Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2007-08 (Cricket)

Cafe Society
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That’s Australia vs India, Test cricket. Here’s the thread from the last series.

I meant to start this earlier and now the first Test is over. Australia by 337 runs in a pretty ruthless display.

It was a brute of a day in Melbourne today. My three-year-old had had enough cricket by tea time and it was sitting on 40 C at the time. It wasn’t unpleasant in the stands but a shoulder-ride to the car had me pretty hot and bothered. The Indians looked like they were struggling in the heat, but the Australians - particularly Symonds - were leaping around in the field like it was fun.

The big question after day one was whether the Australians’ 337/9 (which became 343 all out) was a good day for India or a good one for Australia. The answer’s clear now. I still think India bowled pretty well then and throughout the match, but their batting was unbalanced and lacked preparation. And their fielding was poor.

Notable things for Australia:

Clark is a godsend. Yes, Lee has stepped up, but it’s Clark who is compensation for losing McGrath. He’s not as accurate but he does a little more with the ball.

Symonds thinks he belongs now. This should worry other teams a lot.

Hogg did well. He got Ganguly out twice, and he’s a noted player of spin. Picking up a few wickets will do him the world of good. Effected a fine run out today, too.

Johnson is the variety the Australian attack has lacked since (gulp) Bruce Reid. He looks the goods to me.

It’s tough to criticize Jaques because he’s scored heavily, but his habit of getting out to a dumb shot when set is something that needs work. Less than sharp in the field, too.

Notable things for India:

Harbhajan bowled well and better as the game wore on. Seems to have the wood on Ponting. Will be fired up for the rest of the series because he clearly hates to lose.

The decision to open with Dravid in order to squeeze Yuvraj in looks foolish. Dravid doesn’t deserve to be treated like a spare-parts man. He looked quite lost at the top of the order. It’s a shame since he looked to have finally cracked Australian conditions the last time the Indians were here. Just pick Sehwag - no matter what his form, everyone knows he’s got balls.

Ganguly looked good (at least until overwhelmed by the heat today). Having to go back and score some big runs at first class level has been good for him. India should do more of it.

Tendulkar won’t play another Test at the MCG. He’s been around and loved by Australian crowds for what seems like forever, but it still seems too soon to let him go.

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I don’t know much about cricket, but I saw a letter in the SMH yesterday complaining about the standard of the umpiring in the test that’s just finished. Do you think that’s a justifiable gripe?

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I didn’t see every ball, but no. I thought the umps had a better than average game. The Englishman Benson was good and the prattish Kiwi Bowden made a couple of blues but was mostly good.

I can only think of three poor decisions: 1. Lee was denied a plumb LBW; 2. Yuvraj was given not out when the umpire thought the appeal was for LB - but in fact he hit it and was caught; and 3. Kumble was given caught at the wicket by Bowden in the first dig when he had brushed his pad. Bowden got himself into a muddle wondering if the ball had carried.

The umpires in recent times have been giving more leg befores on the front foot than the used to, but Hawkeye almost always says they’re right when they give them.

4

Test number two at the tiny Sydney Cricket Ground. Australia chose to bat and were 7/376.

Another very interesting day. Australia suffered a big collapse in the face of a very good Indian attack. When Gilchrist departed they were 6/134. What was extraordinary was not that Australia managed to recover but that they just kept on playing attacking cricket. Despite looking like they had nearly lost the Test before tea on day one they still scored at more than four an over. And Hogg must be getting close to finishing Stewie MacGill’s career.

It’s the determination to play the game on their own terms that reminds me of the great West Indian sides under Clive Lloyd. Just amazing stuff.

No-one will be complaining about the umpires in Melbourne now. The umpires had a really bad day. Lots of pretty bad decisions with most of them going against India.

Apparently sport threads go in Cafe Society, so I’m going to ask for this to be moved.

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The SMH thinks so too.

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Some more good batting from Australia at the finish, though that last-wicket stand was a disappointment after the preceding three. But still, four hundred and plenty after being six down for 160-odd is something they’d have settled for.

Nice knock from VVS Laxman but India still have to fight pretty hard.

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Laxman played beautifully. He usually does against Australia. And he allowed Dravid to have a little time in the middle and get a bit of form back. He’s a tough customer.

A decent partnership between Sachin and Ganguly in the morning would see India well ahead in this match.

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There you go, with a big hundred from Sachin Tendulkar… I remember him when he was a little boy. :eek: Although it took a good knock from the Turbanator to set up the lead. Looks like there might still be a contest - maybe with India chasing 300-odd on the last day (a score that’s never been made to win on this ground).

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Australian media is calling the Indian team ‘sore losers’. As one Indian journo pointed out- the Australians are ‘sore winners’.
I would call the Australian team wankers.

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I have to say I’m disappointed with the standard of umpiring shown in this match. I’m not saying that Australia weren’t the better team, but there were some glaring umpiring errors that made a huge difference to the course of the match (Symonds and Dravid, in their respective second innings). It was nicely poised on day 3, and at the end of day 4, it looked more and more likely that a draw was the most likely result. Disappointing, all in all.

Good to see Tendulkar return to form, though. Nicely played hundred; it’s great to see him not stutter in the 90s.

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Can I ask why?

Is it because of the racial issue around Symonds and Singh or something else?

From everything I have read in the media today I don’t think the media is calling the Indians sore losers. In fact they seem to be focusing on the abyssmal umpiring decisions.

I personally think that the Indians are being sore losers. Apart from the race issue, I can’t see where Kumble gets his “not playing in the spirit of the game” dummy spit from. He should be directing his anger at losing the game where it belongs (IMO) - The Umpires. They made several (I have seen it quoted as high as 10) obviously wrong decisions. It is unfortunate that in this game most of those decisions went against the Indian team, and probably gave the win to the Aussies.

The only ‘controversial’ things I have seen about the Aussies was the last day catch by Michael Clark, and Symonds being honest and sayng yes he nicked it but didn’t walk. On those two issues -

The catch - did he miss earlier in the day when Ponting had a close slips catch but came right out and said, nope didn’t get that one. Obviously Clark thought he caught his. (It actually can be hard to tell sometimes if you got the ball before it hit the ground) It’s not the Aussies fault the Umpire didn’t go to the video. (Which in my personal opinion I think a video replay is useless in judging those lineball catching decisions anyway.)

Symonds out - I wouldn’t have walked either. You go by the ump’s decision. Anyone saying otherwise IMO is being unrealistic and a world class monday morning quarterback. Ask Dravid, who got a shocker the other way, if next time he is batting and nicks it but is given not out whether he would walk. Umpires are human who get decisions wrong. As a batsman you take the good with the bad. You get a bad decision you don’t scream and shout and carry on, off you go, you get a decision in your favour, count your lucky stars and keep on batting.

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The media in Australia is ridulously biased. All I can see is read the overseas media. Sorry, too busy to say more.

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Apologies for the double post.

But also wanted to add, how good was this game of cricket?!

It is very unfortunate that it has been overshadowed by other controversies, which the game will probably be remembered for, rather than the onfield action which was just terrific.

Umpiring aside, how good is for a test match after 5 full days of cricket to come down to a nail biting last hour of play?

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It was good to see a nail-biting finish, but the various bits of ugliness rather overshadowed things. I was away for the latter parts of that Test and I don’t think I’ll comment unless there is a great clamour for my views.

Anyway, we’ve now had two days in Perth and India are well on top. They made 330 and had Australia 5/61 before a rearguard action from Symonds (66) and Gilchrist (55) got Australia to 212.

After all the talk about the conditions it’s the Indians who’ve handled them best by a long shot. Dravid battled on and played judiciously. Tendulkar is so much in charge of his craft that he can adapt his game to the conditions. His swaying uppercut to a bouncer in the first innings again showed that he remains a truly great player.

The Indian bowlers found more swing than their counterparts and the Australian top order were impatient. On the other hand, Sewag was kind of impatient - really he just played his game - but was good for India in that it gave them a positive start. He should have played from the start of the series, form be damned.

It’s hard to see a result other than an Indian win from here, particularly with Kumble exploiting bounce in the fourth innings. But stranger things have happened.

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Australia are up against it with another 350-odd wanted, two men out, and two full days to play. A good all-round team effort from India second dig, not least Irfan Pathan as night-watchman. (Hey, we mustn’t make this thread too easy for Americans to understand. :p)

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…Aaaand India wrap it up. There goes the winning streak, and fortunately there seems to be very little acrimony about the place now.

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It was a gripping 4th day. Australia fought pretty hard and India had to play well to win. And they did.

Ishant Sharma’s spell to Ricky Ponting was truly great. The kid’s only 19, yet he worked over Ponting like I haven’t seen a good batsman worked over for a while. He could be the new McGrath.

Kumble’s captaincy was good throughout, but his decision to bowl Sewag was inspired and should give him great confidence in his touch.

Some interesting selection issues for Adelaide -

Australia will obviously drop Tait and Rogers. Presumably they will go with Hogg, but after Sydney he’s clearly not the answer. Get fit Stewie McGill. Australia won’t pick four quicks for a while. Maybe they should have gone with Bracken or Noffke in Perth. If Lee or Clark go down I’d be tempted to go with the experience of Gillespie.

India suddenly have a seaming embarrassment of riches. Sharma looks a mighty prospect. Pathan is swinging the ball again and can bat - and is surely therefore undroppable. RP Singh was excellent. I guess Harbajan misses out in Adelaide, but what does this mean for the future when Zaheer, Sreesanth and Munif Patel (who I haven’t seen) all all fit again?

The thing I hope India remembers is that with Sewag at the top of the order they looked positive, even if he didn’t make a score.