India in Australia

[SaiSrini]

Some news about Zaheer Khan is that he was running in faster and trying to 'hit the pitch' under the instruction of Wasim Akram who told him that he had to do that to succeed in Australian conditions. I don't have a source for this so take it with a pinch of salt.

He has looked really good in this test so far. Give him helpful conditions, and I am confident that the Aussies will be very wary of him. I was not at all impressed with RP Singh. Even the wickets he took were more of the batsmen making stupid mistakes. He was just overpitching it giving the batsmen easy pickings. He wasnt hitting the wicket hard, and wasnt troubling the batsmen. I think we need Ishant in place of him for Sydney (or Irfan)

 

[Leggie]

India need to be 250-3 at the end of the day's play to give themselves a chance.

I'll guarantee you they'll be 3 down by lunch...

 

[irottev]

Definitely. Unfortunately for Jaques the Indian attack seems to have a lot more venom than the current South African bowlers.

I wouldn't say a lot more. SA have Steyn who is very venomous.

Well you weren't watching closely, then. There were at least 4 occasions where Kumble trapped Hogg in front of the stumps that weren't given. A couple of them were close but a couple of them were incredulously obvious.

And Bowden already has a couple of mistakes from the first innings. One of the Aussie batsmen were hit outside line in the first innings, and also he missed Mitch Johnson's and Yuvraj Singh's inside edges to be caught at forward short leg and silly point respectively.

Okay, forgot the short leg one. Bowden wasn't the umpire on that one, and again, it was a hard call. And none of those Kumble balls to Hogg should have been given out. Maybe it's the biased Indian in you, but the ball was clipping the edge of the stump at best. No way those should be given out, the umpire had doubt. Do you not know the rules? Therehas to be no doubt. Hawkeye showed them all. You Indians didn't bat well enough, get over it. Benefit of the doubt goes to the batsman.

I like Billy, and it's not just because he comes from here. I think he gets a lot of unfair criticism all the time because he signals in different ways. He's interesting. I'd rather see him umpiring and doing funny arm movements then see some fatarse's mantits like Peter Parker at the other end.

 

[RoboRocks]

Hopefully we'll see some good test cricket.

Australia will be hoping to grab some wickets while this ball is new with there seam attack. Lee and Johnson will charge in at pace and try to get it to swing early with Stuart Clark trying to bowl an accurate line and length and get the ball to move into the right handers to get LBW's.
There will be spin there for Brad Hogg who will be looking for a performance to keep him in the side for at least until MacGill gets back or maybe if he doesn't, keep a place for the long run.

India will have to grind away at that and make sure someone goes and gets a hundred or better two people. Yuvraj Singh will need a performance since India and Rahul Dravid have made the sacrifice of going up the order to fit him in the side. They'll want the openers to first see off the new ball and then hopefully get players through to three figures.
I do believe India can still get to this target if the top 7 can make a contribution to the score and one or two batsmen go and get a hundred.

There are a lot of prospects for today and I'm looking forward to it. Lets hpe for some good cricket.

 

[King Pietersen]

All out for 200 then.

 

[irottev]

I think one batsman will fire. Maybe Tendulkar or Dhoni will have a quick burst. 260 all out.

 

[Cricketman]

On this pitch, 499 is improbable. But if any team can do it, India can.
Dravid needs to bat at a good strike rate, and Jaffer should get past his early jitters and make a big score. We need a big hundred here.
Ideally, we should be 100-0 at lunch, explode in breif sessions. My hope would be to be at 220-3 by close.
But on this pitch-shut off for 300.

 

[.Mob]

OMG, Bhajji, when he eventually looped the ball and gave it some flight he produced a beauty against Ponting, then he goes back to bowling darts most of the time. Has he no brain?

Very frustrating. I think we need to put a right hand pacer in next time, and take Bhajji out, our pace bowling looks a bit one dimensional, either that or take RP.

I wouldn't be surprised if we lose this match withing 4 days, now.

 

[0601731]

so far the betsmen have looked more positive,this is what they should have done in the 1st innings.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Dravid has to be the most boring batsmen in the universe, I thought Alastair Cook was slow but he's ridiculous. The Australians seem happy to let them make the mistakes this morning so it could e a bit slow.

Also did I hear right about the first HD game in Australia? Surely not I must have heard wrong?

 

[remind]

I predict 3-0 with Adelaide being washed out.

I'm hoping to go to days 2, 3 and 4 of the Boxing day test with mates so it should be fun.

Adelaide being washed out, I gather you have never been to Adelaide in Summer?, hardly ever rains there even in Winter.
I'm over 40 and I cannot recall any Adelaide Test being washed out.

 

[jordox]

No doubt the two openers had a think about their performance. It's really showing. You could tell in the second or third ball Dravid faced today he looked more confident.

Wow, another wicket off a ball. That's three, amazing.

His gone this time, Gilchrist gets the record.

 

[0601731]

it just looked like a matter of time before a wicket fell,dont see jaffer scoring too many runs in this series.the dravid-laxman partnership will be the key if india are to play out this day.

 

[remind]

Dravid makes Geoff Boycott seem fast, for those of us old enough to remember him, I saw him when I was young.
Real slow and boring to watch.

India's problem is all the better players are just too old, (where is all the young talent?) Also Sewag with his record in Australia being quite good, why was he left out?
Tendukar is great but cannot do it alone and he is hampered by what looks like a bad thigh injury, if how he tried to field some balls yesterday, where he could not bend down to pick up the ball is any guide.

3.1 or 4 nill is my predication, Indias only chance is on Spinner Friendly Sydney deck.
But that is Brett Lee and S Clarkes home ground.

 

[aussie_ben91]

This is what I was talking about with strike-rates. If 2 batsman have got similar averages but one's strike-rate is 40 and anothers is 60 then generally the batsman with the strike-rate of 60 is better.