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.