A well Fought Draw

The draw was mde possible by a very composed knock played by Sehwag. Australia have won the series.If only....A good series nevertheless.there are two exciting testseries coming up this year. If India builds on the positives from this series we can have a making of a successful challenger for Australia.

An Old Fashioned Test Shaping Up

The Adelaide test is shaping up the old fashioned way. Runs are being accumulated by the tail after the team's best batsman did well and the wicket is slowing down and Australia will have to play good cricket over the next few days to stop australia from winning their second consecutive win at Adelaide. Everyone has not scored.Why was Karthik not selected for the test. I hope Sehwag rediscovers his batting form and take over from Kumble whenever he quits.making Dhoni a captain will queer the pitch for the ever improving patel and Karthik.

A Vindication

This blog's faith in the Indian team proved prophetic. The end result have confirmed that we were on stronger wicket on account of Sehwag and the medium pacers and their ability to swing.It is great when a result like this happens. Adelaide will be around soon. The entire media is speculating.It will hopefully be a closely fought contest. The last time India played at Adelaide, they won. As Anil kumble said at the presentation, india fancied their chances at Sydney and Adelaide.With a fine tuned team at Adelaide ,India must aim to draw the series and win the home series come october.

That Second test Match in Perth

India is on course to achieve a creditable victory at WACA. We have been optimistic about India's chances here from some time and the columns below would bear us out.However without repeating any well worn cliche, we would like to keep ours fingers crossed regarding the outcome of the match.

In 1977, WACA had hosted the second test.The first had been played at Brisbane and inspite of some good bowling performances and a century from gavaskar, India had lost. Perth marked the comeback of chetan Chauhan, who had last played in 1972-73 against Tony lewis's England team. he made a good 88 and gavaskar scored another hundred and india set Australia 338 runs to win and they did it by a narrow margin of two wickets. Though Australia was weakened by the Packer exodus the bowling still was formidable with Thomson, Gannon, Dymock and wayne Clarke. the overs had eight balls and on the final day India under bedi could have slowed down bowling rate but did not. Also, even at the bouncy Perth India chose to play three spinners rather than both Ghavri and Madan Lal. Madan lal had taken a five for at Brisbane and playing both of them together would probably have changed the series results. But changing from decent spin to mediocre medium pace was still not a thought to be countenanced.

In 1977, it would have been considered a sacrilege if Ishant Sharma was picked ahead of Harbhajan Singh.More about this later.We must enjoy this weekend irrespective of the result. the Australians will try to force a win. India has a chance to level the series and wait for Australia in india later this year.

Why Dhoni is No Gilchrisht

The evidence is there presenting to all of us.Facing similar situation while Gilchrist attacked, Dhoni is defending.A combination of attack and defence will take him to the league of Marsh ,Knott and Boucher. He will have to be more fluent and authoritative to be in the A league with Sangakkara and Gilchrist.Dhoni should aim to become a competent number six with Pathan on seven and Piyush Chawla on eight.That would be a decent mlower middle order for the days after Ganguly and Tendulkar. Hopefully Laxman will be around till a few more batsmen are groomed.

The March has been halted

For the time being at least, Australia has to fight hard to win their seventeenth test on the trot. their sequence at 16 last time was broken by India at Kolkata.This time round australia narrowly reached 16 at Sydney.The chances of stopping them again is available to the Indians.They go into the third day with nine wickets remaining and a healthy lead of 170 runs, and the match looks to be heading for an interesting finish. even if australia are chasing upwards of 450 runs they will try to get them. This will therefore turn out to be a cracker of a match.

Australia on the march

Australia has reached tea with five wickets still left.how often have teams loked forward to wrapping up the opposition only to run into a rampaging Gilchrisht. India will remember Mumbai 2001 while England would still be nursing last year's wounds when Symonds had also joined the party.The catch dropped by Tendulkar may prove costly.

A correction

try www.waca.com.au/events/events-audiostream.asp

Live Audio

For those bored listening to the commentary which though ball by ball is from the AIR studios here is an option.Try www.waca.com.au/events/events-audiostream.asp

You were warned

It is lunch at WACA. What a match so far. In these columns we have been insisting that the Indian medium pacers can be competitive here if only because the Freemantle Doctor allows some swinging possibilities.Sehwag is back where he belongs. The batting form may not be very great but 57 for the first wicket where everybody was talking as if Tait and Lee would wrap up the innings quickly. not only did they not wrap up but a fine if abruptly ended rendition of "The Wall" saw to it that india will fight to the finish. As of now at WACA Australia is trying to play catch up.An interesting match is on at the WACA.

At WACA will Australia come to earth

Apparently, MCG had a subcontinental pitch and India lost the match in four days. I have a gut feeling that at WACA, India will knock Australia inside four days and equal the series in the last test.The reasons are several. For one Australia have given their all and still manged an early lead owing to some questionable decisions. Secondly, for various reasons india will want to do well at Perth. Thirdly, at Perth Brad Hogg or Michael clarke will hardly be a major force. And the team will be reinforced in the form of its only test match specialist in Sehwag. I cannot think of another batsman with more than fifty matches in either form with a performance differential of this magnitude. Barring Lee's speed there is little to choose between the medium paced attack of the two teams. India should be able to get around australia in Perth.

Things Looking Up at SCG

Its tea time at the SCG. India is fighting back. It appears that Australia by batting at the speed that they did have left a window of opportunity for India. Another 100/0 session and the match will be on.A total of 650 will set the match well.

Two Test matches in the Southern Hemisphere

The two boxing day test matches ended in less than four days. While India capitulated without much fight and look in some trouble in Sydney as well, what the West Indian victory underlines is that in a few years the West Indies could be a decent performing unit.What startles me is that the slide started with both ambrose and walls playing alongside Lara and Chanderpaul. Let us hpe this is not a false dawn like the first test against England in 2000. West Indies presence in international arena gives us so many nations actually playing top flight cricket. Remove them and we will be left with no representative team from South America besides the number of countries actually playing test matches would get reduced to two in Europe( England and Wales), one in Africa, two in Oceania and four in South Asia. To stop cricket from becomuing a South Asian sport the West Indies cricket has to be in fine fettle. Here is all the best wishes for 2008 and the New Year Test.