1st Test, Aus vs India, Adelaide oval 17th-21st December

[Burgey]

Thanks man! I'm doing an full-time MSc, at the moment, so have a bit more time on my hands.

I bet you do! Good on you mate

 

[Shri]

That’s fantastic.

what a crazy test match. Only the 46ao game vs SA in my time really compares for a side totally undoing their ascendency in a session, though tbf Aus bowled brilliantly and India just nicked all of them

so if some of our batsmen were not good enough to nick some (like steve smith was against bumrah) we could have won?

 

[Spark]

so if some of our batsmen were not good enough to nick some (like steve smith was against bumrah) we could have won?

half of them would have been bowled/lbw instead if so.

 

[Shri]

Devastating for India not having Pandya available to bowl decent overs, too.

i'll take him as a pure bat over shaw lamo

 

[Shri]

half of them would have been bowled/lbw instead if so.

nah no way

runout? yes.

 

[Spark]

nah no way

runout? yes.

no i mean the deliveries that got them out were so straight that they would have hit the stumps in quite a few cases.

 

[Shri]

i am just happy that you guys will be stuck with Langer as coach for years after this 4-0 series win

 

[OverratedSanity]

Devastating for India not having Pandya available to bowl decent overs, too.

Meh, wouldn't have changed much.

It's really hard to say because, like, yes you should obviously not being bowled out for less than 40 runs under, well, any circumstances really, but at the same time most of these batsmen just got pretty much perfect balls when they were brand new to the crease, and the one batsman who did try to be proactive and change the rhythm/momentum of the innings perished immediately upon doing so. it's just an absolute freak, one-in-a-thousand occurrence imo, it's highly unlikely that anything like this will happen again. india will bat worse, objectively, and score a lot more runs than... this.

Lack of intent unironically hurts India whenever there's sideways movement. Just that Kohli's definition of intent is completely different to what I mean. It's the indecisiveness when they defend that ****s them up when there's that little bit of movement in the air/off the pitch. Pujara is the only one that has the balls required to defend and not get annoyed when the score doesnt move forward but he's way too flawed technically to convert them into big scores when the balls doing something.
If kohli seriously thinks that simply looking for more runs will result in a better performance he's living in dreamland and isn't giving the Australian bowlers enough credit. They're good enough to stay relentless even if you keep the scoreboard ticking and could even create more chances than they did today.

Git gud India.

 

[Spark]

Lack of intent unironically hurts India whenever there's sideways movement. Just that Kohli's definition of intent is completely different to what I mean. It's the indecisiveness when they defend that ****s them up when there's that little bit of movement in the air/off the pitch. Pujara is the only one that has the balls required to defend and not get annoyed when the score doesnt move forward but he's way too flawed technically to convert them into big scores when the balls doing something.
If kohli seriously thinks that simply looking for more runs will result in a better performance he's living in dreamland and isn't giving the Australian bowlers enough credit. They're good enough to stay relentless even if you keep the scoreboard ticking and could even create more chances than they did today.

Git gud India.

I mean I don't disagree with this at all, I just don't think it's realistic to expect even high quality international batsman to do that much against bowling of that quality when they're brand new to the crease. A fair few of these guys didn't even face double digit numbers of balls, you're just hoping you don't get one with your name on it then.

Like maybe Agarwal could have left it, though the ball was so straight that it's hard to fault him for playing it, and maybe Rahane should have been a bit more decisive with his front foot movement and played with softer hands, but it's his third ball or something like that and a pretty much perfect ball.

If anything, the collapse after the Kohli run out was worse. That was genuinely spineless. This IMO is principally a story of India not taking several opportunities they had to really take control of the Test (being 3/170 with two set bats, all those dropped catches, having Aus 7/115 etc) and Australia taking its one very slim chance to do the same.

 

[Heboric]

Holy crap didnt expect this to happen, now I realise why my feed was showing the match from the beginning again. Wow

 

[Prince EWS]

It's really hard to say because, like, yes you should obviously not being bowled out for less than 40 runs under, well, any circumstances really, but at the same time most of these batsmen just got pretty much perfect balls when they were brand new to the crease, and the one batsman who did try to be proactive and change the rhythm/momentum of the innings perished immediately upon doing so. it's just an absolute freak, one-in-a-thousand occurrence imo, it's highly unlikely that anything like this will happen again. india will bat worse, objectively, and score a lot more runs than... this.

Yeah, to be clear: they lost because they got rolled for 36. Not because of the run out or dropped catches in the first dig. They weren't perfect in the first dig but they will still comfortably the better team. The second innings batting is 99% of why they lost.

But it's also not something I think they should take to heart too much or "address". Cricket is weird, and **** happens. Shaw and Saha looked completely out of their depth which meant they were really only playing with five bats, and in the second dig those bats repeatedly got good ones, and unluckily enough for them they edged them and were caught.

We all know the nature is cricket is that this can happen, and when you combine probably the best session of bowling I've ever seen with bad luck, it ended up record-breakingly bad.

The biggest challenge between Tests will be recovering mentally from that. Trying to address technical problems at the same time will just make this harder as it'll reinforce the idea that they weren't good enough, making the biggest hurdle harder. Agarwal, Pujara, Rahane and Vihari don't have technical issues to address as a result of this; they just need to strap in for another go.

Drop Shaw, get the right bats in, and have another crack IMO.

 

[Line and Length]

i am just happy that you guys will be stuck with Langer as coach for years after this 4-0 series win

The anti-Langer sentiments expressed on CW don't reflect the positive regard the players (Khawaja aside) have for JL.

 

[aussie tragic]

I put it all down to the arrogance of havng Bumrah bat #3 ... Australia was having none of that and the increased adrenalin rolled through the innings

 

[Andy19]

great win by Australia however I do feel bad for India because really are a good side also these rare low totals 36 lowest in India history to happen to other teams as well.

 

[Spark]

Yeah, to be clear: they lost because they got rolled for 36. Not because of the run out or dropped catches in the first dig. They weren't perfect in the first dig but they will still comfortably the better team. The second innings batting is 99% of why they lost.

But it's also not something I think they should take to heart too much or "address". Cricket is weird, and **** happens. Shaw and Saha looked completely out of their depth which meant they were really only playing with five bats, and in the second dig those bats repeatedly got good ones, and unluckily enough for them they edged them and were caught.

We all know the nature is cricket is that this can happen, and when you combine probably the best session of bowling I've ever seen with bad luck, it ended up record-breakingly bad.

The biggest challenge between Tests will be recovering mentally from that. Trying to address technical problems at the same time will just make this harder as it'll reinforce the idea that they weren't good enough, making the biggest hurdle harder. Agarwal, Pujara, Rahane and Vihari don't have technical issues to address as a result of this; they just need to strap in for another go.

Drop Shaw, get the right bats in, and have another crack IMO.

I agree with all this but the only thing I'll mention is that there's quite a bit more path dependence in cricket than people realise IMO, especially in Tests. The biggest thing India could have done to help their batsmen, as paradoxical as it sounds, would have been to finish Australia off more cheaply, one for the psychological boost (and avoiding giving Aus the psychological boost they had from basically getting back to a competitive position in the game), but also because the Aus bowlers would have been that little bit more tired and less likely to produce 30 straight overs of ATG tier bowling. That's why I do think that the dropped catches etc and first innings collapse matters; it's easier to bat with a bigger cushion in general.

 

[Prince EWS]

The anti-Langer sentiments expressed on CW don't reflect the positive regard the players (Khawaja aside) have for JL.

The players liking a coach and the coach being good aren't the same thing, and this really goes double if the coach is biased towards selecting the sort of the players who'd like him.

I think Langer is less disastrous than is made out, but only because I think the position of coach is less important in general. If I bought into Langer's role as much as Langer does I'd be terrified.

 

[trundler]

The Bumrah slower ball dismissal was an underrated moment of cleverness from Cummins. 150 wickets in 31 wickets **** me. He doesn't get fifers with the frequency of Steyn but he really is McGrath 2.0 in terms of consistency and how he operates.

 

[Spark]

The Bumrah slower ball dismissal was an underrated moment of cleverness from Cummins. 150 wickets in 31 wickets **** me. He doesn't get fifers with the frequency of Steyn but he really is McGrath 2.0 in terms of consistency and how he operates.

He's two or three years of this standard of bowling away from being a legitimate candidate in ATG discussions IMO. He's that good.

 

[Andy19]

Cummins is the best test bowler in the world and Already ATG.

 

[trundler]

He's two or three years of this standard of bowling away from being a legitimate candidate in ATG discussions IMO. He's that good.

Also needs a couple of tons to replace Lindwall at #8 in the all time Australian XI which is really all that matters