***Official*** Australia in India 2017

[Kirkut]

Did you watch the match?

The pitch was absolute garbage. The spin is one thing, but every second ball just straight up didn't bounce, and then once an over one would skip up to twice the height it ought to.

I have seen worse cases in Perth, Sabina Park and Johannesburg. Agreed with uneven bounce, but not a minefield. Aussies faced Ishant and Umesh but Indian bats had to endure Starc and Hazlewood on the same pitch.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah I remember early on in the 3rd innings I said something like "150 would be horrible to chase here". Just had no confidence that such a thing was even especially possible, frankly. You get one like Smith got and, well, what are you meant to do?

Ask the change room if it looks good for a review?

 

[adub]

Really the **** moment was that 4/7 collapse on Day 3. Burgey was spot on, we should have buried them then and there.

Yep. Even 3 12 run partnerships would probably have been decisive. 120+ lead would have made things so much tougher.

But to India's credit they took the big moments where in Pune we did.

 

[Spark]

No way. I really like this community, but that aspect is easily its worst and not what someone trawling through tour threads after missing the day's play is looking for.

I have to agree. I don't mind people being genuinely pessimistic and genuinely worried, that's fine, but actual Gambhiring "i.e. incessantly and disingeuously posting about how everything is doom and gloom despite it clearly being not" is really really irritating.

 

[Compton]

And if Smith gets one that bounces above ankle height you could say the same thing. But there's no guarantee that it doesn't happen on exactly the next ball, and ultimately I think 190 is just a bridge too far for us right now. Maybe if we had a really settled, in-form top 6, but that's rare in itself.

Yeah I can see your point. Obviously it's just speculation and there's no way to be 'right' or 'wrong'.

With Marsh and Wade at 6 and 7 I don't have much faith in Australia scoring runs once Smith gets out.

 

[Spark]

Ask the change room if it looks good for a review?

He's apologised for that, apparently.

 

[social]

I'm surprised there's not still some on here worried that Australia might still win.

Australia can win but I reckon at least one of the remaining tests will be played on another horrible pitch and it will come down to who has the most luck

 

[Compton]

I have seen worse cases in Perth, Sabina Park and Johannesburg. Agreed with uneven bounce, but not a minefield. Aussies faced Ishant and Umesh but Indian bats had to endure Starc and Hazlewood on the same pitch.

I'm not saying it's the worst pitch ever, but it was garbage.

 

[adub]

I'm not just basing it off of how they batted with the new ball though. I think if Warner doesn't get given out there, Australia win.

I don't think they'd have scored at 5 an over to get there, but not losing their challenge and having Warner there for at least another few overs would have made a big difference. India got a big lift from that wicket, and I don't think - had it not been given - they'd have been far away from getting really demoralised.

But hey, that's cricket.

Nah. Warner is clueless to Ashwin. If it wasn't that ball it would have been another soon enough.

 

[Compton]

Australia can win but I reckon at least one of the remaining tests will be played on another horrible pitch and it will come down to who has the most luck

I meant worried that Australia might still win the second test

 

[mr_mister]

The irony is that this was around the exact moment where life was breathed back into the series

ATG Post

just so you know i was being facetious

 

[Shri]

Stop closing the thread, harsh you ****!

 

[vcs]

Well, you guys now know what it felt like when we got Herath'ed in Galle 2015. At least we bounced back from that to win the series.

 

[Spark]

Yeah fair. But I am basically thinking that we either try to win by an innings or we probably lose tbh.

This, in hindsight, was a very good call.

 

[Burner]

India were truly ****ed if it were not for Rahul. He said that he's limited to a few shots because of injury, maybe that's why he was so inconsistent before, played too many shots and now he has fewer shots and boom everything is easier.

 

[harsh.ag]

Oh please

He is obviously a fine bowler but so is Jackson Bird and Ashwin in India is the equivalent of the latter playing on a WACA green-top 3 matches out of 5

Play the 3rd test on any Australian/SA/ENG/NZ ground and he would perform as ordinarily as he does in virtually every other overseas test

So how come he didn't rip through the Aussies in the first innings here? Perhaps because he wasn't bowling that well.

 

[Compton]

When does the third test start?

 

[cnerd123]

Don't know how to feel about Ashwin's match-winning turn. Till that happened, I was thinking it wouldn't be so bad to have him "rested" for the next Test. I do hope he's rediscovered his release and rhythm like he said in the intie, because we can't afford having him look so ordinary again.

He didn't actually look that much better. He was still slow, loopy and lacking revs. He still wasn't fully pivoting over his leg. And before the started taking wickets, he wasn't even finding his length consistently.

I got so caught up in the game I kinda stopped paying attention to his mechanics after the wicket of Smith. I wish I could go back and re-watch all of it to analyses. But my memories of what I just saw lead me to think he just controlled his line and length better: he found a way to adapt to his lack of rhythm. And once the batsmen were panicking he just really came into his rhythm

 

[Stapel]

This test has got an ashwin related australian collapse written all over it

Good call!

 

[honestbharani]

Oh please

He is obviously a fine bowler but so is Jackson Bird and Ashwin in India is the equivalent of the latter playing on a WACA green-top 3 matches out of 5

Play the 3rd test on any Australian/SA/ENG/NZ ground and he would perform as ordinarily as he does in virtually every other overseas test

And it only gets better..... The whines, The waaahhhs, The wonder of it aallll