What's new

Australia vs India | 3rd Test | Melbourne | Dec 26-30, 2018 | Day 2 Thread

A

Abdullah719

T20I Captain
Joined
Apr 16, 2013
Runs
44,824
Mayank Agarwal, India's 295th Test cap, scored a 161-ball 76 to end India's opening woes and help them retain control on day one of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The visitors ended the day at 215/2, with Cheteshwar Pujara (68*) and skipper Virat Kohli (47*) at the crease. Pat Cummins was the only Australian bowler who could engineer a breakthrough, ending the day with figures of 2/40.

India, who won the toss and decided to bat first, opted for a complete revamp of their opening combination. They brought in Agarwal and promoted Hanuma Vihari to the top of the order in place of Murali Vijay and KL Rahul.

Vihari battled hard for his 66-ball 8, but was undone by a smart and skiddy delivery from Cummins. The 40-run stand for the first wicket was still an improvement for the visitors, who saw their opening batsmen stand at the crease for 18.5 overs.

Pujara, India's top-scorer in the series so far, collaborated with Agarwal to add 83 runs for the second wicket. They all but played out the entire second session, only for Agarwal to fall just before tea. A short delivery from Cummins caught the inside edge of the batsman's gloves, nestling safely in Tim Paine's hands behind the wicket.

Agarwal's 76 is the second-highest score for an Indian opening batsman making a debut in overseas conditions, just a run behind the 77 Sudhir Naik scored in England back in 1974. While he missed out on the record – and a well-deserved century – his splendid effort in away conditions was impressive.

His strong back-lift, comfort against the spinner and solid technique were the biggest standouts from his innings.

Kohli then joined Pujara for a marathon partnership, which took India to stumps without further hiccups. India's reliable middle-order duo added 92 runs in the final session.

Australia's best chance of the session came when Kohli went searching for a wide delivery from Starc, but Paine couldn't hold on to the ball despite his diving effort.

The dropped catch fired up the bowler, who then bowled a scintillating over. He did everything right, extracting an outside edge and producing three appeals, but the Indian skipper survived.

https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/954330
 
Mitchell Starc clearly not a fan of the MSG pitch
 

Attachments

  • h1p8peroxl621.jpg
    h1p8peroxl621.jpg
    38.3 KB · Views: 219
I have a feeling an early morning batting collapse is on the cards. If India survives the first hour it will be their test to win.
 
Aussies should look to restrict the runs here , that way they can at least waste time , and hope for a draw.
 
Justcrazy said:
India will get 500 here .
Click to expand...

At this rate they will be batting until day 3 lunch for 500.

India in such a position need to bat quicker and look to put Aus in for an hour at the end of the day.

But one wicket can defo bring a few here.
 
Justcrazy said:
Slow steady grind by Indians in the first hour.
Click to expand...

As Gavaskar said "Give the fast bowlers the first hour and they will give you the rest of the day". I think though the Australian pacers remain dangerous throughout the day.
 
KingKhanWC said:
At this rate they will be batting until day 3 lunch for 500.

India in such a position need to bat quicker and look to put Aus in for an hour at the end of the day.

But one wicket can defo bring a few here.
Click to expand...

The position India is in , they would want to get to 500 , I am sure they will start playing more shots soon. India is banking on getting a big total here and put scoreboard pressure on Aussies , with close catching fielders.
 
Chief Destroyer said:
Never undervalue scoreboard pressure. If India can put up 450, they have every chance of winning.
Click to expand...

I think people saying it will be a boring draw haven't watched the match at all.

It is variable bounce with lots of edges. Kohli has been dropped once. Outfield is really slow.
 
Justcrazy said:
The position India is in , they would want to get to 500 , I am sure they will start playing more shots soon. India is banking on getting a big total here and put scoreboard pressure on Aussies , with close catching fielders.
Click to expand...

If Indian batsmen start playing their shots, Aussies will just go short which will quickly stem the flow.

A long way to go but imo they need to up the rate now while these two are well in.
 
Can't remember the last time we made 400/500+ in a test match.

Here is our big chance.
 
I know Rahane is very good in tactical sense but on performance Pujara deserves to be the vice captain.

He is the most valuable Indian wicket in tests along with Kohli ofcourse.
 
Did India seek council with Misbah prior to this tour?

Boring attritional cricket. How can you still be doing tuk tuk after a day of batting and 2 down?

You cant blame crowds not turning up in this series if this is what’s going to be dished out...
 
Eagle_Eye said:
Did India seek council with Misbah prior to this tour?

Boring attritional cricket. How can you still be doing tuk tuk after a day of batting and 2 down?

You cant blame crowds not turning up in this series if this is what’s going to be dished out...
Click to expand...

Don't give two hoots if that's what garners a game and series win.

If you want to watch an Indian collapse, wake up any other day in 2018.
 
Varun said:
Can't remember the last time we made 400/500+ in a test match.

Here is our big chance.
Click to expand...

We still need to up the scoring rate a bit, to put pressure on the Aussies. Maybe attack Lyon.
 
Best shot of the match, timed to perfection on-drive from Kohli.

Hopefully he will up a gear or get out. :)
 
Varun said:
Don't give two hoots if that's what garners a game and series win.

If you want to watch an Indian collapse, wake up any other day in 2018.
Click to expand...

I have stopped watching pakistan bat in test cricket for this type of batting. Now it seems India and Australia have adopted this style.... bore you to tears for batting 2 days and barely getting 500.

thankfulky intent on show... couple of boundaries.
 
India have a certain plan , they are sticking to that . We will know whether that plan is effective or not after 4 - 5 days of cricket. Before that we cannot say anything. If India can win a series in Australia with boring cricket , its fine.
 
Justcrazy said:
India have a certain plan , they are sticking to that . We will know whether that plan is effective or not after 4 - 5 days of cricket. Before that we cannot say anything. If India can win a series in Australia with boring cricket , its fine.
Click to expand...

The plan for Kohli and Pujara is get their 100's at any cost and then see what happens. There is more than a hint of selfishness here.
 
At current pace, India might touch 450 by the end of the day if they dont get out.

If Aussies also match the runs at somewhat same pace we are gonna see a clear draw.
 
Probably India has decided to accelerate , they would be declaring today at some point.
 
KingKhanWC said:
When I was watching the first session last night, it almost reminded me of the Al Jazeera docu, D company as if these players want to score low number of runs in the first innings. The same again this first session. Im suggesting any fixing but it's strange cricket.
Click to expand...

The worst I saw was Harris and khawaja in first or second test... I watched for an hour, they had no intent on scoring, couldn’t hack it and went to bed.

This is Misbah’s imprint on world cricket :))
 
Eagle_Eye said:
The worst I saw was Harris and khawaja in first or second test... I watched for an hour, they had no intent on scoring, couldn’t hack it and went to bed.

This is Misbah’s imprint on world cricket :))
Click to expand...

It seems a contest who can have the lowest strike rate.

Pujara winning with 34.83 while Kohli close with 39.75.
 
KingKhanWC said:
The plan for Kohli and Pujara is get their 100's at any cost and then see what happens. There is more than a hint of selfishness here.
Click to expand...

That isn't fair at all. It's DAY 2 of a 5 Day Test. Right now, the pitch is fairly flat and good for batting. Any teams plan from this position would be to bat as big & long in the first innings as possible, put on scoreboard pressure and make sure the Aussies will need to be batting on Day 5 just to survive when the wicket might be different. Their ideal plan will be to bat just once or one huge one and then just a single session dash to top up the target.

From a series point of view, these two are set and on a flat pitch on a hot day- they should be trying to bat long into the day to tire out our quicks and then they or whoever else is in should slaughter their confidence at the end of the day.

No selfishness here to a) make sure they ended the day on top late on Day 1, instead of Oz with a few late wickets and their tails up &
b) to make sure they bat long into Day 2. Acceleration will come later when Oz are exhausted & dispirited.
 
wrongun said:
That isn't fair at all. It's DAY 2 of a 5 Day Test. Right now, the pitch is fairly flat and good for batting. Any teams plan from this position would be to bat as big & long in the first innings as possible, put on scoreboard pressure and make sure the Aussies will need to be batting on Day 5 just to survive when the wicket might be different. Their ideal plan will be to bat just once or one huge one and then just a single session dash to top up the target.

From a series point of view, these two are set and on a flat pitch on a hot day- they should be trying to bat long into the day to tire out our quicks and then they or whoever else is in should slaughter their confidence at the end of the day.

No selfishness here to a) make sure they ended the day on top late on Day 1, instead of Oz with a few late wickets and their tails up &
b) to make sure they bat long into Day 2. Acceleration will come later when Oz are exhausted & dispirited.
Click to expand...

I agree it's not a bad plan esp with the hot weather but at this rate India will be 400 odd at the end of the day. So do they bat again on day 3 until when? The Aussies will have a good nights sleep and their batsmen will be fresh.

Most teams in such a position do not leave balls which can be put away for singles or double esp on a large outfield such as this. These two are leaving balls which can be hit because there is little pace, no swing and no seam.

India have a great great chance to win their first series in Australia. They will not have a better chance than this...maybe for another 20 years so you have to go for it a bit.

Anyway I'm chaning channels to watch the more exciting Jeeth Raval. :)
 
Strange tactics today. With rain forecast on day 5, one of these two should gave accelerated, ideally that will be Kohli but he's really struggled esp. against Lyon and Marsh.

61 runs in 27 overs feels at least 25-30 runs short, should have got to 300 by now. Pitch has got slower as well butcwe have lacked intent.
 
cricketindiafan said:
Strange tactics today. With rain forecast on day 5, one of these two should gave accelerated, ideally that will be Kohli but he's really struggled esp. against Lyon and Marsh.

61 runs in 27 overs feels at least 25-30 runs short, should have got to 300 by now. Pitch has got slower as well butcwe have lacked intent.
Click to expand...

I do not think there will be that much rain
 
Don't worry about india's run rate right now. Our 6,7 and 8 are shotmakers. If one them gets a fast 50+ inning we can still end up above 3+ rpo.
 
India is surely going to try to up the run rate in second session. In 3rd session they will start slogging. Aus is getting batted out of this game now.
 
cricketindiafan said:
Strange tactics today. With rain forecast on day 5, one of these two should gave accelerated, ideally that will be Kohli but he's really struggled esp. against Lyon and Marsh.

61 runs in 27 overs feels at least 25-30 runs short, should have got to 300 by now. Pitch has got slower as well butcwe have lacked intent.
Click to expand...

Here is the thing. In the series against SA, Eng and Aus, the Indian innings scores have been:

209, 135, 307, 151, 194, 177, 274, 162, 107, 130, 329, 352, 273, 184, 292, 345, 250, 307, 283 and 140.

India's success at home is built on batting which grinds down the opposition bowling and scores 600+ frequently. It will be good for India to have a 500+ innings in a SENA country. It will give our batting confidence, and as our bowling is already pretty good, it will lead to positive results.
 
Napa said:
Here is the thing. In the series against SA, Eng and Aus, the Indian innings scores have been:

209, 135, 307, 151, 194, 177, 274, 162, 107, 130, 329, 352, 273, 184, 292, 345, 250, 307, 283 and 140.

India's success at home is built on batting which grinds down the opposition bowling and scores 600+ frequently. It will be good for India to have a 500+ innings in a SENA country. It will give our batting confidence, and as our bowling is already pretty good, it will lead to positive results.
Click to expand...

As can be seen by the totals scored by India in SENA countries this year, India have failed to reach 400 even once, and that is the reason why they have failed to dominate these series despite having the bowling to bowl out the opposition twice. This innings gives them a golden opportunity to pile on a 400 plus score in these countries for the first time.

Test match pitches do not show the same behavioure on all the five days. In fact the behaviour often changes on the same day in different sessions. The pitch behaviour as well as batsmen behaviour would undergo a sea change as we enter into day four. Just because Australian bowlers are looking ineffective, one cannot assume that Indian bowlers would look ineffective as well.

Personally, I am quite pleased with the position that I find India in at the moment.
 
Why are they plodding along, they should get enough time to take 20 wickets on this dead pitch :facepalm:
 
This is truly a lifeless pitch..does not make for good viewing.

This pitch was given a poor rating by the ICC last year. If this turns out to be a draw, wonder if the ICC will have the guts to reprimand the MCG? If they do, it would mean they can't host next years Boxing Day match.
 
Napa said:
Here is the thing. In the series against SA, Eng and Aus, the Indian innings scores have been:

209, 135, 307, 151, 194, 177, 274, 162, 107, 130, 329, 352, 273, 184, 292, 345, 250, 307, 283 and 140.

India's success at home is built on batting which grinds down the opposition bowling and scores 600+ frequently. It will be good for India to have a 500+ innings in a SENA country. It will give our batting confidence, and as our bowling is already pretty good, it will lead to positive results.
Click to expand...

With these tactics we will end up nowhere. Thrse two are set but have been far too defensive. One gets out now and we will most likely crumble. Have to step up in this session
 
Pitches like these are the worst, the second day isn't even half way over with the first innings till ongoing yet Aus are out of this game.

This pitch should get a bad pitch rating and never be used again.
 
Last edited:
Is the pitch lifeless... or are the batsmen determined not to get out?
 
Aman said:
Pitches like these are the worst, the second day isn't even half way over with the first innings till ongoing yet Aus are out of this game.

This pitch should get a bad pitch rating and never be used again.
Click to expand...
Absolutely pathetic apology for a pitch.

2 wickets in 121 overs.

The ICC should abandon the match, award it to India, and ban the MCG from hosting any cricket matches for a period of five years.
 
Kohli should have retired hurt and let his back become better before coming back later in the innings.
 
Napa said:
Is the pitch lifeless... or are the batsmen determined not to get out?
Click to expand...

Both. Though kohli has just thrown his wicket away. He should have gone off with that bad back and rest it for few hours.
 
Fantastic wicket from shastri, when will this idiot get the boot only God knows.
 
Rahane played that first ball like someone who had to pad up quickly and run on ...
 
Napa said:
Is the pitch lifeless... or are the batsmen determined not to get out?
Click to expand...

Both, but I will wait till both sides bat here to declare this Pitch totally dead.
 
After getting his hundred Pujara has scored 6 runs in 36 balls... after being out there for over 7 hours!!
 
Pujara goes.. India have lost 4 wickets on this lifeless deck.. only if the curator left some life India would have been all out for way fewer runs..
 
Unlucky pujara. Pitch behaved abnormally. He could've done nothing. How on earth that ball kept so low. Lol
 
If Aus can take out 6 wickets in the next 50-60 runs then they will be still in the game. Pitch has uneven bounce and hopefully it doesn't get worse.
 
Buffet said:
If Aus can take out 6 wickets in the next 50-60 runs then they will be still in the game. Pitch has uneven bounce and hopefully it doesn't get worse.
Click to expand...

You want the uneven bounce.... otherwise it’s a bore draw
 
Eagle_Eye said:
You want the uneven bounce.... otherwise it’s a bore draw
Click to expand...

I don't want it to get worse because it will be unfair to Aus. Aus will surely lose. I will like to see 4th test with 1-1 score.
 
The NZ game has become one-sided, this one is dull, only the Pak-SA match is keeping test cricket alive :imam
 
Oligochaetes said:
The NZ game has become one-sided, this one is dull, only the Pak-SA match is keeping test cricket alive :imam
Click to expand...

Trust Pakistan to fight the good fight, hopefully we can do a NZ on SA today by knocking em off early and grinding away at their bowlers. Highly unlikely, but never say never with Pakistan :yk
 
Aus needs to get Rahane out quickly. If he stays for 20 overs, he will add lots of runs.
 
Adijazz1706 said:
Trust Pakistan to fight the good fight, hopefully we can do a NZ on SA today by knocking em off early and grinding away at their bowlers. Highly unlikely, but never say never with Pakistan :yk
Click to expand...

Pak should change home ground from UAE to Eng or SA.. :asad2
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BouncerGuy
  • Locked
Ashes 2025/26: Australia vs England | 4th Test | Melbourne | December 26-30 | Pre-Match Discussion
2
Replies
116
Views
3K
Deewana Mastana
Deewana Mastana
The Bald Eagle
Australia (265/8) defeat India (264/9) by 2 wickets to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 3-match ODI series
2 3 4
Replies
305
Views
4K
BDfanforever
B
The Bald Eagle
Australia (511 & 69/2) defeat England (334 & 241) by 8 wickets in the second Ashes Test to go 2-0 up in the 5-match series
7 8 9
Replies
697
Views
13K
Ball Blazer
Ball Blazer
Ball Blazer
Pakistan spinners strike back to limit South Africa to 216/6 at Stumps on Day 2
2 3 4
Replies
265
Views
5K
jnaveen1980
J
The Bald Eagle
India (155/2) cruise to a convincing 8-wicket win over New Zealand (153/9), sealing the series with two matches still to play
2
Replies
151
Views
3K
SportsWarrior
S
Back
Top