***Official Australia in India***

[pup11]

We can chase down anything - Watson

Obviously all that batting and fielding in that heat has got to Watto....

 

[four_or_six]

Obviously all that batting and fielding in that heat has got to Watto....

Enjoyed watching his innings today

He did look a bit stiff in the field, and I think the Aussies need to look seriously at what they're doing bowling him so much, but it was good to hear him saying he'd wanted to bowl this evening but wasn't asked. Hopefully he won't do too much tomorrow either, leave him to concentrate on batting.

 

[silentstriker]

There are several things to take note out of a pretty good day from India:

1. Pitch is flat as hell. Australia had absolutely no business getting shuttled for 268
2. India should look to score 200 runs in the morning, and set Australia a target of 500, and then set very attacking fields.
3. India should look to declare a couple of overs before tea tomorrow
4. India cannot get bogged down as has happened before. This will allow Ponting to just play for time. No matter what, on this flat pitch, we need four full sessions.
5. If India can get shuttled out tomorrow, the Aussie lineup will make things scary for India, so India need to walk a fine line.
6. Dhoni needs to throw the ball to Sehwag, Sachin and Ganguly once in a white. You can't overbowl people, plus they can be good partnership breakers, especially Sehwag and Sachin.

I think this'll be a draw - unless they have no clue to Mishra, I don't see how we're going to take ten wickets. Ishant and Zaheer today were wayward a lot. Aussie lineup is too good to be taken cheaply twice in one match. Someone is going to come through with a big second innings century. If Ponting can do that in the next two days, he has answered pretty much all the questions in my mind, regarding India.

 

[four_or_six]

There are several things to take note out of a pretty good day from India:

1. Pitch is flat as hell. Australia had absolutely no business getting shuttled for 268
2. India should look to score 200 runs in the morning, and set Australia a target of 500, and then set very attacking fields.
3. India should look to declare a couple of overs before tea tomorrow
4. India cannot get bogged down as has happened before. This will allow Ponting to just play for time. No matter what, on this flat pitch, we need four full sessions.
5. If India can get shuttled out tomorrow, the Aussie lineup will make things scary for India, so India need to walk a fine line.
6. Dhoni needs to throw the ball to Sehwag, Sachin and Ganguly once in a white. You can't overbowl people, plus they can be good partnership breakers, especially Sehwag and Sachin.

I think this'll be a draw - unless they have no clue to Mishra, I don't see how we're going to take ten wickets. Ishant and Zaheer today were wayward a lot. Aussie lineup is too good to be taken cheaply twice in one match. Someone is going to come through with a big second innings century. If Ponting can do that in the next two days, he has answered pretty much all the questions in my mind, regarding India.

I think four sessions is too conservative. I reckon if they get a move on tomorrow they can have nearer five to play with, and somehow that sounds a lot more daunting.

 

[Lambu]

I think they must bat for 40-50 overs tomorrow.That will give them about 130-140 overs at the Aussie batsmen.

 

[Sanz]

wonder how much Greg Chappell is helping, it boggles the mind that our brains trust is low on ideas with an ex-Indian coach in the ranks.

Hve called that one out long ago. Chappell in the Aussie think tank was 'Advantage' India. That said, what can you do when your main bowler is not firing and when the players who are supposed to do well in India aren't really firing.

 

[Sanz]

I think they must bat for 40-50 overs tomorrow.That will give them about 130-140 overs at the Aussie batsmen.

Yeah bat for 40 overs and score another 150-175 runs and leave Australia to score 475 in 140 overs. What does the forecast look like in Mohali ?

 

[four_or_six]

A lot has been said about the Aussie bowling not being good enough, but I think the batsmen need to take a good look at themselves. India bowled very well, but 260 was still way below par.

For this side to compete well, the batsmen need to be very consistent so that when the bowlers have a good day they can capitalise, and when they don't they can draw. It's interesting times for Australia... and I can't see them changing any time soon. This team is as good as it gets really... Symonds may come back, but Watson is near the bottom of Australia's problems at the moment, and McGain is injured and untried too.

 

[SJS]

the importance of winning a toss is best shown by the fact that very few captains [if any] would like to lose a toss [no matter what stats you give them]

Of course everyone wants to win the toss because it DOES give you some advantage. I NEVER said that it doesn't BUT that advantage is NEVER enough in itself to win games for you. That is the difference. Its like saying every captain wants his openers to give a good start, lets say, at least 75 runs for the first wicket. Of course every captain will want that, but 75 runs for the first wicket does not win the Test for you.

Thats all there is to it. I am not saying anything else. And I dont want to remain in this debate just to have the last word. If that is what interests you please go ahead and write. I am done.

Good night.

 

[weldone]

I think they must bat for 40-50 overs tomorrow.That will give them about 130-140 overs at the Aussie batsmen.

Perfect...

Bat for maximum 1 hour after lunch (or, maybe half an hour after lunch if Sehwag is playing till then) before you declare, that's the way to go...one can safely say that Aussies won't try to chase any total over 3 rpo against India on this ground, especially with only 1 front-line batsman who is looking very comfortable (Hussey) ...

 

[social]

A lot has been said about the Aussie bowling not being good enough, but I think the batsmen need to take a good look at themselves. India bowled very well, but 260 was still way below par.

For this side to compete well, the batsmen need to be very consistent so that when the bowlers have a good day they can capitalise, and when they don't they can draw. It's interesting times for Australia... and I can't see them changing any time soon. This team is as good as it gets really... Symonds may come back, but Watson is near the bottom of Australia's problems at the moment, and McGain is injured and untried too.

268 was a poor total but India deserve all the praise because they bowled Australia out rather than being gifted the wickets

For their part, the Australian batsmen have to have a good look at their techniques and stop playing lazy, half forward defensive prods

As for the future, hopefully the selectors will start picking the team on merit and without reference to blind hope or preconceived bias

 

[Precambrian]

Yep, a total of around 450 with 140 overs to get will be fantastic. That will invoke both questions in the mind of Australian batsmen, whether to go for win or draw. Though I guess they'll go for the former.

 

[social]

Yep, a total of around 450 with 140 overs to get will be fantastic. That will invoke both questions in the mind of Australian batsmen, whether to go for win or draw. Though I guess they'll go for the former.

They'll just bat normally and hope to be in a position to assess the situation at tea on the last day

 

[Precambrian]

They'll just bat normally and hope to be in a position to assess the situation at tea on the last day

If they bat normally, like they did in the first innings, chances are that they will be eveluating their chances for the third test at tea on Day 5.

 

[social]

If they bat normally, like they did in the first innings, chances are that they will be eveluating their chances for the third test at tea on Day 5.

As I said earlier, they need to be more positive in their footwork (and being agressive against at least one of the spinners should be on the agenda as well) but a "normal" batting display shouls see the team score at 3 runs per over

The question is how many have the form and attitude to play that way at the moment

 

[silentstriker]

There are several things to take note out of a pretty good day from India:

1. Pitch is flat as hell. Australia had absolutely no business getting shuttled for 268
2. India should look to score 200 runs in the morning, and set Australia a target of 500, and then set very attacking fields.
3. India should look to declare a couple of overs before tea tomorrow
4. India cannot get bogged down as has happened before. This will allow Ponting to just play for time. No matter what, on this flat pitch, we need four full sessions.
5. If India can get shuttled out tomorrow, the Aussie lineup will make things scary for India, so India need to walk a fine line.
6. Dhoni needs to throw the ball to Sehwag, Sachin and Ganguly once in a white. You can't overbowl people, plus they can be good partnership breakers, especially Sehwag and Sachin.

I think this'll be a draw - unless they have no clue to Mishra, I don't see how we're going to take ten wickets. Ishant and Zaheer today were wayward a lot. Aussie lineup is too good to be taken cheaply twice in one match. Someone is going to come through with a big second innings century. If Ponting can do that in the next two days, he has answered pretty much all the questions in my mind, regarding India.

I think four sessions is too conservative. I reckon if they get a move on tomorrow they can have nearer five to play with, and somehow that sounds a lot more daunting.

I think five sessions is too much -- but then again, I do tend to be very conservative about these things. That's up to 150 overs. Aussies can chase down 500 in that time.

I'm not saying they will, but they could. And on a flat pitch like this? If Sehwag can score, you know the pitch has no demons. We need to be able to have extremely attacking fields without having to worry about the run rate. I think another 200 runs and four sessions is good enough. Maybe four sessions and 5-6 overs before tea, so the fast bowlers can get more overs in if they are bowling well and the batsmen need to get set one more time.

 

[silentstriker]

Then again, India could collapse and Aussies could be chasing 400 with five sessions to go. In which case, watch out.

 

[Prince EWS]

I have just decided to look at Michael Clarke's stats a bit closer.

I wanted to see how he performed in situations where he went out to bat with Australia on a bad score.

He's batted at 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 so it was hard to say exactly what a bad score is, however I decided on 2/50 3/75, 4/120, 5/160 and 6/190.

There has been 12 instances in his career where he's come into bat in a bad situation and in that time he has made 203 runs at an average of 16.92 with a highest score of 37.

Do you think 12 innings is too small or a slight problem for Clarke? I have to say there was an instance when the score was 4/121 [just off the criteria] and he made a score which would have helped the average a bit.

This is really interesting. Do you mind if I steal your general idea to do an article for the website?

 

[Precambrian]

Just having free time to work out some numbers.

Bowling performance at Top 7 of the opposition batting lineup (Upto end of Aus 1st inngs)

Australia (Against Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly, Dhoni)

[B][U]Bowler	        Overs	Runs	Wickets	Average	Econ[/U][/B]
B Lee	       49.4 	132	3	 44.00 	 2.66 
S Clarke	 25 	55	1	 55.00 	 2.20 
M Johnson	 48.2 	150	8	 18.75 	 3.10 
S Watson	 40.1 	103	1	 103.00 2.56 
C White	       42.5 	144	2	 72.00 	 3.36 
M Clarke	 34.4 	88	1	 88.00 	 2.54 
P Siddle	 24.1 	106	2	 53.00 	 4.39

India (Against Katich, Hayden, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin, Watson)

[B][U]Bowler	        Overs	Runs	Wickets	Average	Econ[/U][/B]
Z Khan	       66.4 	163	5	 32.60 	 2.45 
I Sharma	 58.5 	157	8	 19.63 	 2.67 
H Singh	       86.2 	226	4	 56.50 	 2.62 
A Kumble	 45.1 	147	0	 NA 	 3.25 
V Sehwag	 12.3 	21	0	 NA 	 1.68 
A Mishra	 14.5 	46	3	 15.33 	 3.10

Kind of shows how dire have been Australian fast bowlers except Johnson, who has performed well against the Indian Top Order.

And for India, Ishant Sharma has done a superb job. Zaheer's figures look ok. Mishra too gets a good avg due to his fifer today.

 

[Precambrian]

And Ponting seems to have overcome his Harbhajan-phobia. He has scored thus far 51 off 69 balls off Bhajji at a SR of 75 and has lost his wicket to him once.

The only batsman to be comfortable against all bowlers has been MEK Hussey. His performance against the Indian bowlers in the 3 inngs is as below:

[B][U]Bowler	         Runs	Balls	Dismissal	Avg	SR[/U][/B]
Z Khan	             56	114	1	56.00	49.12%
I Sharma	48	94	1	48.00	51.06%
H Singh	             60	136	1	60.00	44.12%
A Kumble	43	72	0	NA	59.72%
V Sehwag	10	33	0	NA	30.30%
A Mishra	14	18	0	NA	77.78%

[B]TOTAL	           231	467	3	77.00	49.46%[/B]