in the realm of senses...

shared by straight point on Friday, December 17, 2010

if you came here looking for Nagisa Ôshima's classic of same titled movie In the realm of Senses review... sorry to bother you... its about cricket...

first day at centurion of india vs south africa test series to be precise that will decide who is the second best team in the world... InSaf ho ke rahega...

it is very easy to dismiss india's performance on opening day as "oh! look how they would struggle in south africa coz these ain't roads..."

how india would struggle to keep straight face on sa pitches with bounce and pace... i would like to remind them that this was just the day one of fifteen days of competitive test cricket to come... remember we did the same to them with better results last time in johannesburg in similar circumstances... so just wait and relax...

if i say india were kanpoored at centurion it won't be an exaggeration...

but having said that... i was most disappointed by two performances...

our openers... sehwag and gambhir...

sehwag coz... if you see action replays of his dismissals of last fateful tour of sa that cost him his place... his dismissal in just the 2nd over of the match would just be that... action replay... which in turn means that he has not learned anything from his last experience... that you just can't play ball on the up so early in innings without taking the stock of things... when there is bit of movement and carry... as we witnessed yesterday...

before you jump on me and say "o come on... this is the way he bats.." i say it means that of late you are not watching sehwag bat in tests... or rather just watching him bat in evening highlight shows...

the sehwag of today is more patient than ever before... today's sehwag gives four-five overs to bowlers... leaves lots of balls outside off stump... let his eye in... take stock of the bowling and pitch and then unleash himself on balls that to him are boundary balls...

contrary to perception he is very shrewd cricketer and he must feel disappointed with his shot selection so early in his innings of a historical tour...

its one thing to accept the challenge and its completely another to blindly succumb to the billing of the most feared batsmen in indian lineup... the champion players don't walk into that obvious a trap... not on the second over of the match...

sehwag of yesterday was the sehwag of last south africa tour who was rightly dropped...

another disappointment came from gambir... who never looked like an opener of a no.1 test team... he looked very nervous from the start... appeared like cat on hot tin roof... and never looked like the partner of most lethal opening pair in cricket world today...

the conditions were no doubt difficult... but he never appeared that he belonged to the test on offer... and his eventual dismissal rather had the air of inevitability than anything else...

it remains to be seen how he compose himself coz i fear the damage could be deep than just the half-hearted poke... that eventually cost him his wicket... and a long walk back to some serious introspection...

this tour will go a long way in establishing gambhir as the true world class opening batsman or he will just simply chicken out... like his last dismissal...

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Gambhir, to me, looked very jittery and nervous. And though a lot better was expected from him, one can still forgive him for that.

But for Sehwag, there are no excuses. The ball to which he got out was the first time his bat made contact with the ball in a match situation on this tour of South Africa.

You are absolutely spot on when you say that the Sehwag of today gives the first 4-5 overs to the bowlers. He not only leaves a lot of balls outside the off stump, but also defends a lot with straight bat and feels the ball on his bat.

This time he went for his stroke (may be to shrug off any pressure that he may have been feeling) without preparing himself at all. From the vice captain of the World No. 1 Team in Test cricket, that is unacceptable.

Som said...

Watching both the Ashes and day one of the InSAf series, it's clear that the judgment of leaving certain balls is key to batsmanship.

straight point said...

This time he went for his stroke (may be to shrug off any pressure that he may have been feeling) without preparing himself at all. From the vice captain of the World No. 1 Team in Test cricket, that is unacceptable.

exactly the point shri...

but while this can be easily corrected in second innings by sehwag... i don't think the demons of first innings will vanish so easily in gg's mind...

he was just made to look he does not belong...

straight point said...

killer succinct comment som... not tell that to sehwag... :)

Gaurav Sethi said...

SP, GG took a lotta blows, stuck in for 62 mts, 43 balls, only MS was in for longer. Even tho he looked scrappy, almost ugly, defeated, his 2nd wkt went in the 13th over, very close to a change in bowling.

Anyway, our first innings shows again, how much we depend on our openers and lower order.

straight point said...

how much of that time spent he owed to umpires is different matter... :)

but just the look of him... his time spent on crease... he never looked like taking things in control... playing too much across the line and with angled bat with balls pitching up and there is just no time to rectify this...

Golandaaz said...

you should have titled this "Aaj Ka Sehwag"....

I am looking at something like 0-3. Anything better will be a bonus.

Why the hell is Natkhat Ubadkat even in the team? Gambhir will struggle, Dravid has forgotten the value of attack. SA is simply not suited for Sehwag. Raina is a flawed selection.

Plus from what we all saw on Day 1, Smith and Co will engineer NZ 2002 type pitches. 136 will be the highest 1st day score for India in the series.

I am pissed....yes...

0-9 India v SA Seamers.....

knowledge_eater said...

You know what I think a reverse tactics for both should work.

Gambhir playing like scary home cat will not help him for whole series, and Sehwag playing like 'I-am-the-tiger' no-one can hunt me, I hunt you approach, can expose our tiger and will be hunted easily by sneaky hidden Hunters.

So, speaking of that, and your mention of how Sehwag has changed his tactics in early innings, How about Gmabhir becomes a tiger early on (like he did in first T-20 WC) and was very successful. And Sehwag just should stick to his sneaky home cat in the beginning and suddenly transform in to wild bigger cat approach.

Because playing 'mummy, he bowled me bouncer' approach by Gauti has never worked, and he himself doesn't like it too, since we have seen him stepped out of crease making good length bowl in to half volly and hit it over the cover or point. He can surly try that and shock the Saffa. Because SA bowler WILL attack him again. They WILL do it for whole series.

And as long I have seen Gambhir's batting approach, I think he is still natural aggressive batsman and aggressive fellow who likes to attack bowler. I mean what's there to loose. What if he gets an edge early on at 140+ its going to fly out over the slip. But scary poke directly to slip cordons or keeper might not happen.

And don't worry, our team is Masochist like me, they like to get hurt early on before they perform well to potential :D

straight point said...

gol... i can sense your disappointment but believe me if any india team that can comeback even after potential defeat in first test... this is the team...

you don't have to go too far... second indian innings will give us good clues for rest of the series...

straight point said...

welcome KE... hope you keep dropping by...

what a coincidence... this is exactly what i tweeted... as you have suggested...

@Slbry more than that can both show they hv alternate game 2play when situation demand? sehwag bit circumspect... gg bit more attacking...

http://twitter.com/straightpoint/status/15699990236106752

but to play an attacking game... gg needs to be in control of things and for that he need to back himself but they have certainly dented his confidence where he was reduced to a tailender waiting to be out at any moment and i am afraid the experience might be too deep to shrug it off as bad experience...

tho i would be the happiest person to be proven wrong... :)

Golandaaz said...

so far so good....need runs now not time. rain will help with time but will also make the pitch come alive. need so keep scoring at 4.5 an over

knowledge_eater said...

I just checked your tweets, yup, it is the same thoughts, hahaha :P I am scared now that I won't get sued for plagiarizing. But trust me if I would have known, I would have quoted you. :D as today we saw he wasn't comfortable early on again, I haven't seen it, but as I read the commentary, he was playing defensive style again and getting beaten often. He was lucky to not to edge it. He was much better after tea. Well, let's see how he goes about it, through out the series. But, I still think he should try 'your' (our) (lol) switch technique. Because his place in team is certain for at least next 10 tests, so he doesn't need to be worried, and go all in.

P.S - Let's hope I read your tweets next time, before I comment hehe but it might not work always since my time-line is different. :S

about me...

BCC!straight point (sp) is restless... relentless... but a fun loving guy... likes to live life to fullest... trying to discover himself through cricket... welcome to this little world of his...

sp is also a bored member at BCC!

sp tweets

     


    © straight points
    straight points by sp is licensed under a creative commons attribution noncommercial-no derivative works 2.5 india license. based on a work at straightpoints.blogspot.com
    this blog takes no responsibility for statements posted by participants

    this blog is best viewed with Mozilla FireFox at a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels
    thanks for the visit!!