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[LosingNow]

ergo, had to stay cuddled up inside the woodwork. "crawl out of the woodwork", you mean. "spring" has a positive connotation. ;-)

thanks...

[broadbat]

I thought it was a good opportunity to give Badri and Kohli an over each, somewhere in between.

[LosingNow]

Where are the Dhoni (and his newrathi) bashers?? Oh wait, they will spring out of the woodwork when we lose next!

'allo, what's this - 5 catches dropped by the "young legs"?  thought it was all about runs "saved" by dem yengesters and not about runs "scored"!
 

what happened to the "we will lose badly, the youngsters will be mentally scarred/traumatized for life, they need to be shepherded"

[pipsqueak]

Where are the Dhoni (and his newrathi) bashers?? Oh wait, they will spring out of the woodwork when we lose next!

'allo, what's this - 5 catches dropped by the "young legs"?  thought it was all about runs "saved" by dem yengesters and not about runs "scored"!
 

what happened to the "we will lose badly, the youngsters will be mentally scarred/traumatized for life, they need to be shepherded"

i don't recall saying any such thing!

my focus has been on the "young legs"(yikes!) and how they scamper after the ball, jump 10 feet in air and pluck catches etc. oh, also the metrics like DBP/PPU(utilization) etc. honestly, i see no marked improvement in any of these over the m'rathis.

after-all dhoni himself has said that if it were just runs, SG/VVS et al will be playing well into their 40s. dhoni yapped a lot about "young legs" before the first ODI and how runs that are "saved" are critical. if you talk the talk, you better walk(run) the walk.

any one getting close to half a million dollars(IPL!) or more a year can never be traumatized or scarred, come what may in the ODIs/tests!

[pipsqueak]

Dhoni blames crowd for dropped catches
Press Trust of India
Monday, August 25, 2008 12:41 AM (Colombo) 
Email | Print | Comments: Read(0) Post     
 
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni blamed crowd, clad in different hues, for distractions, which resulted in a forgettable and sloppy show by his fielders during the third one-dayer against Sri Lanka here on Sunday.

India had a poor day in the field as they let got as many as four chances during the Lankan chase, which made the defence of a modest 237-run total difficult.

"Since Sri Lanka had a colourful crowd it becomes difficult to spot the ball in the night specially after it (ball) becomes a bit dirty," Dhoni said after India won by 33 runs to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.

Dhoni admitted that Indian team felt the heat when Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Thushara were cruising towards the victory target.

"Indian team was worried when Jayawrdene and Thushara were scoring runs," he said.

On being asked about India's strategy to go with four bowlers, he said, "Having a fifth bowler is a luxury. We have to make do with four bowlers but we have bowlers like Yuvraj, Raina and Virat, who can bowl. We needed one extra batsman".

Dhoni, who rescued India with a brilliant 76-run knock, also admitted that he has changed his batting style.

"Earlier, India had batsmen who could play till the end and I could go for big shots early.(     ) I am however happy that I still have strike rate of 90 thougu I would have been happier to have a strike rate of over hundred."

Rival skipper Jayawardene, who hit an incredible 94-run knock to lift his team from pits and almost took it to victory, said they did not "deserve to win".

When asked if opener Kumar Sangakkara was not performing due to pressure of opening the innings, he shot back, "When you are scoring centuries you don't ask these questions. Every batsman has highs and lows. The idea of playing Sangakkara as opener is to have some senior batsman to get more balls to play".

Jayawardene confidently said that his knew what his team was doing but said it is difficult to live up to the expectations before the home crowd.

"Tough position to be in. It is a challenging situation playing at home do not want to lose series. We know where we are going wrong," he said.

http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket/cricketstory.aspx?id=SPOEN20080062800

[justforkix]

Where are the Dhoni (and his newrathi) bashers?? Oh wait, they will spring out of the woodwork when we lose next!

'allo, what's this - 5 catches dropped by the "young legs"?  thought it was all about runs "saved" by dem yengesters and not about runs "scored"!
 

what happened to the "we will lose badly, the youngsters will be mentally scarred/traumatized for life, they need to be shepherded"

i don't recall saying any such thing!

my focus has been on the "young legs"(yikes!) and how they scamper after the ball, jump 10 feet in air and pluck catches etc. oh, also the metrics like DBP/PPU(utilization) etc. honestly, i see no marked improvement in any of these over the m'rathis.

after-all dhoni himself has said that if it were just runs, SG/VVS et al will be playing well into their 40s. dhoni yapped a lot about "young legs" before the first ODI and how runs that are "saved" are critical. if you talk the talk, you better walk(run) the walk.

I remember seeing only 4 dropped catches. Maybe I missed one. All the 4 were quite difficult ones - Kohli's drop was a rocket hit from Sanath. Yuvi and Badri were great attempts to even get to the ball. If Ms were fielding instead of them, the ball would have landed in no man's land . Rohit's was also a hard chance but should have bene taken.

[kban1]

Where are the Dhoni (and his newrathi) bashers?? Oh wait, they will spring out of the woodwork when we lose next!

LOL -- anyone with a semblance of a point against your rah rah youth policy immediately has to be termed a Dhoni and nayarathi / newrathi basher ? Labels must be convenient, they fit in neatly with the other text in bulleted executive summaries 

By the way, the termite analogy works equally well in reverse - should they be applied to posts in favor of new rathis, posts that are conspicous by their absence when India loses too.

what happened to the "we will lose badly, the youngsters will be mentally scarred/traumatized for life, they need to be shepherded"

Unfortunate comment, reminescent of sniper fire and hide tactics.

That line was said by me, although not in the grotesque caricature of a form in which you have reproduced, no doubt because it will garner applause from the front seats.

1) the context of the argument was an away series against Australia, the no 1 team in the world on their home turf
2) involving players with little experience of having played in Australia - very little acllimitization.
3) and a middle order shorn of experience, given Yuvraj's uncertain status post injury.

Each of the arguments made then had some basis in cricketing logic.

As events transpired, good bowling, good captaincy, a few other but significant factors, and above all 2 masterpieces from an old master enabled us to do what we had never done before -win the Tri series down under.

The result however, did not negate the argument put forth (prior to the series started) with respect to the gamble of relative inexperience in the squad. A false positive does not validate a theory but skipping the details might lead people attuned to bullet points to deduce the same.

To use that argument (in reality a caricature of the actual comment), made in a specific context, 8 months hence, to play to the gallery seems intellectually disingenous.

[justforkix]

2) involving players with little experience of having played in Australia - very little acllimitization.
3) and a middle order shorn of experience, given Yuvraj's uncertain status post injury.

Each of the arguments made then had some basis in cricketing logic.

The result however, did not negate the argument put forth (prior to the series started) with respect to the gamble of relative inexperience in the squad. A false positive does not validate a theory but skipping the details might lead people attuned to bullet points to deduce the same.

disagreed at that time and still disagree w.r.t. inexperience. SRT had 400+ ODIs, Veeru and Yuvi 150+ ODIs, MSD 100+ ODIs. That is 4 out of the 6-7 with 100+ ODis. I don't think more experience was required. 3 of the 4 were in pretty good form too.

[kban1]

2) involving players with little experience of having played in Australia - very little acllimitization.
3) and a middle order shorn of experience, given Yuvraj's uncertain status post injury.

Each of the arguments made then had some basis in cricketing logic.

The result however, did not negate the argument put forth (prior to the series started) with respect to the gamble of relative inexperience in the squad. A false positive does not validate a theory but skipping the details might lead people attuned to bullet points to deduce the same.

disagreed at that time and still disagree w.r.t. inexperience. SRT had 400+ ODIs, Veeru and Yuvi 150+ ODIs, MSD 100+ ODIs. That is 4 out of the 6-7 with 100+ ODis. I don't think more experience was required. 3 of the 4 were in pretty good form too.

Your disagreement is valid and I can understand that as a difference in opinion between how you and I viewed the same situation.  My POV was that MSD is not part of the middle and that VS had been hit or miss in ODI's till his latest incarnation.

However, as you would have noticed, my gripe is not with anyone /anything that was argued or debated in a cricketing context, it is with the post revisionist twisting of my (or anyone else's for that matter) comments beyond recognition or context.