***Official Australia in India***

[Lambu]

No it was Sehwag actually.

 

[Precambrian]

Aside from ball 1, did he hit a ball in the air?

No

His strike rate was 150 because he kept hitting proper cricket shots for runs

As for the sweep, firstly the guy has scored well over a thousand runs in his career from it

Secondly, so if he played a forward defensive and got out (which he would have done as there wouldnt have been any change in his footwork), you'd be happy?

Sorry, but that makes no sense whatsoever

That's probably because he lasted an entire lot of 20 balls in his innings. Hardly qualifies as an innings of any significance. And I didn't say Hayden looked completely edgy out there, just that he played two ugly shots which certainly didn't help Aus.

 

[Prince EWS]

No it was Sehwag actually.

Could have sworn it was Sachin. The commentators definitely said it was him - maybe I just took their word for it without actually checking...

 

[Precambrian]

No it was Sehwag actually.

Nuh, Sachin, unless I am again hallucinating.

 

[masterblaster]

Could have sworn it was Sachin. The commentators definitely said it was him - maybe I just took their word for it without actually checking...

That's because it was Sachin. I swear I saw him take the catch of Clarke and jump up and celebrate with the bowler.

 

[Johnners]

Fox Sports have Sehwag as the fielder on their scorecard, as do Cricket Australia.

 

[Lambu]

^ it was just lousy camerawork.Instead of focusing on the guy who took the catch they caught sachin who was celebrating with Sehwag who just got up at that point..he was on the ground after taking the catch btw.

 

[hammo666]

Haydos is Gone I'm afraid,that sweep shot was reallY bad! I had cash on him getting a duck

 

[Precambrian]

Fox Sports have Sehwag as the fielder on their scorecard, as do Cricket Australia.

They steal scorecard from Cricinfo.

 

[Precambrian]

Gotta get some sleep now, or I'll start behaving like Ashoka DeSilva. Cheers again to all India fans out there. Never since Adelaide 03. I've got myself pumped in a Indo-Aussie tussle.

 

[honestbharani]

it all comes to fore again that the so called famed aussie batsmen "CANNOT play reverse swing--- nada...zip....

a repeat of 2005 ashes fiasco

Quality reverse swing is tough to play for ANY batsman.. It actually shows how good Australia are that it takes such a quality bowling performance for them to be dismissed cheaply twice in the match. Other teams have folded over (including India) against half this good performances....


Jeez, I guess people juz don't appreciate how good Australia are, even now, with some of their stars retired...

 

[honestbharani]

i missed this one. hope they got this in the highlights reel. going to go over the highlights again before the start of the last day's play just for the pleasure of watching ponting's face from all the beating from indians.

Dude, I know Ponting is not the greatest bloke going around in world cricket, but that is just a **** reason to watch cricket......

 

[SJS]

Why couldn't he send Sachin at number three ?

Gotta get some sleep now, or I'll start behaving like Ashoka DeSilva. Cheers again to all India fans out there. Never since Adelaide 03. I've got myself pumped in a Indo-Aussie tussle.

Before you sleep. you have to answer that

 

[hammo666]

For those calling for A Symonds to be called up......5 & 5 in the recent Sheffield Shield game doesn't sujest he's in great form.

 

[honestbharani]

It's the control thing, I reckon. Because India is reversing it and they're not, it almost seems mythical and that breeds the awe, etc and consequent feelings of being out-of-control. This Aussie team hates dealing with things out of their control, out-of-the-ordinary or a bit different. It's why when they play South Africa, they feel like they'll beat them every time but when they play India, there's always the threat of a loss. Psychologically it goes back to fear of the unknown (probably a bit of xenophobia); when they play India, instead of seeing them as opponents on a cricket field, they probably see them as these creatures who can do magic tricks with the ball they can't. Breeds the most basic human emotion in these circumstances, fear. What follows? Panic.

Notice how the tension regarding losing the Ashes in 2005 didn't fully dissipate when they beat them in the return series and only when it as found English bowlers were apparently using sweets to get the ball to reverse? Suddenly, they had a reason, something they could blame for the loss. Was a way to regain control of the situation. "We knew it! So there you go, they had to cheat to win!" Look for something similar to be uncovered after this series, whether true or not (i.e. there's no proof that using sweets on the ball affected it at all). Need an outside influence to blame. Why?

The Aussie team is built on having trained and planned for every possibility in cricket and doing all the little things right that the other teams either ignore or don't do as well (ground fielding, for example). Being beaten on their merits is incongruous to this psychology because they would think, they're doing everything right and should win. So if they lose, must have been something else, the oppo cheated, etc.

That is all fine and dandy but don't you think the young Aussie sportsmen should also be taught the basic principle of competitive sport: That you can do everything right and still be beated, because the opponent was better...........

 

[Pratters]

Why couldn't he send Sachin at number three ?

Weren't you saying Tendulkar is a more restrictive batsman now than before? Any ways that is besides the point. I think it made perfect sense have Dhoni at 4. Dhoni is not a specialist batter like Laxman. Dhoni plays attacking. If Dhoni falls, we have Tendulkar and Laxman left to handle the inning.

 

[Top_Cat]

That is all fine and dandy but don't you think the young Aussie sportsmen should also be taught the basic principle of competitive sport: That you can do everything right and still be beated, because the opponent was better...........

What use is such a thought when you're winning everything?

Okay seriously, that sort of reality contradicts the control freak mentality so the solution is not to teach it at all. Considering Aus's home and away record for the past 20 years, you'd be hard-pressed to convince anyone in the Aus heirarchy they were wrong.

 

[Pratters]

What use is such a thought when you're winning everything?

Okay seriously, that sort of reality contradicts the control freak mentality so the solution is not to teach it at all. Considering Aus's home and away record for the past 20 years, you'd be hard-pressed to convince anyone in the Aus heirarchy they were wrong.

The domestic cricket has six teams and one wins. So 5 teams do lose. I fail to see how players can't learn that they can lose despite playing their best while coming through the ranks. It is just poor sportsmanship if they cannot acknowledge it regardless of which team or country one belongs to.

An Australian can be a true sportsman - Pat Rafter for instance is a top example which comes to mind.

 

[Matt79]

Love the knives coming out as soon as we lose a game. We can be sportsmen just as much as every other country on Earth. I have no problems admitting that the better team at Mohali won, and that as much as some of the Aussies playing badly contributed, they only played as badly as they were forced to by some sustained excellence from the Indian team.

Well done to Dhoni and the boys - if you can consistently play like that, you'll be a top team for a long time.

From the Aussie perspective, I don't think there's any need for knee-jerk reactions. We were a good team 5 days ago, if obviously not as good as our best teams over the past 10 years, and we're still a good team now. We didn't play well here, and the guys should be thinking about what they can do to improve their performances, but I don't think there are any sensible changes that can be made to improve the team with the options that are available, other than Clark coming back into the bowling attack, which should make a big improvement in our attack.

 

[Pratters]

We can be sportsmen just as much as every other country on Earth.

AWTA.