Day1 & 2: A Fan's View Of The 1st Test at Chepauk

Lucky You...hope you have a wonderful time... and don't need an umbrella except to shade from the sun...

Do think of doing a match report from a fans eye view...we'd love to publish it...

SA,

Finish in 4 days as in ? A spinners wicket that will allow India to desotry SA in 4 days ?

Chepauk and Wankhede are the mostresult oriented pitches in the country.

I watched an Ind-WI match at Chepauk from the VIP member's club...sipping a drink and eating chilly chicken. Also stayed one night at the chepauk guest house.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:03:25:19:30:18 by anu_D.

Yes thats the case pure Indian ! We shall know tomorrow !


SA

SA the South Africans have been playing in Bangladesh recently... and before that they played in Pakistan...so I think they should be well acclimitized to subcontinental conditons...so there is only a very small chance they will be unprepared like India were in Boxing Day Test in Melbourne...

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ICL Ko Support Karo Yaro...

BCCI Ko Joote Chappal Maro....

India has had mixed luck in Madras as far back as I can remember

1984...against Eng..Neil Foster blew us away with a 11-fer
1985...snatched tie from the jaws of victory...umpire Vikram Raju was the culprit
1987...mighart of Indian batting against pakistan...every one of top 7 got big 50s except Srikant who scored a 100
1988...Shastri debut as captain....as was Raman, Ajay Sharma and Hirwani blew away a still strong WI. Kapil's 100 was majestic.
1989...i think we thrashed NZ
1993...thrshed Eng this time I think..young Tedulkar and Kambli blossomed
1997..Tendulkar bashed the daylight out of Warne
1999...Saddest defeat against pakistan....traitor Mongia and Tendulkar's best test match inning
2001....famous series win against Aus...Dighe the great
2005....rain save Aus....when all that we hd was 200 odd on final day

Woke up late , still not left for the game


SA

Quote:

2001....famous series win against Aus...Dighe the great

you must be justifiably quite proud... that was a great game...

Just got back from this atrociously boring game !!

I missed Mckenzie's first half of the innings but boy , was he good in the 2nd half . Composure was great . I sit in a position where I got the Press Box's TV right over my head , the big screen in front of me and the I'm in 3rd man position opposite the Pavilion !!

Our only threat in the bowling attack is Bajji . I don't understand why Kumble tried to bowl himself out of the slump when he was so dire in the first place. It was just not working out for him . In the last 15 overs , he asked Sreesanth to warm twice or thrice but ended up not giving him any over . Sehwag bowling only killed the enthusiasm of the crowd.

Infact , Sreesanth turned and signalled us to sleep at one point of time.

Funnily and uncharacteristically , someone threw a bottle at him from the crowd and asked him to shut up and play the game and not f**k around .. That was a funny moment !! The guy was acting too smart , Sree

Nothin else to write about. Chepauk was more than half full with such atrocious prices , rain in the last few days and a really boring affair so far !

Lets hope we pick it up because I have to say , this is one of the most passion less performances I ve seen by the Indian team in Chepauk in a long time. There was absolutely no electricity in the field and in the ground !


SA

100 degree Farenheit and 90 percent humidity can do that to you...

But I agree India went in negatively... with only 2 pacers... they should have included Pathan... if he didnt want to open they could have asked Ganguly or Dhoni to join Sehwag at the top...

I don't buy this Cr@p about proper opners... If jaffer is a proper opener...he should not score 49 runs in 6 innings in Australia...

yeah I agree - if proper openers are not going to work then they should do with makeshift openers who can make difference

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Tendulkar is the greatest cricketer of all time

Do you guys who watched the game on TV have similar views to what I saw in the ground ??


SA

Sreesanth looked very good on TV... superb attitude considering the oppressive conditions...

I wish Kumble had been a bit more adventurous and had included Pathan instead of Jaffer...

But his hands were probably tied...

Pathan for Jaffer would've been perfect. We can't win with 4 bowlers in India. We need 5 proper bowlers...

Fielding and attitude was absolutely pathetic. Such a stark contrast from the ODI series!

RP Singh sucked big time.

I think RP just had a bad day at the office... I think he will do well tomorrow morning (just a hunch)

But don't know why India wanted 7 batsmen on this kinda pitch.. especially when Kumble and Bhajji aren't total mugs with the bat either...

_____

ICL Ko Support Karo Yaro...

BCCI Ko Joote Chappal Maro....

SA
"Do you guys who watched the game on TV have similar views to what I saw in the ground ?? "

I have always found RSA little bit boring -even when they are scoring runs - just like NZ - anyway I went to sleep after lunch

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Tendulkar is the greatest cricketer of all time

Since you are going to Chepak, you have my regrets. BORING.

2nd day's report :

It looks like a win is going to be very difficult for us. The toss is proving crucial now and the proteas have utilized it big time. The pitch has something in it for the pure spinners and the hard hitting speedsters ! Our only hope is Bajji and he proved that with his 5 wickets . Constantly grabbing the inches he gets with the batsman in this pitch today . You gotta give it to him as the rest of our bowling attack looked pathetic to me.

R.P is someone I rate as high as Ishant Sharma and he had an off day by all means. Sreesanth was his typical flash in the pan self and he spent half the time entertaining our stand and trying to show his passion for us n all that . While doing so , he ended up not WALKING in and missing an easy catch off some Tailender in the boundary ! Bajji gave him a right bollocking for that ...

I was not concentrating on the South African batsmen much because our bowling attack never really tried their heart out today. South Africans were having an easy time with our blunt bowling and PATHETIC fielding !!

The difference in this game is going to be South African pace attack IMO . All the 3 looked fantastic to me . Today I really saw the difference in pace bowling when watching on TV and from the stands. Dale Steyn is one hell of a bowler and he troubled our batsman consistently. The main difference b.w our pace attack and theirs , other than PACE was their discipline and strength ! They charged in for every ball like as if it was do or die ... R.P and Sree didn't do that !

Anyways , Sehwag looked like the typical Sehwag we have seen in Chepauk. He expressed himself beautifully today and was comfortable on all occasions except while facing Ntini. The running between the wickets was very lethargic, our batsman were not playing to make this game into a winnable one ! If they were , then I would have seen more of those 3's converted into 4's ! They were just strolling casually ..

I hope we have not conceded defeat mentally and that we avoid follow on fast and get S.A batting by day after tomorrow because the pitch is going to get spinner friendly by the day and we need that 4th day to be our bowling paradise !

Btw , the Mexican wave finally got going today. Dhoni turned to our stand and looked up to the sky and gestured that he was SHIVERING ... We were chanting Sachin's name relentlessly and the little master waved at us from afar and asked us to take a breather ... Dravid tipped his hat off to our Stand and Sreesanth tried to become our favourite , IN VAIN


SA

Let's see If I can get your daily reports up into articles...

Thanks for sharing...

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ICL Ko Support Karo Yaro...

BCCI Ko Joote Chappal Maro....