India Tour of South Africa 2013

[Basil]

Sunfoil South Africa vs India Test Series 2013​

1st Test from December 18
Live from New Wanderers ,Johannesburg.
From 2.00 PM IST
On Tube-Ten Cricket,Ten Sports and Ten HD​

Umpires-Rod Tucker and Steve Davis
TV Umpire-S George
Match Referee-Andy Pycroft​

Live Streaming on tensports.com & supersports.com​

 

[Basil]

'Zaheer shouldn't drop pace' - Kumble​

Former India bowlers Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath stressed that Zaheer Khan's form will be crucial to India's chances of doing well in the Test series against South Africa, which starts on December 18. Zaheer, who last played a Test for India against England in December 2012, was picked for the tour of South Africa and is the most experienced bowler in a pace attack comprising Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma.

"Zaheer will be the leader," Kumble told The Hindu. "He will get reverse (swing) as well. Just hope he bowls at his usual speed. He shouldn't drop his pace, shouldn't bowl within himself. It would be good if he can knock a few wickets upfront."

According to Srinath, Zaheer's effectiveness would depend on him bowling the right spells. "Strength and energy will be critical to Zaheer. As for line, length and strategies, he is a master at that," Srinath said to the newspaper. "It boils down to his core strength and [about] him coming in for the right spells and sustaining that energy. Another core area for Zaheer is the way he guides the other bowlers."

Zaheer is fourth on the list of leading wicket-takers in South Africa, behind Kumble, Srinath and Sreesanth. In six Tests, Zaheer has 23 wickets at an average of 32.52.

Kumble, the most successful Indian bowler in South Africa - with 45 wickets in 12 games - said that the spinners would have to deal with the challenge of additional bounce on the pitches and a softer, used ball.

"It does not spin much but you do get bounce from the surface," Kumble said. "The spinners have to take that into account when they set the field. The ball tends to get soft after 20 overs, so the spinners need to handle that in the middle overs. Between the grounds, there is not much at Johannesburg but Durban does a bit more. And if the game goes to the fourth and fifth day, the spinners will have a role."

Kumble added that R Ashwin, India's frontline spinner on his first tour to South Africa, could exploit the rough patches created by the follow-throughs of the pacers: "I enjoyed bowling there, bowling into the rough especially against a left-handed batsman. With Zaheer and hopefully (Lonwabo) Tsotsobe bowling (both being left-arm seamers), there will be a rough that Ashwin can exploit."

Both bowlers stressed that the Indian attack would have to get their lengths right, instead of merely relying on the bounce.

"The length has to be neither forward nor backward," Kumble said. "It has to be a length where after pitching, the height of the ball should be able to hit the knee roll of the pad and if the batsman snicks it, there is enough carry for the catch to be taken. You can't just release the ball, even if there is swing you need to hit the deck hard."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

 

[Basil]

Smith braces for another Zaheer tussle​

Zaheer Khan may think, albeit somewhat cheekily, that he only needs to turn up to get Graeme Smith out and he would be surprised to learn the South African captain will probably be brushing off the brashness as nothing too serious.

"I can tell you now, Graeme doesn't think about Zaheer Khan at all," Jimmy Cook, Smith's former coach and long-time mentor, told ESPNcricinfo. "Mentally, he is one of the strongest cricketers I've ever worked with so he won't be bothered by what Zaheer said. And when he faces him, he won't think 'that's Zaheer Khan I am up against, I should be worried." He'll think 'Zaheer Khan, you're going to have a tough day because you're bowling to Graeme Smith.'"

This kind of playful trash talk is usually reserved for the boxing ring, not least because when it emerges in cricket, there's every chance it will earn the utterer a fine. As a result, press engagements can lapse into the predictable and it takes experienced and confident campaigners, like Zaheer, to spice them up.

The leader of India's attack will be the involved in what could turn out to the battle of the series. Between Zaheer and Smith - opening bowler to opening batsman, both of whom have returned from injuries looking leaner, fitter and stronger than before - the tone will be set. Zaheer knows that if India are to make South Africa dance to their tune in the two Tests, he will have to be the man to compose the first notes by making his advantage over Smith count for something.

Cook believes Zaheer won't be able to get that right this time, despite the numbers. Only Chris Martin has dismissed Smith more times in Test cricket than Zaheer - eight compared to six - and Martin has played two more Tests against South Africa. James Anderson has also accounted for Smith six times but that came in 17 Tests.

Of all bowlers currently playing, Zaheer is the one with the most success against Smith, underlined by when he gets him out as well as how. All but one of his dismissals - Cape Town 2007 - have come in the opening spell of the first innings which has meant Zaheer has often struck early blows against South Africa.

Using the left-armers angle, Zaheer has troubled Smith by moving the ball away from him for a period of time and then bringing one back into him. He discovered Smith's soft spot in the 2006 Boxing Day Test, although he only used it years later. That time, Zaheer's first three deliveries went away from Smith and the fourth moved in. Smith was squared up and Zaheer induced the outside edge which saw the ball squirt past cover. Zaheer seemed to remember that for a later date.

In the third over of that innings, Smith fetched a short wide ball outside the offstump, tried to pull and top-edged. In the next match of the series, the New Years' Test in Cape Town, Smith had the better of the Indian attack. He scored 94 in the first innings and 55 in the second before Zaheer got one to shape away late and Smith's prod handed the wicket-keeper a catch.

It was only in 2010 that Zaheer began asserting himself over Smith, using what he saw four years earlier. He accounted for Smith in the first innings in both Nagpur and Kolkata. Both times, the ball came into Smith and seemed to catch him unawares. He didn't move his feet enough, looked to play down the leg side but misjudged and was bowled.

"Graeme was playing the ball too early. When he did that, he would close the face of the bat and leave a gap between bat and pad. That's why he could get out," Cook explained. The dismissals above illustrate that perfectly. Both times, the ball snuck through the space Smith had left to clatter into his stumps.

It appeared Smith had a problem facing left-handed bowlers, with Mitchell Johnson also enjoying success against him in the same way. Johnson has dismissed Smith five times in eight matches and broken his hand twice. Johnson has also foxed Smith by first swinging the ball away from him and then bringing it back in. Even right-arm bowlers could exploit that angle, creating a similar one by bowling from around the wicket. That was one of the reasons for Martin's success against him.

By the time the teams met again in the 2010-11 summer, Smith had worked enough with Cook to have closed the gap. But it didn't entirely solve the problem.

In Durban, he reacted quickly enough to the one that came into him by bringing the bat across the pad but got an outside edge off Zaheer in the fifth over. In Cape Town, the first delivery Zaheer got to move into Smith, at the start of his fourth over, was met with a perfect defensive push. The next one moved away and Smith could leave alone but the third one caught the South African captain in two minds. Without being sure if the ball was moving away or in, he left the same gap to be struck on the pad and was out lbw.

Since then, Smith has been similarly troubled by Junaid Khan - who he tried to counter by moving across his offstump but was found out when the Pakistan left-armer bowled one down the leg side in the ODI series in March - and Mitchell McClenaghan, but not seriously so.

Perhaps the best indication that Smith has overcome his problem was seen in the double-hundred he scored in Dubai this October. Against a Pakistan attack led by two left-armers in Junaid and Mohammad Irfan, Smith was confident and collected a surprising number of runs straight down the ground in addition to his favoured leg-side area.

That's why Cook believes Zaheer will not be able to have the same effect on Smith in the upcoming series. "He has sorted out that issue. He has done a lot of work on picking which shots he is good at playing and which deliveries he can target while also understanding which shots he is not so good at and what to do," Cook said. "There's no chance Zaheer will be able to do the same thing this time."

So far, Smith has not had the opportunity to add his voice to the chorus surrounding what will be one of the most closely observed subplots of the series. After being released from the one-day squad Smith busied himself with organising a sixes tournament for charity.

He would have given equal, if not more, attention to Test match preparation, which was cited as the official reason he was sent home from the fifty-over squad. Smith may not admit it publicly but Zaheer, and how to overcome him, would surely have been on his mind then.

 

[rrkiran18]

INDIA VS SOUTH AFRICA 1st Test

India won the toss and elected to bat first This first time india batting first in this tour

Teams: South Africa (Playing XI): Graeme Smith©, Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers(w), Faf du Plessis, Jean-Paul Duminy, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir

India (Playing XI): Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma

 

[rrkiran18]

India
101/2 in 40 overs
Kohli-55*
pujara-23*
Dhawan out 13
Vijay out 6

Morkel&styen 1wkt each

 

[Karthik]

India.124/3
Live at play.
Kohli.70*

 

[prakash_Tv]

India 164/4 (55.0 ov)
South Africa
India won the toss and elected to bat
Tea - Day 1

Virat Kohli 84 (113)
Ajinkya Rahane 12 (9)

 

[prakash_Tv]

India 173/4 (60.3ov)
South Africa
India won the toss and elected to bat
Day 1 - Session 3

Virat Kohli 91 (133)
Ajinkya Rahane 14(22)

 

[rrkiran18]

India-183/4 in 63 overs
Kohli -100*
Rahane-15*

 

[IndiaN]

Virat Kohli Got His Century
Kohli 100* (140)
Rahane 15* (30)
India 183/4 in 63 Overs