***Official*** India in Australia

[Matt79]

Even though it means nothing good for Heal's selection chances... (Or does it mean Heal will get to play more FC?)

 

[Pratters]

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

Yeah. He has improved tremendously as a captain over the years. Love his captaincy a lot.

 

[Perm]

Worth noting that since the 2005 Boxing Day Test that kick-started Symonds career he averages 46 with the bat and 31 with the ball.

 

[honestbharani]

I won't give him away as he posts sometimes.

The "sometimes" itself is a bit of a giveaway, I reckon....

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah, These people always use this word trolling whenever someone say against India...

nope, u guys only notice it when used against u....


And no, I don't mind criticizing India, I do that a lot of times myself... But there is a diff. between normal criticism and juz plain bagging.... And u guys cross the line sometimes and it does get annoying. And esp. u Raghav, u tend to make very good posts, if only u can cut out the bagging a little bit....

 

[honestbharani]

Does India have a better opening bowler to partner the talented Zaheer Khan?

I know he's not in the squad and he isn't popular on this site, but what is Ajit Agarkar doing these days?

what are you talking about? Take a look at my sig.....

 

[Perm]

I won't give him away as he posts sometimes.

 

[honestbharani]

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.

It makes a LOT of sense because when confronted with bad form, these guys go back to what they do best and Ponting tried to attack in that series in India ( at least tried to play with the bat) while Dravid just goes back to his block, block mode.... It's something that I feel differentiates Sachin and Lara from the next rung... They, at least to me, seemed to be able to change up the ways they can get out bad form...Sometimes they roughed it out, sometimes they went bang-bang.. sometimes they just worked away with singles....

 

[BoyBrumby]

So if you say anything negative about India, that's trolling? That's the definition of fascism.

Quite. In fact fascism originated in 1923 when Mussolini took umbrage with Haile Selassie's suggestion that India weren't ready for test match cricket.

How much is a standard adult ticket at the MCG?

I paid $42 at the GABBA from memory, just wondering..

$30. I didn't go today because of the temp and also b/c after 3 days I was cricketed and sitting on my arse out and wanted to hit the sales

Jesus, you blokes don't know you're born. I paid £50 (that's roughly $110 Australian) for the 4th day of The Oval test last year.

Fair play to Oz, impressive stuff. Swatted away the (probable) second best test side without breaking a sweat.

I think India's bowling emerges with some credit, but their much vaunted™ batting was, frankly, shocking. Laxman, Sachin & Ganguly all flattered to deceive but none really kicked on.

 

[archie mac]

To be fair, I don't think that's what Jim wants either as he's actually been one of the most vocal critics of pitches being prepared to constantly favour batsman. I'm divided on the pitch. I hate the fact Melbourne now has drops-ins and this pitch was too slow and didn't make for attractive stroke play (plus the outfield was far too slow but that was down to weather I guess) but I did like the fact batting was challenging and we weren't getting those 500+ scores I detest.

But which shots didn't we see? Slow pitch usually means the ball holds up and you can't drive, VVS played some great drives

 

[honestbharani]

But which shots didn't we see? Slow pitch usually means the ball holds up and you can't drive, VVS played some great drives

including the one he got out with?

 

[archie mac]

including the one he got out with?

Was that the fault of the pitch?

 

[honestbharani]

Was that the fault of the pitch?

juz joking mate... I think it was a good pitch... not the best, but good enough for test cricket, IMHO.

 

[pup11]

So pleased with how Hogg went. Just stoked.

Yeah very happy for George he waited a long time for his chance to make a comeback at the test level so good to see him doing well,so the post-man has delivered!

 

[pup11]

juz joking mate... I think it was a good pitch... not the best, but good enough for test cricket, IMHO.

The pitch was pretty good one considering the lack of preparation time that the curator would have had on his hand due to the constant rain in Melbourne before the test, the pitch wasn't a typical MCG track as it was dry and slow from the very outset and in all fairness pitch suited the Indian team more than the Australian team and that is one of prime reasons why this win would be even more satisfying for the Aussies, was really refreshing to see how the Aussie bowler showed great patience, discipline and skill to bowl as well as they did under those conditions.

 

[Matt79]

But which shots didn't we see? Slow pitch usually means the ball holds up and you can't drive, VVS played some great drives

As did Ganguly. And Hayden and Clarke played plenty of shots. As did Tendulkar. In fact, every batsman who had any class, form and got themselves in played some good shots. It required concentration, but it was possible to bat and bat well on that pitch. It didn't reward bad strokeplay, but do we want a pitch that does? Total storm in a teacup IMO

 

[silentstriker]

Am I the only one that is excited by this loss? Granted, it's not logical for me to be but we're now a bowling team, not a batting one. It's been true for a while now, since the WI tour, followed by SA then England and now here in Australia. The golden era of batting is dead. Good riddance. Let's see some bowling.

The result is the same, but I like this situation better.

 

[Laurrz]

win in Sydney and we'll definately take the record as the 3rd test is in Perth lol (that will be fun)
Sydney wont be easy ... particularly if India bat first

i thought Melbourne was the best chance for India though out of the 4... the pitch is most indian like out of the 4 definately.. minus the wicked spin... but in terms of slowness and lowness

ps. Stuart Clark is an EFFIN gun....... deadset ...by far my favorite player in the world... gahh

 

[Laurrz]

Johnson bowled like an absolute dream with the old ball. The over where he dismissed Kumble was probably the best of the whole match, even though it was to a lower order batsman. Amazing stuff, and he's done enough to play again in the next match IMO.

we've seen some terrific left arm swing bowling in this test match


Wasim Akram would be proud ... i believe he was commentating

 

[andruid]

Surely either Karthik or Sehwag or another specialist opener must play in the next test match