***Official Australia in India***

[SirBloody Idiot]

Still, good to see some swing for him.

 

[honestbharani]

1 and a half hours is a bit too much time to "have a crack" though.. I am sure they woudl have preferred just a half an hour or so...

 

[Stapel]

So, all seem to agree 430 means the Aussies have the advantage. What would have been considered an even score here?

 

[duffer]

This is a huge test for Gambhir. He looked very comfortable against the Lankan seamers but these guys will make him work very very hard for his runs and will make him jump around a lot. If he makes it through this series with some good scores then I'll be convinved he's for real as a long term option.

 

[Craig]

Hoping Sehwag can get some form going here, we will be in for some fun then.

 

[honestbharani]

I feel 430 is obviously advantage Australia.. But I do think that with that kind of a deep batting line up and after winning the toss, Ponting must have surely expected 500. So n that sense, I think India have done well... Also, inspite of the low bounce (and it should be noted that it hasn't really been all that uneven) and the reverse swing and the cracks in the pitch, I still think that at least for tomm. it should be a decent wicket to bat on. Plus the fact that India haven't allowed Australia to run away with the game in terms of run rate (which they have always done over the past 15 years, even against India in India), has meant that Aussies have had to take quite a bit of time to make just 430 runs. So while I do think it is very much Advantage Australia at the moment, I would think India have done extremely to hang in there as much as they have...

 

[stumpski]

50 minutes without posts, a sure sign of site problems, all sorted now hopefully.

50 up for India, score just ticking along nicely.

 

[pup11]

Sehwag looking really dangerous atm, and runs are also coming at a fair clip, so Ponting needs to come up with something innovative to stop the leakage of runs.

 

[Jakester1288]

Sehwag is going at Clark. Clark to get dismiss him. You heard it here first.

 

[pup11]

50 minutes without posts, a sure sign of site problems, all sorted now hopefully.
50 up for India, score just ticking along nicely.

Yeah, have been encountering such problems every other day now, so hopefully it would get sorted out soon.

 

[Stapel]

50 minutes without posts, a sure sign of site problems, all sorted now hopefully.

50 up for India, score just ticking along nicely.

And at a decent run-rate. So far, this test lives up to expectations! I'm not to worried about Kumble's wicketless overs. I would be surprised if things don't get very different on day 4 or 5.

 

[duffer]

That's the risk of opening the face all the time. Lucky break for Sehwag.

 

[honestbharani]

lol.. the cricinfo commentary guy has said the exact same words, duffer..

 

[Prince EWS]

This is a huge test for Gambhir. He looked very comfortable against the Lankan seamers but these guys will make him work very very hard for his runs and will make him jump around a lot. If he makes it through this series with some good scores then I'll be convinved he's for real as a long term option.

Personally I think he's much more suited to the middle order with the way he bats. I've seen him struggle against genuine pace before and the way he plays so square on the front foot could also cause a problem against the moving ball. Conversely, he's an awesome player of spin bowling. His ODI successes of late which basically got him back into the Test team (in combination with the continuation of his excellent First Class performances and the poor form of Jaffer) have been almost exclusively at #3, too.

All that said, I agree with your post. He opens in First Class cricket and that's where the opening in the team is ATM, so he has the chance to nail down the spot in this series. I'll eat my words to some extent if he does well consistently against this attack.

 

[duffer]

lol.. the cricinfo commentary guy has said the exact same words, duffer..

Ugh. Can I claim royalties?

 

[Top_Cat]

Maybe not, but you can't really judge him on that, as it's pure speculation.

Fairly safe to say had Hussey been picked years ago, wouldn't be the player he was. Was almost bereft of shots in his 20's, distinctly remember when he was at the academy, a report saying "Excellent defensively, almost no other shots". Took him a while to extend that arm a bit and really hit through the line, actually trying to hit boundaries. Pretty sure WA batting him in the middle/lower order in OD's made him what he is today; had to play shots at the end of an innings instead of just building a total and got plenty of practice batting with the lower-order.

Now he has the damn-near-impossible-to-bowl-at combo of solid defense, patience, nick-and-nudge game and unorthodox strokeplay along with his immaculate cover drives and pulls. His cover drive gets all the press but personally my favourite shot of his is his pull to the square-leg fence where he gets down really low to play it. Means he turns an easy flick off the legs for 1 or 2 into a blasted 4. Last bloke I saw play that shot consistently was Mark Waugh.

 

[inbox24]

How can you guys say 430 is a decent total? This is a lifeless deck where only 3 batsmen (Ponting, Hussey and Katich) performed, pretty poor considering we played 8 bats.

Obviously now our quickmen are gonna cop a hammering with Lee being wayward, Clark too slow and Johnson all over the place India is gonna pile on 600 plus I'm predicting.

Edit: Hope Johnson cops a hammering, even toothless Watson can at least keep the runs down

 

[pup11]

Damn... leaking way too many runs atm, got to get Sehwag as soon as possible, and get Dravid back there, he would help bring some sanity to the proceedings.

 

[duffer]

How can you guys say 430 is a decent total? This is a lifeless deck where only 3 batsmen (Ponting, Hussey and Katich) performed, pretty poor considering we played 8 bats.

Obviously now our quickmen are gonna cop a hammering with Lee being wayward, Clark too slow and Johnson all over the place India is gonna pile on 600 plus I'm predicting.

Sehwag has a habit of making a deck look way better than it actually is. If he gets out watch the scoring rate plummet and we'll see what the deck is really made out of.

 

[Burgey]

Mike Coward is driving me mad on ABC radio. He knows his stuff but he's full of pretentious ****. I hate giving people a pizzling when they're doing their best, but I had to write the following email to the ABC about him:

Gents,
Thanks for the coverage and keeping us entertained.

Just one thing though. I'm sure Mike Coward is a lovely man, and he clearly knows his cricket. But can you please, please, please have him stop banging on about the wonders and significance of every little thing which happens in the context of Indian- Australian cricketing relations?

Frankly, it's just too full on and makes listening very hard work. Listening to "And the fact that ball passed harmlessly outside the off stump and through to Dhoni means an enormous amount to Australian-Indian cricket and speaks volumes for the new-found sense of Indian self-worth, and by the way did you know the town 54 miles away used to be called a different name andnow isn't" every over or so is dire. Me thinks he doth try-eth too much. Tone it down for God's sake. If I want that much pretence, I'll listen to Radio National and Phillip Adams.

Cheers,

Anyway, great fight back here by India - Sehwag being Sehwag with the sublime and the ridiculous rolled into one. He's the most dangerous of a very long and very good line up. Need a wicket tonight, get Dravid in and see what happens from here.

Anyone else think Watson looks scared at the batting crease? Not physically scared but worried about what's going to happen. You can almost sense his apprehension when he comes in at this level. I hope he kicks on but I think he's got some cob webs to clear in his head.