South Africa v India tests - Jan 2018

[Dr Cricket]

If the wickets are good batting decks India will do well with the bat.
So not sure where all the negativity of the batting is coming from.
Barring dhawan I don’t really see any issues with the batting line up.
Of course they might fail and collapse but the negativity is ridiculous I be surprise if the batting fail all the time and if the batting fails majority of the time it will probably be because the pitch is bowling friendly which brings the Indian bowlers into the game.
Really don’t see the negativity for the batting because Vijay is solid if he gets a start, we know about Kohli and pujara, Rohit Sharma got a great chance to cement his spot in the team, saha, Ashwin, bhuvi and shami is a good lower order that could take the game away from the oppositiOn.
Pandya got a good pontential to be a good all rounder.
You know India batting is strong when rahane can’t get in the team, if India picks Rahul in the next test India batting looks good.
Don’t see why they can’t match or out bat Sa, England or Australia batting this year especially when those 3 teams got holes in the batting.
It was disappointed that they didn’t make philander and Steyn bowl overs, they probably should try england ashes tactic and tire out the main bowlers.

[andy]

Nothing wrong with this batting track...ball hardly moved today when SA bowled, and yet 27-3 all 3 dismissals could have been avoided, but poor selection....Lot of talk from Kohli and Shastri before the series...needs to be backed up..

[Dr Cricket]

Yep the talk needs to get backed up.
Wonder if the pressure got to them today with the bat, got to remember they been waiting for this day for like 3 yrs now, especially when they said this is the chance to cement their place in history, to win abroad, score runs away from home, win in all condition.
They certainly looked frenetic at the crease the 14 over session didn’t help where only sa could win from that.

[meninblue]

Nothing wrong with this batting track...ball hardly moved today when SA bowled, and yet 27-3 all 3 dismissals could have been avoided, but poor selection....Lot of talk from Kohli and Shastri before the series...needs to be backed up..

Over confidence. Fake one at that.

One of them said something on the lines of Nothing to prove when asked about this tour during SL T20 prize distribution time. That was the joke of it all.

As if nobody knows how bad tourists we are if they won't admit.

[andy]

lol i love how we are only one day into the series, but there has been 17 pages of discussion on this tour...its brilliant!

[Dr Cricket]

India got a pretty good record at sa since 2006.
Won 2 games, drew couple and not lost that many.
In the last 3 series there they only lost 1 series and drew 2 nothing to suggest they are bad tourist.
If anything most of the india vs South Africa test are quite close.
Hasn’t actually been a one sided test series barring the humiliation India gave South Africa in India last time around.

[andy]

SA ahead IMO then after day one, and if they can nick one of these two out, preferably Rohit in the first hour, then SA could be batting again by tea..

[meninblue]

Hopefully Chet's county stint will be helpful. He is the one whose attitude, temperament, preparation, stamina, shot selection and approach to test cricket is just amazing. Good he got dropped by IPL franchisee. Always nice to have atleast one pure test match cricketer.

[andy]

Hopefully Chet's county stint will be helpful. He is the one whose attitude, temperament, preparation, stamin, shot selection and approach to test cricket is just amazing. Good he got dropped by IPL franchisee. Always nice to have atleast one pure test match cricketer.

Murali Vijay too

[meninblue]

Hopefully Chet's county stint will be helpful. He is the one whose attitude, temperament, preparation, stamin, shot selection and approach to test cricket is just amazing. Good he got dropped by IPL franchisee. Always nice to have atleast one pure test match cricketer.

Murali Vijay too

Murali Vijay is a good batsman but imo he is nowhere near to class of Chet imo. Vijay is flirty liked we saw today. Flirting outside off to some very good balls is okay to some extent. Chet knows his off stump better. Chet not so much flirty outside off as he is better batsman.Talking about flirting Vijay even flirted and married Dinesh Karthiks wife.

[andy]

Lol i meant the fact that Vijay dosent play IPL now either...

[backfootpunch]

SA ahead IMO then after day one, and if they can nick one of these two out, preferably Rohit in the first hour, then SA could be batting again by tea..

Well ahead really

Huge first session for India

They have a bad one will be very hard for them to come back

[andy]

Cant see Maharaj doing much bowling in this game at all...

[Dr Cricket]

Biggest day in a test India have had for a long time.
If India are still batting tomorrow they are back in this game.
They need to look to bat all 90 overs today.
Hopefully India doesn’t let me down today.

[meninblue]

About to start. Come on Chet.