Story India Embarks On an International Season- so does the whole world

[sachinisgod]

Next Match: India Vs Australia - 5 Day Test Match at Kolkata.

Sunny: Welcome to the first day of the Test Match between India and Australia to be played here on this magnificent stadium - Eden Gardens!

Dean Jones: It should be a cracker of a match, just like the one they had here in 2001. It stands as one of the best test matches ever played. Let us hope that we are going to witness one such test match here - again!

Sunny: The Pitch & Weather Report by Bob Willis promises a lot of runs to be scored here - Its a sunny but humid day, so the bowlers will have to sweat it out. There is no chance of rain and hence on this Normal batting pitch, the team who wins the toss will want to bat first.

Dean Jones: That's what Aussies have decided to do!

Sunny: The Indian lineup springs a surprise. They have omitted Parthiv Patel and Murali Karthik from the team that played in Karachi last week. And included Gautam Gambhir and Laxmipathy Balaji in their corresponding spots. Seems that Ganguly has decided that the days of dependence on spin bowling are nearing.

Dean Jones: Aussies also have sprung a few surprises - I would have backed Kasprowicz ahead of Brett Lee here in Indian conditions, but the Aussie think tank thinks differently, it seems. Also they have left out Michael Clarke and brought in Darren Lehmann. Interesting changes, those.

 

[sachinisgod]

Australia 1st Innings 33 all out after 24 overs. Ganguly 5/1, Balaji 4/16

Playing with Sam's New EXE and CGPv3

Harsha: Well, well. Welcome to this short break before the official lunch break. Its taking place because, India have bowled out Australia for a measly total of 33. It happens to be the lowest total scored by the reigning World Champions. It has been a fantastic 24 overs of bowling from Pathan, Balaji and Ganguly. They have used the little bit of moisture in the pitch and atmospheric humidity to tremendous advantage of their team. The ball has swung like a crazy pendulum and has created all sorts of problems for the Australian batsmen.

Ravi: It all began when after about 4 overs of bowling in the heat, Laxmipathy Balaji struck rythm and Hayden didn't know which way the swinging yorker was going until he heard his leg stump being rattled disdainfully.

Harsha: And the Aussie skipper didn't last long as Balaji ripped through his defences with one more yorker, in the very next over.

Ravi: For a while, it did look like Justin Langer was planning to take both the bowlers to the cleaners. But Pathan removed his offstump with a tempting delivery.

Harsha: Then Damien Martyn and Darren Lehmann, saw through many torrid overs from Balaji and Pathan and then from Ganguly who brought himself in place of the visibly tiring Pathan.

Ravi: But their vigil didn't last very long, as in his 9th straight over, Balaji made him hop over one more yorker that found its mark.

Harsha: And as if taking a cue from his bowler, the skipper, who till then was bowling tight but not threatening deliveries, removed Lehmann with the first ball of the next over. The mode of dismissal - again Bowled!

And he didn't stop at that. The Australian vice-captain had just faced one ball when the next one pitched up to the bat. He tried to defend it but edged it on to his middle stump. The plight of the middle stump:
And the wicket:

 

[m_vaughan]

Australia 33 all out

 

[sachinisgod]

Ravi: Brett Lee, who came after the wicket of Gilchrist to join Simon Katich, was fooled by Ganguly's deviously swinging delivery which avoided the defending bat completely and hit the offstump.

Harsha: And the game of darts continued! When Balaji again hit the bulls eye to uproot Simon Katich's off stump.

Ravi: Then came the controversial decision of Gillespie's wicket. The ball had clearly taken an inside edge before hitting the pad, but unfortunately for Gillespie and Australia, the umpire didn't think so.

Harsha: Gillespie was left fuming and staring as the Indian team celebrated the fall of 9th Aussie wicket.

Ravi: Glenn Mcgrath and Shane Warne fought out for a couple of overs bravely, but couldn't add any runs to the total of 33. Just as Ganguly and Balaji were both trying very hard to get to their 5th wicket, the skipper succeeded ahead of his bowler. McGrath hung his bat to defend a delivery outside the offstump. It took the edge and was flying to the first slip before being caught out of nowhere by Dinesh Karthik.

Harsha: The Stats:

 

[sachinisgod]

Australia 33 all out

i never thought i would be able to do it! i think its the combination of CGPv3 and Sam's new exe...let me see how it feels while batting!

btw congrats on ur new user title...had forgotten to report it to Ste for quite some time...then came across ur record while was reviewing the Records Forum and told Ste...

 

[m_vaughan]

i never thought i would be able to do it! i think its the combination of CGPv3 and Sam's new exe...let me see how it feels while batting!

btw congrats on ur new user title...had forgotten to report it to Ste for quite some time...then came across ur record while was reviewing the Records Forum and told Ste...

Oh.....dint notice that before.....anyways thanks...feels good to be a record holder.

 

[The Champ]

33-4 to 33 all out unbelievable, ganguly another 5 wkts, amazing game it is really

 

[sachinisgod]

Day 1 Tea. India 82/6 after 29 overs. Tendulkar 38, Lee - 3/20

Jones: Welcome to the short Tea Discussion. It seemed the perfect day for India before Lunch today. And when Virender Sehwag played out the only over he had to before lunch, it seemed that India did have their sights trained on a huge total here.

Sunny: But Glenn Mcgrath had different ideas. In his very second over he caught Gambhir fishing outside the offstump. India 3/1.

Jones: Picking up the cue from his partner, Jason Gillespie too bowled his heart out. He was express and swung the ball dangerously. Dravid and Sehwag struggled to get going but hung in there for a few overs adding just 5 runs. Incidentally it was not a bowler who snared Dravid, but a judgemental error. He went for a run where there wasn't any.


Sunny: Tendulkar came in at the score reading 8/2. He and Sehwag persisted despite the bowlers playing havoc around them. They hung on for many overs before Sehwag tried to drive a Glenn Mcgrath straight one and couldn't connect. India 19/3.

Jones: Just when it looked like, India too might end up somewhere near the score made by Australia, their gritty captain showed some grit alongwith the master batsman to help India overtake the Aussie total. But then he let loose his guard and fell trying to flick Brett Lee. India 35/4.

Sunny: Tendulkar was getting more comfortable with the bowling by then and hit a couple of boundaries. But Laxman fell trying to emulate him. India 51/5.

Jones: Tendulkar was coming into his own slowly and hit a few more boundaries and some other good strokes to reach 38, when he was adjudged LBW to Brett Lee. It seemed a little bit hard on the batsman. India 82/5.

Brett Lee was visibly elated on snatching the prize wicket as his third of the innings.


Sunny: Balaji and Karthik played out the next over without any fuss and the innings reached the Tea Break. It must be mentioned that in these extremely tough conditions out there, Sachin, Karthik and Ganguly have made contributions that statistically seem small but could end up being match winning efforts.

 

[sachinisgod]

The Stats:

Jones: The statistics made a poor reading for the Aussie batsmen. Their Indian counterparts were only in a slightly ameliorated position. The scorecard:

Sunny: Here the strike rate didnt matter very much. In fact i would have been more pleased had Ganguly and Laxman tried to stay in like Sachin before attempting those strokes. The batting card:

Jones: The Aussie bowlers enjoyed their afternoon - though not as much as the Indian bowlers enjoyed the morning.

Sunny: The intense concentration and application put in by Sachin Tendulkar is depicted by his spider screen and the fact that he didn't get out before he found India in a reasonably good position.

 

[The Champ]

38 is a very big score considering others contribution

 

[sachinisgod]

India 1st Innings 125 all out. Tendulkar 38

Yes 38's a big score considering the contribution of others and the score of the other team...

I am not following the commentary mode for the rest of this match, because there's not much left to comment on.

The four Indian wickets fell quite quickly, though Kumble and Pathan did provide some resilience for the 10th wicket. Balaji got run out(no SS).
Karthik Goes

Bhajji is slow

Pathan misses.

Scorecard:

Batting:
Bowling:

A nice little graphical comparison as to how resiliently both teams tried to play:

 

[sachinisgod]

Australia faces ignominy. 2nd Innings 5 all out. Pathan 6/0. Balaji 3/5.

The title of the post says it all. I am providing only thumbnails of the wickets coz I think that this performance by Australia has really screwed up this story. I think there are some serious flaws to be sorted out in CGPv3. N e way, Englishmen - Enjoy!

Langer:
Hayden:
Ponting:
Lehmann:
Katich:
Martyn:
Gilchrist:
Lee:
Warne:
Mcgrath:
Ecstasy:

Scorecard:

Bowling:

India have won the test within a day and three overs by an innings and 87 runs. The Kolkata crowd that was impatiently waiting for the encounter of the giants was flustered by the fiasco. And in some sections of the crowd, violent unrest was seen and hence the presentation ceremony was cancelled and the Man of The Match award was unceremoniously given Jointly to Laxmipathy Balaji and Irfan Pathan - both took 7 wickets in the match and both made an impact while batting.

The pitch curator refused to take blame for this commercial fiasco. He said that it was the humid conditions that led to this result coupled with some extremely inapt batting by most batsmen. When asked about his batsmen's extreme failure, Coach Buchanan just mentioned that they failed to apply themselves and that "there was some problems in their config settings" which perhaps meant that the coach had installed the new CGPv3 in his laptop. Or perhaps it was sheer fatigue on part of both Australia and India. Australia were playing there ODI with New Zealand just a day before they began this test match and India had finished a victory over Pakistan in Karachi just about 3 days back.

These software settings will surely be changed but the fact will remain that the most passionate crowd on earth was treated to a miserable game of cricket by two best teams in the world. 163 runs for 30 wickets - thats what was the outcome of the game.

 

[nik]

great bowling! amazing 33 & 5! if only it happened in real life........

 

[sachinisgod]

well when something even distantly similar happened in real life, people all over had only on 22 yard strip (Moombhai) to blame...thankfully here they can't do it...

 

[m_vaughan]

Well in this game they can blame the AI patch.


But good to see Oz screwed!!