eight centuries in an innings...

just a question...

is it the first time eight centuries were scored in an innings...?

four by batting side... four by bowling side...


p.s.: suddenly all the talk of sa bowlers making pitch redundant seems to have evaporated in thin air...

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open thread: second test second coming...

so we lost this match... any team that can lose six wickets for twelve runs with not much on the board will always be chasing leather...

the pitch had no demons and it was pure brilliance of steyn supported well by all bowlers that made it possible for sa... having said that... had our two centurions not lapsed in concentration after reaching individual milestones things could well have been interesting in the middle considering we came as close as 6 runs to wipe sa total... but such is life...

i expect india to come hard at sa in the next match... we are not no.1 for nothing and one match cannot make us bad suddenly... tho it has exposed certain chinks in our armor for sure...

badri showed that he has the temperament to fight it out in the middle and vijay showed his class in second innings but both failed to press the matter further... i am particularly disappointed by vijay tho... he will have to learn quickly that nice 30s and 40s are not going to help him much and if he wants to look for inspiration he should look no further than a certain akash chopra...

having said that... i don't want selectors to make them bakra for this defeat... but at the same time i expect them to use horses for courses policy for next match... as this being two test series so we have only one match to retain the no.1 spot with next test match is not coming in a while...

so my team for next test match will be...

sehwag, gambhir, vijay, sachin, badri, dhoni, irfan pathan, ramesh powar, zaheer, mishra, ojha/ishant

irfan pathan and powar making a second coming... while last spot is depending upon the look of the eden garden pitch...

i have deliberately not included laxman coz first he is coming straight after injury... second even if he is fit to bat... he wont be standing at slip... so call me mean if you want but laxman not standing at slip isnt something i will sacrifice a spot for...

on this note i leave an open thread to invite your opinions... lets set the ball rolling...


update:
it seems selectors were in even more hurry than me to put up a post... and they have already announced the squad for the next test... probably they too didn't want to waste the extra day's rest this match has provided them... so here it goes...

MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Dinesh Kartik, Suresh Raina.

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