Australia's tour of India

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Australia's tour of India

Post by jaydeep »

BSharma wrote:India will win the Mumbai test.
Bhushan, I think Indians took inspiration from ur line ... Currently they r 114/3 and make sure Aussies will bat again ... Sachin played one of cameo and important inning and shows other batsmen that if they stay on pitch, they can score ... Laxman completed his 50 just before lunch and looks in good nick ... If he and Dravid add another 100 runs, Aussies will be start to worrying ... And I luv if Laxman proves my comments wrong.

Jaydeep.
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Post by Kumar »

Hi Bhushan, pitch was deliberately kept dry to help the spinners.. but nature had other ideas.. with the rain, the pitch was helping the seamers with the movement..

But today pitch has dried out and indians are batting easily..

Guys how was our new TEMP. Wicket keeper.. ( mark my words parthiv patel will be back much quickly than any of us anticipate)..
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Post by BSharma »

pitch was deliberately kept dry to help the spinners.. but nature had other ideas.. with the rain, the pitch was helping the seamers with the movement..
Are the pitches for test matches not covered during the rains?

Australia will get bundled out for under 100 runs in the 2nd innings.
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Post by jaydeep »

Ha ha ... I luv such type of optimism ... We need lead of atleast 200 runs ... And Yes Bhushan pitches r covered during rains ... Cloudy condition and one of delivary rising from the deck help Aussies pace bowlers in first inning.

Kumar, Parthiv has to perform well in Ranji matches, then he will be coming back to Indian squad ... And ur so called Temp WK is doing exceptionally well behind stump on this wicket ... He is collecting well and anticipating Kumble's bowling correctly ... With this performance it will be difficult for selectors removing Dinesh.

Jaydeep.
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Post by PKBasu »

Much credit to Sachin for leading the batting fightback in this test. The highest partnership in this test had been 44, until Sachin and Laxman got together for a fine 91-run partnership. Tendulkar's first scoring stroke was a glance for 4, and he followed that up with 10 more runs (2 fours and a two) in that over from Gillespie. But the one awkward stroke he kept playing (against the spinner Hauritz) was a sweep (occasionally a slog-sweep) to the ball pitched well outside off-stump. This is a low percentage shot that a player of Sachin's ability in front of the wicket should not waste his time on. He played it 5-6 times, and miscued the last of these for the ball to pop up towards deep backward square-leg, where Clarke ran (from leg slip) to take a brilliant catch. Sachin had batted beautifully, but that was an awful way to get out -- again, he missed the chance to be a real match-winning hero.
Laxman too was sublime, although occasionally a bit more chancy. Wonderful, however, to see these two batting together again. Dravid, sadly, has gone back to that old over-defensive mould -- forgetting the brilliant strokeplay that made him the International Cricketer of the Year in the 2003/04 season.
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Post by PKBasu »

India are 189/6, a lead of 90 -- and again it is up to the tail and Kaif to ensure that we put up a competitive total. Karthik has been generally competent behind the stumps, although his collections have sometimes been iffy, and his batting promising but not quite up to the mark. He hit a beautiful on-drive for 4 in the first innings and another authentic boundary in the second, but scores of 10 and 4 do not inspire...
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Post by PKBasu »

Kaif out too, and we are in deep trouble at 195/7. Kaif got out padding up in both innings. This is another tendency in our batsmen that I abhor. Sehwag too was out not offering a stroke to a ball from McGrath that pitched well outside off stump and nipped back in a long way. But for Kaif to have done this in both innings is less forgivable. And for Michael Clarke to have picked up 3 wickets is a bit of a disgrace for the Indian batting line-up.
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Post by PKBasu »

This Indian team is now playing very much like the old (pre-Ganguly-led) Indian teams, which were adept at giving up the advantage in a test match. India are now 199/9, a lead of just 100. Even on a turning pitch, bowling Australia out for less than 100 is asking for too much.
Australia's boy hero Michael Clarke has the unbelievable bowling figures of 6-0-9-5!!
As I write, Kumble has added 6 more valuable runs in the next over from Hauritz.
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Post by jaydeep »

Very much PKB ... Clarke ended Indian inning with austonishing bowling display 6.2 - 0 - 9 - 6 ... What a bowling debute for this golden boy ... And now Aussies need 107 runs to win the match ... Still 30 overs remaining ... So chances r high that match will over today.

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Post by jaydeep »

Ha ... ha ... Want comments from all of u ... What do u say .. Stroke of luck (or pitch)??? Stroke genuise play (I doubt)??? or Harakiri by Australians (except couple of wickets)???

But we manage to win by 13 runs ... so guys lerts have party .. its party time ... Bhajji with 5 wickets, Karthik with 3, kumble and zaheer each one ... We manages to beat them ... and we lostseries 2 - 1 ...

But I m still upset about pitch ... 40 wickets in 2 days and 1 hour ... Unbelivable ... But right now celebrate our victory.

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Post by PKBasu »

Terrific win in the end. It was a mine-field of a pitch, but our bowlers rose to the occasion -- especially Murali Kartik, who was adjudged Man of the Match for his 7 wickets. In the end, the real hero was Harbhajan Singh who ended the dogged resistance of the 9th wicket pair (Gillespie and Kasprowicz) who had threatened to take the match away with their dour but effective batting.
Bhajji produced a vicious over-spinner that turned sharply and bounced to take Kasprowicz's glove and fly high to Dravid at backward short-leg. And he also cleaned up McGrath (caught at slip by Laxman) two balls later to end the match in style. I thought Harbhajan was the real bowling hero: he should have got 4-5 wickets in the first innings too had the fielders not let him down. But it was wonderful to see three Indian spinners operating in tandem after a very long time. Once Pathan is fit, we'll have a selection dilemma. I would prefer to play Dinesh Karthik as an opening batsman (a role that he has succeeded in at the India A level, and occasionally for Tamil Nadu), and go in with 5 specialist bowlers (all of whom have shown in this series that they are pretty good batsmen; the 6 runs scored by Kumble at the end proved pretty crucial in the end...). Dinesh Karthik kept very well in the second innings, so I think he has cemented his wicket-keeping place in both the test and one-day sides.
So, for the first test against South Africa (in Kanpur, another turning pitch) I would pick (in batting order) Sehwag, KKD Karthik, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, Pathan, M Kartik, Harbhajan, Kumble, Khan. But there is an ODI against Pakistan (on November 13th at the Eden Gardens) before that.
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Post by gvhvhg »

Cant our country provide a pitch of international standard?
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Post by jaydeep »

Wow interesting selection PKB for SA test ... But we never go with 5 bowlers ... I prefer to give another chance to Gambhir ... Should not decide on one test performance.
So team will be (same as batting order)
Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, KKD Karthik, Pathan or M Kartik, Harbhajan, Kumble, Khan. (And mostly pathan will get selected ahead of Murli Karthik).

Jaydeep.

PS. All nations do such pitch gimmicks gvhvhg ... so only suggestion is, our board should ask pitch curator to do it in favour of our players ... But then pitch curator should took care that match will last for 4 to 5 days, 2 days results r not good for test cricket.
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Post by PKBasu »

Jaydeep, I think it's fine to prepare pitches that help our bowlers, but the Mumbai pitch was a disgrace. The teams are supposed to play 5-day tests, and on this pitch 38 wickets fell in two days. Perhaps the heavy rain on the first day spoilt the pitch, but it was too much like the New Zealand pitches in 2002/03. I think pitches can/should help the home team bowlers, but should not be totally stacked against the batsmen as this pitch was.
On the other hand, Nagpur was deliberately cooked by Raj Singh Dungarpur to help the Aussie bowlers. That's truly ludicrous, as it was evidently part of Dungarpur's vendetta against Dalmia (shades of Jaichand and Mir Jafar viz-a-viz Prithviraj Chauhan and Siraj-ud-doulah respectively).
As for team selection, it is now going to be a wrenching decision choosing between Zaheer and Pathan (if only one of them is to play home matches); with Ganguly back in the side, there is no need to have both pacers in the side. Similarly, Kartik was the most successful bowler (ie, with the best average for his 12 wickets in 2 tests) of this series, so it is going to be tough to drop him. At least on the bowling front, there is suddenly an abundance of riches (although the same can't be said for our batting...ironically :-~ ).
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Post by BSharma »

Yesterday I had written:
India will win the Mumbai test.
Australia will get bundled out for under 100 runs in the 2nd innings.
India won the Mumbai test and Australia was bundled out for 93 runs in the second innings.

Finally I got my predictions correct. :D
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