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3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

Johannesburg win scripted Durban loss : Ind v SA 2nd test.


Great people or teams, win one battle and their hunger to win the war grows. Whereas common/average people go so mad upon a single triump that they forget what more they could have done with their only lives..

I feared the same when our team won the first test at Johannesburg... and I hate to admit that I was not surprized at all.

When play was called off on Day 4 of 2nd India vs South Africa test match at Durban, Mark Boucher said - "we need 50 more overs tomorrow". And as it turned out - 45.1 overs were enough for them to take remaining 8 Indian wickets and level the series.Ganguly Smiling.jpg

To tell you honestly, I'm such a mad fan of my Indian cricket team, that I'm trying very hard to control my words and not criticise this Durban loss. But I must share three points with you that caught my attention above all --

The irresponsible Ganguly :

This man is their in South Africa because Indian team needs him. But Mr. Sourav Ganguly from Kolkatta seems to be concentrating only on making enough runs that no one will doubt in inclusion. If you watch your cricket carefully - you must have seen Ganguly playing his shots when survival was the agenda. You must have seen Ganguly smiling when he got out, listening to music as Zaheer and Sreesanth battled African bowlers and rest of our players (including us at our homes) praying for them to keep fighting.

We all know how passionate Sreesanth is. He fought his best and showed his anger when umpire gave him out.... what followed was another smile from Sourav Ganguly. He did turn off his Walk-man off as we lost the test match, but please someone tell me that is this the same Sourav Ganguly who used to have dozen of spiritual neck-chains in his captainship days and was wearing nothing but a towel and held all of them all throughout that Laxman-Dravid partnership at Kolkatta when we beat Australia after following on??

To me - this Sourav Ganguly seems more like a Mohammad Azharuddin who made just enough runs to stay in the team and never even jumped with joy when Indian bowler took a wicket. This Sourav Ganguly is more like a man who don't see himself as a reason for Durban loss, but someone who did "just a little better" than others and want to hide behind it... To me - this is just Sourav Ganguly, not an Indian cricketer anymore.

The Sehwag touble :

EverytimeNtini Rattles India.jpg he goes out to bat - his job seems to be just hit one or two fours and cool his heels in the dressing room. Only man I can recall who played International cricket and every run he made was a bonus for his team was Jonty Rhodes. I don't need to tell why Rhodes was in South African team, but Sehwag surely isn't Rhodes.

I am not saying Sehwag must be dropped and should go to West Indies for the World Cup, but seems like Delhi team needs Sehwag more than Indian team right now. I was very pleased when our selectors took the bold decision to send Irfan Pathan to Baroda team and play Ranji matches - and I hope Sehwag needs the same medicin.

The Sachin Dissappointment :

Every cricket writer will think twice before writing anything against this man. I too have thought plenty of times and even when I see balls hitting the right spot of this great man, I am hurt at the way he is getting out these days.

Either the ball will bounce low and Sachin lbw, or he will edge one to slips.

One time, no one was even close to Sachin in run making. Today Lara is significantly ahead whereas Ponting, Dravid and others are catching up fast.

His cure : is to come forward and smash the bowlers. Sachin is waiting for the bowlers to bowl to him whereas he is a man who likes to dominate. HE MUST DOMINATE.







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