouldn’t just be more or less a journeyman on a one day team. 20/20 is fine.
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February 10, 2018 at 12:42 PM
His ability to win matches with strike rate is gone. He brings stability in lower order when things are not good. His intangibles in guiding youngster is invaluable. Can he be replaced, yes. But his replacements are not significantly better.
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February 10, 2018 at 12:46 PM
that’s fair, just feel sorry to see him this way.
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February 10, 2018 at 1:03 PM
Dhoni is undeniably one of India’s greats. I think after giving up captaincy he could let loose and play a bit like when he burst onto the scene, like the loss of this responsibility should liberate his game. But I think he’s still playing and thinking like a captain. Still India’s best option as a genuine all-rounder.
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February 10, 2018 at 1:10 PM
to be honest I would not have minded retaining him as captain. I like Kohli in this role too but if Dhoni is going to be on the team might as well use his greater experience in this sense. And kohli isn’t the sort of guy who needs too much grooming anyway. Having said that Kohli seems to find the job motivating. Unlike many others who are not cut out for it.
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February 10, 2018 at 1:28 PM
He is superb as a captain. But his game has slowed with that responsibility. I agree Kohli himself doesn’t need to captain but Dhoni’s voice is less relevant once he gave up tests. Plus I think Dhoni wanted to play 2019 and captaincy may have hurt those prospects.
Like munna says he can strike at 100 or thereabouts but rarely does. But he is so unique as an ODI batsman that you think he can turn it on if it’s a big occasion. You’d put him in ahead of anyone except Kohli if you needed 20 off 2 overs, at least I would.
The opposition still know what he is capable off.
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February 10, 2018 at 12:59 PM
He will call time after 2019 WC
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February 10, 2018 at 1:20 PM
He just cannot hit the ball coming at crease. He takes time to settle. Probabtwith age your ability to time the ball wanes. He could have scored 10 ball 10 but then India score would have been 250-260. His significant innings are when India chips are down; be it dharmshala one day or one where he partnered with Pandya. If things are all rosy at top, you typically don’t need him.
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February 10, 2018 at 1:22 PM
I loved the pinkish ground today!
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February 10, 2018 at 1:50 PM
I said exactly the same thing to someone today! The ground looks beautiful but the pitch almost looked pink enough to match the pink SA were wearing as well as some of it elsewhere!
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February 10, 2018 at 1:53 PM
things are less pink with with only two SA players on the ground!
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February 10, 2018 at 3:12 PM
quite a match. After de Villiers went (and specially given how dangerous he looked) I thought the match was over. But they came up with some incredible hitting. specially at the end. Didn’t expect Phelukwayo to have a 460 SR! When the match was over they said SA have never lost playing in pink!
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February 10, 2018 at 3:23 PM
This is where Kohli need to learn…One over from Bumrah was enough to suggest that they need fast bowlers than spinners to stop the run flow. Moreover spinners were straying. All pitches are not going to assist you so they needed to change strategy. When Chahal bowled straight and good length he got miller. You will hit couple but when you miss, you will be out.
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February 10, 2018 at 3:57 PM
yeah.. also the chances lost with Miller were very costly.
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February 12, 2018 at 11:26 PM
SA were quite lucky with Miller…A catch dropped then a LBW and then a catch on the free hit…That’s like getting a batsman out thrice in a over. IF miller had fallen then we would have won. I don’t really believe SA has worked out the spinners. Just that it was a T20 game kind of scenario and they were throwing bat at everything sweeping or reverse sweeping….In a normal 50 over game they wont be taking so many risks
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February 10, 2018 at 11:14 PM
When is Rohit Sharma going to show up and make himself counted? Why doesn’t he roll his arms in limited overs game nowadays. For God’s sake he has an IPL hattrick.
Get back Yuvi, if he is ready to bowl part time. Since we need somebody who can fill in some overs.
Question marks on Ajinkya Rahane utility in limited format as well
At one stage, we had Sachin, Sourav, Yuvraj, Raina, Sehwag. Now there are no part timers besides Kedar Jadhav
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February 11, 2018 at 6:32 AM
Rohit is out of form and South African fast pitches are not made for him…
I am not a fan of his batting..but he is one of best timer of ball when he is on roll…
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February 12, 2018 at 2:24 PM
I am his fan but he is a big let down in Test cricket. Just doesn’t have it in his mind to play longer version.
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February 12, 2018 at 11:27 PM
Raina is back in T20 format. He has also cleared the yoyo test. I suspect if he does well in T20s he will slot into the ODI team for Kedar…
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February 11, 2018 at 4:54 AM
Cricket fans : Saket, Jay, Satyam, Q and others
http://www.thenightwatchman.net/news/editors-choice-issue-12
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February 11, 2018 at 5:43 AM
Very interesting read for non cricket enthusiasts too.
Most celebrities are media made. Especially in the times of internet. Before that, newspapers and magazines.
Both Dravid and Anand(conservative families) are from south of Vindhyas where education is given utmost importance since the times of Macaulay. But the most interesting ones come from the swashbuckling north like Sehwag, Yuvraj and others. But there are exceptions everywhere. Like Sreeshant.
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February 11, 2018 at 6:04 AM
It seems media likes masala giving types who provide them with interesting personal stories by attending parties, creating speculations, even twitter activities etc. than purely professional sportsmen who just do their job and talk about their job only. Yes, they want sportsmen to be like filmstars.
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February 11, 2018 at 6:22 AM
It is well written verbal diarrhea…It has some twisted facts and some assumptions.
1. Bowled criteria should be combined with LBW.
2. Marriage part – http://mb.ntdin.tv/en/article/english/childhood-friends-married-couples-rahul-dravid-wife-vijetas-match-fixed-parents
3. The assumption that he was mediocre talent wise. He was obviously was no Tendulkar or Lara but he was still better than most.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/548213.html
http://sportzwiki.com/cricket/batsmen-who-has-been-bowled-out-maximum-no-of-times-in-all-formats/
http://www.espncricinfo.com/engvind/content/story/303347.html
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February 11, 2018 at 6:28 AM
One thing the article says and probably true is that you can not be casual viewer/watcher/follower (not cricket elite ) of cricket and fan of Dravid. You need to understand cricket to appreciate Dravid. Simple question to identify: love for Test cricket, ODI and T20 and fans they have.
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February 13, 2018 at 10:15 AM
Dhoni has been useful once again at the end..
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February 13, 2018 at 10:15 AM
thanks for pointing out the right thread Jeeeves!
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February 16, 2018 at 1:26 PM
Go Kohli! Blistering knocks. Sensational batting
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February 16, 2018 at 9:59 PM
5-1 scoreline we would have taken before the start but just think what if it was 6-0 sweep?
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February 17, 2018 at 6:00 AM
I am somewhat circumspect with this 5-1 winning..I think South Africa batting has been very weak. Their bowling has been decent (Rabada and Morkel are good but the next best bowler was Ngidi). It could have been better. Even the first two test wins by South Africa was 1 good inning by ABD and FDP. Amla has been out of form.
Kohli batting has been good…But I think India will struggle on pitches like the one in test. One day wickets were flatter, probably for entertainment.
Rohit is total misfit on fast wickets. Comparatively Dhawan has been decent. Rahane and Panda need to be more focussed. They tend to lose their wickets instead of bowler taking the wicket.
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February 16, 2018 at 1:43 PM
Authoritative display !
Anushka has had a very good influence on him in terms of calming him down off the field and channeling his energy with various goodwill projects he is now involved with. Only wish that he tones it down a bit on the expressions on field but may be that is something which gets him going.
“….Kohli, Man of the match and Man of the Series: It was a day where I felt really good. Last game, I was not in the right kind of mindset. This is a beautiful place to bat under lights. That’s the idea behind bowling first. I like setting up for the short ball. It was a blessing in disguise, and they kept bowling short. I think the pitch got better to bat on under lights. It has been a rollercoaster till now. People who are close to me deserve a lot of credit. My wife has kept me going throughout the tour. I am grateful for that. Obviously, you want to lead from the front, and that’s a wonderful feeling. I have got eight or nine years left in my career and I want to make the most of every day. It’s a blessing that I am healthy and getting to captain my country. They have shown great character – especially the two young spinners. Shikhar at the top, Rohit. The way the series went augurs well for us. We’re looking forward to the T20s. The tour is not over yet. As a team, we felt we did not play with the right frame of mind in the first two Tests. Come Johannesburg, we made up our mind that we will not take a backward step. After losing the Test series, I was talking to you. I am here taking to you after winning the ODI series.”
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18065/game/1122284/south-africa-vs-india-6th-odi-india-tour-of-south-africa-2018/
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February 16, 2018 at 3:23 PM
Federer is oldest #1 ever! Amazing turnaround in 18 months.
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February 16, 2018 at 10:36 PM
And he did it after a gap of more than 5 years. It is an amazing story of a great comeback (to slam glories and #1 ranking) after years of hanging on there.
Another such story of great comeback is Salman’s run since Dabangg. He did very well in the nineties, then just hung on through noughties. And then finally started his best run at box-office in his mid forties.
Great stories of resilience shown when chips were down.
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February 16, 2018 at 10:53 PM
Salman always had a big fan following. Why and how it wasn’t working from 2000 to 2009 and how it started working all of a sudden since Wanted that too is such a big way is still a mystery to me. I don’t think he has too many hits between 2000 and 2009. He had a Tere Naam and Partner and couple of others may be, but he probably wasn’t even in top 5 during those years.
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February 16, 2018 at 11:12 PM
Salman has no doubt played his cards well since Wanted. But his comeback is a mystery to me too. It probably had something to do with the comeback of masala at that time with the success of Ghajini, Wanted and Dabangg. Perhaps the audience were also tired of SRK’s iterations at family romance, which left a void (Aamir can never fill the void of a pinup star with his slow working style).
Anyways, I see Salman’s run extending for another 2-3 years with his lineup of sequels – Race 3, Dabangg 3, Kick 2, Tiger 3, etc. Only suspect is Bharath, which may turn out to be another Tubelight. But he is wise enough to already pad it up with a bunch of sequels releasing around it.
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February 17, 2018 at 1:30 AM
Salman will continue to rule for years now. Sequel Bonanza and maybe he’ll catch up to records in a couple of years time.
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February 17, 2018 at 6:08 AM
Wanted was a small hit. Salman always had B and C centers. He lacked support of A centers. With Dabangg he got support of A center and he still holds it. And why A centers started supporting him? A centers suddenly started liking B and C center song “munni badnaam”!
His movie has always good songs and somewhat coherent story around bhai image..He tried to come out of Bhai image in Tubelight and fell flat.
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February 17, 2018 at 7:37 AM
Bhai was always popular in B and C centers. Even before Wanted there used to be processions in these centers when his films would release on Eid.
During Wanted these centers went into overdrive. But that is understandable because southern masala caters to their taste and Salman’s remakes were bound to excite them.
The surprise was when A centers accepted his Bhai image from Dabangg onwards. Attributing that to ‘Munni Badnaam’ is not correct imo. The sudden change in taste for these A centers remains a mystery.
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February 17, 2018 at 9:50 AM
Dabangg was not just about masala or munni badnam. It has the UP bad-ass-giri in the required doses and was a generally well made movie. It definitely started a trend for Sallu.
However, none of his other actioners measured upto Dabangg, and could not compare to even a average Aamir movie such as Dhoom3.
Sultan was the custom-made role for Sallu, which is why it clicked. BajrangiB was off course an emotional movie and had to click. Have’nt seen TZH, so cant comment.
But IMHO, other than Race 3, he will need some excellent scripts in these other sequels for them to work. Remember, Dabangg2 was hardly a patch on the original and could not muster the dreamt up results. Race3 might work due to the novelty. He couldve perhaps done a Dhoom4 and made it work.
But, now that age is catching up, I wonder how much longer all this can continue. Plus, younger stars are finally catching up.
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February 17, 2018 at 10:28 AM
Much like SRK at his peak, Salman does not have much to offer. He is in an iterative mode and will take all that he can from the sequels till the public stops showing up for his nonsense.
His only chance of sustenance is to make Bharat work well. Something like another Bajrangi Bhaijaan may give him a fresh lease of life. Else he is racing towards sequel fatigue.
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February 17, 2018 at 12:35 PM
let’s continue this discussion at the box office thread. too many comments to move all of them now.
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February 16, 2018 at 10:47 PM
By his own words, Federer’s great run got over when he ran into great forms from Rafa and Novak. Being older than them, its tremendous tenacity to outlast their run (specially Novak’s) and again give it back to Rafa at this stage.
One personal milestone he may be after is 100 ATP titles (currently at 96). He has a chance to win at Rotterdam. There is talk that he might play in Dubai too. Last year he played (and won) both Indian Wells and Miami in March before skipping the entire clay season. Lets see what he does this year.
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February 16, 2018 at 10:55 PM
He has hinted he may skip clay again.
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February 16, 2018 at 11:04 PM
Skipping clay will be the best way to go IMO. Three months of rest and then try to defend Wimbledon. I am not sure if he will play all three of Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami in the next few weeks; probably just one or at best two of them.
Unless he wins another slam this year, I somehow dont see him playing next year.
Anyways, glad that he has regained his #1 spot. Last year he played a lot during the end of the year in a bid to get there (although the plan went haywire at US Open with his injury, Del Potro and all that).
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February 17, 2018 at 1:46 AM
96 Vs Connor’s 109. He’s on 8 Wimbledon’s and if he wins this year he might think X. If anything he can play just because he wants to and it makes him happy. I wish an injury doesn’t force retirement and he just does it winning a slam.
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February 17, 2018 at 7:43 AM
He is playing for personal milestones. Nothing else can explain his participation at a ATP 500 level tournament at this point. I guess he will keep pushing for more, till his body strongly says no more. And he knows it can happen anytime.
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February 16, 2018 at 11:25 PM
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February 17, 2018 at 1:14 AM
LOL at this tweet
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February 17, 2018 at 7:39 AM
Like him or not (I dont), but Kohli is the most aggressively successful cricketer ever in India. He puts Saurav Ganguly’s antics (and batting) to shame!
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February 17, 2018 at 8:09 AM
I am happy he is winning matches for India..
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February 17, 2018 at 8:38 AM
Ranveer will be a good fit to do Kohli’s biopic. They need someone more humble and rusty to play Kapil on screen.
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February 17, 2018 at 9:38 AM
Humor with false equivalency.
Dravid did not play, he just coached.
Kohli plays and is ABSOLUTELY required to hold up an otherwise suspect Indian batting line-up. His fitness regime inspires his team-mates, and his aggression lifts their spirits. His aggression can sometimes be cringe-worthy, but he clearly gets to the nerves of all his opponents, and does what the Aussies did in their dominance decade. IMHO, he perhaps contributes to as much or more than 50% of every Indian victory.
Therefore, if the wife of the guy is required for him to have the mental stability for contributing that 50%, why not give her the credit??
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February 20, 2018 at 4:14 AM
True, That tweet has taken it out of context. Kohli was crediting Anushka for his own batting form and not the team victories, but than that’s what many people do
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February 18, 2018 at 2:26 AM
http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/ms-dhoni-a-story-to-be-continued-india-vs-south-africa-5068231/
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February 18, 2018 at 10:47 PM
https://www.hindustantimes.com/videos/sports/virat-kohli-s-form-has-got-sachin-tendulkar-s-records-in-danger/
With an away series win of 5-1 against South Africa, Virat Kohli has put his name in the history of Indian cricket. He became the first Indian captain to win a bilateral series in South Africa. He has scored a total of 844 runs in the tour so far and no other batsman even comes close to those runs. The next highest scorer of the tour is Hashim Amla with 357 runs. Virat Kohli also closed in on Sachin Tendulkar’s 49th ODI tons record. In the sixth ODI, he notched up his 35th ODI hundred making him just 14 shy of the little master. Kohli’s purple patch has been the highlight for India’s pure domination in the ODI series in South Africa but one can’t look away from the role the Indian spinners played in the series. The spin duo of Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav got 33 wickets in the ODI series. That makes them account for more than 50% of the Proteas wicket. Kohli currently is scoring a ton in less than 7 innings and broke Tendulkar’s record of scoring the fastest 500 runs in a calendar year as well. (HT Correspondent)
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February 20, 2018 at 12:34 AM
http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/bhuvneshwar-kumar-knuckleball-india-vs-south-africa-5070454/
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February 20, 2018 at 3:56 AM
NDTV SPORTS
Virat Kohli is well and truly on his way to break most batting records in world cricket, there is no denying that. The Indian skipper is in the form of his life and no team seems capable of stopping his scoring spree. South Africa was being viewed as an acid test for the Indian run machine, and not only has he passed that test but aced it. During the sixth and final match of the ODI series against South Africa, Kohli smashed his 35th century and in the process broke a plethora of records and now he can add another feather to his already illustrious cap.
Kohli is 130 runs away from scoring 1,000 runs in total in South Africa, which would make him only the second batsman in the history of cricket to do so on an international tour.
The Indian skipper was the top run-getter in the Test series with 286 runs and then became the first ever batsman to score 500 runs in a bilateral series, ending with a mammoth 558 runs. In the first T20I in Johannesburg, Kohli managed 26 taking his aggregate on the South Africa tour to 870.
Only West Indian legend Viv Richards has managed to score 1,000 or more runs on an international tour, achieving the feat in 1976 when he plundered a total of 1,045 runs on West Indies’ tour to England.
The West Indian great had scored 216 runs in ODIs and a whopping 829 runs in four Tests.
Cricket great Don Bradman had scored a total of 974 runs in five Tests in Australia’s tour to England but since there were no ODIs at that time, he couldn’t breach the 1000-run mark on an international tour.
In the Tests against South Africa, Kohli registered a high score of 153 with a century and a half-century to his name in the series. However, the Indian skipper took his game to another level in the ODIs, decimating the South Africans single-handedly.
Kohli scored 3 centuries and half-century with a high score of 160 not out. His 558 runs in the ODIs came at an average of 186 and a strike rate of 99.46.
The second T20I between India and South Africa will be played on Wednesday at Centurion while Newlands, Cape Town will host the final match of the tour on February 24.
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February 24, 2018 at 3:25 AM
LOL, since his son did not make it in National team, sour grapes for Roger
https://in.yahoo.com/cricket/news/hardik-pandya-doesn-t-contribute-095305838.html
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February 25, 2018 at 1:20 PM
https://scroll.in/field/869951/dravid-takes-a-pay-cut-so-that-the-rest-support-staff-of-u-19-wcup-winning-team-gets-more
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February 28, 2018 at 1:02 AM
Laureus Awards: How rival Rafael Nadal made Roger Federer ‘a better player’
Roger Federer paid tribute to his longtime rival Rafael Nadal as he congratulated the Spaniard on having an equally impressive season at the Laureus Awards.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/tennis/laureas-awards-how-rival-rafael-nadal-made-roger-federer-a-better-player/story-yGasN4NGlp7LhoSrNOZ4RO.html
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March 4, 2018 at 11:35 AM
Seems like Federer may play French as per recent news. Seeing the state of Nadal, Joker and Murray he is probably fancying his chances.
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March 4, 2018 at 11:37 AM
Ya he is definitely eyeing at this point. But lets see how Indian Wells and Miami goes first. He is defending back to back titles.
With Nadal injured, he is likely to retain #1 rank for this month.
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March 4, 2018 at 4:05 PM
still a risky move. Clay takes a lot out of you. At his age he should really just be thinking about Wimbledon and the US.
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March 4, 2018 at 9:20 PM
If Nadal remains injured till then (which I really doubt), he may have a decent shot at winning his second French. But he wont have the stamina to be at his best at Wimbledon. Odds for him winning will be far higher at Wimbledon.
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March 4, 2018 at 9:27 PM
He’s going for a grand slam and retiring!!!!
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March 2, 2018 at 3:02 AM
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-australia-43251125
Age has no barriers
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March 2, 2018 at 7:36 PM
Regret taking off shirt at Lord’s” Sourav Ganguly to Barkha Dutt
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March 4, 2018 at 4:42 AM
Why regret? Bhai does it in every movie of his. Irrespective of the situation. At least Dada did it in victory celebrations, which is acceptable
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March 2, 2018 at 11:37 PM
https://twitter.com/cricketopiacom/status/836790917847666688
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March 3, 2018 at 1:26 AM
This was an outrageous knock. Watching this with commentary on that day, Robin Smith the South African commentator was just salivating on Tendulkar. This is easily the best non century knock I’ve seen period. He hit 3 boundaries in a row at one point, all different shots. The streak fell apart after a drinks break if I recall, the first bowl after – Akhtar got him and Tendulkar had cramp! I think!
The match was practically a knockout match in group stages. This was Tendulkar at his peak at 29 years of age. Few months later people called for him to retire after a torrid start to the Australian test series despite terrible umpiring decisions by Bucknor. Then he played a 241 odd not out in Sydney in Steve Waugh’s final test match and 60 odd not out followed by 194 not out in Pakistan to shut everyone up.
8 years later he walloped Steyn around in India before 11 WC with the first 200 and Shastri called him India’s superman!
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March 3, 2018 at 1:09 PM
Drove 80 miles to see the final (In those days streaming was not readily available) and Ponting poured river 🙂
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March 3, 2018 at 1:13 PM
Ponting and Martyn.
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March 3, 2018 at 1:17 PM
Yep… In those days 300 was good score..350+ was just unreachable.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8039/scorecard/65286/australia-vs-india-final-world-cup-2002-03
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March 3, 2018 at 1:36 PM
It was a mammoth and savage score. India were blown away. The problem was putting Australia in to bat in a fine batting wicket. Terrible mistake.
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March 4, 2018 at 2:14 AM
Ganguly : “No. I still think I made the right decision at the toss. We just didn’t play well enough—bowled too short on a pitch which offered a lot if the ball was pitched up.”
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-conversation/sourav-ganguly-under-me-players-weren-t-picked-and-dropped-at-my-whim-and-fancy
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March 4, 2018 at 2:20 AM
Well it’s obvious they didn’t bowl well. The first few overs were embarrassing but in a final I could never understand a team wanting to chase – especially a team that boasted a great batting line up.
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March 4, 2018 at 2:20 AM
http://www.cricketweb.net/statsspider/player/327880-onedaybattinganalysis.php
http://www.cricketweb.net/statsspider/player/327880-testbattinganalysis.php
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March 4, 2018 at 2:41 AM
I liked only two things about Ganguky batting..off side batting…and effortless sixes down the pitch…
I don’t think he was a good captain..he was better than previous captains but there was not much strategy which showed in inconsistency (even with winning record)..I was always scared that India will lose even when they were in good position…
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March 4, 2018 at 4:37 AM
For me, Dhoni in India’s best captain till date, until Virat or someone else can create a super overseas record (outside sub continent record) in Tests. For that seam bowling needs to be strong – It is heading right way with Bhuvi, Shami, Bumrah, Umesh, Ishant and seam all rounders like Pandya
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March 5, 2018 at 12:03 AM
Dhoni was hardly an impressive captain in test matches (ODIs is a different story): he was far too defensive IMO, with un-imaginative, by the book bowling changes and field placements. And easily unnerved: he was always a couple of fours away from removing a slip fielder. I would pick Ganguly and Dravid over Dhoni as test match captains any day of the week. On Virat, I can’t even get to captaincy since the chap can’t seem to get the basics of team selection right — that being said I’d likely pick him over Dhoni in test matches but we need more time to tell…
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March 5, 2018 at 12:21 AM
India probably had the best batting during Ganguly times (still not good enough for overseas in terms of consistency)…And best bowling now in Kohli time..tests are something where skills are tested to maximum…ODI needs strategy where you can perform good even with limited resources and some luck..T20 – .one guy can change the game. Luck on that day
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March 5, 2018 at 3:36 AM
You need to defend runs even in Tests. With the quality of our pace attack then except Zak, others were unreliable – Sreesanth, RP Singh, Nehra, VRV Singh, Arun Varon, Praveen Kumar. Bhuvi was only coming up then.
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March 5, 2018 at 8:04 AM
With essentially the same resources in bowling, Dravid was much better as a test captain than Dhoni — the issue was that MSD just didn’t “feel” test matches, the ebb and flow of the match, the rhythm, the way he did with ODIs. Stated differently, Dhoni’s defensiveness did not emanate from bowling per se, but from his ODI-orientation (ODI is in essence a more defensive form of the game, and Dhoni brought that mindset to test matches as well). In general, Dravid’s captaincy has been written out of Indian public memory, and this is a huge shame: his batting suffered, it is true, but purely as captain he had results. I would certainly pick Dhoni as India’s greatest-ever ODI captain, but not “best Indian captain”; his test match captaincy is too poor for that.
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March 4, 2018 at 9:48 AM
Saffies vs Aussies 1st Test is getting interesting in 4th innings. What a knock by Markram and De Kock.
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March 4, 2018 at 2:46 PM
Starc cleaned the tail end… markaram probably was tired for that shot.
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March 5, 2018 at 12:56 AM
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March 5, 2018 at 2:53 AM
MVP and an Oscar. What about the rape charges?
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March 5, 2018 at 3:01 AM
Accuser and Kobe settled outside and charges were dropped. He went through the process but there are many people who said it was kind of anti #Metoo…But his comment during acceptance was political..against Foxs new anchor comment…Kobe comment was organic in his acceptance speech..
Personally I think politics should be kept away from awards…Your politics should be in movies..As a viewer, I may not interested in their politics during award shows.
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March 7, 2018 at 11:46 AM
Outside the court, Kobe offered to be raped by his victim? Hisaab barabar?
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March 7, 2018 at 12:22 PM
Kobe paid $1 million …There were inconsistencies in victim’s version…prolonging the case was not good for Kobe’s career….There were no witnesses except clothing (against the victim) and physical examination of victim (against Kobe)…The lawyers of both sides discussed out co court settlement..Since the victim was not testifying..prosecutor couldn’t take the case any further.
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March 7, 2018 at 12:53 PM
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/report-mark-cuban-investigated-alleged-sexual-assault-2011-charges-never-filed-054514266.html
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March 5, 2018 at 3:01 AM
Benefits of playing for the LA Lakers team. You take home an Oscar, if nominated
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March 5, 2018 at 3:13 AM
Well Shaq also made a movie sometime back 🙂
Have seen and followed Lakers since 2000…Now I am in Curry land!
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March 5, 2018 at 3:24 AM
Shaq moved to Miami Heats in 2004, then to Phoenix, Cleveland and then Celtics. Didn’t Bryant retire with the Lakers? Lakers have a lot of support of HW stars.
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March 5, 2018 at 3:16 AM
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/03/shaq-shaquille-oneal-kobe-bryant-oscars-win-dear-basketball-reaction-twitter
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March 5, 2018 at 2:44 AM
https://scroll.in/field/870747/not-on-talking-terms-the-uncomfortable-break-up-between-the-indian-cricket-team-and-the-media
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March 7, 2018 at 8:20 AM
https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/ms-dhoni-demoted-to-second-tier-in-the-new-bcci-player-contracts-mohammed-shami-left-out-1820900?pfrom=home-topscroll
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March 7, 2018 at 8:24 AM
This kind of discrimination will demotivate some while some may take it as a challenge. Shami’s omission is curious.
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March 7, 2018 at 11:25 AM
Shami….caught behind or hit wicket ? Messages circulating on Whatsapp are much more raunchy then carried here.
Joins the fallen hero club. As per BCCI – ” While paceman Mohammed Shami’s name has been withheld on allegations of domestic violence and adultery by his wife..”
“…..Married to Shami since 2014, Hasin Jahan reportedly claimed that the bowler is having several extra-marital affairs simultaneously.
Read: India pacer Mohammed Shami denies wife Hasin Jahan’s adultery charge
Notably, the post, which was uploaded from an unverified account, was titled as ‘Shami’s enjoyment’ and had several pictures of the pacer’s text messages to multiple women….”
“…Hasin Jahan then went on to state that she was tortured by Shami’s mother and brother and they tried to kill her.
Jahan, who is also a mother to Shami’s three-year-old daughter Airah, claimed that she found some male contraceptives hidden in his BMW car.
“Whatever I have posted is just the tip of the iceberg. Shami’s acts are far more heinous. He has relationships with multiple women,” Jahan was quoted as saying by ABP News….”
ttps://www.deccanchronicle.com/sports/cricket/070318/mohammed-shami-extra-marital-affair-wife-hasin-jahan-whatsapp-facebook.html
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March 7, 2018 at 11:30 AM
X-rated stuff is here –
March 7, 2018
Mohammed Shami In Extra-Marital Affair? Wife Hasin Jahan Posts WhatsApp-Facebook Pics
http://trendfoxx.com/mohammed_shami_affair_girlfriend_hasin_jahan/
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March 8, 2018 at 1:24 AM
At one end of the world you have a Warner-De Kock tiff because the Saffie wicketkeeper passed a comment on Warner’s wife.
In another end of the world, the wife of Shami is washing dirty linen in the open about Shami’s shameless affair. As a result BCCI withholds announcing him a contract
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March 9, 2018 at 12:14 PM
The sports comeback story of the year might be Tiger Woods! Still early days.
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March 9, 2018 at 1:07 PM
hope it happens..
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March 9, 2018 at 1:17 PM
He’s joint leading in a PGA tour event. So hard in golf but hope he remains competitive here.
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March 9, 2018 at 1:07 PM
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March 9, 2018 at 1:08 PM
https://www.siasat.com/news/hasin-claims-shami-forced-her-make-physical-relationship-his-brother-narrates-incident-1327776/
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March 9, 2018 at 1:09 PM
I am impressed by the Hasin’s interrogation technique.
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March 9, 2018 at 1:10 PM
this has been quite a sordid story..
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March 9, 2018 at 1:22 PM
People have messed up their professional career because of problem on personal front. Tiger career went in downward spiral after infidelity rumors surfaced. Shami is in deep problem with BCCI still thinking what to do.
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March 9, 2018 at 1:24 PM
yes Tiger had his issues with certain kinds of actresses!
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March 9, 2018 at 1:32 PM
From purely golf perspective I’d love a pumped up Tiger Woods near his best going at it with the young guns.
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March 9, 2018 at 1:43 PM
https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/valspar-championship-tiger-woods-breaks-the-internet-with-first-lead-in-three-years/
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March 9, 2018 at 1:50 PM
Remarkable and a reminder of what a huge icon he is!
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March 11, 2018 at 5:56 PM
He’s finished 2nd – quite remarkable that all things considered. Casey hit a huge final round otherwise Tiger may have won here.
The infamous Tiger charge happened too late on hole 17, a blast from the past birdie.
Headlines galore I’m sure are coming for him. Great return. How great depends on his next few events. If Tiger wins a major (he’ll be thinking this already) it will be one of the greatest comebacks ever in sport.
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March 11, 2018 at 8:19 PM
Indeed, really hope he keeps this up..
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March 11, 2018 at 8:22 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/03/11/tigermania-is-back-tiger-woods-is-surging-and-so-are-golf-crowds/?utm_term=.c801a6165bb8
https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/forget-the-second-place-finish-tiger-woods-is-back-and-golf-is-so-much-better-for-it/
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March 12, 2018 at 10:47 AM
Tiger Woods’ resurgence sends bolt of electricity through golf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/43375079
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March 12, 2018 at 2:30 PM
you feel sorry for Casey!
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March 9, 2018 at 1:26 PM
on a related note:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/mohammed-shami-s-run-up-a-problem-jasprit-bumrah-should-play-county-wasim-akram/story-ObqCK8ZohgxaYbTIjIgmxH.html
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March 9, 2018 at 1:34 PM
I think I posted earlier in this thread…And I think Akram has point…
B Kumar action is conventional and beautiful..Bumrah has awkward action but he is very effective especially with older ball…Shami running style is not good but he is consistently 140+.
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March 9, 2018 at 1:38 PM
I watch PSL matches..and today Wahab Riaz was deadly..145+ and Yorkers..
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March 11, 2018 at 4:01 PM
An exciting match in PSL between Karachi and Lahore.
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March 13, 2018 at 8:57 PM
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/rahul-dravid-saina-nehwal-among-celebs-cheated-by-bengaluru-firm/articleshow/63292351.cms
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March 17, 2018 at 6:20 PM
Comeback kings continue.
Federer’s best ever start to a season – 17 wins in a row and into the final at Indian Wells.
Woods joint 9th which is a pretty solid follow up to last week. It looks as though he’ll challenge at some point for wins and this is not a false alarm.
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March 18, 2018 at 1:17 PM
Best ever start?! Wow, didn’t know that!
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March 18, 2018 at 6:55 PM
Rory McIlroy fires final-round 64 to win Arnold Palmer Invitational; Tiger ties for 5th
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2018/03/18/rory-mcilroy-fires-final-round-64-win-arnold-palmer-invitational-tiger-ties-5th/436564002/
Woods is definitely back. So is McIlroy, probably the rivalry everyone wanted half a decade ago.
And Del Potro ends Federer’s winning streak!
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March 18, 2018 at 6:56 PM
He certainly is!
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March 18, 2018 at 1:16 PM
This one’s for the fans: Abhishek Bachchan
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March 18, 2018 at 1:25 PM
Good win by India!
I lost hope after 18th over. But Karthik did the job.
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March 18, 2018 at 1:33 PM
yes.. Bangladesh were good this tournament but lost every match to India.
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March 22, 2018 at 12:32 AM
they were lucky with the toss against SL
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March 18, 2018 at 1:26 PM
I lost hope after 18th over.Then came the miracle.
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March 18, 2018 at 2:11 PM
Karthik the hero. It looked like Shankar was playing for a defeat. Ravi should have a word with him. 48 in 4 overs with the ball and playing a maiden in the 18th over with the bat. Looks some shady dealing that would need to be investigated. Also why he was batting above Karthik?
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March 18, 2018 at 4:05 PM
Anyone can be hit for that amount in T20..that is why I have said previously , in T20 one man can change the game. ODIs need strategy. Test cricket is more about who has better team.
In PSL today, Ronchi was hitting everything thrown at him.
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March 18, 2018 at 6:57 PM
Going by the after match interview, it seems it was Rohit decision to hold back DK and send VS. VS and Rohit almost ruined it for India. Plus Rohit did not use Raina as a bowling option when the seamers where leaking runs. This final has exposed Rohit as a captain. Rohit needs to be stripped of VC and somebody else eg DK handed the VC when Kohli is back.
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March 18, 2018 at 6:59 PM
Pity about Federer..
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March 19, 2018 at 7:08 AM
Lionel Messi ‘demands’ Barcelona sign Chelsea star after Champions League win
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March 20, 2018 at 7:11 AM
Some sordid stuff here. Didn’t know all this about the father:
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March 21, 2018 at 10:15 PM
check out the Eng-NZ scorecard, you won’t believe your eyes!
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March 21, 2018 at 10:25 PM
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/content/records/145832.html
in any case they’ve spoilt the fun, too many added after the 9th wicket!
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March 22, 2018 at 1:02 AM
5 ducks in England innings by batsmen who’ve got a Test century before – Root, Stokes,Ali, Bairstow, Broad
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March 22, 2018 at 2:01 AM
Wow 5 ducks. Embarrassing stuff.
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March 21, 2018 at 11:49 PM
Glad Rabada’s back for the Cape Town Test.
Don’t know what Smith is complaining about. He is equally guilty of any charges that goes against Rabada.
Time to put Aussies back where they belong
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March 24, 2018 at 5:04 PM
Jeeves:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/mar/24/virat-kohli-may-join-surrey-england-india-test-series
Aussies stoop low
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22897468/bancroft-smith-admit-ball-tampering
Bancroft using sandpaper to tamper the ball for reverse swing. Once he realized he was caught red handed on camera, he tried to hide the sandpaper in his underwear since that is not a place anyone will check
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March 24, 2018 at 5:04 PM
saw that video earlier. The whole sandpaper bit. Good they got caught.
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March 24, 2018 at 5:05 PM
Embarrassing from Australia here.
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March 24, 2018 at 6:17 PM
And whole team (or at least decision makers) was involved..You could see how Warner was scared after being caught..
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March 25, 2018 at 1:47 AM
Jeeves:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pm-turnbull-wants-decisive-action-against-aussie-cricket-cheats-20180325-p4z65w.html
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March 25, 2018 at 1:48 AM
Please use relevant thread..commonly long running threads could be found in jubilee threads..
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March 25, 2018 at 2:38 AM
Smith is finished as a captain IMO. Australia should be embarrassed by this. For years they have sledged cricketers in the most harshest ways, this is a moment no opposition fan or opponent will never forget! The ammunition is enough to ruin this generation of Australian cricketers. Even their PM has called for heads!
Organised ball tampering! Geez! SA players probably can’t wait to sledge! They’ll bring sledgehammers!
Payback’s a bi*&h!!!!
The press conference sounded like a couple of kids caught stealing and blaming it on some higher power (leadership group LOL).
Clarke has basically said he’d comeback. Gilchrist is seething. Ex players will want blood, ex opponents will laugh like never before. Commentary boxes will be fun, Botham can just call Warne a cheat and he’ll have to deal with it.
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March 25, 2018 at 3:44 AM
Seems this incident is worse than the underarm and body line incidents. Because both at that time were legal but not regarded as fair play. But this was neither legal nor fair play.
May be only match fixing could have been worse
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March 25, 2018 at 3:51 AM
Biggest issue is it was sponsored by the captain & they asked a rookie to do the dirty work. And so unnecessary for a team that is quite good.
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March 25, 2018 at 3:54 AM
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/ca-must-sack-smith-warner-coach-katich
Seems Rabada’s verdict has made Aussies take such steps. They were pretty certain Rabada was going to be sitting out. But his appeal and verdict of the same hit the Aussies badly
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March 25, 2018 at 4:21 AM
In the non social media environment of 20 years ago this kind of stuff might not be scrutinized so much but today it’s going to ruin Smith – forget captaincy for sure but I think even his presence in the side can only surround negative vibes and cause damage to the entire team. I don’t know what he was thinking, any cheat in sports today must be pretty thick to think they can get away with it in the long term. More so live sports with all these cameras everywhere.
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March 25, 2018 at 5:20 AM
Smith and Warner stand down for rest of test match, a day after Smith says he won’t resign – this shows how toxic such events become so quickly. He should have gone yesterday.
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March 25, 2018 at 5:27 AM
yes..in similar vein..Facebook is facing music for Cambridge Analytica fiasco.
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March 25, 2018 at 5:30 AM
Facebook taking the hit where it counts, share price and advertising probably. Nothing hurts more than losing money for big companies.
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March 25, 2018 at 5:32 AM
Yes, shows Warner also guilty and part of this. And he has been removed, not resigned as I understand
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March 25, 2018 at 7:16 AM
https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/australia/reports-rajasthan-royals-set-to-sack-steve-smith-as-captain/news-story/eb26c5a6d24b95652f4d842ab6bdf8fd?nk=14522db3f4ca757da362569b88ae1280-1521976442
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March 25, 2018 at 8:54 AM
Incredibly weak response from ICC – ‘Hey guys, have a go at cheating, if you get caught, you miss 1 match!! Bargain!!!’
LOL. If you’re Asian we’ll ban you for years. What a joke! Hopefully Cricket Australia has more balls than pockets!
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March 25, 2018 at 9:15 AM
You cannot compare this to match fixing/spot fixing. One match is fair. But he has lost 100% credibility and whatever CA give him. Definitely losing his captaincy.
Why Warner is not punished? He was also a party to this cheating.
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March 25, 2018 at 9:23 AM
Match fixing/spot fixing at least makes the opposition happy 😂😂😂
Here you are trying to win by cheating, the former you are trying to lose by cheating.
This was also a team decision or group to cheat.
Probably can’t compare the two but I’m out to get these Aussies banned!!!! 😀😀😀
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March 25, 2018 at 9:29 AM
Smith is obviously lying when he says this is the first time. However, there is no evidence of it, apart from the brain fade incident when he was seeking help on DRS from the dressing room.
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March 26, 2018 at 1:38 AM
Federer ousted from Miami in second round, will drop to #2 ranking next week and has announced complete break from clay season (no French Open).
Wish him the best for Wimbledon. Give it your best and maybe retire on a high.
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March 26, 2018 at 6:42 AM
yes he really should just focus on wimbledon at this point.
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March 26, 2018 at 3:08 AM
Second catch is very good!
https://www.willow.tv/videos/jordan2catch-iu-vs-pz-streaming-online-final-pakistan-super-league-2018
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March 26, 2018 at 6:43 AM
SS replaced as captain of RR. Next in line DW to be replaced by KW
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22916510/steven-smith-steps-rajasthan-royals-captain-following-ball-tampering-scandal
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March 26, 2018 at 8:42 AM
https://twitter.com/GabbbarSingh/status/977595350482673664
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March 26, 2018 at 8:21 PM
http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/ball-tampering-steve-smith-gaming-the-swing-how-to-reverse-logic-of-a-cricket-balls-movement-5112564/
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March 27, 2018 at 12:11 AM
Lehmann to resign as Oz coach; 12-month ban for Smith and Warner: Report:
Darren Lehmann is to announce his resignation as head coach of Australia before the fourth Test against South Africa begins on Friday, Britain’s Daily Telegraph has reported.
The report claims that Lehmann is ready to stand down with immediate effect and his decision is partly why James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, suddenly announced on Monday that he is flying to South Africa.
Sutherland is due to meet the players and coaching staff in Johannesburg today.
Australia was plunged into turmoil after captain Steve Smith admitted on Saturday that senior players conspired with opening batsman Cameron Bancroft to tamper with the ball during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.
Smith has been fined and suspended from the fourth Test by the International Cricket Council and he and David Warner have been stood down from their positions as captain and vice-captain pending a Cricket Australia investigation.
While severe penalties like life bans are being talked about for Smith and Warner, Daily Telegraph claims that the two players may receive a 12-month ban each as part of their involvement in the incident
http://news.rediff.com/commentary/2018/mar/27/liveupdates.htm
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March 27, 2018 at 1:26 AM
My question is where were the ICC and CA during Smith’s brain fade incident at Bengaluru? Who no action was taken then? If CA had acted then, this situation would not have arised now. He would not have the b***s to cheat again.
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March 27, 2018 at 2:17 AM
Australia ball-tampering: Michael Vaughan ‘pretty sure’ it took place during winter Ashes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43549074
I agree with Vaughan on the video, this team will be remembered for cheating whatever they achieve.
A 12 month ban would be about fair. Severe but would restore some integrity. This is huge news in Australia; believe it or not the Australian captain job is only 2nd to PM for many!
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March 27, 2018 at 6:51 AM
http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/prime-minister-malcolm-turnbull-whacks-aussie-cricketers-again/news-story/cd1b829e895f03c674a1679bdde8c621
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March 27, 2018 at 5:34 AM
This is funny
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March 27, 2018 at 9:00 AM
Combo of Ponting/Gillespie can take over from Lehmann or Langer can be a dark horse for coach candidate
Mitch Marsh/Tim Paine are front runners for captaincy
http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/101276/ball-tampering-fall-out-ponting-gillespie-combine-could-replace-lehmann
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March 27, 2018 at 9:36 AM
Warner seems the one who created the trouble
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22929990/david-warner-cricket-australia-headed-pietersen-ecb-parting
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/players-turn-on-david-warner-as-ball-tampering-crisis-tears-team-apart-20180327-p4z6ks.html
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March 27, 2018 at 9:46 AM
Warner’s a poor character. Trouble follows him everywhere
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March 27, 2018 at 2:03 PM
Smith, Warner & Bancroft sent home, Lehmann stays
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43543713
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March 27, 2018 at 2:27 PM
Lehmann and bowlers (beneficiary and executor) are bound to be in the scheme…
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March 27, 2018 at 2:37 PM
Problem with Lehmann is Smith has said he knew nothing. Either way Lehmann is finished. Either he willingly knew and supported cheating or he doesn’t have control of his team. Unless there are deeper problems Lehmann is aware of like player power.
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March 27, 2018 at 2:43 PM
And that goes for bowlers as well..They are at such level that they know when it is reverse swinging…They have to bowl in certain way to get reverse swing…That is how Fannie figured they are doing something out of ordinary for ball to reverse swing so early (before 30 overs).
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March 27, 2018 at 2:48 PM
Yea bowlers must know. I can’t see captain progressing reverse swing by cheating and then saying to bowlers try it now – magically it works and bowlers accept it.
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March 27, 2018 at 2:47 PM
Also the TV reaction of Lehmann and Warner was enough to figure the guilt. If was a bowler caught then, there is plausibility he is doing in isolation..when junior most player doing it..most likely most of the team knew..
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March 27, 2018 at 2:54 PM
good!
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March 28, 2018 at 5:07 AM
Steven Smith and David Warner, formerly captain and vice-captain of Australia, have been banned for 12 months by Cricket Australia for their roles in the pre-meditated plan to tamper with the ball on the third day of the Cape Town Test against South Africa. Cameron Bancroft, the player to actually tamper with the ball, has been banned for nine months.
An official announcement of their penalties is expected to be announced soon.
All players will have the right to challenge their verdicts and also the durarion of their penalties via a CA code of behaviour hearing with an independent commissioner, who can also choose whether the hearing is public or private.
Smith is due to depart for Australia today and will speak publicly upon his arrival home in Sydney.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22939470/steven-smith-david-warner-banned-12-months-cricket-australia
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March 28, 2018 at 6:08 AM
Confirmed now. CA has done the necessary.
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March 28, 2018 at 6:09 AM
this is a serious penalty.
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March 28, 2018 at 7:42 AM
Yes, Expected CA to come out hard with a zero tolerance message to it’s players, coach and support staff. Wonder how BCCI would have handled the issue if Virat was at the center of a similar conspiracy
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March 28, 2018 at 7:49 AM
They’ve made ICC ban irrelevant
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March 28, 2018 at 7:54 AM
Wonder why Smith is wearing a Boston Red Sox cap on his way out?
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March 28, 2018 at 8:07 AM
Maybe this
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March 28, 2018 at 8:25 AM
Rocket arm Steve
https://www.cricket.com.au/news/steve-smith-fenway-park-boston-red-sox-first-pitch-batting-practice-dustin-pedroia/2016-07-03
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March 28, 2018 at 2:54 PM
It is serious for players banned but I think it is not “isolated” as claimed by CA. Even the English players are complaining that ball was reverse swinging very early during their series. What is the chance that only time they did , they got caught! If it is not isolated then more people need to go but the team will take long time to rebuild. I think CA doesn’t want that as there is money involved in terms of sponsorship .
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March 28, 2018 at 5:21 AM
Air New Zealand’s new message to Steve Smith
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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March 28, 2018 at 3:35 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43571509
Lehmann seems pretty genuine here or he deserves an Oscar!
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March 29, 2018 at 4:53 AM
Kane Williamson is captain of SRH
http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/101315/kane-williamson-appointed-sunrisers-hyderabad-cricket-team-captain-for-ipl-2018
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March 29, 2018 at 5:11 AM
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12022955
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March 29, 2018 at 6:30 AM
That’s Steve’s father standing behind, who coached him till 16 years by throwing balls (fast, spin, bouncers) in their backyard. What an emotional and sad moment for the family. I think he is genuinely pained by his actions in Cape Town
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March 29, 2018 at 6:54 AM
Very sad indeed. I think he should have waited as it seems too raw and early for him. The culprit really is Warner here, Smith made a poor choice as Captain. The punishments are harsh but CA has taken into account the importance of cricket in Australia and the public really felt let down.
Smith has tarnished his legacy and part of his personal sadness is he knows he was on the verge of being amongst the greats possibly but that’s ruined now.
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March 29, 2018 at 6:56 AM
He should appeal the ban…1 year is way too much for this….Just like public pressure forced the 1 year ban, public sympathy can now get it reduced.
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March 29, 2018 at 7:03 AM
If he appeals it ruins him more. He’s undoing his interview, he’s accepted it I presume now and he knows the consequences of his actions.
I can’t see him appealing as it would put CA under the microscope and feel like he’s undermining them.
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March 29, 2018 at 12:07 PM
Thats why they have the ACA who can fight for them…He has every right to appeal the ban….And he should…The stigma still sticks whether the ban is for 6 months or 1 year
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March 29, 2018 at 12:42 PM
This is huge news in Australia. The moment the PM spoke, it was going to be a big ban. 6 months was fairer but I can’t see the benefits for an appeal. It would undermine CA and prolong the story further. At this point Smith gains empathy but he’ll risk that if he carries on. I doubt he will. His interview suggests he knows his destiny.
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March 29, 2018 at 1:18 PM
yes once the PM intervened and so strongly you knew something big was coming.
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March 29, 2018 at 7:45 AM
must say I feel bad for him.
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March 29, 2018 at 8:29 AM
Agree but I’m glad a sporting body has taken adequate action. The FA could learn a lot as could FIFA.
Hard to watch Smith breakdown – the human side that Lehmann alluded to.
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March 29, 2018 at 8:24 AM
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22952859/darren-lehmann-steps-australia-coach
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March 29, 2018 at 4:37 PM
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/australia-in-south-africa/are-smith-and-warner-paying-for-revolt-for-pay-hike-asks-gambhir/articleshow/63536942.cms
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March 30, 2018 at 3:54 AM
http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/devastating-to-see-this-twitter-reacts-to-steve-smith-breaking-down-in-sydney-5116039/
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March 30, 2018 at 12:15 AM
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/captain-cry-baby-no-sympathy-for-steve-smith-from-british-press-20180330-p4z72e.html
https://www.news18.com/cricketnext/news/cricket-australia-previously-warned-about-steve-smith-and-david-warner-in-2016-report-1703543.html
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March 30, 2018 at 2:44 AM
For English media in some sections this is like Diwali and Xmas on the same day! But generally this has easily been the #1 sports story of the year even the top headline news.
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March 30, 2018 at 2:57 AM
They should not forget 58/10 in Auckland, 5 ducks and losing the Test so badly despite so much help from the weather
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March 30, 2018 at 3:54 AM
https://twitter.com/crossy33/status/978696717917917184
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March 30, 2018 at 4:01 AM
Hilarious!
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March 30, 2018 at 4:03 AM
coincidence but similar tweet 10 minutes earlier:
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March 30, 2018 at 6:15 AM
Starc ruled out of the IPL. Big setback for SRK and his team KKR
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March 30, 2018 at 11:43 AM
Smith breaks record of tears shed beating Soumya Sarkar a few days back after the last ball of Nidahas trophy final
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March 31, 2018 at 1:05 AM
Warner’s press conference and apology
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April 2, 2018 at 9:33 PM
Dhoni receiving the PadmaBhushan. Congratulations to MSD and all his fans
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April 4, 2018 at 2:13 AM
“I meant what I said about taking full responsibility,”
Smith won’t contest his ban he’s confirmed.
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April 4, 2018 at 3:47 AM
Any more inquiry would unearth more skeletons.
Smith knows it and CA also knows it.
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April 4, 2018 at 5:11 AM
No team is Doodh ka Dhula. Everyone has done some amount of tampering at some stage or another
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April 4, 2018 at 5:46 AM
Cricbuzz reports Smith, Bancroft will not contest the sanctions
http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/101454/australia-cricket-team-captain-steve-smith-not-to-contest-sanctions-imposed-by-cricket-australia
Let’s see what Warner may do
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April 4, 2018 at 6:00 AM
https://wwos.nine.com.au/2018/04/04/07/09/ball-tampering-steve-smith-could-resume-career-county-cricket-england
Seems Smith could be Kohli’s teammate at Surrey
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April 4, 2018 at 5:49 PM
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/top-cricketers-lash-out-at-shahid-afridi-for-kashmir-tweet/articleshow/63613306.cms
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April 5, 2018 at 4:04 AM
Sweet pic of dad Dhoni with baby Ziva
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/sports/in-other-news/050418/lt-col-dhoni-wins-hearts-1.html
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April 5, 2018 at 7:43 AM
The Master’s today. Arguably the most awaited one ever! Coverage is ridiculous. Woods’ return has given golf pole position this weekend in sport.
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April 5, 2018 at 10:18 PM
http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/member-of-india-2011-world-cup-winning-team-under-scrutiny-for-match-fixing-ties-5125525/
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April 7, 2018 at 4:04 PM
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April 8, 2018 at 2:57 PM
Love The Masters, first time in a long time I’m watching most of it.
Tiger Woods has been ok, not a day when everything clicked but can tell for sure he will be back as long as he stays fit.
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April 8, 2018 at 3:05 PM
agree..
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April 8, 2018 at 3:12 PM
that 4th hole ‘almost’ might well become a story more important than the Reed-McLlroy competition.
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April 8, 2018 at 3:17 PM
Oh so close for that hole in one! McIlroy – Reed is at boiling point already. This is 3 hours of tension now.
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April 8, 2018 at 5:36 PM
Spieth is buzzing, might win this
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April 8, 2018 at 6:06 PM
McIlroy faded a bit earlier than I would have thought. In any case Reed is just holding on.
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April 8, 2018 at 6:09 PM
Yes he’s played poor. Reed looks like he’ll win now barring a shocker.
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April 8, 2018 at 6:40 PM
well Reed held on.. but it was very interesting golf for the past several hours. I too saw more at a stretch than I ever have before.
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April 8, 2018 at 6:09 PM
I am behind Spieth though for all the additional drama this would create.
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April 9, 2018 at 5:40 PM
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April 15, 2018 at 12:23 AM
The one sporting sunglasses has become a pauper now
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April 14, 2018 at 10:18 PM
Commonwealth Games 2018: Saina Nehwal Beats PV Sindhu To Win Women’s Singles Gold
https://sports.ndtv.com/commonwealth-games-2018/commonwealth-games-2018-saina-nehwal-beats-pv-sindhu-to-win-womens-singles-gold-1837706?pfrom=home-topscroll
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April 17, 2018 at 10:27 AM
this is why we love Sachin!
various versions of this video have gone viral.
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April 25, 2018 at 1:39 PM
This is how Dhoni should play
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April 25, 2018 at 2:22 PM
When Dhoni plays like this it’s impossible to be a critic. 7 sixes, strike rate north of 200, solid running – I don’t know why so many times he is pedistrian with such strike power at his disposal.
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April 25, 2018 at 5:16 PM
His reflexes have slowed and if pitch is bowler friendly he takes time to settle.. I saw last match and this one..he said couple of important things in post match interviews..
1. You are paid to do your job. You have to give more than 100% each time.
2. You pick which bowler to attack..it is process..you will win some and lose sometimes..but you keep on improving on the process, you will improve your chances on winning.
ps – “It’s Important To Know How Many Overs Are Left And Who Will Bowl The Death Overs, Who Is Their Best Bowler On That Particular Wicket & Who You Can Take On. You May Win Or Lose, But It’s About Getting The Process Right”
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April 25, 2018 at 5:26 PM
de Villiers has also had a couple of fantastic knocks.
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April 25, 2018 at 6:14 PM
he has been in good form…One of his sixes went outside the stadium!
Unfortunately Kohli doesn’t have good bowlers…They have been putting good score but not able to defend.
Ashwin has been excelling with enthusiastic captaincy..
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April 25, 2018 at 7:41 PM
Kohli is also a pretty average captain — this is true in international cricket as well as in the IPL…
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April 25, 2018 at 7:41 PM
Munna you are so right on Ashwin’s captaincy; he would also be the best Indian test captain of the available options…
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April 25, 2018 at 7:48 PM
Hyderabad and Punjab bowling have been very good..
Mujeeb and Mayank Markande have been excellent.
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April 25, 2018 at 7:54 PM
These Afghan players have been really impressive, love Rashid Khan’s attitude as well.
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April 25, 2018 at 7:43 PM
In general I’ve paid more attention to this IPL than to any in the last several years: several good matches, pitches with something for bowlers… I’m really rooting for Sunrisers and their mellow, old-school vibe (Kane Willliamson has been handling them well too)…
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April 25, 2018 at 6:31 PM
I suspect the way he is going, a MS Dhoni 2 will be on cards soon. Dhoni, you GOAT.
Looks like Kohli missed Dhoni marshalling the field at the end overs
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April 25, 2018 at 9:21 PM
One of the reasons Kohli has been pushing for Dhoni’s inclusion to WC team.
https://www.indiatoday.in/sports/cricket/story/virat-kohli-will-be-desperate-to-have-ms-dhoni-in-2019-world-cup-michael-vaughan-1183845-2018-03-07S
“…..Dhoni’s presence in the Indian limited-overs team has been under the scanner for quite some time now but in Michael Vaughan’s opinion, the former Indian captain should by all means be included in the side for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Virat Kohli would be very keen to have MS Dhoni in the Indian team for the 2019 World Cup, Michael Vaughan told India Today in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The former England captain said Kohli would be desperate to have Dhoni in the team for next year’s mega-event in the UK…..”
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April 25, 2018 at 2:23 PM
Perfect finish !!
19.4 – Anderson to Dhoni, SIX runs, crackalicious! How’s that to win the match – a six over wide long-on with so much strength it’s landed into the crowd
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April 25, 2018 at 2:36 PM
Ranveer Singh
@RanveerOfficial
6m6 minutes ago
What a match! What a chase! What a player! The LION @msdhoni ROARS!!!
#RCBvCSK
Aakash Chopra
@cricketaakash
9m9 minutes ago
If there’s ever a book on cricket, Dhoni must write the finishing chapter. Unbelievable. Take a bow 🙇♂️ #RCBvCSK #IPL
https://twitter.com/AamirKhan_4/status/989209107683950592
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April 25, 2018 at 10:28 PM
LeBron James drills the TISSOT BUZZER BEATER to win GAME 5 for the @cavs!
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April 30, 2018 at 9:33 AM
Excellent piece HERE.
On the Brisbane match the writer references from way back in 1992, it must have been a pretty tricky pitch to bat on since WI won with only 8-10 balls to spare even against India’s rather feeble attack. And despite the vast difference in the attacks, no one except for Richie Richardson on either side had a higher strike rate than Tendulkar — but what is most remarkable is that Tendulkar’s strike rate of 60+ featured only five 4s, underscoring his maturity in running singles even at that young age (not to mention those vast Aussie grounds and the fact that the cricket bats used back then were much less powerful, with thinner edges). As for the rest of that Indian scorecard, well that’s pretty familiar to us from the pre-Dravid days overseas.
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April 30, 2018 at 10:10 AM
Interesting, stimulating read all round. The conclusion is also pretty important. This is not a point one comes across too often if at all. Thanks for posting this.
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April 30, 2018 at 12:13 PM
Dhoni carnage @ IPL 51 from 22 !
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April 30, 2018 at 3:15 PM
CSK death bowling is awful. They should try David Willey in next match. But difficult to see them go all the way with this death bowling
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May 2, 2018 at 9:53 AM
Damn, England dethrone India as #1 ODI team right now.
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May 11, 2018 at 3:00 PM
CSK’s death bowlers fail to deliver once again. SRH have an enviable line up never mind what Pant did to them yesterday, they still won.
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May 13, 2018 at 9:20 PM
Somebody please clarify what is Duminy’s role in Mumbai Indians playing XI? Fizz would be a better option, na?
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May 14, 2018 at 12:29 AM
Same as FDP in Chennai…
Indian talent has been doing good..may be because of Indian conditions…
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May 14, 2018 at 10:28 AM
Not even Sachin Tendulkar could do what Virat Kohli has done: Shane Warne
“I think the way Virat plays and you look at his numbers and it’s uncanny how many times he has got hundreds in ODI cricket chasing totals down. I don’t think anyone, not even Sachin could do what Virat’s done,” Warne was quoted as saying by India Today on Monday.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/news/not-even-sachin-tendulkar-could-do-what-virat-kohli-has-done-shane-warne/articleshow/64158023.cms
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May 18, 2018 at 10:17 AM
No wonder our minds continue to get twisted and nothing seems real these days…..money has killed even the sports we grew up loving !
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May 18, 2018 at 10:21 AM
I was crazy about Platini & more than the maradonas combined and now this –
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May 18, 2018 at 1:34 PM
This is not ‘that’ controversial if you read it properly. The world cup draw has always been designed in such a way that 2 table topping teams can always avoid each other till the final. Platini is attracting silly attention – even in Russia by design a draw always splits teams in half, just like tennis slams. France 98 is like seeding Brazil as #1 and France as #2 – anyway IF either team failed to top their table, the dream final never would’ve happened – it’s very possible for top seeds not to finish 1st.
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May 18, 2018 at 4:20 PM
Platini has ruined his reputation with the FIFA fiasco. This revelation is silly as he would never say this if he was FIFA president, he’s just grumpy now.
As a footballer, he’s not really in the greatest ever which is arguably 4-5 names. History will be kinder to Cruyff and that ilk. He could have left a great legacy like Cruyff if he didn’t mess up FIFA.
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May 22, 2018 at 1:58 PM
Luck will always favor the brave ! Thala / Thanos whatever one wishes to call him –
https://twitter.com/SirJadejaaaa/status/998977730463985664
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May 22, 2018 at 4:35 PM
Bowling friendly pitches generally provide good contest.
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May 23, 2018 at 11:24 AM
Also played in finals last year 2017 as part of Rising Pune Giants
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May 23, 2018 at 11:20 AM
ABD retires from international cricket
A legend of this generation
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May 24, 2018 at 12:48 AM
Great loss for international cricket. Had been the best batsman to watch live since Gilchrist retired.
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May 27, 2018 at 1:27 PM
Very deserving !
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May 27, 2018 at 1:40 PM
Considering he didn’t a run for 11 balls this was a remarkable innings to win a final.
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May 27, 2018 at 1:46 PM
As someone was telling me earlier quite rightly Chennai have been the best IPL team ever. 7 finals (in 9 seasons), 3 wins. And this time they beat Hyderabad in every match. Must say Dhoni is a charmed guy in this sense.
having said that cricket fans shouldn’t be upset if I say that for me the big game today is the Cavs (game 7)! Hopefully LeBron has another incredible moment tonight.
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May 27, 2018 at 4:59 PM
LBJ will come through…his teams have won 5 game 7s in a row and his average in games 7s go up across the board! I’m a ” Jordan is the GOAT” guy..but LBJ is making a strong argument this year to be considered the greatest. I mean half of his team was traded at the all-star break and here we are again with his team on the verge of going to the Finals!
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May 27, 2018 at 6:08 PM
Just a bit nervous they haven’t won on the road in this series. But yeah no denying LeBron’s incredible will this post-season. And you’re quite right, they shouldn’t even be where they are. As one of the commentators said during game 6 if he gets to the finals this time it might be a greater achievement than his previous wins.
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May 27, 2018 at 5:03 PM
Would disagree with that statement on Dhoni being a charmed guy. He is more of an astute tactician and man manager. He saw to it Watson did not bowl and pull up his hamstring. Also brought in Karn Sharma over Harbhajan as a bowler to take the ball away from right handers.
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May 27, 2018 at 6:07 PM
What I meant was that victory seems to follow him a bit more easily than others..
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May 28, 2018 at 1:50 PM
Have you wondered why those who work close with MSD speak so highly of him. Sachin Tendulkar, Gary Kirsten, Stephen Fleming. Even somebody like Greg Chappell.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/video/clip?id=23631000
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May 27, 2018 at 10:59 PM
MADE IT !
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May 27, 2018 at 11:05 PM
Now that the Celtics are out…rooting for the Rockets. I respect LBJ…but realistically speaking…the champs will come out from the West!
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May 27, 2018 at 11:08 PM
Yeah people have been saying that the real deal is the Western Conference and this winner will be the champion. This makes perfect sense but I’m not going to bet against LeBron!
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May 27, 2018 at 11:21 PM
If Houston wins and CP3 is still injured then it will be a toss up…but if GSW win…it will be either a sweep or Golden St. in 5 against the Cavs. This isn’t anything against LeBron…it’s just looking at it realistically…although betting against Lebron has come back and bitten me MANY times lol.
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June 5, 2018 at 1:24 AM
2-0 for GSW versus Cavs. GSW will in all likelihood win this year unless LBJ can produce some of his magic for a terrific comeback for Cavs. But GSW look too strong with current line-up
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May 27, 2018 at 11:06 PM
yup! and once again they’re saying this is Lebron’s greatest achievement. getting this team to the finals. Thrilled! Hope he wins it all.
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May 27, 2018 at 11:43 PM
I’m a Lakers fan…so I watched Kobe play on a nightly basis…but sorry Kobe…LBJ has long surpassed you…he’s on the quest for becoming the greatest!
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May 27, 2018 at 11:49 PM
What about a thread on 2019 Lok Sabha Elections? Its going to be much more entertaining than soccer WC 2018 or cricket WC 2019!
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May 28, 2018 at 1:10 AM
It becomes too toxic..
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May 28, 2018 at 1:27 AM
Yeah. But the situation in UP and Karnataka is already interesting, with WB & TN out of BJP’s grasp as usual.
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May 28, 2018 at 1:57 AM
For what surveys are worth, a recent ABP one projected NDA to win just 275 seats is election was held right now. And the way things are going, these projections will change over the coming year. I really doubt if BJP and allies will get a clean mandate this time.
Getting a hung parliament may be the best that Pappu can possibly achieve. And Modi’s world touring days are well over with gas prices continuously increasing.
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May 28, 2018 at 7:58 AM
In 2 weeks time Nadal may get his 11th Garros Title and 17th Glam. But he surely has a great career in Bollywood after retirement. Just look at this!
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/965999/Rafael-Nadal-faces-tennis-sportgalleries
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May 28, 2018 at 8:03 AM
The difference between Nadal playing and Federer is very similar to the difference between Salman on screen and Aamir.
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May 28, 2018 at 2:42 PM
For Ramos fans – same foul last year against Alves in the CL final (again)! These are definitely deliberate attempts to injure opponents, you can see he is pulling on the opponent’s arm and attempting to push his entire weight on them when they fall. The Salah foul is looking worse and worse the more you see it. It’s wrestling.
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May 29, 2018 at 1:14 AM
Its Warriors and Cavs 4th time in a row. My prediction is Warriors in 6.
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May 29, 2018 at 10:16 PM
20 years, 20 slams. How long will this go on?
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/966781/Roger-Federer-career-tennis-news
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May 29, 2018 at 11:18 PM
aww so cute.. for CSK fans
http://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/ipl-2018-final-amul-cartoon-on-csks-victory-showing-ziva-dhoni-and-shane-watson-is-spot-on-5194671/
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June 2, 2018 at 10:26 AM
Jeeves:
DK recalled in Test team after 14 years since debut and watching MSD complete his Test career to captaincy to retirement.
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June 2, 2018 at 10:33 AM
Glad for DK. I hope he and Murali Vijay are able to forget and forgive their history and play for the country. Rather than having ill feeling for each other.
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June 5, 2018 at 1:11 AM
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June 6, 2018 at 12:15 PM
Rain has come to save Nadal
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June 8, 2018 at 12:27 PM
Marcus:
Nadal on a roll against Del Potro in semis – 11th FO is close enough! And Federer scheduled to return to grass next week.
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June 8, 2018 at 12:28 PM
Don’t have the time to do it right now. I’ve moved this post to the front page. I will eventually put it in the sidebar.
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June 10, 2018 at 11:59 AM
Nadal #11 French Open. Domination continues.
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June 10, 2018 at 5:53 PM
Guess he is competing with Federer overall 20 GS titles solely on the French Open wins
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June 10, 2018 at 10:08 PM
Nadal will win at least 2 more FO till he retires, probably more. His record at Garros will stand a long test of time.
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June 11, 2018 at 1:00 AM
If he is fit and plays the French Open he will win. Beating Nadal at the French Open final seems the toughest job in world sports! No one’s getting 11 in our lifetime!
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June 11, 2018 at 6:43 AM
he’s the greatest ever on this surface. No doubt about it. The stamina and will required to maintain this kind of domination on the slowest tennis court around is just beyond belief. Specially given his knee issues and so on. He’s played 87 matches here and only twice has he been stretched to 5 sets.
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June 11, 2018 at 12:33 PM
The problem is that Nadal’s greatness is limited to clay surface. He won 4 out of the 5 ATP tournaments he participated in the 2018 clay season – a fantastic feat! Yet, Federer can regain #1 ranking if he reaches the Stuttgart Open final this weekend.
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June 11, 2018 at 2:52 PM
true but it’s still a pretty stunning achievement. And he has 17 overall. Hardly something to sneeze at.
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June 16, 2018 at 10:10 PM
Even our massy or messy old fart Salman has a string of blockbusters in recent years. Yet, he attracts a lot of sneeze.
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June 10, 2018 at 10:08 PM
Just stunning, specially on this surface.
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June 11, 2018 at 4:31 PM
Nadal’s achievement at Roland Garros is simply out of this world. Anybody who doesn’t put him in the same league as Federer is simply biased. What he has achieved on clay, which probably is the most difficult surface to play on and adapt to, is simply extraordinary. What people forget is had he not had so many injuries, he could have easily achieved the grand slam double. Just to put it in perspective, amongst the big three of this era (big four is a term most likely coined by the British media. Murray doesn’t even belong in that league) he was the first to win all the four gland slams.
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June 11, 2018 at 8:57 PM
Being greatest on one surface dont make you GOAT – thats not bias not just illogical. Also, Novak isnt in the league of Federer/Nadal because of longevity issues.
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June 13, 2018 at 6:34 AM
Spain sack Lopetegui 24 hrs before start of the WC!!
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June 13, 2018 at 7:01 AM
yes there’s been lots of debate on this online.
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June 13, 2018 at 1:45 PM
Remarkable decision, but why the hell would you announce yourself as the new Real Madrid manager days before the WC. His advisors should be sacked! Spain had a good record under him, now they immediately become a potential scalp. If Madrid forced it to be public they as the most popular/powerful team in Spain should be embarrassed.
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June 13, 2018 at 2:47 PM
232 and 5/17 in an ODI. All round performance by Kiwi Amelia Kerr. Youngest to hit a double century in any format, she is only 17. Add to this a fifer with her leg spin bowling.
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June 13, 2018 at 3:28 PM
yes strange to say the least.
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June 15, 2018 at 12:52 AM
“The whole thing is so regrettable,” he said. “It’s clear to see who is at fault – Real Madrid and Lopetegui. Rubiales did the right thing.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44490951
On reflection this was the right decision by Spanish FA. Real Madrid and Lopetegui made a huge error here and they deserve the repurcussions. It’s make or break for Lopetegui now. He’s already following Zidane after 3 CL’s in a row. Perez knows now Madrid have all of Spain hating them even more now.
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June 15, 2018 at 11:34 PM
A win today will put Federer back at #1 rank …
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June 16, 2018 at 9:42 PM
And he is back at #1. May get his 98th career title today.
So much for greatest/hugest/biggest clay surface champ – cant hold on to #1 ranking once clay season gets over! His fans need to get some perspective.
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June 17, 2018 at 2:01 AM
I don’t like putting someone else down to prove someone else is better. But since you are so insistent to take that route, here are my two cents. A ‘GOAT’ is not a true ‘GOAT’ if under the garb of longevity, he skips playing the whole season of a certain ‘surface’. A ‘GOAT’ is not a true ‘GOAT’ if his biggest opponent, who according to you is a ‘one trick pony’ has kept this ‘GOAT’ in his back pocket for most of his carrer. The ‘GOAT’ was so scarred that he quit playing on clay. So much for being the greatest. You don’t quit. You try to compete, even if you can’t win.
Also, I never said Nadal was greater than Federer. Far from it. I said he should be put in the same league as Federer.
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June 17, 2018 at 2:11 AM
I don’t think Federer’s motives to quit clay are because he is afraid of Nadal. More likely is the gruelling schedule and his age. In essence he is prolonging his career by skipping clay & increasing his chances of winning slams. It’s common sense and a very practical decision. Even great footballers retire from international football or great cricketers give up on short or long form of cricket to increase longevity and play better quality.
I’d say it’s sensible and even more so if he’s going to get bruised by Nadal! He won Wimbledon last year with this strategy. So totally vindicated.
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June 17, 2018 at 2:23 AM
I agree with you only to an extent. But your analogy that someone skips the longer version of cricket or international football to prolong their career is equivalent to Federer skipping the clay season is slightly flawed.
His decision is more like, since my performance in English seaming conditions or hard bouncier tracks have been patchy, I might as well skip that tour and concentrate on my strengths.
If he had quit playing let’s say all Masters 500 on all surfaces then it could have been equivalent. In his case, it’s a specific surface. And he could have chosen hard court as well. But he didn’t, since he has the chance to compete on that surface. On clay, if Nadal is fit, your chances are virtually nil.
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June 17, 2018 at 2:31 AM
Well I’m not denying that the Nadal factor be completely ignored. You can take it as an acknowledgement of defeat if you want but if he’s won Wimbledon & Australian since it’s not a poor decision. Ultimately if he plays clay it will reduce his time in the game, increase chance of injuries, harm his chances at Wimbledon. He’s going 37. This is career management – it’s what Zidane did for Ronaldo. And there isn’t an example of how to do it in tennis men’s historically. Federer is the example. It’s a first. If he keeps winning on his strengths he’s 100% vindicated. Clay for him is over because he’s completed the career GS.
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June 17, 2018 at 2:58 AM
There is no reply button on your last comment.
Federer is a genius who has earned the right to do whatever he wishes to. There is absolutely no debating that.
The issue is people bringing down Nadal to prove Federer is greater. I think we are privileged to see these players perform at the highest level. Similar to Messi and Ronaldo.
In pure tennis terms, irrespective of whether Nadal wins more or Federer wins more grand slams, Federer will be the greatest.
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June 17, 2018 at 3:36 AM
Nadal’s a great – 11 GS’s at one venue will never be broken in our lifetime. I don’t like his tennis personally but his achievements have grown on me like Ronaldo’s – mainly because they both work hard and are extremely driven individuals.
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June 18, 2018 at 8:12 AM
Have you checked Federer’s schedule? Is he really playing all ATP 500 tournaments in other surfaces? Whats the point in arguing without checking the facts?
Since his comeback from injury, he is eyeing only slams (except Garros) and arranging his calendar accordingly. It is exactly equivalent to saying bye to test cricket and focusing on ODI due to age factor.
Why is your great Nadal not playing in Stuttgart or Halle? Is it because he is afraid to face Federer? LOL
A big boo to your bogus argument.
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June 18, 2018 at 8:15 AM
If Federer wins Halle, he will be playing for his 100th career tiitle in Wimbledon (apart from a record ninth Wimbledon win).
https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Roger_Federer/56492/roger-federer-hasn-t-an-easy-draw-in-halle-says-tournament-director/
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June 18, 2018 at 9:06 AM
Satyam and others:
You won’t find better inspiring courageous piece thn this.
Piece of the week
“I knew we were struggling. But when she was mixing in water with the milk, I realized it was over, you know what I mean? This was our life.” – Romelu Lukaku
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/romelu-lukaku-ive-got-some-things-to-say
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June 18, 2018 at 12:52 PM
He’s banged in a couple of goals today.
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June 18, 2018 at 9:37 AM
Truly inspiring ! 👏
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June 19, 2018 at 1:38 PM
WTF !!!
England post record ODI total of 481/6 against Australia
England stormed to a world record 481/6 as they demolished Australia’s attack in the third ODI
Bairstow’s 139 and a 147 by Hales took England past 444/3 they made against Pakistan two years ago
Skipper Morgan struck a 21-ball fifty to become his country’s leading ODI run scor
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/australia-in-england/england-post-record-odi-total-of-481/6-against-australia/articleshow/64653822.cms
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June 19, 2018 at 4:23 PM
Good couple of days for England. Qalander must be devastated!
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July 1, 2018 at 7:15 AM
We don’t realise what we miss until it’s gone forever…!
This needs to be viewed on a loop!
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July 2, 2018 at 12:58 AM
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/news/dravid-ponting-taylor-inducted-in-icc-hall-of-fame/articleshow/64820923.cms
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July 2, 2018 at 1:02 AM
People are asking for Sachin inclusion , basically ICC induct great player in a sequence of their retirement year and Sachin retired after couple of years later than RD.
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July 6, 2018 at 9:49 AM
Players who have been included in the Hall of Fame have not played at any international level in five years. (Sachin Tendulkar retired from international cricket in November 2013.) Maybe next year he should get there
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July 6, 2018 at 9:17 AM
looks like it’s clearing up for Federer at Wimbledon. Cilic is the latest casualty. Of course Nadal is still around but a fit Federer will be fine against him. And it remains to be seen whether Djokovic can go deep here.
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July 6, 2018 at 9:59 AM
He’s a heavy favourite and he is playing wonderfully. Saw brief highlights of his 2nd round – he looked as good as ever. Djokovic seems to have injury issues still so Nadal is his main rival.
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July 6, 2018 at 10:14 AM
Both fed and nadal are progressing well, will go deep. Not much expectations from Novak. The first week is never that interesting.
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July 6, 2018 at 1:11 PM
India 39/3 in 7.4 overs. Poor run rate and lost many wickets
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July 6, 2018 at 1:32 PM
Wimbledon: Bertens sends Venus out of Wimbledon
There was no great escape for Venus Williams on Friday as the five-times champion became the latest top-10 seed to perish at Wimbledon after she was beaten 6-2, 6-7(5), 8-6 in a pulsating third-round match by Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens.
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July 7, 2018 at 1:23 PM
Meanwhile top seed is out of women’s Wimbledon. That’s 9/10 top seeds out now.
Djokovic is 1 set down against GB’s Edmund. What a day this could be for us fake British folk!
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July 7, 2018 at 1:23 PM
It’s been a disaster at Wimbledon this time.
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July 8, 2018 at 12:25 PM
https://www.hindustantimes.com/tennis/rafael-nadal-novak-djokovic-and-roger-federer-practice-side-by-side-at-wimbledon/story-R8MV9bhRBnthT95jjFbt2H.html
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July 8, 2018 at 12:26 PM
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July 8, 2018 at 2:32 PM
Why Dhoni was not given MOS award? 2 stumping victims in first match at Manchester (32 not out of 24 balls), an useful knock in second match at Cardiff to make that match competitive and 5 catches and 1 run out at Bristol
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July 9, 2018 at 10:15 AM
32 sets in a row for Federer at Wimbledon. That stat is fast catching up to his age!
Odds on favourite unless something goes massively wrong. Nadal’s draw is tough, he might have to go through Del Porto and Djokovic before facing Federer.
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July 9, 2018 at 10:20 AM
Fed made to quarters in quick time today. Expecting Nadal, Del Ptro and Novak to also win easily.
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July 10, 2018 at 7:46 AM
djokovic seems to be playing well finally. Yeah it’s great for Federer that he could only face Nadal in the final. And the latter to get there would have to go through Djokovic!
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July 10, 2018 at 7:56 AM
In a final Djokovic would in my view be a much more dangerous opponent for federer than Nadal.
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July 10, 2018 at 8:10 AM
It’s the 10 years anniversary of Nadal Vs Federer Wimbledon final so might be destiny. Plus they are 3-3 on last 6 slams. Does seem that Djokovic has resurrected his career here. Whomever wins Wimbledon it’s going to be overshadowed on that day by England winning the World Cup 😀😀😀
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July 10, 2018 at 9:07 AM
“Whomever wins Wimbledon it’s going to be overshadowed on that day by England winning the World Cup 😀😀😀”
Entirely possible..
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July 13, 2018 at 11:48 PM
Sorry to break your heart but England not winning the FIFA World Cup at least till 2022, and by the way they are handling Kuldeep their chances in cricket WC next year ain’t that rosy too
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July 14, 2018 at 1:53 AM
I’m not really a huge England fan at all in sport especially cricket. Football was different this time as I think they played well and atmosphere was great. I’m quite happy to see India thrash England all over the cricket field!
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July 11, 2018 at 5:27 AM
Novak has thrown a big tantrum and displaced federer the from center court for quarters today. Highlight will be nadal-del potro face-off though.
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July 11, 2018 at 10:24 AM
Federer loses a set!
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July 11, 2018 at 10:43 AM
Federer looking shaky here. Should have won it by now. Anderson is up for this comeback.
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July 11, 2018 at 11:38 AM
2 sets up and match point. Federer has really thrown this away. Anderson has played so well. Always believed even when losing, great body language.
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July 11, 2018 at 11:56 AM
a real battle of wills now in the 5th!
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July 11, 2018 at 12:06 PM
Anderson is piling on the pressure. He has really played well – Federer has lost strength here with Anderson hitting him with some heavy groundstrokes.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:11 PM
whatever happens in this set it’s still amazing that a guy one month shy of his 27th birthday is leading 10-9 in the 5th. Might not be the best news if he makes it given there are two more matches. But I’m sure he’d rather worry about that later!
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July 11, 2018 at 12:12 PM
Doubt Federer could take on a Djokovic who’s playing well. He should hope for Nadal.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:16 PM
haven’t been watching this but apparently the first set nadal won was grueling as well. Not that a clay court champion like him has a problem with ‘grueling’!
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July 11, 2018 at 12:21 PM
My plan was to watch that match but Anderson has ruined it! I think Anderson deserves to win this match. He’s never given up at all. Federer definitely checked out thinking he’d won.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:22 PM
Federer broken finally, it was coming.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:28 PM
Anderson certainly deserves it but disappointing all the same..
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July 11, 2018 at 12:20 PM
it’s 11-11 and neither player has been remotely close to breaking the other for ages now.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:23 PM
damn, Federer broken finally..
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July 11, 2018 at 12:28 PM
Federer out. Huge shock but Anderson played well and deserved it. Totally outplayed Federer for 3 sets.
I hope now England don’t lose otherwise my perfect day is a nightmare!
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July 11, 2018 at 12:31 PM
yeah federer just blew this one. A great tribute to him that he could stretch it out so much at his age but there was no excuse to lose it given where he was. Not to take anything away from Anderson though who was so cool throughout.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:36 PM
This draw is like the World Cup now. Some guy from Isner, Raonic and Anderson has a chance of glory. Djokovic is favourite but I think Nadal will win.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:38 PM
Djokovic certainly cannot match Nadal’s mental toughness, he’d have to really play much better. there was talk that Wimbledon is even slower this time than normal (already it’s been slower than in the 90s for years) because of all the heat. This of course works for Nadal. But leaving this aside it’s still the most problematic surface for him.
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July 11, 2018 at 1:41 PM
Djokovic will be happy Nadal Vs Del Potro is a humdinger of a match.
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July 11, 2018 at 1:51 PM
JMDP 2-1 up.
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July 11, 2018 at 2:41 PM
Nadal equaliser!
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July 11, 2018 at 2:49 PM
yeah, Nadal will probably win it though.
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July 11, 2018 at 3:50 PM
Nadal wins on the final whistle
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July 11, 2018 at 3:53 PM
I was expecting it.
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July 11, 2018 at 12:29 PM
Anderson wins. The champ is out
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July 11, 2018 at 11:20 PM
Jay bhai, sorry about your nightmares. 2 shocks within 3-4 hrs – Federer (vs Anderson) and England (versus Croatia)
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July 11, 2018 at 11:40 PM
Age is a factor in sports that will always catch up. Fed gave it away in 3rd set but put a good fight in 5th. He isnt going anywhere, but days of slams may be over. But 20 is plenty. A younger nadal would always catch up even if he made it 22. Anyways, after the uniqlo deal he has enough motivation to play as long as he can. All that talk about playing for loving tennis has now taken backseat.
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July 11, 2018 at 1:32 PM
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July 11, 2018 at 1:34 PM
This was hilarious, saw this in the morning. It would be even better if Hitler knew Spain and Brazil are not in the final but France are just to rub it in more!
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July 12, 2018 at 4:18 PM
So fellow cricket lovers, how good is this Kuldeep Yadav? A genuine star in the making? First I’ve seen of him. Pleasantly surprised that India may have found a special spinner.
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July 13, 2018 at 12:41 AM
He seems to be the real deal. Wrist-spinner who can turn the ball both ways and has very good control over his length, doesn’t bowl too many freebies and seems to have a good attitude as well. Should replace Ashwin/Jadeja as the no.1 spinner in the Test side when India are playing outside the sub-continent.
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July 13, 2018 at 3:33 AM
we should have 2 teams for Tests and ODI/T20. Few like Kohli, Bhuvi will make it to both, but not all
Test XI – Shikar, M Vijay, C Pujara, V Kohli, A Rahane, H Pandya, W Saha, R Ashwin/Jadeja, Kuldeep, Bhuvaneshwar, Bumrah
Other consideration – Rahul, Shami, Yadav, Ishant, DK
ODI/T20I – Shikar, Rohit, Kohli, Rahul, Dhoni, K Pandya, H Pandya, Bhuvaneshwar, Bumrah, Kuldeep, Chahal
Other consideration – Rahul, Shami, Yadav, Ishant, DK
Send clear message to Vijay, Pujara, Rahane, Saha, Ashwin/Jadeja to focus only on Tests
Clear Message to Rohit to focus only on white ball game. Dhoni does not play tests any more.
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July 13, 2018 at 7:33 PM
Has a middling first class record though. But the kid is mentally very tough — loves to flight the ball even when he’s hit for a six or two!
Don’t wish to jinx anything but IMO, Sir Jadeja is still the first choice spinner outside India. He offers the kind of control (and economy) that Captains/Coaches would love to have at one end. It also helps that Sir Jadeja is more than a handy bat down the order. And an absolute gun fielder. Ideally, the team would have both Jadeja and Kuldeep, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
It’s really tough on Ashwin, but unless the opposition is full of left-handed batsmen, he’d have to sit out — such is the rich vein of form displayed by Kuldeep!
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July 13, 2018 at 11:52 PM
Hard to tell, because England’s limited overs batsmen don’t have great technique against spin. He is promising but we will have to see in tests…
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July 14, 2018 at 6:53 AM
He’s strikes with his 2nd ball of the day!
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July 13, 2018 at 3:06 AM
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July 13, 2018 at 1:54 PM
what an epic — Anderson -Isner!
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July 13, 2018 at 1:55 PM
Anderson 2 break points finally! Insane – would feel for both. Isner lost that marathon already years ago & Anderson knocking out Federer would be tough to lose here.
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July 13, 2018 at 1:57 PM
Has anyone played more long fifth sets in his career than Jon Isner?! Recall, this is Mr. 70-68 from a few years ago. The current match is the longest Wimbledon semi in history.
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July 13, 2018 at 2:00 PM
Unbelievable, didn’t know this! How were those guys even standing for that?!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:05 PM
He’s played nearly 700 tie breakers in his career. The 70-68 set alone broke the previous longest match ever!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:15 PM
They should stop at 10-10 and have a tie breaker. This is torture and spoils the final.
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July 13, 2018 at 2:19 PM
I think they should just do a coin toss and shoot the other guy at this point!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:25 PM
LOL!!!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:30 PM
On a more serious note, in the era of big servers in the 1990s, a guy like Isner would have had a lot more success — might have won a Slam or two (a la Ivanisevic, Krajicek); made for boring tennis for the most part, at least when the languid elegance of Pete Sampras wasn’t involved…
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July 13, 2018 at 2:31 PM
I don’t feel sorry for Nadal or Djokovic! Hahaha Djokovic is playing marbles while he waits.
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July 13, 2018 at 2:36 PM
Anderson has had love 30 a few times now and not mustered a break point.
If this happens on Sunday it will eat into the World Cup final!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:41 PM
That is crazy level stuff from Anderson. He’s got to break now!!!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:42 PM
FINALLY
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July 13, 2018 at 2:54 PM
the winner of nadal-Djokovic should be very afraid. If they don’t finish it in 4 sets Anderson will keep playing till they lose! I guess it could’ve been worse. They could have got Isner!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:57 PM
I hope Anderson can give a match! He’s played 75 games to win the final set now over 2 matches!
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July 13, 2018 at 3:08 PM
Nadal Vs Djokovic is bound to go into tomorrow. Surely will go past 11pm curfew time.
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July 13, 2018 at 3:42 PM
and that’s unfair to those guys..
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July 13, 2018 at 3:45 PM
Djokovic is back to his best…I didn’t think he’d ever get there, silly to right off a champion. He’s giving Nadal headaches in all of his service games & finally breaks.
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July 13, 2018 at 3:46 PM
yup he’s broken him pretty early.
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July 13, 2018 at 3:49 PM
Actually can’t see how Nadal wins here. In this form it won’t be long before he is #1 again. I would say 3-0 here such is the subtle dominance being shown.
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July 13, 2018 at 3:53 PM
Actually Federer is lucky, if Djokovic hadn’t been having those physical (and mental) problems don’t think Federer could have won his recent titles. At his age he couldn’t really have beaten an in-form Djokovic. He wasn’t able to do it beyond a point even when he was younger than this. getting back to this match normally I wouldn’t expect Nadal to lose in straight sets but yeah it does seem one-sided at the moment.
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July 13, 2018 at 4:01 PM
Federer is damn lucky. Djokovic was on course for overhauling Federer’s total slam records before injury hit. But he made hay, nabbed 3 while he could. When these 3 actually retire, tennis will be boring!
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July 13, 2018 at 4:05 PM
true! and this is why Djokovic if he gets it together even now could add a lot of Slams.
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July 13, 2018 at 4:10 PM
He has 12 and I doubt he can win the French whilst Nadal is around but if he sticks around for 5 years he can win enough from the others. He seems like a player where it’s down to him.
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July 13, 2018 at 4:12 PM
Yes the French is out of reach for a while! Nadal seems to be showing more life at the beginning of the second. Let’s see..
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July 13, 2018 at 4:13 PM
Being indoors here has helped Djokovic. Nadal is being outpowered here. I’m feeling sorry for Nadal.
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July 13, 2018 at 4:23 PM
LOL, this is why you can never count Nadal out. Think Nadal is putting more pressure with his returns, a bit deeper now and Djokovic is making some unforced errors.
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July 13, 2018 at 4:49 PM
Well done Nadal – what a match. Federer would find it tough to hang with this power hitting.
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July 13, 2018 at 5:51 PM
On a knife edge. Winner of this tie breaker will be strong favourite tomorrow.
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July 13, 2018 at 6:05 PM
yeah it’s interesting now. Djokovic up 2-1 but who does this pause benefit more?
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July 13, 2018 at 6:08 PM
Pause in normal play benefits Nadal as if they carried on Djokovic would have momentum but as both players knew play would finish at 11, that tie breaker was huge for whoever won it.
It benefits Anderson most, poor guy needs it!
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July 13, 2018 at 6:19 PM
LOL, true!
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July 13, 2018 at 4:28 PM
but to repeat your point no question on the greater refinement of Djokovic. In any case I’v never been a Nadal fan. One can hardly deny the obvious but he’s not a finesse player. I’d say even historically the most refined players are generally good on grass. And of course there’s a reason why Wimbledon is still first among equals.
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July 13, 2018 at 4:37 PM
Nadal is the best fighter
Federer the most pleasing to watch
Djokovic probably pound for pound the best player
At their best I prefer watching Federer, he’s the best combination of technique, shot making, fight and humbleness. Djokovic a close 2nd and Nadal a distant third.
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July 13, 2018 at 4:44 PM
On grass my favorite remains Sampras. But he’s my personal all-time favorite anyway (i.e. among players I’ve seen).
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July 13, 2018 at 4:52 PM
Didn’t like him at all. Was an Agassi fan all the way. Found Wimbledon to be a snoozefest with Sampras’ obvious dominance. He would never lose!
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July 13, 2018 at 5:51 PM
yes, except for that rain-interrupted quarterfinal to Krajicek one year. He could have had 7 but for this loss. But yeah on very fast grass and his incredible serve it was easy for him to get out of a hole.
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July 13, 2018 at 2:24 PM
stunning!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:07 PM
They had to complete that match over two days!
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July 13, 2018 at 2:09 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isner%E2%80%93Mahut_match_at_the_2010_Wimbledon_Championships
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July 14, 2018 at 12:15 AM
Wimbledon 2018 has turned out to be a story of tenacity than finesse. McEnroe actually predicted this before Fed’s quarters and I was smirking at his comment.
Next time will catch up Garros instead. And dont be surprised if Nadal pulls through today.
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July 14, 2018 at 12:20 AM
And Uniqlo could have spent its 300M in better ways!
As for Novak catching up 20 slams, he is a long way off! Even if Fed cant make it anymore, Nadal is not going anywhere.
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July 14, 2018 at 5:57 PM
Never ever thought I would see a day when Dhoni would be as defensive as today. Without resorting to hyper-bole, whether I should even remember Gavarksar’s 36 off 174 but that would be unfair since India had hardly played even 6 -7 1-day matches before June 1975. But they were chasing 336 then and today, in a completely hard-hitting and aggressive format of one-day cricket, they were chasing 323! The greatest players of spin were done-in by spin when the ground turned dry. Kudos to England.
It was baffling to see the Indian players from the deck as though it meant nothing. Only when Dhoni getting started booed did they wake up. God knows what happened here..
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July 14, 2018 at 6:06 PM
Yeah, it was a crap innings. No two ways about it.
Having said that, the situation was pretty hopeless when Dhoni and Hardik Pandya were at the crease. The pitch, in a span of an innings, had gone from a batting beauty to an uneven surface with spinners coming into their own.
I think the English spinners are pretty mediocre — and when they bamboozle Indian batsmen, it means the pitch is misbehaving — a lot, to be precise.
Kohli misread the pitch. He would have bowled had he won the toss. Morgan knew what to expect from the pitch. There in lies the difference.
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July 14, 2018 at 6:26 PM
Will say this about Dhoni though. His batting powers are on the wane even if he had an exceptional IPL season.
He’s still the defacto captain in white ball cricket. It’s he who sets the field for spinners. He’s still world-class behind the stumps. He’s the best keeper when it comes to keeping wickets against spinners, perhaps the best the game has ever seen.
He’s the one who guides Kuldeep and Chahal. He’s the one who decides whether to go for DRS or not.
In short, he still brings a lot of value to the team.
Fans expect miracles from him every single time he finds himself in a hopeless situation. And these days he doesn’t deliver on that count. And he gets a lot of flak for that.
He’s the reason the team is competitive in the first place. But it’s foolish to expect him to bail the other 10 guys out with his bat, now that he is 37 years old.
Indian cricket fans are really fickle. I’m sure the same fans will talk the same tripe when Virat Kohli’s game is on the wane…
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July 14, 2018 at 6:58 PM
Agree with you totally on his role behind the stumps and his importance in being a mentor on the team. After, Gilchrist, at par or even at a greater level, if anyone an be mentioned of in the same breath as one of the greatest wicket-keeper/batsman ever, it is Dhoni.
It was just that his batting was so uncharacteristic of him. He got a hint from the pavilion and it was then that he decided to go big! I have to say it was a very unusual performance from Dhoni.
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July 14, 2018 at 7:07 PM
Yeah, a big low point for him, at least from a fan’s perspective.
I’m sure Shastri must have shed a tear when the crowd booed Dhoni. He’s been booed the most, at least as far as Indian fans are concerned.
There was a time when Shastri hai-hai was a regular crowd slogan. Whatever I think of him, he didn’t deserve it either…
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July 14, 2018 at 6:50 PM
One more thing to add here.
Rohit Sharma will most probably end up with 40 ODI hundreds at the end of his career. People will hail him as a legend of the game.
In reality, he’s the biggest flat-track bully in recent times. Not even a bully, he’s a super-bully!
The minute the pitch starts misbehaving or when faced with great bowling, he’s always found wanting.
People need to get on his case more often. Dhoni, on the other hand, has bailed the team out on numerous occasions when the entire team was on the brink of collapse. It happened in the past, but still…
Rohit, Dhawan et al are false heroes. Kohli & Dhoni are not!
Messi will never end up with World Cup glory; De Villiers never won anything of note in major championships. That means nothing. It’s a TEAM sport. And one man can’t play on behalf of the other 10.
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July 14, 2018 at 7:50 PM
Agreed — I would add a coda about Kohli’s captaincy: the moment Rohit has a string of good scores on these sorts of pitches Kohli is often tempted to try him out in test matches (his selection in South Africa was appalling, and probably contributed to India losing a series it had a decent chance of winning)…
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July 15, 2018 at 1:44 AM
Absolutely…in fact, even now, Gavaskar has asked Rohit to be included in the Test Team based on his ODI and T20 100.
It’s crazy!
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July 14, 2018 at 8:53 PM
And to top it all, he(Rohit) is regarded the modern day Mark Waugh, utterly sacrilegious!! And that’s when Mark had 20 test centuries against one of the most lethal bowling attacks from Marshal, Donald, Akaram, Ambrose, Walsh, Waqar, Saqlain, Kumble to Muralidharan to name few deadly bowlers on bowling friendly pitches!! Besides, he was, if not the best all round fielder, at least the most effortless one taking mind blowing catches without any fuss as if nothing happened!!
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July 15, 2018 at 1:48 AM
Yeah, it’s a false equivalence.
Rohit is a stylish batsman, very easy on the eyes…but certain (major) conditions apply!
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July 15, 2018 at 2:07 AM
Disappointed with Shikhar too. Does he only get runs against mediocre attacks on flat tracks?
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July 15, 2018 at 4:35 AM
Rohit has got big psychological issue which gets concealed when he gets going, but it gets exposed under testing conditions & against good bowling line up. patience isn’t his virtue & under trying circumstances, he gets impatient and throws his wicket by playing some silly, idiotic shot just like how he got out playing that ugly heave yesterday. Virat, Dhoni have it in abundance which is what separate them from gifted and talented yet reckless and impulsive Rohits and Dhawans!! Talent alone doesn’t make one great unless it is backed by perseverance, grit, patience and street- smartness which are the hallmark of a truly great player.
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July 15, 2018 at 2:34 AM
He’s quite a weak looking flat track bully, not Hayden like. In full flow Sharma is a good watch but he’s Jekyll and Hyde thus is utterly unreliable in test cricket.
In ODI and T20 he deserves a spot as up top he is capable of hitting 6’s for fun.
I found Dhoni’s actions silly more than anything, don’t know what/why he was doing.
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July 15, 2018 at 3:48 AM
Rohit is treat to watch where ball movement is not much…In South Africa or second T20 in current series with England he could barely play.
I think today Dhoni didn’t believe he could win the game. So he kept on playing. Of course it doesn’t look good to paying public. I think India lost way after Kohli’s wicket and Raina who was well settled, started defending. Running between the wickets came to halt. I think they should play someone else than Raina..
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July 15, 2018 at 2:13 AM
FRACRO today. France are favorites but Croatia can spring a surprise.
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July 21, 2018 at 12:46 PM
A Tiger is on the loose at Carnoustie, charging up the leaderboard…
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July 22, 2018 at 11:19 AM
Is one of the greatest sporting comebacks on right now? Tiger Woods…
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July 22, 2018 at 12:19 PM
It was fun while it lasted…
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July 22, 2018 at 12:21 PM
Yes still incredible 6 way lead. Come on Rory!
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July 24, 2018 at 4:10 AM
http://www.espncricinfo.com/25/content/story/1151769.html
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July 24, 2018 at 10:09 AM
good read…
Tiger Woods Was Back in Contention. But It Wasn’t the Same Tiger Woods.
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July 24, 2018 at 10:34 AM
Rory’s comments are sensible. Golf is the most wide open sport, the idea of dominance like tennis is out of question. Tiger Woods is back but it’s not easy to win a tournament let alone a major. He’s shown enough to suggest he can but no guarantee he will. Unlike Djokovic where you could assume easily IF he got his 15-16 form back he’d win a slam. It only takes one bad shot to ruin a round and at this level a tournament. The precision being sought is a huge difference. It’s like Messi not playing football for a decade and being asked on his comeback to be as good. It won’t happen. I think just the ‘chance’ that Woods is back playing competitive and up the leaderboard is quite remarkable.
His ‘lethal’ winning instinct might not be there but might be something that slowly arrives. If from here he plays to 50 and manages 1 major win it’s a big enough story. Plus he is a streaky player like Stieth and McIlroy. So if he gets going he might take 2-3 in a row.
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July 24, 2018 at 11:14 AM
great comment, agreed all round..
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July 25, 2018 at 4:15 PM
Quite embarrassing that India have requested their warm up match Vs Essex be reduced from 4 to 3 days due to hot weather! It’s certainly hot here but surely this is an edge for India and they are used to this weather!
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July 25, 2018 at 4:15 PM
didn’t know this..strange!
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July 25, 2018 at 4:21 PM
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/44960394
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July 25, 2018 at 4:57 PM
good to see Kohli doing well..
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August 2, 2018 at 3:19 PM
Good writeup on the Kohl-Anderson duel today:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/24265306/hot-take-classic-tussle
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August 2, 2018 at 3:20 PM
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18018/report/1119549/day/2/england-vs-india-1st-test-ind-eng-2018
Virat Kohli was booed by the Edgbaston crowd when he walked out to bat during an England surge, but by the time he was done – 149 out of 220 scored while he was at the wicket; the next-best score was 26 – the crowd stood up as one to applaud one of the great ugly-but-beautiful innings. Not just the crowd, the England team were perfect hosts for the second day in a row: after the run-out and soft dismissals when they batted, they dropped three catches – two of those Kohli’s – and then looked clueless when the India captain turned it on with the tail. Just like on day one, Kohli was waiting to accept the gifts, this time turning what at one stage looked like a 150-run deficit into just 13.
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August 2, 2018 at 5:14 PM
England are still slight favourites but what a knock by Kohli & Ashwin’s last delivery was a beauty again. Anything above 200 lead is a tough chase.
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August 2, 2018 at 9:58 PM
Going by first innings by Indian batsmen, anything over 100 will be tough. Get Kohli early and pocket a win will be mantra for English. Kohli was all at sea against Anderson
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August 3, 2018 at 9:37 AM
The match is in India’s control at this point. Having said that the tail is being allowed to wag a bit. I do agree that even 200 could be tricky here.
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August 3, 2018 at 10:29 AM
India have really left England off the hook here.
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August 3, 2018 at 10:40 AM
it’s finally over but it’s still 194. Doubt they can do this without another special Kohli contribution.
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August 3, 2018 at 10:42 AM
Should have been 150 or even less. India have a good chance, important they win now otherwise it’ll ruin the series for them.
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August 3, 2018 at 12:46 PM
Too many sitting ducks in this Indian side. Pujara has to play, this is like a T20 side.
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August 3, 2018 at 4:22 PM
most of them are IPL captains Rahane, DK, Kohli, Ashwin
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August 2, 2018 at 6:05 PM
He was full of energy…after completely his century he was desperately looking for locket inside Tshirt to kiss it..
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August 3, 2018 at 5:55 PM
England have the edge in bowling. Anderson, Broad, Stokes and even Curran.
Poor show by the Indian batsmen…even worse is the selection, which strangely does not get questioned at all. Shikhar Dhawan amidst swinging conditions in a Test match? There can’t be a bigger case of self-sabotage…
.
This Indian team desperately needs a coach like Kumble — rational, analytical and a strict disciplinarian. Not to mention an all time great in the annals of Test cricket.
Players weild too much power these days.
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August 3, 2018 at 6:09 PM
Even with bad warm up match, I would have picked Pujara.
Agree on coach comment. I don’t know but it feels like there is no overarching strategy for series. Players are suppose to go and perform to best of abilities.
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August 4, 2018 at 2:57 AM
Dhawan got a pair in the warm up matches, didn’t get too many runs plus droppedo more catches in the field than anybody.Why the hell is he in England.
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August 4, 2018 at 12:07 AM
Shikhar is getting into the team by licking Kohli and Shastri’s ass. Only explanation or Test centuries against minnows or flat tracks should not be counted
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August 4, 2018 at 6:51 AM
Unless something very surprising happens it’s over for India right now.
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August 4, 2018 at 6:57 AM
In India these days (and for a while) people don’t care much about any effort that isn’t part of a win but Kohli has done as much here in both innings as anyone humanly could.
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August 4, 2018 at 7:00 AM
Agree a monster effort here. I think this will ruin India’s series. They had to win this one given the opportunity created.
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August 4, 2018 at 7:32 AM
His 2nd innings effort was technically flawless. It’s such a pity he’s straddled with batsmen who give up too easily.
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August 4, 2018 at 7:39 AM
he and Pandya could have brought it home. Bad luck for him.
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August 4, 2018 at 7:38 AM
Kohli the batsman is great; Kohli the captain, not so much. His match selections are shambolic…I’m afraid there is no other word for it. He did it in South Africa and he’s doing it again in England.
And Shastri, what do I say about him. What exactly is his role in the team? Except for being a glorified cheerleader? Damn, in the days of Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and Sehwag we had coaches like John Wright, Gary Kirsten. And now there is Ravi “tracer bullet” Shastri.
How on Earth did this come to pass?
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August 4, 2018 at 7:41 AM
Kuldeep walloped England in ODI’s, Pujara is a proper batsman. Pandya should not be in the side & one of Vijay/Dhawan/Rahane too should not.
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August 4, 2018 at 7:54 AM
Yeah dropping Pujara by keeping Dhawan in is such a joke!
Rahane has played well overseas…in the past. Even has a century at Lords. Vijay is a Test batsman, but he’s getting old.
A lot of people propped up Dinesh Karthik recently. Well, he’s been found out — both as a keeper and as a batsman.
Kuldeep can play instead of Pandya, whose bowling isn’t threatening at all in Test matches.
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August 4, 2018 at 8:06 AM
Rahane is a joke on England pitches….Vijay also….no one has shown any confidence except the genius Kohli……
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August 4, 2018 at 10:42 AM
Vijay and Rahane were our best batsmen on the last England tour. Unfortunately Vijay seems to be the fag end of his career and Rahane has regressed alarmingly as a Test batsman.
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August 4, 2018 at 8:13 AM
It’s not a cricketing culture that is in the least introspective: this was only 2nd first class game of tour. And with all the limited overs cricket the Indian batsmen play, they clearly seemed under-cooked for the tests; how many times have we seen that?! Need to learn from the example of Pakistan earlier this summer: multiple practice first-class games prior to first test. For years, we have been treating our 1st and 2nd tests as a way to find our feet.
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August 4, 2018 at 8:17 AM
I also mentioned that India requested a 4 day game to be 3 day (pre test) because of heat! LOL, India complaining about heat!
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August 4, 2018 at 8:22 AM
It’s such a shame: both Shastri and Kohli said before the series they believed the two limited overs series were good preparation. Do they honestly believe that?! Why self-censor?! I’ve been seeing this happen for the last several series (think of Zaheer ambling in in the first test in 2011, clearly no match practice, then we were a bowler short most of that match: before you know it 0-1 down). It is such a waste of the resources India has in cricket (wealth, power at ICC, talent). Let’s put this in context: the T20 and ODI series they played prior to the tests don’t have any broader meaning or significance— why not have ONE of them, ie the ODI series or T20 but not both. Of course, knowing our board even if they agreed with me they would be like “hmmmm we could have made it a five match series”!!!
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August 4, 2018 at 8:47 AM
missing dravid badly. the guy was a genuis in such conditions and the prime reason why ganguly had a very good overseas record as a captain
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August 4, 2018 at 9:35 AM
That is actually not true: bowlers win test matches for the most part, batsmen, even great ones, rarely do. Zaheer and Kumble and Sreesanth and others were the reason we started winning at a retain point (Dravid had been great for years prior to that). More to the point, one can say one misses a guy who retired a month ago, not one who retired half a decade ago! We have who we have — it isn’t this team, we are being let down by the folks who run the game. This series, and the one in SA earlier this year , was winnable for sure, but you can’t play well in these conditions if you play the first test with basically no match practice.
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August 4, 2018 at 8:50 AM
It’s quite unprofessional and arrogant really. I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if India capitulate now. Home advantage has become a bigger advantage. India’s batsmen lack patience barring Kohli.
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August 4, 2018 at 9:05 AM
There should be some mandatory rules for 3/4/5 match test series. Your choice or 1 match or 2 matches for practice respectively. The limited overs series should follow the test series as it traditionally use to. Only the Ashes series get taken seriously. India has no excuse considering their status and power. Unfortunately they have created this big beast of IPL that is a long term killer of test cricket.
Football is the opposite. So many useless friendlies but at least players get into fitness. Problem is they travel to USA or Asia now purely for commercial reasons.
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August 4, 2018 at 9:36 AM
Great comment. All sports is run for money BUT the BCCI (unlike the folks who run world football) is vey vey focused on short-term profit, a loot and strip mentality.
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August 4, 2018 at 9:59 AM
India will probably play tests for as long as required, the first chance where an opportunity to not play for an alternatively more lucrative format I think they will walk or play tests with little care. One has to believe a cricket mad country with all these riches should be dominating the game with some ease. At least having a period of dominance but clearly other things are priorities.
India should have a production line of Kohli’s. Brazil in football is a similar aspirational analogy of where they should be.
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August 4, 2018 at 10:08 AM
Even in the limited overs formats, India has a good track record the last few years but since the golden generation retired, we have been under-achieving: the team squad and machine is very healthy, and that typically will enable India to do well in bilateral series, but in the major tournaments I think the machine is vulnerable to being disrupted by the unpredictable or eccentric: witness the Champions Trophy final or the T20 World Cup semi-final prior to that when we were suddenly undone by a hail of sixes. In fact we have no major tournament victory since the 2012 champions trophy, in either ODIs or T20s (we have made two finals and two other semis, losing all four).
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August 4, 2018 at 10:26 AM
In ODI’s there is enough time in tournament play or 50 overs to dominate, West Indies & Australia have shown this. But the reality was they had world class bowling attacks. Even Pakistan could have dominated with the bowling riches they had in the 90’s. Mentally the subcontinent teams seem to crumble under pressure despite the talent at their disposal. Some of it is mental, some self inflicted through bad choices by the boards/captains and sometimes it’s unlucky. That winning mentality is not there. India had an extraordinary batting lineup – one to six was strong in 00’s and all of a sudden everything has returned to the 90’s where the game is decided by taking one player’s wicket. I find this pretty complacent from India.
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August 4, 2018 at 10:34 AM
The fans are also to blame: today when confronted with an overseas defeat, instead of trying to figure out where we went wrong tons of people say things like “even England and Australia are losing away from home”; what mediocrity! And yet we will pat ourselves on the back about the team’s “new attitude”, as if brashness can substitute for victory. Contrast with the most successful Indian teams, the ones people like Shastri implicitly criticize for not having had the right attitude — well in the early 1980s and early 1970s and earlier this century, those teams won!
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August 4, 2018 at 10:42 AM
Test cricket should kill some things. Home teams can prepare pitches for their liking (that is fair game as it is ‘test’ cricket) but the away side should decide to bat or bowl – kill the toss.
A minimum of 3 match test series should be established – these 2 test series are stupid but really 5 matches is what makes things compelling.
Countries have to play 12 tests every year and just establish a league table for every 4 years, after everyone has played each other home & away and award a trophy. Give some structure on who should play who and contract countries into it to save the game.
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August 4, 2018 at 10:43 AM
Yeah completely agree on 2 test series. And nothing like the long series for sure!
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August 5, 2018 at 12:31 PM
Gavaskar is spot on here: https://amp.scroll.in/field/889345/cant-take-five-days-off-before-test-series-gavaskar-says-lack-of-serious-practice-hurt-india?__twitter_impression=true
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August 4, 2018 at 10:56 AM
Dravid has saved matches in seaming conditions in foreign soil. Adelaide, Leeds, Perth wins come to mind. Plus he was an excellent slip fielder. Unlike Dhawan who dropped three to four
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August 4, 2018 at 1:58 PM
Of course, who would doubt it. But the difference even in those matches was we had the bowlers take twenty wickets (eg Agarkar’s 6 at Adelaide kept us in the hunt). For sure Adelaide is among the test matches where the batsman’s contribution was the maximum, but that is still a rare one.
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August 5, 2018 at 1:05 PM
our bowlers took 20 wickets here too, but our batsmen let us down
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August 4, 2018 at 7:42 AM
India’s bowling unit is as good as any in the world. Remember they are playing without Bhuvi and Bumrah here. But man, how can these batsmen look themselves in the mirror each night?
I’m sure there will be excuses given. Won’t find any takers anywhere…
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August 8, 2018 at 8:48 AM
Marcus:
Cant find the sports thread, so posting it here.
Fed turn 37 today. Will be competing in 5 tournaments till the end of season. I guess he will try to hang around as long as possible, even if he does not win any more slams. So expecting him on ATP tour for next 2 seasons, and the uniqlo deal suggests that too.
http://www.newsnation.in/photos/sports/happy-birthday-roger-federer—life-timeline-unknown-facts-2-2903/slide1
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August 8, 2018 at 10:50 AM
Thanks for shifting it.
First slam in 2003 and 20th in 2018. Been a gascinating decade and half.
He turned pro in 98 and spent 5 years in circuit without winning a slam. Maybe he will spend next 5 years playing without winning another slam? Life will be symmetrical for him then! And uniqlo probably wont mind.
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August 8, 2018 at 10:51 AM
Fascinating
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August 10, 2018 at 10:08 AM
I don’t know why any team goes for that run. Poor Pujara. India will lose 4 or 5 nil, they should be doing the rain dance.
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August 10, 2018 at 10:17 AM
yeah no excuse for this. this is the kind of series where India could do very badly throughout and Kohli might have multiple centuries!
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August 10, 2018 at 1:13 PM
Kohli gone, goodnight India.
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August 10, 2018 at 2:00 PM
It is more mental than technique…well that is what Kohli has been saying..
I have been on saying since India was on winning streak on home ground that we cannot play good fast bowling in overseas conditions..It is not a new problem.It has been there for long time…It is same as overseas player find difficult to play spinners in subcontinent. Only solution is that we should have some fast pitches for Ranji matches selected randomly so that you don’t favor particular team.
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August 10, 2018 at 2:16 PM
I think the mental thing is certainly important, even for a talented person. At the same time you really do need technique in certain conditions. But I do agree completely with your longer paragraph. They needed more practice in England. Once upon a time this used to happen. Not anymore.
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August 10, 2018 at 3:53 PM
mental thing is important in test but you cannot claim that excuse if you keep failing in certain conditions.
Also at one time most tests use to be draw. But now we have many tests that don’t even go in 4th day. That tells us that people have forgotten how to be there on wicket.
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August 10, 2018 at 3:54 PM
absolutely. Once upon a time one days were played a bit like tests, now it’s the very opposite.
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August 10, 2018 at 3:55 PM
The pitches in Ranji Trophy are fast, bouncy and offer swing. Most of the Test players don’t play Ranji Trophy though…
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August 10, 2018 at 4:55 PM
Indian batsmen should play in county cricket not just in England but other countries too. 107 all out is terrible considering this is the #1 team in the world – apparently. ‘Blocking’ is an art, so is sticking around scoring 5 off 40 balls. If the first day’s a washout and 2nd day is practically half day I think you have to play the % game – find a way not to lose the test match. Now England need 1 big innings and India can lose again.
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August 10, 2018 at 5:03 PM
Till the time Shastri is the coach, you’ll get exactly these kind of results.
Kohli has never fielded the same squad in 30+ tests as captain. He has single-handedly destroyed the confidence of all other players batting around him.
This is the worst management in any elite sport…ever!
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August 10, 2018 at 9:32 PM
Yes, the series in SA earlier this year and the current one in England were/are winnable. But India don’t want it enough — not enough to practice, prepare, etc.
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August 10, 2018 at 9:37 PM
PS — on Twitter one sees a lot of loser comments from fans (who are really doing a disservice to Indian cricket) whining about the double standard on pitch ratings etc. (“why isn’t this considered a sub-standard pitch?!” Etc etc). These morons need to explain how is it that India won here in 1971, 1985, and 2007, and why, this decade, we seem to be doing WORSE in England than either Sri Lanka or Pakistan! The latter’s example is most instructive: they prepped for a month in a camp in Lahore, played 3-4 county matches before the first test, and tied the two test series 1-1 despite having a team that is honestly not as good as this Indian team. But we have a cricketing culture that refuses to learn — so we haven’t learned anything from the last decade’s failures, we will insist on bloviating, a la Shastri, that playing T20s and ODIs was great prep for this test series. Even if we were to achieve some miracle in this series these points would stand. Heck we didn’t have to HAVE Shastri, Kohli basically chose him and dumped Kumble!
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August 11, 2018 at 5:46 AM
Absolutely! It’s not that the other teams are full of great players at the moment — international Test cricket just doesn’t have the quality that it had a decade ago. And even then this Indian cricket team finds innovative ways to lose! All thanks to Kohli and Shastri.
I keep on mentioning that Kohli is a great batsman. He’s also a terrible manager of his resources. To further qualify the last sentence, he’s done a good job with the bowling, but an absolute terrible job with batsmen. Shastri’s fault lies in the fact that he lets it happen. That’s one among his many other faults.
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August 10, 2018 at 6:33 PM
well-said..
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August 10, 2018 at 6:37 PM
The South African 2-1 scoreline seems a distant dream in England. How did this team compete there?
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August 10, 2018 at 6:48 PM
Even there our bastmen sucked…
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=12081;type=series
Pandya played in first test. B Kumar was one of the better batsmen!
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August 11, 2018 at 7:40 AM
The batsmen true did not do all that well, but this generation of Indian batsmen is more likely to be undone by swing and seam, than by pace and bounce — hence they are a shade likely to do better in SA/Australia than in England. Of course, if you have someone who has all of these (pace, swing, bounce) on a consistent basis, or the ability to play them, you are talking about an all-time great. [That isn’t Jimmy Anderson by the way: he is a wizard in English conditions but his stats away from home or so far from that impressive that he cannot be considered a great IMO; by contrast, there is Dale Steyn.]
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August 11, 2018 at 8:09 AM
Aside: the batting conditions are so much easier today than yesterday (definitely something in there for the bowlers but nothing like yesterday) that it has to be said India have bowled very well indeed thus far today.
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August 11, 2018 at 8:13 AM
Tomorrow rain is due most of the day and Monday it’ll be showers so I would bank on this being a draw or England win.
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August 11, 2018 at 12:09 PM
England should declare.
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August 11, 2018 at 1:23 PM
Can’t believe India gave up 4.5 runs per over for an 80 over period! England’s run rate has significantly diminished any chance of a draw here (hope I am wrong!)
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August 11, 2018 at 1:25 PM
If there is enough play, India will lose by an innings, but rain is forecast for Sunday and Monday – Sunday might be most of the day.
England have missed a trick by not declaring as there was no way they could lose.
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August 12, 2018 at 7:17 AM
already 2 down!
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August 11, 2018 at 1:18 AM
anil kumble is to be blamed too. he refused handing over toss to visiting team, else india would have got both the tosses their way.
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August 11, 2018 at 1:38 AM
The toss is silly. Home teams prepare tests for home advantage. It could ruin a series if the home team wins each toss. It’s better to give the decision to bat or bowl to the away side, naturally the home team will prepare a more 5 day friendly pitch. No harm in trialling it.
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August 11, 2018 at 7:37 AM
Huh? Kumble had many things, but the power to set international cricket’s rules was surely not among them — actually the power to dictate to India’s team was evidently ALSO not among them!
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August 11, 2018 at 1:26 AM
https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/toss-to-stay-in-tests-says-anil-kumble-led-icc-cricket-committee-5196406/
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August 11, 2018 at 1:41 PM
time for someone to wirte an obituary of Indian Test cricket in England, pathetic performance so far
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August 10, 2018 at 10:37 AM
Pujara has a history of strange run-outs. Clearly he was pretty jittery. A real shame, as he had done the hard work playing through 25 deliveries.
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August 10, 2018 at 5:08 PM
Shreyas Royal: Child chess prodigy’s family can stay in UK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45145339
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August 10, 2018 at 6:32 PM
Trump would say this is another dirty immigration trick.. first become a child prodigy and then have ‘chain immigration’ for the family ! (Melania’s parents are excluded from these considerations.. but then they’re white anyway).
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August 10, 2018 at 6:43 PM
Another loss for India in UK
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August 11, 2018 at 8:04 AM
With this kind of cooperation from the English team even in such sunny weather perhaps India need not worry so much after all! 107 is of course too low even so but neither side seems to be able to bat in this series irrespective of conditions.
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August 11, 2018 at 8:10 AM
India need to bowl then out for 150 odd and they have a chance to win. Obviously you’d hope India can return more than 107 next time round whatever deficit.
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August 12, 2018 at 1:03 PM
21%% increase on first innings. At this rate India will cross 300 by the end of the series.
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August 12, 2018 at 1:43 PM
wtf? last times 3-1 scoreline seems a distant dream
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August 12, 2018 at 10:57 PM
even pak, bang, windies have put up better shows in england last time than this toothless indian side.
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August 13, 2018 at 9:18 AM
Agreed completely Jeeves: many Indian fans on Twitter live in denial (or: can’t get their head out of their ass!) and talk about things like “home pitch advantage” and “hey everybody loses away from home”. Firstly, the good teams don’t (I don’t just mean all-time great teams, but even solid/very good teams — e.g. Pakistan in the late 1980s/early 1990s; India in the first decade of this century; South Africa at various points this century; India in the early 1980s); they might lose SOMEwhere (e.g. Pakistan and India have never ever won series in Australia or SA) but they tend to win SOMEwhere (England! In fact this is the only country outside the sub-continent where desi teams have ever won test series, (until WI very recently, India being the honorable exception on the strength of its 1971 tour)!). This Indian team hasn’t come close (going back to the last gasp of the golden generation, we have lost 9 of the last 10 tests in England, an astounding record; common themes include lack of prep — not only insufficient number of prep matches but more generally (remember Zaheer in the 1st test in 2011?) — and batting failures, NOT bowling failures). Second, forget comparisons with history: what possible excuse can there be for India to do WORSE than Pakistan or Sri Lanka on its RECENT tours of England? Pakistan’s last two tours read: 2-2 and 1-1 — unlike when India had the great batting line-up, we cannot blame the bowlers (India’s attack is pretty good, and has mostly delivered; frankly with these bowlers India would have won a lot more in the DRavid/Sachin/VVS/Ganguly/Sehwag era); heck, I will go out on a limb and say India’s bowling attack is not inferior to Pakistan’s at present (Amir excepted) — it is Pakistan’s batting that showed more grit and fight in England, even after Misbah and Younis retired, than ours did, something I would never have predicted. Third, Indians cannot console themselves with limited overs success: we have not won any major tournament (T20 or ODI) since 2012 (not even the Asia Cup!) — that’s over half a decade in the richest, best funded era in Indian history, when India is more powerful than ever before. Yet our fans content themselves with silencing dissent, complacently wallowing in home victories, and even many of our experts are cowed by the BCCI and won’t dare to criticize any powerful player or Shastri or BCCI on air (contrast with how well Nasser Hussain does this). It is high time the “after glow” of our early 21st century success, and the World Cup/Champions Trophy victories in 2011-2012, faded, and we demanded accountability* — that is different from just blaming players, it’s about looking into how we prep for tours, how we are developing first-class batsmen, selecting them etc.. It’s incredible the number of fans one meets who seem to believe we are an elite team (based on ICC rankings, a strong home record, and mostly a very powerful hype machine), when actually we aren’t an elite team in any form of the game: at most we are among the 3-4 best ODI / T20 teams, not even there with test matches, and are a very strong test team at home. It’s a middling position.
*I ain’t holding my breath: our 0-4 (Eng 2011), 0-4 (Australia 2011-2012); 1-3 (Eng 2014); 0-2 (Aus 2014); 1-2 (SA 2018) defeats led to no introspection — in fact the whole culture had the temerity to treat a dead rubber victory in the third test in SA earlier this year as a turning point, epochal etc. (sadly Amitabh himself has become complicit in this mindless chest-thumping), which shows how content we all are with mediocrity, with the spectacle of the IPL (and I admit it IS a most entertaining and impressive spectacle) as a substitute for any other kind of achievement. Stated differently, reminds me of the Akki ad for a dance show on Colors TV: he slides onto a sofa and the child performer asks him if he’s heard about India winning gold, and he asks which one; yeah, we prefer to make movies on past teams that have won gold rather than think about how golds are won!
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August 13, 2018 at 2:45 PM
It was evident in second T20 match where Indian batsmen had no clue when ball was moving in English conditions. Indian bowling has been doing good. But then you select two spinner and one part time bowler for test where it should have been all fast bowlers, it tells more about team management (I am not sure of D Chahar is in test squad or not but he would have been ideal in these conditions.). Management is where you need someone who has vision or can say no to Kohli. Kohli will always do good as bastman but captaincy (and coaching) requires managing, vision and collaboration.
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August 13, 2018 at 2:46 PM
Spot on — of course they removed the one guy (Kumble) who had the stature to say no to Kohli. Of course the likes of Dravid, Ganguly will not take this job.
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August 13, 2018 at 4:02 PM
They shot down idea of Dravid as batting coach/help when Shastri was elevated.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-sri-lanka/if-rahul-dravid-is-free-im-all-for-it-ravi-shastri/articleshow/59676190.cms
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August 13, 2018 at 4:05 PM
I had heard Dravid also turned down the job and took the Under-19 gig instead of coaching the seniors in any capacity… not sure if that was true
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August 13, 2018 at 4:08 PM
There was resistance from Shastri; Of course Dravid any day has more stature than Shastri. He is also very similar as Kumble in work ethics.
ps – I updated above link.
ps1 – Dravid felt unwelcome with all the noise. He does his job silently without much limelight.
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August 13, 2018 at 4:10 PM
Thanks for the link!
LOL — Dravid has more stature in his little finger than Shastri does. He is such a blowhard, and so different from some of his team mates (eg Vengsarkar, a very fine batsman indeed)
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August 13, 2018 at 4:12 PM
PS — yes, and the results are there for all to see: Dravid has done very well with the U19s. And this despite the fact that as he would be the first to admit, the longer format is his favorite format — so imagine what he might do if he were given even 80% of the power that these guys have been given.
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August 13, 2018 at 4:12 PM
There is too much politics at senior level..Personally, I don’t want gentleman like Dravid in all this mudslinging. You need to be politician to do your job and survive.
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August 13, 2018 at 2:51 PM
Very well said… who can forget the non-selection of Bhuvneshwar for 2nd test in SA?! And that’s one among many examples…
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August 13, 2018 at 3:02 PM
but home countries do have an advantage these days when it comes to test cricket….england being the only exception because england is the only country that offers assistance to BOTH seamers and spinners. Asian countries just destroy the outsiders on their spin friendly wickets and Asian teams have no clue when they go to fast tracks in Aus or SA (and even NZ now). I knew that India would struggle in England but didn’t think it would be the batting (and to this extent). This is now turning to the Sachin era of the early 90s when it was game over for india whenever the little master got out. Time for indian batsmen to wake up before 2-0 turns into 5-0 with Australia tour coming later this year.
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August 13, 2018 at 3:06 PM
and even with the absence of Smith \ Warner, India will have it hands full with Aus bowlers.
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August 13, 2018 at 3:45 PM
This is pretty much like the 90’s. Kohli is a nailed on great but you need support ALWAYS. Cricket is not a team sport like football. There are individual battles & points when momentum can swing quickly and you need players and coaches who can make the right decisions in a flexible manner. This Indian team is barring a couple of players a bit wimpish.
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August 12, 2018 at 2:45 PM
Former captain of Indian cricket team Sunil Gavaskar, on Saturday, 11 August, turned down the invitation to the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan to be held on 18 August in Islamabad.
Gavaskar attributed his unavailability to a Test match between England and India where he is due to be present, reported India Today.
Former Indian cricketers Navjot Singh Sidhu and Kapil Dev have also received the formal invite to the ceremony.
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/sidhu-kapil-gavaskar-formally-invited-to-imran-khan-swearing-in
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August 12, 2018 at 2:47 PM
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-sidhu-accepts-invitation-to-attend-imran-khan-s-swearing-in-ceremony-gavaskar-cites-prior-commitments-2648493
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August 13, 2018 at 9:45 AM
given how well our batsmen are performing in England Sunny will be embarrassed to meet any ex cricketer leave aside champion Imran
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August 13, 2018 at 1:30 AM
what kind of batting technique is this? face some 20-30-40 balls and make 2-3-5 runs only??? Kohli is he only guy who keeps running the 1-2 runs….the rest of the people have got weird idea that block as many balls as you can and score little! Pujara 87 balls and what 19 runs??? vijay-rhane-karthik-and all are paper-tigers on English pitches!!! what a shame!
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August 13, 2018 at 9:02 AM
Vijay’s failures have been mysterious — perhaps he is in decline as a batsman — but Rahane seems to be in bad form. I wouldn’t say he is a paper tiger on English pitches (he had a century at Lords in 2014, when Kohli was miserable all series), and does average more outside the sub-continent than within it. Obviously it has been all pathetic this year, but a large part of it is insufficient red ball / first class practice. People like Rahane should be ordered by the BCCI to play county; same with Vijay — they aren’t even crucial to the IPL “economy”!
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August 18, 2018 at 4:29 PM
Much better from India, hope this continues…
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August 18, 2018 at 4:36 PM
Saw till first wicket..Batting was relatively easy..Dhawan ball was a beauty.
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August 19, 2018 at 8:04 AM
Wishful thinking, India have now found another potential way to lose a test match. They bat out the first session they near enough ensure a draw, now England post a big 1st innings and India are in the mire again.
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August 19, 2018 at 11:02 AM
Well done India for proving my rants wrong!
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August 19, 2018 at 2:42 PM
Man that’s the day of test cricket I have been waiting for for a long time. Imagine what the batsmen could have achieved with a bit more match practice…
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August 19, 2018 at 7:53 PM
Result looks good..But I am not sold on Indian batting. Rahane scored 80+ plus with some exquisite shots but was error filled. Bowling has been decent to good.
ps – Have to see today’s highlight.
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August 19, 2018 at 7:54 PM
Baba I am not sold either — par yaaar itnee pitaai ke baad thoda to mazaa lene dijiye!!!
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August 19, 2018 at 7:57 PM
agree, without Rahane’s contribution they would be in the very same position. Nonetheless it does prove once again that with proper first class match practice they might have been much better from the very first test. They are getting a bit used to the conditions. It’s been too gradual for sure. On the other hand if they win this one as they seem likely to it will be a series! After the first two it looked dire. Again I do agree that victory or defeat you have to learn the right lessons.
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August 19, 2018 at 8:54 PM
LOL learning lessons is something Indian cricket hasn’t been good at for years! Kidding aside I agree with your point…
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August 19, 2018 at 9:09 PM
I saw every ball today, and by the time Hardik showed up the bowlers had done a lot of damage — BUT again some pretty average captaincy from Kohli , both at the beginning of England’s innings and at the very end.
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August 20, 2018 at 10:34 AM
Kohli has 400 runs this series already (3 tests), only the 6th Indian to do so in a series IN England (Murali Vijay did it in 2014, a sad regression for him this year; the others were Sachin, Dravid, Azhar, and Sunny). Sachin and Dravid did it twice. Vengsarkar certainly would have gotten there but only got a 3 test series in 1986 (he had 360 runs and two centuries that year; conversely, Sachin did it in 3 tests in 1996 and Kohli has done it in the third test here).
As an aside, if Kohli gets a 100 today, it’ll be the second time he’ll have had a 90+ and a 100 in the same test (he did it in SA in 2013).
Hope India win and keep the series alive!
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August 20, 2018 at 10:37 AM
India will win this test with only bad weather stopping that from happening and quite frankly the weather will help India – they should declare half way through after tea session.
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August 20, 2018 at 11:26 AM
Kohli is out but India need to step on it now. Don’t give rain a chance. Just go into T20 mode and leather that leather!
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August 20, 2018 at 11:30 AM
agree
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August 20, 2018 at 11:32 AM
Or just lose the wickets quickly!
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August 20, 2018 at 10:54 AM
More BollyTrick Retweeted BollyTrick
म्हारी छोरिया छोरों से कम हैं के!!!
#VineshPhogat wins us the 2nd #Gold Medal 🤼🇮🇳🥇in #AsianGames.
She continues the great #PhogatSisters legacy & a great prospect for Olympics after completing a double by winning Gold in both #CommonWealthGames2018 and #AsianGames2018
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August 20, 2018 at 10:55 AM
Thanks Aamir for making her win Gold. Credit to you, love you aamir.
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