India's tour of Australia

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:05 am

Jay, I agree we should have scored a few more and at a faster pace. We had nothing to lose by going for our strokes (as if it were an ODI), even if we lost a few more wickets. Actually, if Chopra had lasted a bit longer, I think Ganguly would have sent Tendulkar ahead of Dravid and then come in himself. Australia was bowling to very defensive fields -- and (in the initial overs at least) well outside the off-stump -- so it was quite difficult to score. But under those circumstances, you need to take a steady stream of cheeky singles to disconcert the fielders...

Post by **jayakris** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:16 am

A news item in NDTV.com says, "An express Bret Lee delivery hit the vice captain in the ear, causing it to bleed. The injury prompted Ganguly to declare the Indian innings" ...

I didn't know that. Ganguly was really not planning to put the Aussies in today at all, eh? ..

Jay

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:23 am

Jay, he probably would've allowed the magnificent Dravid to get his century rather than bowl an extra 4 overs. Ten overs today would have been meaningful, but I don't think there's much difference between giving the opposition 90 and 94 overs to score 443. A lot depends on whether the Aussies go for it. I think they will, and this will not be a draw. If Sourav husbands his bowling resources well (ie, trying all 7 bowlers and not depending solely on Kumble) India will win tomorrow!

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:33 am

In retrospect, I think Ganguly should have walked in ahead of Sachin this time too, as Sachin only got 60 off 89 balls (scoring at barely over 4 runs an over). For a man who got 241 not out in the first innings, this was a very disappointing performance under the circumstances.
By contrast, Dravid (in a longer innings) scored at nearly 4.8 runs an over (approximately the average pace of the whole team in the innings). How the roles have reversed...

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:35 am

In my mind, there are just two contenders for Man of the Series: Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. And regardless of what happens on the final day, Man of the Match is already Anil Kumble (the only bowler who has made a difference on a pitch that can only be described as a batsman's paradise).

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 9:17 am

I think we also must note that Parthiv Patel has been disastrous behind the wickets throughout the series, including in this innings. He dropped a regulation catch off Gillespie before he had scored. Had he taken that (and a subsequent chance to stump Katich), Australia may have ended 300 runs behind (ensuring that Ganguly would have no hesitation in asking them to follow-on).
Parthiv has batted well in the last two innings, but his 'keeping has been quite horrendous. He should be given time to improve some of his basic skills before being brought back into the team -- the guy is only 18 after all.

Post by **Dhruv** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 11:10 am

I guess the real story of this series has been the team living up to the potential, with almost all the batsmen clicking. People will say Akash Chopra and Parthiv have been weak points, but IMO Akash has been ivaluable upfront as an opening pair with Sehwag and other than a couple of innings they have had the best opening partnerships for India in a while (or that is just perception maybe). Parthiv on the other hand has been more than adept with a bat lately and his wicketkeeping abilities were supposedly what brought him into the team, so I would imagine that the other WK's are worse (ouch) but he is young and his technique is solid (apparantely from the articles) so it should only be a matter of time I guess.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 12:28 pm

I agree about Akash Chopra (partly). He has indeed formed an excellent opening partnership with Sehwag -- providing the perfect defensive foil to Sehwag's flamboyant strokeplay. His technique is solid, and his fielding (especially at short-leg) is a huge plus: he took a magnificent catch this morning, and has taken several others throughout the series. Just because of the quality of the partnership with Sehwag, it is worth persisting with Chopra. However, he does not get past 50 and his scores were quite mediocre through the series, which is a serious problem -- as he is keeping an excellent player (Sadagopan Ramesh) on the side-lines. Especially against Pakistan (against whom Ramesh did spectacularly the last time around), it might be worth trying Ramesh (atleast for the first test). Chopra's batting hasn't ensured that his place is a certainty; he should be 12th man for the first test against Pakistan, and the Ramesh given a chance to show what chemistry he can establish with the non-English-speaking Sehwag. (I presume Ramesh speaks very little Hindi).

On Parthiv, he actually came into the team by accident when the first wicket-keeper on the England tour (Ajay Ratra) got injured. Patel was picked for the 16 to England last year as clearly the second WK, on the strength of his great batting for India A in South Africa (where he was the third best performer with the bat, after Yuvraj and Kaif and kept wickets decently). His batting against Andre Nel (who took 5/87 in a test against the Windies yesterday) was particularly noteworthy. I don't think Parthiv is the best wicket-keeper in the country, and not really the best wicket-keeper batsman (Nayan Mongia fits both bills). If Mongia is completely unacceptable to the team (especially Sachin, according to rumour) then the next best keeper-batsman is MSK Prasad (a heavy scorer in domestic cricket, whose test batting record is poor because he had to open against Australia on the last tour). The next best pure keeper IMO is Ratra, and the next best keeper-batsman (after Mongia and Prasad) is Deep Dasgupta. Both Dasgupta and Ratra have test centuries (although Ratra's was in a dead match, while Dasgupta's was the only Indian century in the first innings of a test India won).
Patel undeniably has potential, and I was a big supporter of his when he was 16-17 and virtually unheard of outside junior circles. But he has failed to live up to his potential as a 'keeper, a sure sign that he needs to hone his technique. 'Keepers traditionally blossom late, so Parthiv has a few years to work on his skills and come back as India's true answer to Gilchrist in 2-3 years time.

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 12:47 pm

We should have had a cricket chat session with forum members in India (David), Malaysia (Kathir), US (Jay, Neil and me), and PKB earlier following the match.

that is what i had said...is there any chance of losing this? knowing the australians and the run rate they had coming out of lunch the other day........i just dont want to see us scrambling yo save the test in the end...........kartik stinks, he does not even deserve to play for india A he can go and sit in a cave with dinesh mongia

..........kumble and pathan are genioses and can do this for us.........if kumble gets another 5 w haul he will surley be amn of the match otherwise sachin......

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 12:53 pm

i just calculated that the aussies need a run rate of 4.81 to win........all im saying is that we could have got a little more........to put it completley out of reach.......

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 12:58 pm

and dont count the chickens.............because the sydney weather forecast is rain and thunder

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 1:30 pm

StarSports in Singapore and Hong Kong (which normally uses the "North Asia feed" for its sports programming) have decided to dump all their other programming tomorrow, and just show the cricket live!!
So I don't need to use my subscription to video-streaming tomorrow. gvhvhg, if you need to use video-streaming, you can subscribe; you will be directed to it if you go to the cricinfo site (it's on the top-left of the menu bar at the top of the page).

gvhvhg · Post by **gvhvhg** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:18 pm

does it cost??? oh ill go see for myself!!!!! sry

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:07 am

It was drizzling before the start of the match, and it's overcast now. Good for Agarkar, Pathan and Ganguly, bad news for Kumble and the other three Indian spinners who'll have trouble gripping a wet ball.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:11 am

It's raining pretty hard, and they've gone off the field after two overs and five more runs...Ganguly is trying not to go off the field! For 2-3 minutes after everyone else had left the field, the Indian captain lingered on -- expressing quite strongly his view that there should be no interruption, rain or no rain!