Sreesanth shines in S Africa tour

Indian coach Greg Chappell has said the just concluded tour of South Africa has raised more questions than answers. This is the second time in five years that India has relinquished a 1-0 lead in a test series to end up on the losing side.

Clearly, a large part of the blame lies with the batsmen. Only two Indians feature in the top five run getters for the series. Sourav Ganguly with 214 and Sachin Tendulkar at No 4 with 199 runs. Ashwell Prince topped that table, followed by Graeme Smith.

That's a shame considering how well the Indian pacers did. Sreesanth was the leading wicket-taker of the series with 18 wickets to his credit. While Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan returned with a series haul of 14 and 13 wickets, respectively. Zaheer could have easily got another one had umpire Asad Rauf given Jacques Kallis out caught behind. The decision is only one more example of the poor standard of umpiring in Cape Town.

Others included the confusion over what time Tendulkar should come out to bat and Munaf Patel being given out on the 7th ball of an over. The Proteas, however, think it wasn't just umpire Rauf who was making bad decisions in the middle. "We were saying after the game if Sachin had bowled 0 overs, he was getting lots of turn and he has a great googly that guys find hard to pick," South African captain Graeme Smith said.

With most of the players playing Ranji Trophy matches three days after their return to India, Dravid and company won't have much time to brood over the series loss. And while certain members of the Indian team feel the heat after their role in the loss, South Africa have retained the same squad for their 3-test series vs Pakistan, that starts on Thursday.

Source : NDTV