South Africa in New Zealand (2012)

I agree Sam Pakistan dont have a option of playing home which makes it even more difficult for them to do well still to not lose a series for almost 2 years is amazing that too with such a weak team without any star player apart from Ajmal and on other side India who have so many heavyweights still struggle to win a single match.

My statments were pretty clear to explain that I am not giving any reason (like others who always try to find a reason in loss), according to me loss is a loss. I never accept any reason.That has been my standards.

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 02 April 2012 at 6:27pm

So now injuries became a reason of Indian lost against England 
Can please someone tell me which key player apart from Yuvraj Singh in Odi was missing? and what about test? and Pakistan has not done badly even with so weak them infact they have done far better than few teams who have so many heavyweights and NZ batting lineup is strong it was really difficult to get a result on Wellington pitch inside 4 days even than it was only becuz of drop catches that NZ got away SA deserved to win the series 3/0 but was unlucky.

For me reasons do not count BP, these things happens and are part and parcel of cricket. Infact when India toured England they had so many injuries during the match that they ended up playing 1-2 player short in the match a couple of times. Not counting the half fit players who came out of injuries straight into the match.Post world cup they have always been missing few key players in Tests/ODI's. (Forget about the selection and out of form issues of entire Indian middle order even in sub-continent).

So NONE of the reasons will count, India lost 4-0 to Eng and Aus and that is about it.

The point is, neither SA,ENG or AUS have shown any complete domination during the same period.While other teams can't even be considered for comparison (first let them come to the top 3/4 level... they are still far behind).

On SA T20 squad, only ABD is a regular who is missed (maybe 1 or 2 more), other than that RSA does not know what it's best T20I Squad is. For example Smith,Styen hardly play T20I. Philander last played his T20I way back in 2007's. Amala has not shown the same consistency in shortest format and still unproven, while Duminey is just back with a comeback.

Infact all teams have suffered a bit , Eng unable to show anything of No 1 quality post becoming No1, Aussies struggling against WI.To an extent RSA has performed better than all others (but nothing great) , but then they too could not close the deal properly against NZ or win against the Aussies.

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 01 April 2012 at 4:03pm

Take it easy guys! All I can say is that India have gone down considerably in the last one year, one of the worst periods in Indian cricket history, and just when the expectations were very high.

Edited by sam_ahmed - 01 April 2012 at 9:05am

Its really strange all i did was to agree with BP and Sam that SA were missing key players and Indian bowling is worst than BD's and anyone who thinks India missed Zaheer, Ishant, Yadav or Sehwag with their current form they must be blind.

Only blind Indian fans would say they missed Zaheer, Ishant, Yadav or Sehwag. BP and Sam are right it was SA b team as they were missing so many key players otherwise a score of 250 was very much possible.


Edited by mystery - 31 March 2012 at 11:16pm

Agree with BP, that really was an "A" team and Indian bowlers still got thrashed, no surprises there though, you expect that from the Indian bowlers!

The game could be called off... nothing surprising with the horrid luck that India is having of late.Either they play badly or one fo the other things spoils it.For Indian players this is nothing new, rain hardly helped them anytime.

So if you look at the ranking system closely there is a third flaw too , it is not moving average of fixed period.

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 30 March 2012 at 4:32am

Pretty decent system I guess, thanks for the explanation. Main problem I have though is deducting points for a draw. Why should you lose 2 points for a drawn series? RSA probably lost some points for drawing 2 Tests against NZL and that frustrates me because it was mainly down to the weather. It seems silly when you dominate a Test match but fail to win due to rain and then lose points for that.

Also, do you know whether home/away Test matches are factored in, i.e. do you get more points for wins away from home? 

Well, I expect RSA to be the No.1 side for quite some time, there aren't too many teams that can challenge them and honestly I feel RSA are destined to be the No.1 side in the world after all the wonderful cricket they've played over the years.

Originally posted by BackwardPoint Nice job on 4000 posts sam. Yeah, Tony Greig was saying how RSA go to number 1 if ENG lose here but I hope it doesn't happen like that. It would just be pointless because ENG will reclaim it in the series against WI. I want to see RSA beat ENG in ENG and take the number 1 position by beating the former number 1 side and keep it for a meaningful amount of time. It wouldn't be worthwhile if RSA get it just because ENG are rubbish in the sub-continent.

Good job Sam ...

SA are a more rounded side than England. The two attacks have match winners and are potent on any surface but where the South Africans are out front is in the batting department in Asia.  They have three proven batsmen who have no hangups against top quality spin in Kallis , Amla and de Villiers . Their record on the subcontinent leaves England for dead and if they beat England in England they'll deserve the number 1 ranking.

Edited by Sledger - 29 March 2012 at 10:55am