Here we go again..

or, what we will hear and read in the next few days following India's capitulation in Durban ( the language will vary,depending on how strongly one feels about this)

• The vaunted Indian batting order is spineless/ no good/has beens/never were.
• The Indians cannot bat out on the final day under pressure
• Sachin Tendulkar never delivers in crunch situations
• India cannot string together a set of wins. Every win is followed, inevitably, by a loss.
• The mindset needs to change.
• Virender Sehwag must go
• Rahul Dravid must go
• Greg Chappell must go
• Sachin Tendulkar is useless
• (will add more as I think of/hear more)

Personally, I slept through the whole thing , so I have no first hand account of what transpired and therefore, wont comment.All I can say is that South Africa wanted this more, and despite me having reservations on their approach over the first four days of the test, they delivered.

They talked the talk, and they walked the walk.Kudos to them!!!

As far as the Indian's are concerned, this is a wonderful lesson on the need for discipline over a sustained period of time, belief in your abilities and maximizing opportunities that come your way.

Onto Newlands then, and for all of you people out there.. HAVE A SAFE AND WONDERFUL NEW YEARS!!!

On the weather favoring India..

From CricInfo, this

So how does the weather look like tomorrow? Pretty favourable for India. Forecast suggests, rain and scattered thunderstorms by afternoon. High 77F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a half an inch.

Regarding the weather tommorrow, a quick peek at the 10 day forecast following the Jo'burg test would have told anyone that there was scheduled rain for tommorrow.In fact, rain was scheduled for the first 3 and the last day of this test. So the fact that the weather would have a huge bearing on this test was a known factor well before the toss. Add to it the fact that 29 odd days out of 80 odd have been lost at Durban to the weather since 1992.

So if weather does intervene tommorrow,does that necessarily favor India?

The pattern throughout this test has been that the light has faded at around tea or a little past. When light was offered to the South Africa on Day 1, they were 257/8. If play were to have been prolonged, what are the odds that they would have reached 328?

At the end of Day 2 ( when light was offered to the batsmen, Sachin was on 46 and looking ominous. If light were to not intervene, what are the odds of Sachin having converted the 46 into a big one?

When Graeme Smith took the light yesterday,he did so fully aware that it was South Africa that had to do the hard yards as it is they who are 0-1 in the series.

Even today, given the light, given the situation, the Proteas should have declared sooner rather than later. But they chose not to.

If India were to go to tea without having lost anymore wickets and needing about 90 runs in the last session, and light and rain were to intervene, will we still say the weather is favoring India?

On why Munaf Patel should not play at Durban

Munaf is recovering from an ankle strain that has taken over a month to heal. Given that he is carrying this ailment, and given that he has not played competitive cricket in the last month, is it prudent to play him at Durban?