***Official Australia in India***

[ret]

Best of Oz? Are you serious? Seriously, open that second eye up.

It wasn't close to India's worst, we had some real good positives, especially our tail batting, our sensible second innings batting and good solid fast bowlers performances. Our main negatives were Kumble and first innings batting. Overall, a mediocre performance, but its several magnitudes away from 'our worst'.

And Hayden is India-killer, you can't say it was the best of Oz when he scores 0 & 13. When he gets going, he will destroy India. And I'm not even talking about Lee - out of all the players, he has the biggest upside here (and he didn't even bowl badly), especially against the walking wicket that is going to be Gambhir all series.

haha, thanks for making my day .... going by how badly you predict, it probably was India's worst

and are you expecting the guys that you back like Dravid, Laxman, Bhajji to keep failing. if not then what the point of your post to say that Hayden failed when most of the Indian batting did

 

[Sanz]

Have to pick your targets, though. He's trying to play Australia at the aggressive game they invented and will do nothing other than fire them up to do better. Guys like Sourav Ganguly and Ranatunga were great at getting under the skin of the Aussies because they didn't play the same game the Aussies do. Basically, Aussies get fired up by aggression but get annoyed (and distracted) by 'cheek'.

Like it fired them up @ Perth ? I am tired of hearing that argument at how all teams should not be showing any aggression to the Aussies because they invented it. It is a ridiculous argument.

That said, I think Zaheer should actually keep his mouth shut and focus on his game. Not because it will fire the Aussie up but because it is just a meaningless thing to do.

 

[adharcric]

Yeah I don't disagree with that at all, it's more the notion that the ok now the party is over say goodbye to Australia which furthermore as I said works both ways with four key Aussies underperforming.

That notion has been misconstrued by media and fans from the fact that the Aussies had this game in their hands and let it slip for rather inexcusable reasons. There's little to suggest that this was Australia's best chance to win - it's just a squandered opportunity but then again, there were many other opportunities squandered by both teams.

 

[pasag]

Why? As long as he performs, and so far he has, Zaheer can talk as much **** as he wants to. Your criticism of Sreesanth in this regard was somewhat valid because he was all talk at some points but I don't understand this - if it fires him up, helps him perform and gets under the skins of the Aussies, he should keep at it.

Agree with this, took wickets, scored runs, can say what he wants (within reason). It's a smart tactic anyways for mine, Australia could come out on day one in the next Test and try and 'show' Zaheer by trying to wack the ball out of the park only to be 6/150 by lunch. Or it could backfire, anyways makes things more interesting as long as it doesn't start a flame war between the camps.

 

[duffer]

I think winning the toss, India being such slow starters, Kumble being non existent and the fact that Bangalore was such a graveyard for our side all combines to make this a major lost opportunity for Australia but to write them off now is folly. Still confident that if we win the toss in any of the next few matches we'd be heavy favourites to get something out of the game.

 

[Top_Cat]

Like it fired them up @ Perth ? I am tired of hearing that argument at how all teams should not be showing any aggression to the Aussies because they invented it. It is a ridiculous argument.

One example doesn't invalidate the argument. There are a heap of times where teams have tried to go toe-to-toe with the Aussies and come off second best.

That said, it's a ridiculous thing for anyone to do. I always used to cringe when McGrath would do his "We'll win 5-0" predictions and wish the Aussies would just shut-up too.

 

[ret]

On Zak's remarks .... Zak has a right to make any point he wants as far as it is related to cricket. I don't even understand why some ppl are complaining abt it

If his comments fires up the Australian team then so be it .... let them throw their best at Ind. lets not give them any excuse for not playing their best cricket

 

[Johnners]

FTR, reckon Haydos will have a disappointing series, won't make over 60.

 

[aussie]

Good test match performance for Australia, but i really feel deep down, that not winning this test match could prove to be a lost oppurtunity.

Lack of a quality spinner really was the big factor yesterday (although seeing White bowling decently was very encouraging for his future prospects). Something tells me that, Australia may not have such a good oppurtunity to force a victory in this series again & the India's batsmen (the Fab 4 especially) after not capitulating in this test match as the media predicted may actually play better as the series progresses.

Hope that i'm wrong though, but this is what makes this series exciting, a lot of twist & turns are potentially left.

 

[Ikki]

This might be unpopular, but I don't think White showed much at all. Tendulkar simply played a bad shot. He does not get enough turn to trouble the batsmen and his variation is severly lacking. His deliveries seem slow too - I guess I don't like how he flights the ball. If he could modify his bowling to be something like Kumble then I could see the point of having him.

BRING BACK SYMO! Would also be nice to have Symonds to stick it to Zaheer.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

1 Hayden
2 Katich
3 Watson
4 Hussey
5 Clarke
6 Watson
7 Haddin
8 Lee
9 Johnson
10 Clark/Siddle
11 Bollinger

IMO

Hahaha. How exactly is Bollinger ahead of Clark? I mean, seriously.

 

[Sanz]

One example doesn't invalidate the argument. There are a heap of times where teams have tried to go toe-to-toe with the Aussies and come off second best.

It is a fallacy to suggest that teams have come off second because of the aggression they showed against Australia. They came off second because Australia have been a much better team most of the time.

That said, it's a ridiculous thing for anyone to do. I always used to cringe when McGrath would do his "We'll win 5-0" predictions and wish the Aussies would just shut-up too.

Yes, it is a ridiculous thing for anyone to do and I totally agree with that. Zaheer should keep his mouth shut and let his ball do the talking. But I wasn't questioning you on that, I was questioning your suggestion that other teams should not show their aggression to Australia. Austrailia have won so much not because of fake aggression off the field but because of the aggressive cricket played by their cricketers.

 

[ret]

Not losing the game is, as I mentioned earlier, like getting out of the jail for India .... Imagine the pressure India would have been under going 0-1 down at Mohali. Now that pressure is gone and on top of that the feeling in the camp would be that despite playing such bad cricket, they didn't lose [and Zak's comments probably show that feeling. His comments gave a good insight to what the mood in the Indian camp is] .... and more importantly survived the last day, which has been India's Achilles heel

Thats why I said earlier that in trying to shut the door for India by declaring late and playing it safe, Ponting could well be shutting doors on Australia as they may not get such an opportunity again in the series

I don't back some of the senior guys but I think that they probably will lift their games, the bowling needs to get some support, if the pitch is flat .... the best news probably would be Kumble missing out due to injury, that will not only give India a wicket taking bowling option but also make India the team with the best captain on the field with street-smart Dhoni captaining

from the guys in the squad, the one below should be a good 10, 10 because we will have to play captain Kumble, if he is fit

4 best bowlers: Ishant, Zak, Munaf and Mishra
WK: Dhoni
Openers: Sehwag and Gambhir
Other batsmen: 3 from Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly and Badri
Captain: Kumble

 

[ret]

BRING BACK SYMO! Would also be nice to have Symonds to stick it to Zaheer.

that would be nice and Symo would definitely liven up the series and hopefully smash Kumble and Bhajji to retirement

 

[honestbharani]

SJS, I played divisional cricket in Tamil Nadu - I have some idea of how the system works in India. I also play Shires cricket here in Sydney so I can relate a lot of what I see in Australia back to how things are done in India.
I stand firm in my belief that selection is not based purely on merit in India.....Kaif averages 63 in his last 5 test matches (including a match saving effort against England) ...now why was he dropped for Ganguly in 2006.
Ganguly is not an all time great test batsman or anything ....he was a ok test batsman - but a guy who would more often than not fail against stronger bowling attacks and/or in demanding conditions.
So why was he recalled in place of a younger batsman who had shown promise and who had his whole future ahead of him - not to mention a vastly superior fielder also ? Why was he recalled for this test against Australia when the previous selection committee decided to overlook him for the Irani trophy ?
Why ignore Kaif, a guy who had just made 94 against some of the best performers in Pura Cup two weeks ago for India A for a guy who has never really done well against AUstralia ?
I can guarantee you that in a professional system like Australia, Ganguly would never have made it back into the team.

I can give you a couple of other names off the top of my head that have been harshly done by:
Pankaj Dharmani - wicketkeeper who averaged over 50 in domestic including runs against touring international teams. Never even got a single test for India and a bunch of guys with decidely inferior records did.
Aakash Chopra - Guy showed real promise as a test opener in 2003 but hey we jerked him out of the team just to accommodate Yuvraj.

You talk about fickle fans....and yes that is true, a lot of Indian fans are fickle. However a lot of Indian fans exhibit another quality - they can't accept the flaws in their cricketing heroes and the fact there may actually be better options albeit less glamorous options than them.
Sachin Tendulkar is the classic example - good player but massively overrated; He almost invariably flops in situations where India need him to play well.
But very few India fans are willing to accept that.

Greg Chappell alluded to this when he was India's coach - if a guy is a superstar, he is virtually untouchable irrespective of performance - India seems to have this attitude that a younger player could not possibly be better than some of the senior guys.


You have to ask yourself why a country with an unmatched passion for the game and a strong talent base does not consistently churn out good performances.
That's because the system sucks - Big Time. Lack of professionalism in administration, training and development, favouritism in team selection etc....the list goes on.

I agree with almost all of your points but I do have to say Sachin IS great... no way is he just in the "good" bracket. But yeah, I have seen guys my age refer to Sachin being better than Bradman and I can understand where the "massively overrated" bit comes from..


But then again, the sort of criticism he gets when he fails (you yourself said something like he doesn't show up when India needs him, which is a massive stretch to say the least) is quite unparalleled too.... But I do agree that our system sucks.. Just watch Niranjan Shah's son get so many opportunities for India A.. He is seriously not THAT good.. Neither was Arjun Yadav...

 

[honestbharani]

But he was good enough to Smash them a few weeks ago?

I really don't follow Indian Cricket, It may seem like a Dumb question but Yuvraj's potential is really high and I thinmk it''s just a matter of time before he breaks out

by matter of time, u mean like 8 years????????

 

[social]

That notion has been misconstrued by media and fans from the fact that the Aussies had this game in their hands and let it slip for rather inexcusable reasons. There's little to suggest that this was Australia's best chance to win - it's just a squandered opportunity but then again, there were many other opportunities squandered by both teams.

Exactly

If Australia keep playing well there's nothing to suggest that this will be the last opportunity they have this series

And tbh, it wasnt really squandered - the Indian tail batted well, Hayden got 2 shockers (his presence would've guaranteed far bigger lead/target) and the light prevented Oz from bowling their main bowlers as much as they would like on the last day

In short, it was a typical game where there were many ups and downs

 

[Top_Cat]

Exactly

If Australia keep playing well there's nothing to suggest that this will be the last opportunity they have this series

And tbh, it wasnt really squandered - the Indian tail batted well, Hayden got 2 shockers (his presence would've guaranteed far bigger lead/target) and the light prevented Oz from bowling their main bowlers as much as they would like on the last day

In short, it was a typical game where there were many ups and downs

Yep. It's a form of delusion that the Indian players will metamorphosise overnight into cricketing supermen and show these Aussies who's boss now they've finally warmed up.

 

[social]

India being such slow starters, .

Fact or fiction?

Over the past year, India has played Australia, SA, SL and now another test against Aus - that's 11 in total

In Aus, they lost the first and second (basically giving away the latter), won the third (where OZ returned the favour by dropping nearly 10 catches) and drew the fourth

Against SA, they won, at most, 3 sessions in the first 2 tests before winning on a tailor-made wicket in the 3rd

Against SL, a comprehensive victory in the 2nd test was sandwiched between thrashings in the 1st and 3rd test

And now, they've struggled for long periods in this test

Seems to me that their form OVERALL has been patchy and it just isnt confined to the first test of a series

 

[Burgey]

That's an interesting point re. slow starts to tours when away.

Was only thinking it's one thing Aus seem to do well for the most part - on what are nearly always short preparations these days, they tend to deal with things by not losing a first test of a series pretty well. Then again, they have had a reasonable side in recent years