***Official*** India in Australia

[Jono]

Yeah, that's not my point though. If you want to win at Test cricket you have to overcome everything thrown at you, weather, injuries and in this case bad umpiring decisions. If someone was to say India should have won (if they don't win), I'd have to politely disagree.

On the whole I agree, but this test is different to most IMO. One or two obvious decisions fair enough, but three? When you're already 1-0 down in the series, away from home, against the best team in the world and without your best fast bowler? Making it awfully tough.

India have fought back anyway at 7/461 and currently only 2 runs behind, so its not like they've thrown in the towel. They were just extremely disheartened.

 

[Pratters]

India take the lead. WOOO HOOOOOOO!

 

[silentstriker]

I think these days for a team to win a Test you might have to take about 22-25 wickets and you should be good enough to face all adversaries including poor umpiring. I think one of the things that made Australia so great in the past is how they come back from poor pieces of luck (although some would argue they're much luckier than others anyway). India should have played better after the poor decisions and poor umpiring is just one of the things you have to overcome to win Test matches constantly.

Undoubtedly . But India are nowhere good as Australia - let alone good enough to beat Australia in Australia, so when things go against them, it dampens things because these opportunities don't come around often. No one is claiming that Australia succumb to bad luck - they wouldn't be going on 16 straight wins if they weren't good enough to overcome stuff like that. But no one in the world - playing Australia in Australia - can. Obviously, that's on the rest of the world but its asking too much to beat the Aussies at home AND overcome the umpires.

 

[Evermind]

Yeah, I wouldn't put it past Harbhajan, but what're the chances the batsman is sledging the fileding team out of nowhere, especially one containing Symonds? Bull****, I don't buy it. Harbhajan, odious as he may be, was probably responding to some of Symonds' sledging.

 

[roseboy64]

 

[Laurrz]

i dont think we can see a result if India get a 40-50 run lead

unless Australia get rolled within a day.. hmmm

 

[pasag]

I think Laxman's effort is the one that deserves the most praise here, he came in when Australia had the momentum and played great, attacking and positive cricket, really setting the tone for the innings and showing all other sides the best way to bat in Australia and not to mention built confidence for his own side and taking alot of pressure off the other batsman and putting it on the Australian bowlers.

 

[Jono]

Love you Sachin.

 

[shankar]

Yeah, that's not my point though. If you want to win at Test cricket you have to overcome everything thrown at you, weather, injuries and in this case bad umpiring decisions. If someone was to say India should have won (if they don't win), I'd have to politely disagree.

Yeah I agree with the idea that in general 1 or 2 decisions should not matter and shouldn't be used as an excuse. But the number of decisions in this case, the time they came in and the the fact that India were without Zaheer khan on a flat track really hurt them.

 

[Top_Cat]

Excellent knock by Harbi in the circumstances. Should be proud.

 

[roseboy64]

Good knock from Harbhajan comes to an end.

 

[James_W]

Great innings, Harbhajan to open the batting.

 

[pasag]

Undoubtedly . But India are nowhere good as Australia - let alone good enough to beat Australia in Australia, so when things go against them, it dampens things because these opportunities don't come around often. No one is claiming that Australia succumb to bad luck - they wouldn't be going on 16 straight wins if they weren't good enough to overcome stuff like that. But no one in the world - playing Australia in Australia - can. Obviously, that's on the rest of the world but its asking too much to beat the Aussies at home AND overcome the umpires.

Yeah I don't disagree with you and Jono that it's a really tough and ask and it's really unfair. Not to mention I'm quite sympathetic, but still I don't feel India had a right to win at that stage because winning a Test, imo, includes overcoming poor umpiring (even though in this case it's been really poor).

Btw, might be a little out of the box (and silly), but India's best chance of winning this is to declare now and try get a collapse going as Australia try set a target. If worst comes to worst and Australia bat well they can bat out the last day and it will end in a draw anyways but best case scenario is Australia collapsing and only having to chase a small target.

Edit: Nevermind, got a wicket there anyways.

 

[jeevan]

Something about batting with Tendulkar brings out the batsman in the tailenders. Zaheer Khan IIRC was a firm # 11 until this:
http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/IND_IN_BDESH/SCORECARDS/IND_BDESH_T1_10-14DEC2004.html

And it certainly seems Zaheer is a very good #9 or #10 ever since.

Wonder if this knock will do a similar transformation for Harbhajan, who has otherwise been known to bat like a samurai novice.

Harbhajan goes at last. But not before adding 129 runs with Tendulkar.

 

[roseboy64]

India need to reach 500 from here.

 

[silentstriker]

Yeah I don't disagree with you and Jono that it's a really tough and ask and it's really unfair. Not to mention I'm quite sympathetic, but still I don't feel India had a right to win at that stage because winning a Test, imo, includes overcoming poor umpiring (and in this case it's been really poor).

I would disagree, plenty of Tests are won without such decisions. I don't think they had a right obviously, as there were still three out of four innings to go at that stage, but with the exception of perhaps Australia, no other team can really overcome that many bad decisions. So I don't think that's a fair standard to hold people to. Sure, to go on a 16 Test winning streak you need to be able to overcome it, but I am not disputing that.

 

[Jono]

Harbhajan may bat silly on occasion, but he's won or helped India win games before with his batting too. I'm thinking more with regards to ODIs though.

Good knock. Don't like that RP Singh is batting ahead of Ishant Sharma, that means Sharma is a bunny.

 

[Beleg]

Poor Johnson.

 

[James_W]

What's the music they were playing the slow-mo thing? Sounds so familiar, is it Embrace or something.

 

[Pratters]

What are the odds now? With Harbhajan in the team and the pitch offering good spin and bounce for the spinners, will not be easy to tackle him.