South Africa v India tests - Jan 2018

[Dr Cricket]

although hopefully pandya is smart aggressive though, since bhuvi is actually a good player of pace, actually think he is a better batsman than Ashwin in these conditions.
he could easily survive 20-30 balls or even more here.

sadly india didn't score enough runs in the top order to get close to SA first innings totals so india couldn't make use of the lower order batting ability here.

[meninblue]

Rabada back in attack. Saffers 5th specialist bowler (Keshav) has not even been introduced into attack. No need really.

[Dr Cricket]

pandya looking good here.
justifying his spot over Rahane here.
funny enough Ashwin selection here doesn't make sense though.
in the end india seem to be playing with 9 men here, Kohli had a shocker with the selection here, poor batting line up and some odd selections choices.

[meninblue]

4. Middle of the bat. Takes us to 109/7.

[mikesiva]

Double change. Rabada and morkel on for Philander and Steyn.

This reminds me of the good old days of the 1980s west indies team.

[Dr Cricket]

probably feels like it because I actually don't think india batted that badly, the bowling been top class, most teams will be out cheaply here facing that attack mike.

[Dr Cricket]

To put this SA pace quartet into perspective - the only other four-pronged pace battery with 100+ Test wickets each in the same side appears to have been Garner / Roberts / Holding / Croft in four Tests in 1981 and 1982
for mike.

[Dr Cricket]

also look like the team run rate making a difference here.
india likely to face a similar number of overs to SA.
but SA were scoring at 4 runs a over india going at 2 an over.
that difference is likely to make SA get a very huge lead here.

I think that is what india probably need to better next time is that they need to find a way to score runs and transfer some pressure back to the bowlers like AB and De kock did yesterday.

[meninblue]

4 more. 121/7.

Just one and half day's match so far. Might be finished in 4 days instead of 5.

[Dr Cricket]

TBH might be finished on Day 3.

[meninblue]

4 more. Hardik nearing a 50. Finally something to be happy about as an Indian fan if indeed he gets a debut 50.

[Dr Cricket]

not his debut Adi.
played against sri lanka.
pandya looking good here, justifying his spot ahead of Rahane here, bowled well earlier as well.
it not becomes very difficult to get rahane in the team again.
it becomes Rahane/Rohit or Rahane/Ashwin now.
at the moment I would pick rohit and Ashwin over Rahane.
not sure you can go without a spinner either and pandya bowling edges him over rahane as well.

Although Rohit need a score though so Rahane could maybe come in the 3rd test if Rohit fails.

[Dr Cricket]

Well played pandya, makes the decision to bat ashwin at 6 look silly now.
like Greaeme smith said Ashwin can't bat at 6 outside asia.
he better off at 7 or 8, although i would have him at 8 outside asia.

[Dr Cricket]

if india get around 180 india still not out of the game yet if they bowl well 2nd time around and see if they can chase 280 odd or more in the 4th innings.

[Dr Cricket]

not sure what bhuvi doing here at the moment, just stay in and let pandya do the scoring.