***Official Australia in India***

[GotSpin]

Making wholesale changes would be a lame thing to do, with the kind of team that was picked for this tour, the lack of experience in the bowling line-up and the conditions that they were pitted up against this was very likely to happen, and eventually as feared before the start of he series, all these things in the end proved to be major factors in Australia performing as badly as they did, the Aussie fast-bowlers bowled the wrong lengths on these pitches and paid heavily for it and the lack of any spinner in the first three games also clearly hurt us, the batting was good through the series except for Mohali and that pretty much cost Australia the series and this game too, so frankly speaking not many positives for Australia to take out of this series, except for Watto fitness and improvement in bowling and maybe even Katich' performance as an opener to some extent, but i do expect them to bounce back strongly and do well at home this summer, but it would be while playing away from home where they would be truly tested from now on.

I hope White doesn't play Test cricket for a long long time

 

[Tom Halsey]

Christ, you lot all sound like Arsene Wenger.

 

[Johnners]

Well I guess we'll disagree. I don't necessarily think boundaries are exciting. I want a game that eventually leads to a result. If a particular tactic is effective in doing that, it's a good one.

Australia won the series in 2004 by consistently setting defensive fields and choking off the boundaries. That was good strategy, it wasn't negative. It wasn't 8-1 with bowling wide, but it wasn't like that went on for the whole, or even most, of the day. It's another tool to be used at the right time, which he did, and got wickets. In the end, that's the goal. It's not as cool as seeing five men in the slips, but I don't think that's the only way to play good cricket.

I'm not talking about the 8-1 fields on day 3, I didn't have a major problem with that. However the piss poor captaincy displayed yesterday and a large part of today most certainly was not good cricket. No doubt the captains may say they were trying to build pressure, but it clearly wasn't working. When you've got part-time spinners trundling in, bowling outside leg stump, despite the batsmen comfortably scoring at 5rpo, it's not good cricket.

I agree that having 5 slips isn't the only way to play positive cricket, but I cannot fathom how teams not pressing for a win (which is how it looked yesterday evening, and this morning) could possibly be conceived as "good cricket".

 

[vic_orthdox]

Well I guess we'll disagree. I don't necessarily think boundaries are exciting. I want a game that eventually leads to a result. If a particular tactic is effective in doing that, it's a good one.

Australia won the series in 2004 by consistently setting defensive fields and choking off the boundaries. That was good strategy, it wasn't negative. It wasn't 8-1 with bowling wide, but it wasn't like that went on for the whole, or even most, of the day. It's another tool to be used at the right time, which he did, and got wickets. In the end, that's the goal. It's not as cool as seeing five men in the slips, but I don't think that's the only way to play good cricket.

Difference was the lines, Australia tended to bowl fairly straight and at the stumps, having men on both sides of the wicket and having a "ring field" type mentality. It didn't work this time because the bowling wasn't accurate enough.

Whereas in this little period, India bowled very wide, not attacking the stumps at all, and clogged that side of the field.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Dhoni doesn't get paid to win attractively.

Neither does Ricky but he got lambasted for trying it.

I'm no fan of Ponting (especially now) but I think it's a fair point that he's been pasted all series for being too defensive (and let's face it, his whole career as captain of Australia) but Dhoni has been defensive and because it worked, he's a hero.

Things aren't as simple as "it doesn't matter what happened as long as you won.". Nothing works that way and nor should it.

 

[silentstriker]

I'm not talking about the 8-1 fields on day 3, I didn't have a major problem with that. However the piss poor captaincy displayed yesterday and a large part of today most certainly was not good cricket. No doubt the captains may say they were trying to build pressure, but it clearly wasn't working. When you've got part-time spinners trundling in, bowling outside leg stump, despite the batsmen comfortably scoring at 5rpo, it's not good cricket.

If the batsmen are scoring 5 RPO, then its just bad bowling. I don't think that's negative cricket.

 

[silentstriker]

Neither does Ricky but he got lambasted for trying it.

He got lambasted for not trying to win actually.

If he is defensive, but wins, then who cares?

 

[silentstriker]

Difference was the lines, Australia tended to bowl fairly straight and at the stumps, having men on both sides of the wicket and having a "ring field" type mentality. It didn't work this time because the bowling wasn't accurate enough.

Whereas in this little period, India bowled very wide, not attacking the stumps at all, and clogged that side of the field.

But both are designed to build pressure and to induce a batsman to make a mistake. And it worked. If you aren't good enough to play it or patient enough to wait it out, then its on you not the bowling side.

 

[Jono]

Neither does Ricky but he got lambasted for trying it.

I'm no fan of Ponting (especially now) but I think it's a fair point that he's been pasted all series for being too defensive (and let's face it, his whole career as captain of Australia) but Dhoni has been defensive and because it worked, he's a hero.

Things aren't as simple as "it doesn't matter what happened as long as you won.". Nothing works that way and nor should it.

Hey?

Where have people criticised Ponting for playing boring cricket? His plans have stunk, and been boring at the same time. That's what's bad.

 

[Craig]

Dhoni doesn't get paid to win attractively.

I know, but I was trying to explain old mate's gripe how Dhoni had guys like Sehwag bowling to Hussey and Hayden.

 

[Matt79]

Oh the over rates - yea absolutely. I was referring to the field placings and bowling. If the bowling builds pressure and takes wickets - I call that smart cricket. Not negative.

How did that passage where Sehwag and Harby were bowling tripe build pressure? Hayden and Huss were scoring at 5+ an over with absolutely no pressure whatsoever. I was referring specifically to Ponting bowling part-timers when he had the Indians on the run, and Dhoni losing the plot for an hour today.

Then Dhoni came to his senses, brought on Mishra and got Bhajji to change his line, and bang, two wickets fall straightaway and India were virtually home.

 

[Jono]

Okay what passage of play are people complaining about?

Day 3 having Sharma and Zaheer bowl wide outside off?

Or today when he had everyone out on the boundary bar 2 fielders, and Mishra and Harbhajan were bowling into the foot marks.

If its the second, that complaint is proposeterous, and is an holier than thou attitude as to what its like being a test captain when Hayden is smashing your bowlers to all parts in a test you can't afford to lose.

 

[Jono]

How did that passage where Sehwag and Harby were bowling tripe build pressure? Hayden and Huss were scoring at 5+ an over with absolutely no pressure whatsoever. I was referring specifically to Ponting bowling part-timers when he had the Indians on the run, and Dhoni losing the plot for an hour today.

Wow so, referring to my post above, people are complaining about today's play?

Why should Harbhajan not bowl into the footmarks outside Hayden and Hussey's offstump? It didn't work anyway because he was bowling poorly.

Dhoni copping unfair flak for no reason here. He didn't do much wrong today on day 5 barring a slow over-rate which he would have made up anyway.

 

[alternative]

Stoked with that win. Won twice against Australia in a row. The OD's and now the Test's, couldn't have asked for much more tbf.

 

[Matt79]

Making wholesale changes would be a lame thing to do, with the kind of team that was picked for this tour, the lack of experience in the bowling line-up and the conditions that they were pitted up against this was very likely to happen, and eventually as feared before the start of he series, all these things in the end proved to be major factors in Australia performing as badly as they did, the Aussie fast-bowlers bowled the wrong lengths on these pitches and paid heavily for it and the lack of any spinner in the first three games also clearly hurt us, the batting was good through the series except for Mohali and that pretty much cost Australia the series and this game too, so frankly speaking not many positives for Australia to take out of this series, except for Watto fitness and improvement in bowling and maybe even Katich' performance as an opener to some extent, but i do expect them to bounce back strongly and do well at home this summer, but it would be while playing away from home where they would be truly tested from now on.

Where did I suggest making wholesale changes?

I mentioned one possible change that might need to be considered if Haddin is poor again vs. NZ, and another which would be universely considered logical in dropping White. Otherwise, I think this is about the best team we've got, we just need the players we have to play better.

 

[Johnners]

Okay what passage of play are people complaining about?

Day 3 having Sharma and Zaheer bowl wide outside off?

Or today when he had everyone out on the boundary bar 2 fielders, and Mishra and Harbhajan were bowling into the foot marks.

If its the second, that complaint is proposeterous, and is an holier than thou attitude as to what its like being a test captain when Hayden is smashing your bowlers to all parts in a test you can't afford to lose.

This morning when Harbhajan and Sehwag were bowling tripe outside legstump/off-stump, and just 20 overs were bowled in a session, which included an almost 10 minute drinks break.

Also, yesterday evening when we saw White, Hussey & Clarke performing miracles (for India at least ) as opposed to Watson/Lee.

Don't get me wrong, the better team won, but I just can't see how much of the cricket in the past 2 days can be seen as "good cricket".

 

[alternative]

I reckon there was nothing negative with Dhoni's approach today, thought it was decent to try and containg Australia when Hayden and Hussey were going on with their business.

 

[Jono]

This morning when Harbhajan and Sehwag were bowling tripe outside legstump/off-stump, and just 20 overs were bowled in a session, which included an almost 10 minute drinks break.

They were bowling that when India were on top and had taken 3 wickets. If they were bowling well (as Harbhajan did later in the day) it would have been an attacking move, because its common sense to bowl into the foot marks and try and get an edge. Remember that Harbhajan had Hayden dropped twice bowling that line!!!

Sehwag was bowling ****, he wasn't bowling negative, he was just actually bowling poorly. As was Harbhajan early with half-trackers and balls too wide, and believe me he wasn't aiming it to be that wide.

I don't see why you think India tried to slow down the game when they were on top. They tried to slow down when Hayden was bashing them everywhere, but that was through field placements.

I don't mind people criticising Dhoni for his tactics on day 3, even if I disagree. Not understanding the criticism today. He put people on the boundary, Hayden and Hussey could have then just bunted it around for singles, but they decided to get out. Not Dhoni's fault tbh.

 

[Prince EWS]

Haddin had a poor series, and will need to produce against NZ or the selectors might be tempted to experiment with Ronchi.

I think people under-estimate how big the gap between Haddin and everyone else actually is. Even if Haddin recorded four goldens against New Zealand, all achieved through horrible batsmanship, I'd still back him to score more runs against South Africa than Luke Ronchi. Ronchi's actually more likely to be playing for WA Second XI than Australia in the near future if a few regular posters in the domestic cricket thread are to be believed, and rightly so really.

As long as the domestic keepers keep producing the mediocre results with the bat they've done so far in their careers and Haddin's keeping doesn't let him down, he'll be getting a very extended run in the team, regardless of how many he's scoring.

 

[masterblaster]

What a great result for all Indian cricket fans! We were the better team for most of the series and for the first time we played completely as a team. Bowled brilliantly and most of the batsman fired.

There were still things we didn't do well though such as fielding and the form of Rahul Dravid is a concern, but overall it's a fantastic victory and one of our most memorable. As a supporter of both Indian and Australian cricket, the series was so entertaining and these two teams always ensure a clash of the titans contest.

Australia have a lot of thinking to do now and Ricky Ponting will cop a lot of stick, as he should. His captaincy was uninspired and often a bit puzzling. Although with NZ coming up as next opponents, I think Australia will get back on the winning track.

So happy right now though! A fantastic test series and a well deserved victory for India!