***Official*** India in Australia

[NZTailender]

Dravid Why couldn't he get out after the 100?

Have said it before, but will say it again, watching a batsman fight through poor form and overcome it is one of the best things in cricket, imo. Especially when it's a player you like.

Yeah, been a pleasure to watch Dravid lately. Has been getting a lot of flack but has done extremely well considering he was out of form. Gun player.

 

[pup11]

Unbelievable shot from Dravid - one more wicket and Australia will have had a good day

Technically, Dravid is the same player, mentally he's a bit all over the place

That just underlines the fact that captaining the Indian side, was one job that was definitely not meant for a bloke like him.

 

[pup11]

FFS, what is this facinction that Ponting has for Johnson, that he can't help but give the new ball to Johnson, i think Lee and Clark or Lee and Tait should have taken the second new ball.

 

[sideshowtim]

Dravid Why couldn't he get out after the 100?

Have said it before, but will say it again, watching a batsman fight through poor form and overcome it is one of the best things in cricket, imo. Especially when it's a player you like.

Watching a player's "Poor form > Out of poor form" innings is generally one of the most painful things in cricket for me. I can remember Hayden's in the 5th Test against the Poms. One of the most excrutiating innings I've ever seen. Dravid is no different here.

 

[sideshowtim]

Yes!!! You beauty!!!

 

[duffer]

Rubbish Laxman, rubbish.

 

[pasag]

Watching a player's "Poor form > Out of poor form" innings is generally one of the most painful things in cricket for me. I can remember Hayden's in the 5th Test against the Poms. One of the most excrutiating innings I've ever seen. Dravid is no different here.

Disagree, watching a player in their pomp is all good and fine, but watching a player battle out of it and succeed through sheer will and determination is pure brilliance for me. Shows a players true character and their greatness, something that will never be on show when everything is going well for them.

 

[irfan]

WTF Dravid?

WTF Laxman?

 

[sideshowtim]

Wow, India doing their best to throw things away here.

Dravid and Laxman both playing terrible shots. You'd really expect much better from experienced batsmen.

 

[Bracken]

Well whoever said it clearly has NFI. Tait is fast, consistently, but he's never before been touted as a 170km/h bowler.

Someone silly suggested it in the paper today that he possibly "could".

The West Australian Newspaper ran that story, and the two silly commentators with NFI were Bruce Reid and one Dennis Lillee.

Lillee went on to suggest that he and Thompson probably already bowled near 170kmh.

 

[pup11]

Watching a player's "Poor form > Out of poor form" innings is generally one of the most painful things in cricket for me. I can remember Hayden's in the 5th Test against the Poms. One of the most excrutiating innings I've ever seen. Dravid is no different here.

Yeah love to watch a player grit it out for their runs, Hayden's innings was a very good one, on an Oval track under overcast conditions, he was virtually playing for his spot and he curtailed his natural style of play to make a very patient ton against an English attack that troubled him through the series.
Dravid's knock was good too, but for him batting defensively comes natural, but still you can't take anything away from his efforts, he scored today on just the sheer ability of his concentration and mindset to succeed, obviously coming back to his favourite no.3 position would have also made him feel a lot better.

 

[pup11]

One more wicket would just make it a perfect day.

 

[sideshowtim]

Good day for us in the end. Dravid and Laxman's brain explosions have helped put us comfortably on top for mine.

 

[social]

Yeah love to watch a player grit it out for their runs, Hayden's innings was a very good one, on an Oval track under overcast conditions, he was virtually playing for his spot and he curtailed his natural style of play to make a very patient ton against an English attack that troubled him through the series.
Dravid's knock was good too, but for him batting defensively comes natural, but still you can't take anything away from his efforts, he scored today on just the sheer ability of his concentration and mindset to succeed, obviously coming back to his favourite no.3 position would have also made him feel a lot better.

Totally agree

Hayden's innings was possibly the best of the Ashes series (for the reasons you cite plus Oz needed it desperately) whilst I'm really happy that a great player like Dravid has been able to stick it to the people that have treated him so disgracefully

 

[Laurrz]

6/297 at the end of day 1..... i think Aussies in front slightly... to be honest a bit unhappy we didnt roll em for 250 or something...that said i didnt know the pitch would be as batting friendly (or less bounce) as it is
so i'll take this

and wow... those late wickets..Dravid and Laxman really were more bad shots than good balls.. so yea... bonus wickets

4 wickets in that last session for aus i believe... terrific

 

[Jono]

Aussies definitely in front. Those last two wickets are crucial. So un-Dravid like, in-form or out of form. And Laxman's too sounds awful.

Dhoni, step up tomorrow. STEP UP!

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Australia's day. I thought Lee was amazing again, bowled really well throughout the day and definitely deserved to take a few, even though in the end one of them was a poor decision and one was a poor shot. Clark was really good too, and Johnson was alright. Australia fielded fantastically aside from the dropped chance, ground field was amazing and kept India from getting away at times. Tait had a really poor day and needs to step up later in the match. Can see him ripping through the tail though. Tendulkar was classy and Dravid was awesome until he had that brain explosion. Deserved a century even though he could have been out a few times. Terrific fighting innings.

If India fall short of 400 it will be a poor effort from the position they were in, and Australia will be firmly on top. 400+ would be par, with India having a bit of an advantage with runs on the board. It's not a road like two years ago against South Africa, but it's a 400 wicket.

 

[Burgey]

Australia's day imo, but not by so wide a margin. Well done Dravid - bad shot at the end, but then again he was salmon trout to Johnson lbw and not given by Bowden, who clearly wanted to avoid another hectic rush at Effigies R Us in India. Tendulkar was great to watch and was unlucky with his lbw, Laxman's shot was dire and Jaffer frankly is being consistently owned by Lee and ought not to have played.
Great to see Sourav stand there (in the spirit of cricket, of course) after being caught a foot off the ground by Hussey - perhaps like Clarke in Sydney and Youvraj in Melbourne he was just shocked and disappointed.
Looking forward to seeing Pathan and Dhoni v new ball tomorrow as both are dashers so it could end up with either a quick fire 80-100 or a couple of qucik wickets - either way th egame will be moving along nicely.
The Aussie bowling effort without a front line spinner in 35 degree heat and on a great batting deck was 1st rate imo - good patience. Johnson's best day of the series so far, Lee again was excellent - the guy has improved so much in 12-18 months it's ridiculous, Clark was arguably the best bowler but had no luck at all, and Tait was Tait - wild and woolly but hurried the batsmen at times. I wouldn't be too harsh on him - he's hardly bowled in a match in several weeks aside from domestic T20 stuff, so hopefully he'll be better for the run.
All in all a good day's play imo. Only real disappointment was the Aussies falling 6 overs short even with the extra half hour. Healey's idea on the TV, that if you go into the extra half hour you are not allowed to take a new ball is a good one, I reckon and would hurry things along. How you can bowl so slowly then, like Michael Clarke, have a whinge at a batsman when he holds you up for 2 seconds when you're only bowling to get to the 2nd new ball is beyond me.

His head is no where at the moment - like he's been in a bingle lately.

 

[Matt79]

Yeah, agree, Australia ahead slightly after those late wickets potentially undid most of Dravid and Sachin's good work. Thought Tendulkar was fantastic today, and was a bit unlucky with his LBW - I wonder whether Rauf would have given that if he'd had a bit more time to acclimitize to Aussie, and in particular WACA bounce? At least there was a square up this time with Dravid getting a let off when he was plumb LBW to Johnson. The "ramp" shot Tendulkar played, where he swayed out of the way of a good bouncer but at the last minute decided to deflect the ball over Gilchrist's head was perhaps the most impressive shot I can recall seeing in a long time, in terms of the time Sachin appeared to have to play it, and his execution.

Felt for Dravid, he would have deserved the 100 if he'd not suffered that brain explosion. Great to see him back amongst the runs. Even though Sehwag only got 29, he set the tone much better for the Indians and got them on the offensive I thought. Plus, Dravid moves to 3, and lo and behold, he gets some runs. To me, this is the batting order they should have had from day one, although I think Laxman should be higher. Slightly contradicting what I just said about Dravid, I'd have VVS at 3 and Dravid at 5, between Sachin and Ganguly.

Thought Lee was fantastic today, while the other bowlers were a bit unlucky, but also a bit disappointing. Tait was disappointing after the hype. But that said, I also thought Ponting's bowling changes etc were very poor. He seemed to have planned out changes assuming the Freo Doctor would be blowing, and poor old Tait, and Lee for large chunks of the day, ended up bowling into a breeze that also went against their outswing, while Johnson and Clark enjoyed the other end. I thought he also left Tait out of the attack for too long. I'd have been tempted to give him a two over spell with the new ball, and if he wasn't doing any good whip him off and bring Johnson on. On the WACA pitch, you want to get at batsmen before they adjust to the pace and bounce.

BTW, I missed what happened between Clarke and Dravid in the over before Dravid got out - was it anything amiss? EDIT: Burgey's answered this in the previous post, while I was typing.

EDIT 2: Agree, the slow over rate is one of the biggest blights in the game today. Has to be addressed.

 

[Craig]

6/297 at the end of day 1..... i think Aussies in front slightly... to be honest a bit unhappy we didnt roll em for 250 or something...that said i didnt know the pitch would be as batting friendly (or less bounce) as it is
so i'll take this

and wow... those late wickets..Dravid and Tendulkar really were more bad shots than good balls.. so yea... bonus wickets

4 wickets in that last session for aus i believe... terrific

I didn't see it live due to work, but it looked not out when I saw it on the replay. What Dravid was thinking or even Laxman I have no idea. If it was Shahid Afridi, then fine it wouldn't be surprising, but for those two it was just

On another note, who presented Chris Rogers with his Baggy Green? Matt Hayden or somebody else?