Australia's Tour Of India - 2008

[Arunava]

Australia wouldn't have done it.

ricky already went defensive in the mohali test in the indian 2nd innings. he never tried to attack and lost the test anyway.

and to answer you, defense is also a part of game..you cannot just attack attack and go for the glory always. .defense is as much as part of game as much attack is.

in batting and bowling both. defense is most of the time unattractive to the opposition, batting and here bowling/fielding.

india attacked yesterday and it was not working, so they had to go for defensive mode because we were certain that aussies will attack.
It wud have been ugly if series was square, but here indians knew that they have to attack. and it was completely successful strategy. I wud again say that it was a tactical move.

 

[Adarsh]

Why couldn't India have gone the tried method of bowling Australia out, and piling runs on top of their innings lead, giving themselves four sessions to bowl out Australia, who are chasing a ridiculous target

That's what is going to happen, according to India's plan. You're assuming that the orthodox stratergy would work in bowling the Aussies out cheaply, but they've got a very very good batting line up. In 40 odd overs yesterday, they made 187 at 4 an over. That needed to be stopped. If India tried to attack too much, they might've thrown this game away. As it stands, they're in a good position to win this match, let alone draw.

 

[Arunava]

That's what is going to happen, according to India's plan. You're assuming that the orthodox stratergy would work in bowling the Aussies out cheaply, but they've got a very very good batting line up. In 40 odd overs yesterday, they made 187 at 4 an over. That needed to be stopped. If India tried to attack too much, they might've thrown this game away. As it stands, they're in a good position to win this match, let alone draw.

exactly yea.

 

[SciD]

Lets hope India dont bat like they started to do in 3 rd innings of last match.

 

[sohum]

Outside off-stump line is not attacking. I struggle to see how you could pretend that it is. They had the leg-side boundary covered when Mitchell Johnson was batting. This is Mitchell Johnson. If they really wanted a result, they would have been tempting him by bringing the field in to him. India have played negative cricket all day, and have clearly been looking at winning the series rather than the match. For such an exciting young team, it is disappointing that they don't mind playing that sort of cricket to win a series - but if anything, it will probably help them in the long run as they'll win matches an attacking side wouldn't.

If the situation was reversed, I have no doubt Australia wouldn't have played the style of cricket which India did today. As it panned out, it was a good day for India, but who knows, had there been fielders in close all day and they had given the batsmen a chance to play shots with their lines, they might have gotten Australia all out by tea. India are aiming at a draw here, in the same position, Australia would probably be able to squeeze the win in four days.

Your'e actually wrong, mate. This is exactly the same tactic Australia used in their last tour of India and used for the first Test in Bangalore. I agree that it's negative but I disagree that it's ineffective. Squeeze the runs for players who like to dominate and they will dismiss themselves. It's not fun to watch, but I feel given the pitch condition, there's not much else they could have done. The spinners probably could have been a little aggressive with their flight and loop but it still looks like a good batting wicket.

Australia in any other country would have been able to squeeze the win out in 4 days. But in India they've had the most success by squeezing the runs instead of attacking. When they tried to attack (in Mohali) they found the match blown up in their face.

 

[deepuparayil]

Australia's runrate was about 4 in the 2nd day. What Dhoni did was to be defensive until their runrate become nearer to 3 and after that indian bowlers started attacking and eventually bowled them out. Australia became too defensive by the indian defensive attack. Otherwise australia would've been easily get past india's score in the 3rd day itself and it's create a chance for australia to win the test and level the series.

Australia never tried for the win except 2nd days batting and if they tried to attack indian defensive tactic by strokeplay,they would never been in this position. Strokeplay not always means throwing wickets away in test cricket. Offside bowling also is not forbidden ,it is perfect for the situation because if australia need a victory they must work hard for it. But australia didn't tried to take some risk for the winning. Actually Australia didn't expect this superb tactic from Dhoni and they fell for it.

Australian fans complained about this tactic because they need their team to win this test. For australia to win they need to score run at a rate about 3.5 per over and indian bowlers didn't allowed them to score freely.So please stop complaining about india's tactic.

Dhoni's superb thinking was beyond any words, because nobody understood the depth of his tactic until the end of day three.

"INDIA's FUTURE IS BRIGHT"

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Australia's runrate was about 4 in the 2nd day. What Dhoni did was to be defensive until their runrate become nearer to 3 and after that indian bowlers started attacking and eventually bowled them out. Australia became too defensive by the indian defensive attack. Otherwise australia would've been easily get past india's score in the 3rd day itself and it's create a chance for australia to win the test and level the series.

Australia never tried for the win except 2nd days batting and if they tried to attack indian defensive tactic by strokeplay,they would never been in this position. Strokeplay not always means throwing wickets away in test cricket. Offside bowling also is not forbidden ,it is perfect for the situation because if australia need a victory they must work hard for it. But australia didn't tried to take some risk for the winning. Actually Australia didn't expect this superb tactic from Dhoni and they fell for it.

Australian fans complained about this tactic because they need their team to win this test. For australia to win they need to score run at a rate about 3.5 per over and indian bowlers didn't allowed them to score freely.So please stop complaining about india's tactic.

Dhoni's superb thinking was beyond any words, because nobody understood the depth of his tactic until the end of day three.
"INDIA's FUTURE IS BRIGHT"

Bunch Of Crap.


two wickets that fell on day 3 was not due to Dhoni's captaincy or his so called superb tactics.

1.Watson
2.Hussey

 

[Leggie]

Yeah 2 Wickets. The rest were. ...

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Yeah 2 Wickets. The rest were. ...

Those two wickets were vital and main reason for our faliure of 1st innings total.

 

[sifter132]

Australian fans complained about this tactic because they need their team to win this test. For australia to win they need to score run at a rate about 3.5 per over and indian bowlers didn't allowed them to score freely.So please stop complaining about india's tactic.

Dhoni's superb thinking was beyond any words, because nobody understood the depth of his tactic until the end of day three.

"INDIA's FUTURE IS BRIGHT"

Yes, so what you really mean is that the tactic didn't really WORK until the end of day 3. I knew that if Dhoni played a defensive type tactic the fan boys would be out there defending it as being "not really defensive but really clever". Let's pretend you didn't know that Kumble had retired and you were watching the 1st session yesterday. Wouldn't Joe the Caveman be thinking - geez Kumble/generic Indian captain's being a bit defensive isn't he?? But because Dhoni was the captain, it's suddenly the smartest tactic ever devised :

The fact that Australia imploded before tea had very little to do with the tactics he employed anyway. Hussey and Watson fell to unusual dismissals and Clarke was just dismissed by a great straight delivery that made him play with a 6-3 field - that was all Ishant, nothing to do with Dhoni. So the damage wasn't done by the wide bowling or the 8-1 fields at all. Sure it slowed Australia down, but I think Katich and Hussey would have been reasonably happy to grind out runs for a while longer. They knew Zaheer and Ishant couldn't bowl all day (though Dhoni tried...). It's just that Katich didn't quite make it to lunch.

And just a personal rant but people need to stop using "defensive" as a swear word. Kumble was too defensive people say, and they make it sound like a disease. Captains often need to be defensive, it can save a lot of runs and frustrate batsmen out. But I personally think that the morning of day 3 with a 250 run lead was too early to start being defensive. Dhoni seems a good captain, but he's not a god and everything that happens during a day is not because he's pulling the strings, most of it's luck (Richie Benaud once said captaincy is 90% luck)

 

[aussie1st]

His move certainly wasn't what Test cricket needed. We probably lost move viewers due to the tactic which really shows the state of the game at present. Not saying Dhoni shouldn't have done it cause it worked in the end but it certainly isn't a good look for Test cricket.

Anyway I don't know what we were doing after tea. We should have just gone down all guns blazing then being choked out. That would have given us more overs to bowl at the Indians, leaving 1 over and 2 days is really pushing it for a result.

 

[Yogy]

We can predict the winner by tea session. Lets hope for a result.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

Dhoni is god:hpraise

Its clever tactics but few more days like that and test cricket will find it hard to survive. This was supposed to be a great clash with worlds two best teams playing but thanks to conservative cricket (from both sides) , dull pitches and boring draws it has turned to a farce. Lucky theres only two more days to go.

 

[nikhil_99]

India will be watchful here,Shehwag will play is natural game,M Vijay looked solid in 1st inngs,he should just stcik on wicket and rotate strike,Dravid is in shell,Tendulkar is really good throughout the series,he should get runs in last inngs of series,Laxman,Ganguly are also in good form,Dhoni is also playing well in captaincy,the only +ve for Aus is JJ Krejza,who took 8 wickets in 1st inngs,Aus would be expecting once again from him,match is really poised well,2 days to go,enough time,the only question is will those 20 odd wickets will fall?Because if India has to win and if they declare today on 4th day,they obviously need 10 wickets,the pitch is helping spinners...

 

[SaiSrini]

I think India are in it to win definately. It is hardly criminal to eliminate the opposition from the contest in a series deciding match, is it?

I feel India are very much in for a victory. There is only that much you could do on this wicket. Ishant said that Dhoni asked the team to go really defensive in the first session and dry up the runs, and the force the issue in the subsequent sessions. It worked for us, and if we get off to a flyer, we can set a target of 350+ for australia on the final day and if they win, they deserve it.

saisrini80 added 1 Minutes and 44 Seconds later...

Dhoni is god:hpraise

Its clever tactics but few more days like that and test cricket will find it hard to survive. This was supposed to be a great clash with worlds two best teams playing but thanks to conservative cricket (from both sides) , dull pitches and boring draws it has turned to a farce. Lucky theres only two more days to go.

yeah, go and watch ur england-australia matches where you guys will predictably thrash the english... dont know what happiness u derive from beating an already dead snake?

this series has been interesting, in fact very interesting. australia almost got there in bangalore but were thwarted by sachin/vvs. then they got crushed in mohali. then they came back pretty well with their batting in delhi, and here too they havent done too bad. but india have given them a fierce fight. australia started off as world champions and most probably might still be considered world champions even after this series. the series might not have been as lively as the one played in australia, but its highly competitive in its own right.

saisrini80 added 4 Minutes and 56 Seconds later...

Australia's runrate was about 4 in the 2nd day. What Dhoni did was to be defensive until their runrate become nearer to 3 and after that indian bowlers started attacking and eventually bowled them out. Australia became too defensive by the indian defensive attack. Otherwise australia would've been easily get past india's score in the 3rd day itself and it's create a chance for australia to win the test and level the series.

Australia never tried for the win except 2nd days batting and if they tried to attack indian defensive tactic by strokeplay,they would never been in this position. Strokeplay not always means throwing wickets away in test cricket. Offside bowling also is not forbidden ,it is perfect for the situation because if australia need a victory they must work hard for it. But australia didn't tried to take some risk for the winning. Actually Australia didn't expect this superb tactic from Dhoni and they fell for it.

Australian fans complained about this tactic because they need their team to win this test. For australia to win they need to score run at a rate about 3.5 per over and indian bowlers didn't allowed them to score freely.So please stop complaining about india's tactic.

Dhoni's superb thinking was beyond any words, because nobody understood the depth of his tactic until the end of day three.

"INDIA's FUTURE IS BRIGHT"

good one!