Australia Tour Of India 2012/13

[swacker]

Henriques looks good. I didn't have high expectations.

 

[aussie1st]

I don't think Mitchell Starc should have ever played this test match. He still has a lot of work to do when it comes to the longest format. He is still very inconsistent with his line and his length. Going into the match his stats were reasonable, however his stats were improved by him picking up wickets late in the innings when the damage was already done. He rarely had an effect during the first 50 overs of an innings. I'd be very interested to see what his average would be while only bowling in the first 50 overs of the innings. My bet not very good.

He still has a lot of work to do in this format and I agree I would have had Bird ahead of him for this match. Siddle has been pedestrian on this wicket as well, was expecting a lot more from him especially considering he is the only one that has played in India in a Test.

Now Bird has a back issue, no idea what is happening with our quicks once they hit the International squad as Bird had no issues prior to this. I know it won't happen but SOK should be on that plane over here. But heck I'll take Agar, can't stand having Doherty making that side with his current form and overall record.

 

[puddleduck]

For Pete's sake Australia. You're making India look good

 

[sifter132]

Australia will be bundled out on this so called lifeless wicket and the match will be won easily by India.

A wicket is sporting if it can keep atleast one type of bowler in the contest and give him hope that he can pick up wickets. All this, "ball reaching the keeper when a fast bowler bowls at 150kph" thing is pure NONSENSE!!!

PS: Pitch don't have to be seamers supportive to help bowlers. Any pitch that ONLY supports batsman is in true dead wicket IMO.

We are on the right track, it's just arguing about definitions my friends
To me, a DEAD pitch is simply a pitch with no bounce. That doesn't mean that runs will be racked up with no effort, or that bowlers have no chance (I would call that type of pitch a FLAT pitch, or a ROAD. It just means there is no bounce, and that usually means not much encouragement for fast bowlers.

Australia can't blame the pitch here at all: a) they should have known what they were going to get on this tour, and b) they named their team 2 days out, before they even looked closely at it. The fact that Aussie spinners can't use it as well as Indian spinners is their fault completely. You won't hear me blaming the pitch for the performance.

I am still waiting for a single reason of why Wade is preferred above Haddin in these conditions.

I tend to agree. Wade has Marcus North'd his way onto this tour a little bit ie. Pulling out big innings at the right times so as not to get dropped. And his keeping was fairly shaky all summer. It's not the worst selection ever - Wade has flashed talent, but I'd have personally had Haddin back in the Test side.

 

[puddleduck]

As I always mention, it's no surprise Indian seamers fall away into nothingness at such an alarming rate with such dead pitches. Having to run in and bowl one length all day with no help whilst batsman sit on their front foot swinging through the line is beyond demoralising. It's downright bad for their health.

A first innings should never reach 380 all out without a single seamer taking a wicket

India can produce whatever pitches they want. They're not very good at the moment, and Australia are worse in these conditions. Just fed up with how both England and Australia still generally provide pitches with some bounce that help batsman and help spinners as they wear on. Then if the overhead conditions are right the ball swings. If it's been hot and dry reverse swing kicks in instead.

In India, they pretty much deliberately make pitches to suit only one bowler, and it's to the detriment of their own cricket.

 

[SaiSrini]

Frankly, I am not worried if India don't produce wickets that help the fast bowlers at the international level. At the domestic level however, we need to produce those kinds of wickets, and the BCCI have been working on it in recent times. Some of the wickets in the recent Ranji trophy were pretty bowler friendly.

At the international level thought, the variety in pitches needs to exist. This pitch would have produced a result no matter which team had played. If England had played here, probably the tables might have been turned on the opposite side with India struggling and England on top (no denying that England are a No.1 test side right now). But a result would have happened.

 

[aussie1st]

Frankly, I am not worried if India don't produce wickets that help the fast bowlers at the international level. At the domestic level however, we need to produce those kinds of wickets, and the BCCI have been working on it in recent times. Some of the wickets in the recent Ranji trophy were pretty bowler friendly.

Funny enough that is the same suggest Aussie fans are making but obviously the other way around. I would say both countries need to go in this direction. For us, the SCG needs to return to where it once was and Adelaide should become more dusty. The other tracks can be left as is.

 

[War]

Good to see Dhoni taking responsibility by batting at 6, rather than at 7. Something Michael Clarke could learn from in my opinion.

I have seen a few people make this suggestion, but i don't see why.

Clarke doesn't have to bat higher just because he is Australia's best batsman. The vulnerability of AUS battign currently means, tactically Clarke @ # 5 is the smartest spot.

In the mid 1980s when AUS was struggling - Allan Border didn't bat at 3 just because he was the lone best batsman. Steve Waugh always batted @ # 5. Chanderpaul in the modern windies team since Lara retired stays at 5.

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This was not a wicket necessarily for fast bowlers, and yet Australia went in with three quicks and only one frontline spinner. They tried to mimic the tactics of the 2004 team which won primarily with pace bowlers. But you pick teams for conditions, not based on past history and past trends. I am sure had it been England here in place of Australia, the contest would have been entirely different. Panesar and Swann would probably have put us under quite a bit of pressure.

AUS were very right to mimic the tactics of 2004, because its a proven historical trend that since India became a force @ home in the 1970s - that its team with quality pacers i.e England 76/77 & 84/85, Windies 74/75 & 83/84, S Africa 99/00 & AUS 2004 have won series in India.

What Swann/Panesar did was the first time in India's strong home period history that two spinners have spun India out in home conditions. Its a rare unique occurrence that would be similar to India winning a series in Australia with a 4-man pace attack.

People seem to forget this, along with the fact that Anderson was the only seamer who bowled well while the likes of Broad & Bresnan were crap. If Finn was fit & Broad was in better form - Panesar would not have played.

AUS currently don't have spinners of the calibre of Swann/Panesar & it would be foolish for them to play two spinners @ any point in this series as bryan coverdale on cricinfo noted just recently - India v Australia, 1st Test, Chennai, 3rd day : More spinners would have made no difference to Australia | Cricket Features | India v Australia | ESPN Cricinfo.

To date in this test only Pattinson has bowled to potential. Starc & Siddle have been noticeably down on pace for whatever reasons. All 3 of them bowling to potential in the remaining 3 tests is the only way AUS can take 20 wickets. Simple as that.

 

[sifter132]

Well Lyon's gone, and India need 50 to win. Is there a miracle in the works? Lyon to open the bowling probably, especially considering Dhoni won't be out there to smash him...

 

[angryangy]

Of Swann and Panesar, what is really underrated is how bad Broad and Bresnan were, compared with Anderson and Finn. I mean 16 wickets @ 30 versus nothing at 4 rpo. England's seam warranted change a lot more than has Australia's thus far.

 

[deepuparayil]

Thank you Australian Cricket Team for taking the lead, no more M.Vijay for the rest of the series.....

 

[SaiSrini]

Fairy tale finish being applied here by The Master!!! Two booming sixes off the first two balls by Sachin just threw people off their chair. WONDERFUL!!! Sachin didn't like Lyon getting his wicket in the first innings and treated him with disdain.

 

[Sedition]

Good little warm-up this match has been. Shouldn't be too many issues selecting the right team for the business end. I'd be favouring Smith to come in for Starc at this point.

It was worth fielding the team we had for this test I feel, expected the pitch to be dead, but not this bad, and can't do much about lbw's being gifted to one side when there's no DRS.

Dhoni and Tendulkar's performances won't happen very often, so no need to make any drastic changes. Batting order is fine, Clarke at 5 and Warner/Cowan opening is what put us in the position to have the #1 ranking a couple of weeks, so not even worth discussing imo.

First test win for India against Australia in 5 years, so enjoy the celebrations my brothers

 

[ricky87]

Very good win guys Specially happy for MS Dhoni, Sachin, Ashwin and Kohli... the only disappointing part for me was Jadeja could not score too many runs but it is only a matter of time before he makes it big

 

[aditya123]

Good little warm-up this match has been. Shouldn't be too many issues selecting the right team for the business end. I'd be favouring Smith to come in for Starc at this point.

It was worth fielding the team we had for this test I feel, expected the pitch to be dead, but not this bad, and can't do much about lbw's being gifted to one side when there's no DRS.

Dhoni and Tendulkar's performances won't happen very often, so no need to make any drastic changes. Batting order is fine, Clarke at 5 and Warner/Cowan opening is what put us in the position to have the #1 ranking a couple of weeks, so not even worth discussing imo.

First test win for India against Australia in 5 years, so enjoy the celebrations my brothers

5 years?? I thought you guys lost 2-0 late 2010, just before the home Ashes loss to England. In other words, its the 4th consecutive defeat for Australia on Indian soil. So, its not as rare as you think it is outside of the drubbing we got in Australia. Even the 2003 and 2008 series in Australia we were a lot more competitive than Australia have been in India for a long long time.