Tale of Two Halves

As is the case with the Indian teams of the past wherein one session they can't do any thing wrong and the very next session give away what ever momentum they gained in the previous session, so they were at it again in the first match being played in 2008 at SCG. It should not even come as surprise to us fans any more, been a regular feature of this team as far as i remember, watching them all the way to Azhar's era'. Till tea Kumble couldn't have asked for more with RP singh and bajji doing all the damage by getting 6 relatively cheap wickets with some high class left arm seam and off spin.

Like MCG Pointing won the toss and wasted no time in electing to bat first hoping that his openers repeat their performance in the first test here too in SCG. Kumble for the second game in running took a punt by drafting in Ishant for the the injured Zaheer instead of giving Irfan a game. Ishant for his part delivered and Kumble should be happy with his performance even though he didn't end up with any wickets, which was more to do with Steve Bucknor's incompetence at umpiring, more on it later.

RP stuck twice before lunch by accounting both the openers with some high class left arm seam bowling and if not for Mark benson's howler, Pointing would have been back in the hutch getting a pretty big edge trying to leg glance a ball from Ganguly but the ump was un-moved and it pretty much started the day when umpiring standards hit rock bottom. There was talk before the match that Ricky is Bajji's pony and Pointing had a point or two to prove facing up against the offie. Bajji taking cue onto the pony part tossed one up on the leg inviting Pointing to drive, and Pointing obliged by stepping out to wack him out of the ground but completely missed the ball, so did Dhoni, puff went the stumping chance, adding insult to the injury Aussies got 2 leg byes. Bajji did eventually get his man leg-before after lunch to another howler from Mark benson, when Ricky clearly got an inside-edge. RP at the other end had Hussey in all sorts of troubles before he got one to straighten a little bit taking the edge to first slip, where Sachin took a sharp catch and this combo was again at it to see the back of another leftie, Gilchrist in the same fashion and full credit to sachin who was at his best while fielding at first slip and the three catches he took stand testimony for that fact. While this was happening at this end, bajji got the wicket of clark, with him not offering a shot which was pretty shocking given that he was facing an off-spinner.

All this was before tea and it was going all the Indian way with 6 wickets down for a score of less that 150. But what followed was counter attacking of the highest order from Hogg and later joined by Symonds. It didn't help either that a couple of decisions didn't go India's way and their fielding let them down at the worst possible time. First it was Ishant who flushed a skier from Hogg of kumble's bowling, to his defense it was a tough chance but you just can't afford to miss those at this level of the game, then dravid missed an easy chance on the boundary line. Now then Steve Bucknor, who for all that i know should have retired from Umpiring at the highest level a good 7-8 years back and he ain't doing any one favors by umpiring at the age of 65 or thereabouts. Ishant sharma gets Symonds to edge one to Dhoni and everyone in the Indian team go up spontaneously, the edge was a pretty thick one and everyone in the ground hears it except for the man that matters, it's really a shame because Ishant bowled really well all day and to deny him this wicket which he so deserved was like taking away Christmas presents from a kid who put on the best of behavior all year long just to get those gifts. Anyway moving on the next howler was from the third umpire, i know how can a third umpire get it wrong when he has all the time in world and some many angles to see the action from but hey as they say you haven't seen everything and there is always the first time, so kumble beats Symonds and dhoni removes the bails in a flash with the decision referred to the third ump, who decides in the favor of the batsmen when clearly Symonds foot was in the air when dhoni removed the bails. Symonds was 30 and 48 when he was reprieved of by the incompetence of the officials and he goes on to make 137*, if i were the captain would throw a major fit at the turn of events. Kumble being such a gentlemen took it all into his stride and got the wicket of hogg. RP wasted the second new ball by bowling all over the place and should put up a better show in the morning tomorrow, if India wants to keep the Aussie total below the 400 mark.

One just gets the feeling that the momentum has slightly swung Aussie way at the end of the day with them scoring almost at the rate of 4+ r.p.o but it's not a lost cause yet for the Indians who just need to look back at the Adelaide test last time around when the Australians scored nearly 400 runs on the first day but still ended up losing. India has to get the remaining 3 wickets cheaply then bat well to get some sort of a hold on this game.