Australia Tour Of India 2012/13

[War]

1st test review

I don't like commenting on a test match while its in progress, so i didn't follow the discussion during the last 5 days, so forgive me all if i repeat anything that has been said before.

But immediately i can say AUS can take heart from the fact that they are many similarities to this 1st test defeat to how England lost their first test in December before they eventually came back to win the series.

Just like how Cook's 176 & Prior's 91 showed the other ENG batsman how the play play in that Ahmedabad test - so too in this test did Clarke 130 & Henriques two classy innings.

I still don't believe India's spinners are that great in home conditions & one good effort from Ashwin doesn't change that.

Much positives can also be taken from the fact that in India's 1st innings their bowling plans were going well up to when India were 372/7 - until Dhoni played the kind of unique world-wind innings similar to Gilchrist 204 @ Jo'Burg 2002, Astle's 222 in 2002, Chanderpaul's 100 in 2003, Viv Richards fastest test hundred in 1986, Gilbert Jessop 104 in 1902. Not much a bowling team can do in such a situation frankly.

However they are few differences from England that i'm not sure if AUS are going to be able to replicate.

Batting wise ENG were much more experienced, stronger & stable. This enabled to to be able to get on top of India's spinners as they series progressed. I feel as the series progresses not picking Bailey is going to come back to haunt Australia. I still firmly believe Watson should be opening & that Cowan should be sacrificed.

Also while Wade can bat in the top 6, i'm not 100% sure if he is solid enough to be a top 6 batsman in Indian conditions. I saw it mentioned in the thread & maybe yea i reckon Haddin would have been a better top 6 keeper/batsman in these conditions.

Finally, Siddle & Starc need to step big in the next 3 tests. Pattinson was a one man show. They were noticeably below the standards they set in AUS were the were bowling superbly on some flat last day surfaces, producing top reverse swing.

The 3 of them bowling in top form can take 20 wickets in these conditions, since Lyon is no Graeme Swann & he has much limitations that were not surprisingly exposed in the test.

Australia in India 2012-13 : Jackson Bird flies home with back pain | Cricket News | India v Australia | ESPN Cricinfo. If Bird is ruled out Cutting or Faulkner i would suggest on current form over older bowlers like Hilfenahaus or Bollinger would be good replacements.

Finally to the Indian fans, how long now has the Chennai ground been renovated now?. I realize test weren't played there since 2008 - but i didn't notice this big chance in the few IPL games i have seen in the last 5 years.

I know the gaps between the stands would probably help the players, because the old Chennai could certainly could be a furnace. However i think some uniqueness of this classic old venue has been killed with these changes.

 

[SaiSrini]

Superb game by India! The real winner of this match is the curator. Hats off to the curator of this pitch. EXCELLENT JOB DONE!!! Good to see Chennai getting back to the kind of pitch that it should be dishing out to visiting teams. We lost the toss and won the match. People talked about how such pitches give advantage to the first batting team. Well, we won batting second. Keep making these pitches.

Both the Chennai boys (Dhoni and Ashwin) rocked the show! Especially satisfying since both of them have been mediocre in tests in recent times, more so Dhoni whose interest in test cricket had been waning. He still should not be a sure starter for overseas games and his captaincy is still under heavy cloud, but this innings should be a good tonic for him to start accepting that his natural game is what will serve him best now (which is being aggressive). Seeing a positive sign from both him and Tendulkar this game was great to watch. Sachin was unusually aggressive this game. His starts in both innings were unusual aggression (3 fours in 4 balls in first innings; 2 sixes off the first 2 balls in the 2nd innings). Hope his form continues into the series.

Vijay needs to go. Might not see Sehwag go as we dont have the guts to do it, but he has been as big a failure as Vijay this game. Dhawan should get a chance next game. Rahane and Dhawan replacing Vijay-Sehwag would be a bold and good move, but don't see it happening. Jadeja can stay, however Ojha for Harbhajan is a swap that has to happen.

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Finally to the Indian fans, how long now has the Chennai ground been renovated now?. I realize test weren't played there since 2008 - but i didn't notice this big chance in the few IPL games i have seen in the last 5 years.

I know the gaps between the stands would probably help the players, because the old Chennai could certainly could be furnest. However i think some uniqueness of a this classic old venue has been killed with these changes.

Chennai has been renovated probably in the last 2-3 years (most probably after that last test vs England where we chased 387). I somehow feel that the ground looks a lot better now with the new stands (from the spectator point of view). And for visiting teams, it should be a lot better as Chennai is a furnace (as you say) during summer and the wind blowing between the stands will help.

 

[crazyrahul]

Bhuvneshwar Kumar's (38 Runs) now the highest by an Indian debutant at No 10 (previous being 28 runs by Paras Mhambrey at Birmingham 1996)

 

[midgetwars]

Are we seriously down another bowler? Seriously? My word, one in one out.

Hughes, I didn't see his wickets but he didn't do too much in this test. Failed both times with the bat.

It's nice to see Henriques with a ridiculous average now

Do we still need bailey? If SOK was to come in (doubt it) where would he fit? Take Starc's place? Starc bowled some insane stuff in the ODIS

 

[crazyrahul]

What a marvellous win by India by 8 wickets in 1st test at Chennai

Well done boys, MSD rocks as always, Hats off to Ashwin's variations, well Supported by Sir Ravindra Jadeja. And even Virat's form is back and what to say about master class of Sachin Tendulkar.

Keep the momentum at Hyderabad

 

[deepuparayil]

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

LOL.... the grapes are too sour, I think...

 

[swacker]

Well done Moses. Not pretty but played with a short back-lift and soft hands, probably the sort of player who will enjoy the tougher conditions without the expectations on him.

Pattinson too, honestly didn't expect him to be the pick of the bowlers, thought it would be Starc.

 

[dancingmongoose]

Starc is really good if the ball is swinging, if it's not he doesn't bowl well at all. As evident here, it wasn't swinging and he also failed to stick around with the bat. He needs to be dropped, preferably for O'Keefe, but seeing as he isn't in the squad go Doherty or Maxwell. Actually, replace Bird with O'keefe and rush him in, don't replace Bird with another paceman this is India remember

 

[crazyrahul]

I was expecting Doherty in this 1st test but AUS team management didn't think so... Starc or Siddle may be dropped in next match...

Will Glenn Maxwell get a game in 2nd test? What's your view???

 

[cerande]

Starc is the main problem Aus need to sort out.I expect Siddle to come good as series progresses .

I honestly expected Starc to have much more impact than Pattinson.If Pattinson doesn't break down,Mohali is a pitch which would offer him the most assistance.
Australia should NOT blindly go England's way though.They have to analyse the pitch as it will not offer as much turn.Extra spinner probably won't help much as they have better fast bowlers.

It would probably be harsh to drop Hughes after 1 test,but I would swap Steven Smith for him.He has a little experience of playing in these conditions and could be handy with his legspin.

Next test is in Hyderabad where from what I have seen,pitch offers slow turn .India have to pick Ojha as he is India's best bowler on pitches offering less amount of turn.Harbhajan was alright in 2nd innings but honestly even Jadeja bowled way better than him.

Vijay should have never been there in the first place.I do not think Sehwag would be dropped so it has to Rahane/Dhavan for Vijay.

 

[Aoun13]

India need not to get too relaxed with this comfortable win. They need to play even harder because Australia always has a tendency to bounce back.

 

[Satan666]

The Aussies have learnt from their mistakes, barring the umpiring errors I expect India to suffer in the next three tests. I am saying it here it seems India have pay off the umpires too many series are occuring with these silly umpiring mistakes involving India, an investigation must be carried out. Dhoni batted well, also Kholi once theyre back in the dressing room the Indians wont be able to score against the Aussie pacers.

They also won the first game against the Eng and we all know what the result at the end of the series was. Beware Indian fans after joy is sorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Aalay]

But immediately i can say AUS can take heart from the fact that they are many similarities to this 1st test defeat to how England lost their first test in December before they eventually came back to win the series.

Just like how Cook's 176 & Prior's 91 showed the other ENG batsman how the play play in that Ahmedabad test - so too in this test did Clarke 130 & Henriques two classy innings.

I still don't believe India's spinners are that great in home conditions & one good effort from Ashwin doesn't change that.

Much positives can also be taken from the fact that in India's 1st innings their bowling plans were going well up to when India were 372/7 - until Dhoni played the kind of unique world-wind innings similar to Gilchrist 204 @ Jo'Burg 2002, Astle's 222 in 2002, Chanderpaul's 100 in 2003, Viv Richards fastest test hundred in 1986, Gilbert Jessop 104 in 1902. Not much a bowling team can do in such a situation frankly.

However they are few differences from England that i'm not sure if AUS are going to be able to replicate.

Batting wise ENG were much more experienced, stronger & stable. This enabled to to be able to get on top of India's spinners as they series progressed. I feel as the series progresses not picking Bailey is going to come back to haunt Australia. I still firmly believe Watson should be opening & that Cowan should be sacrificed.

Also while Wade can bat in the top 6, i'm not 100% sure if he is solid enough to be a top 6 batsman in Indian conditions. I saw it mentioned in the thread & maybe yea i reckon Haddin would have been a better top 6 keeper/batsman in these conditions.

Finally, Siddle & Starc need to step big in the next 3 tests. Pattinson was a one man show. They were noticeably below the standards they set in AUS were the were bowling superbly on some flat last day surfaces, producing top reverse swing.

The 3 of them bowling in top form can take 20 wickets in these conditions, since Lyon is no Graeme Swann & he has much limitations that were not surprisingly exposed in the test.

I don't think Australia are good enough to bounce back as England did. As you mentioned that Lyon is no Greame Swann. Lyon just does not have enough variation to trouble the batsman. He was bowling beautifully on the morning of the 3rd day. But he was allowed to get settled and bowl that well by Sachin and Kohli because they both were too defensive. What Dhoni did was he force Lyon to change his line and length as soon as he came out to bat with those aggressive shots.

Australain batting was alright. To me, everybody except Clarke,Henriques and Watson struggled against spin bowling. Warner got starts but he was still struggling and same goes with Cowan. Hughes was clueless and so was Wade.

Now the turning point in the England series was Monty Panesar. Australia have Doherty but going by some of the post in this thread about him, I think he is even worse then Lyon? Which does not help. Australia can also add Maxwell or Smith but the problem is that neither of them are good enough in bowling. Smith can add good strength in batting because I think he has right technique for these pitches but as I said, his legbreaks are not that good. I am surprised that nobody pointed out this before but I think Johnson should be in there in place of Starc. Johnson has played here before and he is a decent bowler in these conditions. Pattinson was a big positive for Australia.

So basically they have to bring someone like Doherty and Johnson so they can at least support Lyon from the other end.

For India, it was good to see Dhoni, Sachin and Kohli getting some runs. Openers have been headache. I don't know why Murli Vijay is there, he is just pure waste. They have to bring in Dhawan which will also give us that left-right combination at the top. Pujara looked decent in the first inning.

I don't understand how Jadeja has 3 triple centuries. He just looks horrible while he is batting. I don't know how he will survive in South Africa? A proper batsman has to be there to add strength to our batting because we will need it in South Africa.

In bowling, Ashwin was fabulous but Harbhajan struggled. Ashwin got 12 wickets in the match and Harbhajan struggled to get 4 wickets which is disappointing. Harbhajan did look better in the second inning but not good enough to retain his spot. I also did not understand the logic behind playing Kumar. If he was not going to bowl, why did they pick him?

I am pretty sure that Dhoni will probably stick to the same lineup for second test but I really want to see these three changes:

(1) Dhawan in place of Vijay
(2) Rahane in place of Jadeja
(3) Ojha in place of either Harbhajan or Kumar.

 

[Aalay]

Oh dear! Wasted effort in my last post.

India v Australia, 1st Test, Chennai, 5th day : India have found a 'settled combination' - Dhoni | Cricket News | India v Australia | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[greymatter776]

India won by 8 wickets .

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Murali 6 , Sehwag 19 ,pujara 8*,Sachin 13* and the target of 50 was chased.So bad that India could not win by 10 wicket but it was good that India lost their two wickets or else we could not see that 2 sixes off Tendulkar's bat .