***Official*** Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series 2007-08

[pasag]

Brilliant day at the cricket, awesome weather and quality crowd - after the start of the Australian innings you wouldn't have known it was an Australian one either - still haven't got my hearing back. The only thing that was missing was Australia's batting. The highlight for me was Lee's bowling at the beginning, didn't get the wickets but looked damned near unplayable, although Sachin's three fours off him were sublime.

Thought Hussey batted pretty poorly with the tail as well, taking early singles and exposing them for the rest of the over. Was a far cry from his tailend work here with a few years back. Good innings nonetheless. Smart batting from Dhoni and Sharma at the end as well - waiting to see off the rest of the bowlers and then going after the part-timers. Kept their cool very well.

 

[duffer]

Just got back from the G. Sat smack bang in the middle of the big Indian section and what a day it was.

Great win for the girls in the T20 and incredible bowling performance by India. When Zaheer and RP come back we're going to have some selection headaches with our seamers.

Awesome to see Rohit and Dhoni show plenty of ticker to hang in there and guide us to the win.

Sachin's straight drives were orgasmic. I'll be telling my grandkids about that moment. The G was electric tonight. Well done India, now let's see if our youngsters can back it up against the Lankans in Canberra, me and my mates are tossing up whether to road trip it up to Manuka.

 

[Ben Stinga]

There seemed to be an amazing atmosphere at this game.
It game across well on tv and radio.
I didn't know there were so many Indians living in Melbourne.
The series is set up perfectly now.

 

[Jono]

Absolute gun!

Was at the game, absolutely brilliant. So proud of my boys. Should probably analyse the match but I just got home after a few drinks and will probably do so tomorrow.

I'll just say this, Ricky Ponting's captaincy whilst bowling was piss poor. Never seen such bad field placements when defending a sub-200 score in my time watching ODI cricket.

 

[Jono]

Sachin's straight drives were orgasmic. I'll be telling my grandkids about that moment. The G was electric tonight.

That over was so good. Particularly since it was the one after Sehwag's dismissal. Didn't give the Aussies an inch after a vital wicket.

 

[Raghav]

Absolute gun!

Was at the game, absolutely brilliant. So proud of my boys. Should probably analyse the match but I just got home after a few drinks and will probably do so tomorrow.

I'll just say this, Ricky Ponting's captaincy whilst bowling was piss poor. Never seen such bad field placements when defending a sub-200 score in my time watching ODI cricket.

What's wrong with the field? I dont have any problems with the field. I think its just a bad day at office

 

[Jono]

Raghav, he had one slip to Bracken in the 2nd over of the innings. He should have had 3 slips to Lee in the first over too.

Guess what? Sehwag edged it through 3rd slip in the first over, and 2nd slip in the second over.

The 7-2 fields off-side were completely over-used. Just hoping for a wicket through batsman error, and whilst Tendulkar may have fell into the trap eventually, the rest were silly.

Ponting finally attacked with 3 slips and a gully when India were under the pump at 4-down and 5-down, but they could have done so earlier.

What about bringing on Clarke, and then having mid-off and mid-on back? This, despite the fact that Sharma and Dhoni were struggling to get runs off the pace bowlers, trying to minimise any risk taking. If you had the field in, they would have had to play some aggressive shots and Clarke may have a got a wicket.

The field settings were ****, and it was also mentioned by pretty much everyone I spoke to, and from what I've read on Cricinfo too.

I don't think Ponting is a poor captain or anything of the sort, particularly in the ODI game. I've just never been more confused seeing a captain's field settings before when defending a small total. Defied all logic.H

Hope that's enough of an explanation Raghav. Hope you enjoyed India's win too.

 

[Raghav]

Raghav, he had one slip to Bracken in the 2nd over of the innings. He should have had 3 slips to Lee in the first over too.

Guess what? Sehwag edged it through 3rd slip in the first over, and 2nd slip in the second over.

The 7-2 fields off-side were completely over-used. Just hoping for a wicket through batsman error, and whilst Tendulkar may have fell into the trap eventually, the rest were silly.

Ponting finally attacked with 3 slips and a gully when India were under the pump at 4-down and 5-down, but they could have done so earlier.

What about bringing on Clarke, and then having mid-off and mid-on back? This, despite the fact that Sharma and Dhoni were struggling to get runs off the pace bowlers, trying to minimise any risk taking. If you had the field in, they would have had to play some aggressive shots and Clarke may have a got a wicket.

The field settings were ****, and it was also mentioned by pretty much everyone I spoke to, and from what I've read on Cricinfo too.

I don't think Ponting is a poor captain or anything of the sort, particularly in the ODI game. I've just never been more confused seeing a captain's field settings before when defending a small total. Defied all logic.H

Hope that's enough of an explanation Raghav. Hope you enjoyed India's win too.

Yes Jono. It was fantastic bowling from Ishant and co. Australians also followed up with good bowling.. Loved the match

 

[Anil]

Thought Tendulkar was supposed to be a walker?

you suppose wrong...he has never shown any inclination to walk and has always waited for the umpire's decision...

 

[silentstriker]

Thought Tendulkar was supposed to be a walker?

Why would you think that? I don't recall him ever walking.

 

[Sanz]

That's India's second win against Australia (in Australia) in last 15 years, I guess the young guns have alredy achieved what the team achieved with Dravid-Ganguly-Lax in the team in ODIs in Australia against Australia in terms of results. Hope people can get off selectors back now for selecting young players and give them little credit for taking a strong step towards future.

Rohit Sharma is one for future, the more you watch him bat, the more you get that feeling. Dhoni's wicketkeeping has been superb and I enjoy watching him lead this Indian side.
He is very confident, honest, backs his players and more importantly has faith in them.

 

[jeevan]

That's India's second win against Australia (in Australia) in last 15 years, I guess the young guns have alredy achieved what the team achieved with Dravid-Ganguly-Lax in the team in ODIs in Australia against Australia in terms of results. Hope people can get off selectors back now for selecting young players and give them little credit for taking a strong step towards future.

Rohit Sharma is one for future, the more you watch him bat, the more you get that feeling. Dhoni's wicketkeeping has been superb and I enjoy watching him lead this Indian side.
He is very confident, honest, backs his players and more importantly has faith in them.

Apples and oranges. Bowling (Ishant, Sreesanth, Pathan) won us this match, and the delicate middle order almost lost lost it back. In each of the 3 innings this series, there have been exactly the kind of mini-collapses that Dravid,Ganguly and Laxman have been better at anchoring against. (And the situation would've been much much worse had not Dhoni transformed himself into exactly the kind of grinding plodder like Dravid that holds the innings together, which he's been doing with a very satisfying regularity since becoming captain).

We shouldnt overlook the real problems in batting because we've discovered unexpected bonuses in the bowling department.

 

[Major Wedgie]

India weren't that good

Considering the **** run Australia had India should have knocked them over in 35 overs instead they looked like a side scared of losing and scared of the Aussie bowling.

Aussies love Symmonds and hate Harbhajan Singh.

 

[Top_Cat]

Ishant Sharma - has there ever been a better debut tour of Australia for a teenage bowler?

Waqar Younis in 1989/90 was pretty awesome. He, like Sharma, showed glimpses in the Test series and then bowled like the wind in the ODI's. No others spring to mind, though.

 

[Top_Cat]

I didn't see much of the game but did see a fair chunk of the Aussie innings. I must say I disagreed with Richie Benaud's assessment of the defensive techniques of Symonds and Ponting in their dismissals. He was saying they were playing with an open face but to me that doesn't give enough credit to the bowler. They seemed more to be completely beaten on the defensive stroke and Sharma didn't just have movement and bounce yesterday, he had great pace. I just think they didn't get their bats into position quick enough and were surprised by the speed of Sharma. Couple that with an outstanding line and they simply weren't good enough and I doubt anyone would have been, so good was the bowling. What a start to his career!

As for Ponting, he still looked quite stiff in his back. Have a rest, son!

 

[NUFAN]

Does anyone else think the Australian selectors got it wrong by picking Brad Haddin in the side with Gilly already there.

Adam Voges, Dave Hussey or Brad Hodge should have been in the squad and played when James Hopes was ruled out.

All 3 players mentioned are better batsmen, out fielders and bowlers then Haddin so one of them had to play. Australia can't afford to not pick their best XI nowadays.

 

[Sanz]

Apples and oranges. Bowling (Ishant, Sreesanth, Pathan) won us this match, and the delicate middle order almost lost lost it back. In each of the 3 innings this series, there have been exactly the kind of mini-collapses that Dravid,Ganguly and Laxman have been better at anchoring against. (And the situation would've been much much worse had not Dhoni transformed himself into exactly the kind of grinding plodder like Dravid that holds the innings together, which he's been doing with a very satisfying regularity since becoming captain).

We shouldnt overlook the real problems in batting because we've discovered unexpected bonuses in the bowling department.

Conveniently forgetting Rohit Sharma's contribution in the win ?

Yeah we shouldn't overlook the problems, but presence of Rahul/Sourav/Lax didn't guarantee better performance(and results) in the ODIs hence it was only fair to give chance to youngsters. I feel we have a much better chance of competing well (in ODIS) without Saurav/Rahul/Lax/Kumble etc. than we had with them.

Rahul is scoring @29 runs, Sourav @24-25, Lax @37 (with scores of 2,2,3, 16, 102*, 106*, 1, 24, 5) i.e. clearly inflated avg. because of two outstanding performances.

 

[Burgey]

Does anyone else think the Australian selectors got it wrong by picking Brad Haddin in the side with Gilly already there.

Adam Voges, Dave Hussey or Brad Hodge should have been in the squad and played when James Hopes was ruled out.

All 3 players mentioned are better batsmen, out fielders and bowlers then Haddin so one of them had to play. Australia can't afford to not pick their best XI nowadays.

Dunno if they had sufficient notice to get them into the side on the day.

Good effort by India though - some really good stuff with the ball, and Dhoni and Sharma's efforts late when under pressure were real quality too.

Well bowled to the Aussies as well. There have been times they've bowled worse and won. Good to see Johnson really coming on strong in the ODI stuff - his spell was quality imo.

 

[NUFAN]

Dunno if they had sufficient notice to get them into the side on the day.

Good effort by India though - some really good stuff with the ball, and Dhoni and Sharma's efforts late when under pressure were real quality too.

Well bowled to the Aussies as well. There have been times they've bowled worse and won. Good to see Johnson really coming on strong in the ODI stuff - his spell was quality imo.

Hodge and Hussey would have been in Melbourne where the match was played.

I was more talking about in the initial squad anyways. I don't mind Haddin in there, but take Gilly out if you want to play Haddin. Probably as Gilly has retired there isn't much point in resting him.

I just think that this decision has cost Australia, because at the moment we really need to pick as good a team as possible, and although Haddin is usually decent with the bat, he's not as good as Hussey, Voges, Hodge, so if I were those 3 guys, I'd be wondering what more I have to do.

 

[jeevan]

Conveniently forgetting Rohit Sharma's contribution in the win ?

Yeah we shouldn't overlook the problems, but presence of Rahul/Sourav/Lax didn't guarantee better performance(and results) in the ODIs hence it was only fair to give chance to youngsters. I feel we have a much better chance of competing well (in ODIS) without Saurav/Rahul/Lax/Kumble etc. than we had with them.

Rahul is scoring @29 runs, Sourav @24-25, Lax @37 (with scores of 2,2,3, 16, 102*, 106*, 1, 24, 5) i.e. clearly inflated avg. because of two outstanding performances.

Not really, but Rohit Sharma's not had enough of a run to conclude too much about him (had a duck in the immediately previous match). He looks steady enough here but just came off an indifferent domestic season where almost everyone was cashing in .

Personally only Tendulkar (old guard), Dhoni (very transformed) , Pathan (deemed a bowler) and Rohit Sharma inspire confidence with the bat in this line up at the moment.

BTW I'm not an advocate of getting all of Dravid/Ganguly/Laxman back into ODI's. Just Ganguly, who I think has been averaging a bit more than 24-25 in ODIs since his return. (Plus his seam up bowling is useful option to use up a couple of the part time overs in the powerplays, when needed. Sometimes some of our bowlers like Sreesanth have really bad days - and it is scary to play either two seamers or five bowlers in ODIs).