Australia Equals The Record

Of 16 consecutive test wins, set not so long back by the same Australians under Steven Waugh and i don't see why they can't better it especially with the next test being played in Perth. As has been the case for the whole test match even this innings had its fair share of dubious decisions going against the Indians, and time has come for Bucknor to quit. This loss really hurts and have to really wonder what the result would have been, had atleast half the decisions gone Indias way but then sport is such and also lets not take anything away from the Australians, who proved again why they are a champion side.

Century Number 38

Sachin had to wait for this century for quite a while now, the relief and the celebrations that followed after getting that century told it all as to how badly he wanted it. The whole of last year he got into the habit of getting out in the 90's, for a while it seemed that he couldn't go past those 90's, so it was even the more important that he didn't let it happen again this year. Sachin couldn't have chosen a better occasion to finally get to that 38'th century and more importantly in doing so swing the game India's way.

The platform was set by Laxman yesterday and it was important that one of Ganguly or Sachin go onto make a big score, so that Laxman's effort is not wasted. For a while it looked like Ganguly would be the one, but he gave it away rather meekly and his reaction said it all as to how disappointed he was in getting out at that point of the game. Yuvraj soon followed, undone by Bret lee's pace and seriously Yuvraj is asking for trouble with such a high bat lift. What followed next was shocking, Dhoni for all his pre-tour talk of the Australian Pitches suiting his style of play et al has now got three failures in three innings, to his defense this is his first time touring Australia but then common sense says that you adapt to the conditions rather than play the same way you do on the Sub-continental pitches. The shot he played of Brett Lee's bowling was going only in one direction, either to the keeper or the slips. Kumble followed next and there was a real danger of a collapse but then Bajji, like hogg on the first day came out with positive intent never backing away from playing his shots, got an entertaining 63 in quick time but more importantly stuck in there with Sachin, who increased the tempo of his game with some breathtaking shots and brilliant running between the wickets.

Indian tail has showed in the recent times that it can wag, they added some important runs in South Africa and then in England helped Dhoni save the first test played in Lord's. But this effort really takes the cake where the Number 9,10,11 along with Sachin added 187 runs with RP, Ishant and Bajji being the dominating partners in each of the partnerships. It might be due to the fact that, when Sachin was playing every fielder was either on the boundary or half way to it except for the gully and it made no sense for Sachin to play aggressively, when his partners were doing a pretty good job of scoring runs at a fair clip. Whatever you make of the Sachin not shielding the tail, the important thing is, at the end of the day he helped India get a lead of 63 so that should really shut anyone who might want to criticize that. Also the fact that Bret Lee acknowledged it to be brilliant move on Sachin's part proves how he outmaneuvered the Aussies.

This has been a superb test match with some excellent performances and at this point the match is evenly poised with India having a slight advantage. All three results are possible and the first session tomorrow might well decide on the way this match might pan out. India needs wickets and cheap ones at that, much depends on how bajji and Kumble bowl tomorrow. Bajji looked really up for it in the one over that he bowled before close of play. He will be quite a handful on this wicket tomorrow and I expect him to do well keeping his past performances against Australia into the perspective.Couple of wickets before lunch will put India in the driving seat.

P.S: I wonder if the Aussie PM Kevin Rudd is so jobless that he could attend the day 2 of the MCG test and then he has been attending this test for the last two days, Jeez doesn't he have a country to run.

Laxman Sizzles at SCG

There is something in SCG which gets the best out of VVS Laxman, who overcame his inner demons and announced himself to the world way back in 1999-2000 with a dazzling knock that left the Australians in awe of him for the first time. Then came the absolute binder of innings in 2003-04 where he even over shadowed Sachin's 241 which almost gate crashed Steven Waugh's farewell. So it was apt that he chose SCG as a canvas to paint another masterpiece and in doing so broke upon the shackles that the Australian bowlers tried to impose upon the Indian batsmen just like they did in the last test at MCG.

It was important for the Indians to restrict the Australians in the morning but they couldn't do it with Bret lee and then Michel Johnson getting some easy runs while Symonds played a curiously subdued knock by his standards so much so that both the fast bowlers out scored him. Stuart Clarke like a true number eleven didn't bother the scorers, all the three wickets to fall picked up by Kumble , who I thought missed a thing or two by not bringing himself into the attack earlier. Australian innings ended on a score of 463 and they would have taken it after they were 135/6 yesterday.

Jaffer was undone by Brett lee's pace and Dravid at the other end was finding non-existent demons in the pitch and was also struggling with his timing, at times making a complete fool of himself, but kudos to him for digging in there and not giving away his wicket. That bloodymindedness coupled with Laxman's sublime stroking took the Indians into ascendancy and just when it looked like Dravid-Laxman partnership was taking away the game from the Aussies, Mitchell johnson struck having dravid caught at second slip and laxman soon followed spooning an easy catch to Hussey of brad hogg's bowling. Dravid did well to score 53, and was helped on the way by some shoddy work behind the stumps by Gilchrist, who was having one of those rare bad days with giving a reprieve each to Laxman and Dravid. Laxman's century had everything you would expect from him, those flicks through mid-wicket, straight drives and those gorgeous cover drives and this was on full display in one Johnson's over when he picked off18 runs in 5 balls. It's really so easy on your eyes and a pleasure to watch batsmen like Laxman play in full flow compared to the power hitting that you so often watch these days. He is right up there with the likes of Zaheer Abbas, David Gower & Mark Wagh.

The match is evenly poised at the end of day 2 with Sachin looking good for a big one in the company of Ganguly. So it's going to be an interesting day of cricket tomorrow and with the kind of cricket that's been on display for the last two days, it would be foolish to write off test cricket yet.

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.

Melbourne is history, three Tests to go

Says Zaheer Khan, easier said than done especially when you take into the account that it was due to the batting failure that India lost the Melbourne test. The way Australian Bowlers relentlessly attacked the Indian batsmen with out really giving away an inch , a part timer like Symonds included and it is hard to fathom what plans the Indian batsmen could have coming into this new years test to score against this bowling attack.

Goods news is that, SCG is the Ground where Sachin has done really well averaging a phenomenal 249 and then there is laxman, who scored two his best knocks in his career on this very ground. Also it helps that though India were not able to register a win on this ground they had the better of Australians, last time they played here. Usually the pitch at SCG aids spinners but this time around there has been talk that the newly laid SCG pitch is more lively but it should not really matter as this Indian team has been there on all three of it's previous away tours, and it helps that they got the better of home team in each of those matches. So SCG provides them the best opportunity to hit back at the Aussies and they do have it in them to do just that.

For starters they need to be more aggressive while batting and they just can't allow the Australians to bowl one maiden over after another because all it takes is just one good ball and away you go to the hutch without making much contribution to the team score, you just can't let that happen when you are up against a team like Australia. You need to keep the score board ticking with singles, while putting away any bad balls that come your way which could be as rare as a day going by without Paris Hilton making the news. There has been a talk of going with Sehwag in this match but that has been laid to rest with him being left out of the 13 and it makes sense not to have him play, when it has been more than a year since he last played and it does not help his cause either that he ain't done anything to warrant his place back in the team in the intervening period. One thing that might be giving kumble some headache is Zaheer khan's fitness, news coming out reckon that he might be a doubtful starter with the recurrence of his landing heel problem which made him miss the last test against Pakistan a fortnight back. While we are at it, this time the team physio hits out at the BCCI regarding the facilities back in India for the injured players and also the scheduling of tours as such. If Zaheer khan is not fit, Irfan comes into the team and also Kumble might have him open the batting too, which won't be that bad given that Dravid is not that keen to open.

All this will mean only that much when play gets underway tomorrow. Indians have to field better and bat better compared to their effort in Melbourne, if they want to make it a contest.