United Rant Log in | Register to Post
Alfonso Bedoya
Moderator
Wait till Sid sees that...
I'm sure he'll be mortified...
Tommy
Member
Bastard! Such an un-cook like way to get out. Ah well, poor bloke deserves a rest after 800 minutes at the crease. Not the greatest innings ever batted, but a great achievement (no matter how tedious it got at times). Also england's highest ever score in a non-timeless test. Now to skittle the Indians!
RobDiablo
Member
Alfonso Bedoya said:
... and I can't believe I'm saying this outside of some bizarre fantasy... this England team are fuckin awesome... batting, bowling and most impressively... mentality.
Know what you mean. When I first started following England & Wales, the tail would have to wag some to even approach 200 runs per inning; as soon as anything went wrong, England would collapse like - insert your favorite falling down simile here. Would love to have seen Cook get 300+, but as soon as the umpires stopped play for light (WTF!), I had a feeling he would come up short.
A golden pair for Selwag; just what his effort and attitude deserved.
sheesh
Member
There's no question that England have absolutely ripped us to pieces in this test series but the litmus test of just how good any side is how well they perform away from home. No side has achieved that level of consistency which the Aussies used to have.
The difficult bit is sustaining your no.1 status. Getting to no.1 is the (comparatively speaking) easy bit.
Credit to England. They have been fantastic as a unit. I think India have had their share of problems, however. Something is definitely not right with the side or even Indian cricket in general. There will be inquests when those players get back home.
Edit - This is not like the great Ashes tests of the last few years where you have had 2 top sides at the top of the game competing toe to toe. This India-England series has been heavily one sided. Something is wrong with this India team. Even Pakistan have given England more of a contest and they throw the matches FFS...
baloo
Member
sheesh said:
There's no question that England have absolutely ripped us to pieces in this test series but the litmus test of just how good any side is how well they perform away from home. No side has achieved that level of consistency which the Aussies used to have.The difficult bit is sustaining your no.1 status. Getting to no.1 is the (comparatively speaking) easy bit.
Credit to England. They have been fantastic as a unit. I think India have had their share of problems, however. Something is definitely not right with the side or even Indian cricket in general. There will be inquests when those players get back home.
Edit - This is not like the great Ashes tests of the last few years where you have had 2 top sides at the top of the game competing toe to toe. This India-England series has been heavily one sided. Something is wrong with this India team. Even Pakistan have given England more of a contest and they throw the matches FFS...
Sheesh - I honestly think that there's way too much emphasis on the IPL and (maybe) a certain arrogance that comes from being so well paid and the world's no 1 side whereby they thought they could come here and not put in the hard miles.
Test series' are really fucking hard work and require planning, strategy and a different level of physical preparation from what India seem to have put in before this test.
I have to say it's a bit disappointing in that I would quite happily have had a belting series and England NOT end up as No.1 in the world, rather than having taken that spot almost by default.
As you say - England as a unit are superb at the minute and will continue to improve (there's so much competition for places at the moment it's incredible) - but it's been a bit of an anti-climax because so many of the world's best players just haven't turned up.
sheesh
Member
Baloo, I think you make a fair point.
I think there is perhaps an element of arrogance (or maybe complacency) about certain players in that side who think that once they get into the India team and land all those lucrative sponsorship deals, they are set for life and no longer have to justify themselves as cricketers.
There are lots of possible reasons why India have reached this point: over-reliance on ageing cricketers like Dravid (my personal favourite cricketer), Laxman and Tendulkar, too much IPL cricket, perhaps, as you suggested. I'm not a huge fan of Duncan Fletcher and never was even when he was England coach. He only just joined the India team but I wonder how much input he has had for this disaster.
We have had a few injuries but that's still no excuse for this humiliation.
This is to take nothing away from England who have been awesome (and have been consistently a very good team since the days of Nasser Hussain as captain) but I'm sure Bangladesh would have put up more of a fight than we have.
madmax
Member
Don't think the problem is arrogance. India players have been playing too much cricket. A week after the worldcup they played in IPL, then the Windies tour and within a couple of weeks, the England tour. Things will only get difficult when India face England at home in a month and then the tour Down-Under. Thats a lot of cricket in less than a year. The hectic IPL schedule is clearly taking a toll on the players as well. Zaheer and Sehwag would have been fit if not for the IPL.
The other issues is the over reliance on certain players.Indian bowling attack is completely different with Zaheer in the side and he gets injured more often than not. Sameway Sehwag's the key to the Indian batting.
It looks grim now, but these guys will pull through. They are one of the mentally toughest players around. The bowling issue won't get solved right now. Quite simply there are no good bowlers available.But as they have been doing for the past 2 years the team will just about manage it.
This is a good kick in the ass for the Board. You don't go to the backyard of one of the best teams around unprepared and full of tired players. If they realise their mistake and mend their ways India would not capitulate disgracefully like this series.
sheesh
Member
People bang on about Sachin this and Sachin that but, in my mind, I've always much preferred Rahul Dravid.
As for the rest of these batsmen, well, they are flash in the pan cricketers. Rahul is the only one with a pair of bollocks who will bat like a man and show some fight, irrespective of the circumstances. He will stay at the crease and not lose his wicket easily. 6 hours of batting in the first innings and he's back out there for the follow-on trying to save our arses.
It's a shame he isn't 10 years younger.
Look at those Indian batting stats from the first innings. The rest of the players should be embarrassed to be playing in the Indian team.
Just1n
Member
sheesh said:
We've got Duncan Fletcher, the useless fat shit. I agree that we need Gary Kirsten back. We also need some red hot pokers to ram up some arses.
Yeah Kirsten was amazing for you guys. Fletcher seems clueless. Im just glad we got Kirsten. Maybe we can finally ditch the tag of been the biggest chockers on the international cricket stage.
Brown wash but still doesn't make up for the bumming in the test series. My arse still hurts ... 
sheesh
Member
danniitronix said:
Brown wash but still doesn't make up for the bumming in the test series. My arse still hurts ...
If nothing else, this result will shut up arrogant pricks like Vaughan and Boycott who were making the England team out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and lording it over us in the media.
Brian, shut your (cunt) face 
You must log in to post.
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
