**Official** Australia in India Thread

[SJS]

No, he was injured for the last New Zealand tour.

That was when Martyn came back into the side.

I am absolutely fascinated by his performance in India. I refuse to believe that he is SUCH a bad player of spin as to average 12.28 at 39.5 runs per hundred balls not in a few but as many as 14 innings spread over 8 years !!

Inexplicable !!

 

[Eclipse]

I am absolutely fascinated by his performance in India. I refuse to believe that he is SUCH a bad player of spin as to average 12.28 at 39.5 runs per hundred balls not in a few but as many as 14 innings spread over 8 years !!

Inexplicable !!

well he is a better player than those figures show but he certainly does rather pace bowling.

He is a good hitter against the spinners when he come's down the track but he plays with very hard hand's in defence thats why he has struggled in India.

 

[thirdumpire]

the above shows the fact that he can play spin. avging 50+ against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka

since the discussion is on Punter and spin, would be interesting did Murali play those 6 test ?

 

[Mister Wright]

since the discussion is on Punter and spin, would be interesting did Murali play those 6 test ?

I'm pretty sure all the tests he played in Sri Lanka were against Murali. His two against them in Australia, Murali didn't play.

 

[Mister Wright]

I am absolutely fascinated by his performance in India. I refuse to believe that he is SUCH a bad player of spin as to average 12.28 at 39.5 runs per hundred balls not in a few but as many as 14 innings spread over 8 years !!

Inexplicable !!

Like I've said before, he is a good player of spin, but usually when there is only spin from one end. In Sri Lanka and at home, or anywhere else for that matter (except India) he rarely faces quality spin from both ends early in his innings, that is usually his downfall. Both he and Gilchrist seem to have a weakness against spin early in their innings.

 

[thirdumpire]

I'm pretty sure all the tests he played in Sri Lanka were against Murali. His two against them in Australia, Murali didn't play.

ok i did the checkin. you right, Murali played every one of those 6 tests. Here is his numbers in Sri Lanka:

6(M) 451(runs) 105*(HS) 50.11(Avg) 1 (100's) 3 (50's )

 

[SJS]

Like I've said before, he is a good player of spin, but usually when there is only spin from one end. In Sri Lanka and at home, or anywhere else for that matter (except India) he rarely faces quality spin from both ends early in his innings, that is usually his downfall. Both he and Gilchrist seem to have a weakness against spin early in their innings.

I think his problem could be the slowness of the wickets. He is a batsman who prefers the ball to come onto the bat. With spinners bowling on the slow turners of India where the ball stops and comes, he has trouble. He needs to play late , as late as possible, like Martyn has done this time.

Also the problem with the uneven bounce. Here also , early committing to the stroke is a problem.

 

[Craig]

whatever it is, lehmann on top form is a far far better player against spin than ponting can ever dream off.
times running out for ponting IMO, averaging as low as he has in india is just not good enough to be considered great.

So Shane Warne isn't good because he hasn't been a raging success against India then say he has against England or South Africa?

 

[biased indian]

he is good and a legend in his own right

but not the BEST EVER because he often failed aganist best Opp(indians, who play spin well) he had to face in his playing time

 

[Craig]

i find it hard to believe that someone who averaged over 40 in that series gets a 5. i've never been a big sehwag fan, but credit where its due, he singlehandedly kept india alive in that 2nd game. didnt do too bad in the 1st innings of the 3rd either.

Too many starts without going on with it, and his sloppy fielding cost him points.

 

[Jnr.]

I'm pretty sure all the tests he played in Sri Lanka were against Murali. His two against them in Australia, Murali didn't play.

Yes, all the Tests v Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka had Murali in them.

Murali also played in Ponting's Test debut series in 95-96. I think his debut match was when Slater got that double ton and Murali went for 200+ in one innings.

 

[Jnr.]

Pontings away-Test match averages. (Cant seem to get NZ. has he played tests in NZ ? )

Pakistan - 119.00 (1 test)
Windies - 98.71 ( 5 tests)
S. Africa - 77.25 ( 3 tests)
Sri Lanka - 50.11 (6 tests)
England - 44.53 (8 tests)
Zimbabwe - 31.00 (1 test)
India - 12.28 ( 8 tests)

Actually he averages 54.45 in Sri Lanka over 7 Tests (he played one v Pakistan in 2002 in SL).
He averages 97 in United Arab Emirates over 2 Tests, when they played Pakistan in Sharjah.

 

[vic_orthdox]

i don't think ponting has. before their last tour there, he broke his ankle sliding into a fence at the scg, IIRC, and thats how damien martyn got back into the test side, and staked a good claim by making runs against the black caps. i think that was right at the end of their record streak, too.

 

[Jnr.]

i don't think ponting has. before their last tour there, he broke his ankle sliding into a fence at the scg, IIRC, and thats how damien martyn got back into the test side, and staked a good claim by making runs against the black caps. i think that was right at the end of their record streak, too.

They had another 6 Test wins after New Zealand (5 v West Indies, 1 v India).

 

[vic_orthdox]

i stand most humbly corrected

 

[tooextracool]

get real..

you dont like him very much do you ?

well not after his recent comments, but the fact is ive never called him great before because of his poor record in india.

 

[tooextracool]

And would you not consider Warne a great bowler because he has a poor record in India ??

there arent too many spinners who have had good records against india in india, certainly there have been several several batsmen who have succeeded in india.
regardless warne is a bowler, ponting is a batsman, i cant think off any great batsman with a record as bad after a considerably amount of games in a particular country.

 

[age_master]

lol, well we will just have to put up with out ordinary players winning massive amounts of tests for us than

 

[SJS]

there arent too many spinners who have had good records against india in india, certainly there have been several several batsmen who have succeeded in india.
regardless warne is a bowler, ponting is a batsman, i cant think off any great batsman with a record as bad after a considerably amount of games in a particular country.

I think you have a point.

I have always liked his batting. He is great to watch and I have never paid this muchattention to his India-stats before but this is amazing. His bad run in India that is. It is not like Dravid's in Australia before the last series. This is far too long and spread over 8 years and on either side of each failure he has a fairly decent form/record. There is positively something about the combination of slow turners and quality spinners that gets him.

Other than the very first test in India when he fel to Prasad, he has fallen six times to off spinners (Ashish Kapoor-1 and Harbhajan-5), 4 times to a leg spinner(Kumble) and thrice to a left armer (Raju-2 and Kartik-1).

And it is not as if he has been over aggressive. He has tried to slow down and his average strike rate in India is under 40!

Its quite amazing.

 

[JustTool]

Enough of Aussie whining

Harbhajan is finally speaking up. Can you beleive the asinine article written by Mark Waugh. Why doesn't he say that Gilchrist should be captain since he managed to win in India after 19 years of Aussie frustration and Ponting lost the only Test he captained and failed as a batsman (again). Why are the knives out for Ganguly and why do Indians have to be receipients of all the bogus accusations and whining. No class, I say. They barely squeaked out a 2-1 win after 19 years (thanks to the rain in Chennai) and they suspend all modesty, humility and class.

Outraged Harbhajan goes to Waugh
By: A Mid Day Correspondent
November 9, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------
On the Wankhede wicket

“I wonder if they had still whined if Australia had won the Mumbai Test. Mumbai has always provided wickets with grip and bounce. When we played a one-dayer here against Australia in 2001, we couldn’t chase 240 batting second because it spun big-time. We never complained then!”

‘Mark should keep his suggestions to himself’

Mark Waugh, in a recent column, said Indians would not win abroad with this negative attitude. Harbhajan didn’t take kindly to his comments:

“Incidentally, let me remind him we have not won matches only at home in the last few years. We beat West Indies in West Indies, England in England, Pakistan in Pakistan, Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and even Australia in Australia. I don’t think we won there because we had friendly curators.”

Waugh went on to say Ganguly should be replaced, to which Bhajji said: “I would say Mark should keep his suggestion to himself.”

53
The number of wickets Harbhajan Singh has claimed in his last six home Test matches against Australia