***Official*** India in Australia

[Matt79]

Thought it was a pretty good pitch - 37 wickets and nearly 1100 runs within four days play. It rewarded good play and application, but the bowlers would have felt there was the prospect of the ball doing something off the surface and creating the batsmen some difficulties. It probably wasn't intended that way, and it was a bit unusual, but it turned out well

 

[Josh]

Frank Grey Smith Bar owns...

Oh, and well done Australia. India can probably just go home now

 

[haroon510]

Mate, even if we win 4-0 he'll say "You just watch out Australia, it'll be 4-0 in India!". He's an optimist of nearly idiotic proportions.

Haha and for some reason you're cranky no matter what. When Aus lose you're mad, when they win you're mad. You seem to throw a trantrum no matter what. It's probably that time of the month for you.

hahha lol i guess someone was right that i flaming bait here.. but that wasn't my intention.. it just happend lol but it is funny though lol

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

The key with pitches is variation. I'm so sick of people saying that X pitch was a "bad pitch". Unless it's dangerous to play on, there's no such thing. The wicket was a good one because it tested out different skills to what you'll usually see on pitches in Australia. If every wicket for the series was slow with uneven bounce and made fast bowling and strokeplay difficult, then yes it would be a problem. One pitch is not.

For illustration, those who watched it should think back to the Australian tour of Bangladesh last year. Not the greatest opposition, but the first test was actually a really great match, and a lot of the excitement was caused by the pitch, which had tremendously uneven bounce which made batting a struggle, particularly against slow bowling. Inspired one of the best innings of Gilchrist's career.

So yes, this pitch was fine. Hopefully we'll see some more varied conditions for the rest of the series. I'd love it if Sydney turned and Perth helped seamers, and the batsmen can have their fun in Adelaide, as they usually do.

 

[Unattainableguy]

Nah, I disagree. Don't see the Indians having that much problem on this pitch in their first inning. India to pile on 600 runs according to me. Then, with a crumbling pitch, unleash Harbhajan and Kumble to try and enforce an innings victory. That should be the aim. Even if we win with 7-8 wickets in hand in the second inning, I wouldn't mind it too much. The good part is that there is a lot of time left in the game. So, Australia might need to make a fair few runs in their second inning to get them out of trouble. Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman are the key for India in that order to set the foundation for a big total.

India 196 & 161 (74.0 ov), Even with both innings, India only managing 357


I said India would struggle to get 200 and the match to finish in 4 days, exactly that happened.

 

[pup11]

But really at the end of the day it was our lack of preparation and brilliant bowling backed up by top class fielding that restricted us to less than 200 in both innings.

What lack of preparation are you talking about India deserves this BCCI is the one that scheduled the tour in such a way and still the pitch condition at the MCG were almost similar to an Indian pitch and if they famed Indian line-up can't even notch 200 once in 2 innings then no excuse is justified for that.

 

[TheLad]

I'm doubtful India can bounce back as a team. A few one of performances maybe but to beat Australia you need to work very hard, like the England team that won the ashes or the great partnership of a past India team.

The lack of preparation is one factor but as a unit the work ethic was lacking. I would like to think India can bounce back for the sack of the series but I have serious doubts about there ability to do so right now.

 

[pup11]

India 196 & 161 (74.0 ov), Even with both innings, India only managing 357


I said India would struggle to get 200 and the match to finish in 4 days, exactly that happened.

Hahaha.. had a genuine lol at that, seriously what was Pratyush think when he made a call that India would make 600 in the first innings batting was never easy on that pitch and on top of that the outfield too was on the slower side.
Lot of people underestimated Australia's 1st innings total because 344 on a track that suited the Indian bowling was a very good effort.

 

[pup11]

I'm doubtful India can bounce back as a team. A few one of performances maybe but to beat Australia you need to work very hard, like the England team that won the ashes or the great partnership of a past India team.

The lack of preparation is one factor but as a unit the work ethic was lacking. I would like to think India can bounce back for the sack of the series but I have serious doubts about there ability to do so right now.

Venues like SCG and Adelaide Oval suit Indian type of bowling because there Indian spinners would come across conditions that would help them so those test matches could be interesting, but at the WACA i am already expecting India to get drubbed for obvious reasons [] anyways its the mighty Indian batting that has always flatters to deceive (when it matters) and once again i think it would be the much hyped Indian batting that would let them down on this tour too.

 

[Matt79]

Reckon India might be a little burnt out from their workload tbh. THey just finished a series against Pakistan, they were in SA not long ago, then England, there was the 20/20 WC, the Future Cup vs. Aus.

I think Dravid for instance, more than anything, needs a month without picking up the bat in anger to clear his mind and relax a bit.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah. This is a guy who is generally perceived to be one of the greats of the modern era. Getting singles shouldn't be too difficult for him.

Ponting is supposed to be the next best after Bradman and there was a time when he didn't even look as though he could last 2 balls......


GEt a grip.. Dravid is in the worst form of his life and as I said, it is an absolute shame that we don't have the batting to carry him in this period like we did with Sachin. But that is the reality and honestly, the only thing we can do now is drop him... Asking him to open against such good bowlling and more importantly, such imaginative field placings is not at all fair... U need guys in good form to open, not the ones in poor form. Dravid himself did that when the choice came down to between him and Sourav to open in Pakistan. He felt that he was in better nick and Sourav was coming back to the side and so it might be better to let Sourav take his accustomed position in the batting order and him opening.

For some reason, we are seeing a strange argument that the middle order guy with the worst form behind him SHOULD open the batting in such a huge series as this... Felt it would be the wrong move from the start and I haven't seen anything to change my opinion on this yet...

 

[Matt79]

And i haven't seen anything from Yuvraj to say that he's worth all this strain on the rest of the batting line up.

 

[pup11]

Ponting is supposed to be the next best after Bradman and there was a time when he didn't even look as though he could last 2 balls......


GEt a grip.. Dravid is in the worst form of his life and as I said, it is an absolute shame that we don't have the batting to carry him in this period like we did with Sachin. But that is the reality and honestly, the only thing we can do now is drop him... Asking him to open against such good bowlling and more importantly, such imaginative field placings is not at all fair... U need guys in good form to open, not the ones in poor form. Dravid himself did that when the choice came down to between him and Sourav to open in Pakistan. He felt that he was in better nick and Sourav was coming back to the side and so it might be better to let Sourav take his accustomed position in the batting order and him opening.

For some reason, we are seeing a strange argument that the middle order guy with the worst form behind him SHOULD open the batting in such a huge series as this... Felt it would be the wrong move from the start and I haven't seen anything to change my opinion on this yet...

But seriously he has enough seniority to just say thanks a lot i am not interested in opening the batting, by being nice and obeying the team management on such a dire decision would only hurt him in the end.
Ponting not even lasting two balls can be counted as him being in bad form but Dravid playing 66 + 116 = 182 balls just to score 21 runs hardly makes any sense, that clearly shows that he survived the new ball and new ball bowlers only to get out due to his own mistake, even if Dravid is in the worst form of his life he could still look to drop and run or atleast look to rotate the strike but he made up his mind that he would only block, its almost like he is trying to mock the team management with knocks like these.

 

[Matt79]

What has Jaffer done to be so secure? Why couldn't you partner Sehwag with Dravid - have one 'fast' opener and one patient one?

 

[honestbharani]

Ponting's field placings have been excellent today. Not exactly orthodox, but spot on all the same.

Gotta agree there...


I am not sure if it is all credit to him, but I have been one of the critics of his captaincy (and with reason, AFAIC) but his field setting this test have been top notch. Obviously shows how well the bowlers bowled because they HAD to bowl with amazing discipline for this to work, but to have thought out the catching positions and the in-out fields in such detail shows how much work was done at the drawing board by the Aussie think-tank.. So kudos to Ponting, looks like he might have out-captained Kumble already, and that means he is doing well, as I thought Kumble was pretty good himself.


But I remember similar tactics employed by Australia in the 2004 series in India as well... So maybe more than one brain is involved there. But it has gr8 merit, these kind of field settings, simply because the Indian batting line up is very much aged and they don't really appreciate having to run a lot and this field makes sure that mostly, even for the good shots they HAVE to run to get the runs... Obviously, the slow and big outfield has helped too but still... Other teams should take note... When you come hard at the Indians, with the talent that they possess in the middle order, it only needs one or two guys to have a good knock and already India would be in almost level terms... Now Australia have taken THAT out of the equation, both in the 2004 series and now... Perhaps we should just get in some of the youngsters into our middle order and see.. Probably Australia won't have any videos or plans for them...

 

[honestbharani]

Clark you gun. Such a typical Sachin dismissal unfortunately. Very nice innings to watch.

Interesting, actually... Becoz when he was on 11 or so, they showed a ball when he almost played on, it hit the inside half than the edge and rolled down the pitch and they showed his dismissal against Victoria in double feature... Perhaps the Aussies have spotted something there... It is a very bad omen for us that we are seeing some weakness in even our best batsman (both form wise and pedigree wise)..

 

[Pratters]

Hope the "you pick your best 4 bowlers, there's no point picking a spinner" brigade were watching Hogg bowl in that session - well done to that not so young man!

Have been a big supporter of Hogg and Hogg playing. Glad he did well.

 

[honestbharani]

But it has, he got a thick edge to a revesr swinger wide outside offstump that flew through a vacant third slip and one that came up short to Dhoni. Its caused him trouble early in his innings.

It wasn't short of Dhoni though... He just didn't go for it for some strange reason. It was short of Dravid.

 

[Pratters]

Hahaha.. had a genuine lol at that, seriously what was Pratyush think when he made a call that India would make 600 in the first innings batting was never easy on that pitch and on top of that the outfield too was on the slower side.
Lot of people underestimated Australia's 1st innings total because 344 on a track that suited the Indian bowling was a very good effort.

Thought the low bounce and the pitch not being that bad on second day would mean India take the advantage after bowling pretty well on the first day. They should have made much more than the below 200 total too.

 

[Nate]

So pleased with how Hogg went. Just stoked.