SA Footy

Harbhajan Singh the Indian Turbanator has beaten the Aussies both on and off the field, like him or loath him we fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, ever since the controversy started the Aussies performance have dropped considerably with the final straw being the loss in tonights one day final series...................

I believe the Indians and particularily Harbhajan knew exactly what there where doing and the gamble nearly paid off in the test series and finally resulting in taking the one day crown......

Harbhajan managed to rattle a number of key players and to some degree gain public sympathy through the media, he's a very clever manipulator and certainly one to watch in future battles between the two sides....

it goes to prove the power of mind games the opposition (in particular younger more inexperinced players) find this difficult to overcome this and has been proven in the Australians playing below standard in the last few months...

so Mr Harbhajan your a clever bugger and i suppose you did the job the team management requested...........

just a pity a great series was overshadowed by avoidable incidents...!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dare I say it, he's India's Shane Warne....

However, not only were the players sucked in, so was our cricket board.

When all is said and done we still won the test series, so thats the main thing as far as i'm concerned.

Im sure this post will be ridiculed.
I would say the reason India won the o/d series was because TENDULKAR fired and PONTING did not.

Harby mouthed off in the o/d series in India which they lost
Harby mouthed off in the Test series India lost in Australia that as well

evans01 wrote:Harbhajan Singh the Indian Turbanator has beaten the Aussies both on and off the field, like him or loath him we fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, ever since the controversy started the Aussies performance have dropped considerably with the final straw being the loss in tonights one day final series...................

I believe the Indians and particularily Harbhajan knew exactly what there where doing and the gamble nearly paid off in the test series and finally resulting in taking the one day crown......

Harbhajan managed to rattle a number of key players and to some degree gain public sympathy through the media, he's a very clever manipulator and certainly one to watch in future battles between the two sides....

it goes to prove the power of mind games the opposition (in particular younger more inexperinced players) find this difficult to overcome this and has been proven in the Australians playing below standard in the last few months...

so Mr Harbhajan your a clever bugger and i suppose you did the job the team management requested...........

just a pity a great series was overshadowed by avoidable incidents...!!!!!!!!!!!!!

absolutely agree

this was no more evident in Hayden's comments this week on radio

ahhh GWW, but that test series win is forever going to be shrouded in controversy sadly.

mal wrote:Im sure this post will be ridiculed.
I would say the reason India won the o/d series was because TENDULKAR fired and PONTING did not.

Harby mouthed off in the o/d series in India which they lost
Harby mouthed off in the Test series India lost in Australia that as well

why did ponting not fire

1. Harby got in his head
2. Pissed off that A Symonds will be paid 3 times as much in the IPL

mal wrote:Im sure this post will be ridiculed.
I would say the reason India won the o/d series was because TENDULKAR fired and PONTING did not.

Harby mouthed off in the o/d series in India which they lost
Harby mouthed off in the Test series India lost in Australia that as well

Not a bad call Maldulkar.

But, why did Ponting not fire? Much of it resulted from the fact he is the captain and had to face all those queries about his team.
For the Indians, Tendulkar took a back seat (I would suggest he pulled the trigger a few times and let others fire the bullet) as Kumble and then Dhoni dealt with all the controversies.
Eventually he was going to be weighed down.
I don't think he'd use that as an excuse, before all of the say "oh poor Ricky", but it would have to bear a factor.

Indian teams at various times this millenuim have had the wood on PONTING
Mr Singh has often troubled the Aussie skipper with his doozra not his mouth

You make a good point again, but previously it hasn't really happened in Australia. Only on the subcontinent.

Also adding to the fact that finally a touring team lived up to the pre-series hype that they "had a young bowling line-up to take it to the Aussies".
It wasn't Harby's bowling alone, he had some very dodgy games.

Dogwatcher wrote:ahhh GWW, but that test series win is forever going to be shrouded in controversy sadly.

It will but we still won in 10/15 years time we'll be in the record books as winners of the series, and probably a lot of the off ground stuff will be forgotten.

Dogwatcher wrote:ahhh GWW, but that test series win is forever going to be shrouded in controversy sadly.

Australia 2 India 1

That will never ever ever change.

I agree with the initial poster on here, yes we won the test series, but we were booming along belting the Indians then comes the Singh incident with Symonds, Australia went from firey Freddies to Mary's little lambs after that, no aggression etc etc and the Indians got on top. Alas, after the test series we are again going along like Thommo's thunderbolts and again along comes a Singh incident, alas we go back to being timid and non aggressive and again the Indians run over the top of us. Yes Ponting did not fire, funny I thought cricket was more than just a one man band, the Indians top order were far more consistent than the Australians and I thought that our bowlers particularly the opening spells in the finals were nowhere near as impressive or dangerous than during the minor series.

All in all though, I think it is great for cricket, pity that there were just so many incidents throughout the summer, personally I thought there was some damn fine cricket from both sides all summer

mal wrote:Im sure this post will be ridiculed.
I would say the reason India won the o/d series was because TENDULKAR fired and PONTING did not.

Harby mouthed off in the o/d series in India which they lost
Harby mouthed off in the Test series India lost in Australia that as well

I think you are fairly close to the mark with these comments. I think the whole getting inside the Australians head and beating them at their own game comments have been a little overplayed in the media.

I think you are giving Harbhjan too much credit for the win , he isnt that smart . That is his nature and it get's under peoples skin , i dont believe it was a tactic at all .

Our top order failed and there's didnt, its not rocket science . They were the better team on the 2 nights unfortunately and exceptionally well led by M.S. Dhoni . Pointing's capatiancy will once again come under the microscope after another 2-0 one day series lose in Australia in 2 years . Add that to a un loosable ashes lose and his captaincy record doesnt look that great , sure there is a world cup in there but so there should when you are ranked number 1 in the world .

Now with Gilly along with last years retirees i expect our ranking to slip in the next 12 months .

Good to see what could be the start of the changing of the guard re the status of the best cricketing nation on earth. Australia has dominated for far too long and cricket really did need someone to step up and give a solid challenge. That has been achieved this season. Yes, Australia did win the Test Series but I think that India is better placed for the future. A young bowling attack should see them do well in years to come.
By the way, do not forget that Australia only won the Test Series due to some very very very dodgy umpiring.
Cheers

As for 'getting in the minds and under the skin' do not forget that the Australians have been doing that for years. That has certainly helped their domination (together with the fact that they are the most skilled team).
Cheers

great teams
WI 1980-1995
AU 1995-?????
are great teams because they have had the best players
not because they are the best sledgers

McMillan NZ
Pieterson EG
Ranatunga SL
They have tried and occasionally had success but in the long run thier intimidation was fruitless.
Fruitless because AU was superior

Harbijan IN
if he succeeds its because IN is on the way up and the AU golden era is relinquishing [?]

1995 was the touraround of WI to AU because a younger team took over from the falling team
Not because Steve Waugh and big Curtley Ambrose had that altercation.

As far as Im concerned AU is doing a phenominal job in being competitive
despite the retirements of several superstars in the last few years
Most nations would hit close to rock bottom in similar circumstances.

Except of course Central in the SANFL who continue to dominate despite a total team turnover since the first flag (well, virtually total).
Cheers

I think the Aussies do get very prickly when opponents take them on verbally. They've prided themselves on the Steve Waugh-developed 'mental disintegration' of the opposition but in reality they're incredible sensitive to sledging and on-field banter themselves.

For example in the first final last Sunday Ishant Sharma gave Symonds a send off when he dismissed him. Roy just couldn't help himself and had to take the bait and return fire.

And Hayden, although probably correct in his description of Harbhajan on the radio station last week, just had to go a step further and suggest that he'd like to meet Sharma in a boxing ring. This was a sure sign that he was rattled by the young paceman.