Australia vs India | 3rd Test | Perth |18/01/08 | Day 3

[linuxaddict]

Apologies - I missed the game today - so who's winning ?

I hope didn't mean who's whining.

 

[Dhonifan]

Yes Hayden's dominance of India does hide some things - we actually struggle a bit against India because they have so many class batsmen. Most other teams only have 1 or 2 world class players.

Also India have good spinners and can swing the ball with their pacers - guess what Australian domestic cricket has? No decent spinners and no decent swing bowlers.

I don't think the umpiring or monkey business has anything to do with it - Australia have been outplayed. They were outplayed for most of the Sydney test too but that was masked by umpiring errors which let Aus off the hook.
Momentum in this series is with India. If only they had played another couple of warm up games.

Thank you, very sporting of you to mention that.

Whatever happens, gotta admit, India/Aus matches can be very dramatic and entertainting sometimes. It certainly brings out the best in many players. Look at Laxman!

 

[Tupac]

well done again india! we were choking in the middle there but we came out ok....now to get ponting tomorrow very early and continue his horror series with the bat.

 

[Dhonifan]

If India is to win this, Ishant and RPS have to get their act together and bowl as well as they did in the first innings.

 

[Master Blaster]

Test cricket in its full glory !! Hail Hail both teams. Long live Test Cricket !!

 

[jusarrived]

my long time dreams going to come true tomorrow........and as I expected , a win in perth !

miracle man vvs laxman to rescue again ...... !

 

[W63L35]

p.s W63 seems like you copied by MSN display pic

What is MSN display pic?

 

[Sparhawk]

Australia are really missing Hayden. Jacques isn't in the same league, he sometimes looks like sehwag with all those lashes outside offstump. The pressure's on Ponting now.

 

[OZGOD]

This is where we see what Ponting is made of. Can he save the OZ?

 

[tmac4real]

This is where we see what Ponting is made of. Can he save the OZ?

he's due a big knock + no harbhajan, u can almost guarantee it.

 

[david_becks]

he's due a big knock + no harbhajan, u can almost guarantee it.

But Ishant is there.

 

[OZGOD]

Odd loss is different for different country. I think 1 loss out of 17 tests is absolutely nothing.. pittance.. India would take 2 losses for every 5 wins.But only motivation for ozzies to go after this win is to create the record. Second reason is , this is Perth. Australia is playing with 4 quicks, India with 3 medium pacers. Bowlers will be put to shame if Australia don't pull a miracle here.

So i am not going to count them out. I still favor ozzies to pull a win here. I still think australia has the burning desire and motivatioin not anyone to beat them.

You can never count out the OZ, but were I a betting man, I would be putting my money on India to win here. Chasing 390 or whatever it was is going to be tough.

I think the OZ missed a trick in taking too long to dismiss Laxman and Singh - I think the total is 50 runs too much for the OZ. Plus Ponting will effectively be opening his innings again tomorrow morning and we all know how dodgy he is at the start of his innings.

Re the bowling, the OZ bowlers have been clearly outbowled in this match. Bar Lee who has had an excellent match (and I have to eat my words from last year as I think he's starting to mature as a bowler finally) and Stu Clark who created lots of chances but just couldn't get the breakthroughs, the bowling has been shoddy. Clarke and Symmo are clearly part-timers, MJ has been inconsistent while Tait has failed thus far. Singh and Pathan did the simple things right and got the ball to move.

 

[OZGOD]

Yeah we are pretty fair minded most of the time - with reference to the Asian nations etc it's a bit different for Australian fans because we are used to having a team that wins all the time. So the odd loss is OK to take - games Australia lose are also usually pretty good to watch as the team doesn't give up without a fight.

If the cricket team starts losing a lot we might get a bit nationalistic but for the moment are very happy to be watching competitive cricket.

One of the things about OZ losses in cricket is that where they have lost the other team has had to play at its best to beat them - eg. Kolkata 2001, Adelaide 2003, the Ashes defeats in 2005, the ODI in SA, etc. They've usually been epic games that get talked about for years to come.

In this match, we've had everything - India seizing the initiative during the first 2 sessions of Day 1, the OZ fighting back in the 3rd session and the 1st session of Day 2, then India wrenching back the advantage for the rest of Day 2, then Day 3 was an absorbing arm-wrestle with OZ making early breakthroughs and removing the top order, then India slowly grinding their way back in front to hold pole position going into the fourth day. Even though we will in all likelihood only have 4 days of cricket it's been an enthralling Test match.

Shame it's so bloody late from a time point of view in the US - I haven't had the chance to watch anything after drinks on the second sessions of each day.

 

[tmac4real]

Yeah just shows the greatness of the Aussie teams. Players have to put up legendary performances just to win one damn test! Not even a series, just a test match.

 

[OZGOD]

Yeah just shows the greatness of the Aussie teams. Players have to put up legendary performances just to win one damn test! Not even a series, just a test match.

It was the same with the WI of old though - when teams won against them, you knew that they definitely deserved their victories because they were hard-earned. Makes it more fun for the viewing public too (I mean it's nice to see those crushing victories, but they don't really say much for the games as contests). Kind of like when we beat the All Blacks in the rugby - it happens so rarely that we consider it an epic victory when it happens.

 

[david_becks]

It was the same with the WI of old though - when teams won against them, you knew that they definitely deserved their victories because they were hard-earned. Makes it more fun for the viewing public too (I mean it's nice to see those crushing victories, but they don't really say much for the games as contests).

Oh common dont compare old great West Indian team to this cheat Ausssie team.West Indian bowlers and players never liked to sledge like your players does.Put aussie team under pressure and see how bad they behave on the field with the opposition.This wasnt the case with the west indian players.They used to talk and sledge with their batting and bowling only.

 

[jackal786]

I totally agree.. every day when the morning game started.... invariable words were

"THIS IS THE CRUCIAL SESSION FOR BOTH TEAMS"

How often you see commentators say that every session... You know that you are watching high quality test match when they say that.

 

[jackal786]

One thing is sure. You cannot beat this Australian side with individual performance. It gotta be team effort. In kolkatta we talk about Laxman's 281. But there was Dravid's 180. Bhajji's hatrick. Tendulkar's triple strike.

 

[tmac4real]

So far VVS/Pathan/RP have had good performances. We need RP/Pathan to deliver again with ball.

 

[OZGOD]

Oh common dont compare old great West Indian team to this cheat Ausssie team.West Indian bowlers and players never liked to sledge like your players does.Put aussie team under pressure and see how bad they behave on the field with the opposition.This wasnt the case with the west indian players.They used to talk and sledge with their batting and bowling only.

Dude, let's not get rose-coloured glasses when it comes to the WI teams of old. They were a fantastic team, but they were ruthless and brutal when it came to playing. They used their fast bowling quartet as an intimidatory force even against tailenders. Does this make them less of a team? No. Because when you go out there to play, you expect to get hit by balls that rear up to your throat and helmet, or strike you on the arm, or the chest. So you're saying that it's better to try and physically injure someone than sledge them? I find that confusing. I'm not whinging about their tactics, and am not bothered either by sledging or by short pitched bowling aimed at the body - just pointing out that in their own way they were as ruthless and committed to winning as the OZ are.

The XI meanest bowlers

John Stern infiltrates the fast and furious of Test cricket



Roy Gilchrist: not a man to be messed with © Getty Images

1 Sylvester Clarke
Mike Selvey wrote: "His glare could freeze hell." He terrorised batsmen for a decade for Surrey, splitting Graham Gooch's helmet in two and ripping the top of David Gower's glove. His amazing shoulders and chest-on action could unleash what Dennis Amiss called a "trapdoor ball" because the batsman would lose sight of it until it appeared in front of his nose. But his most infamous act came as a boundary fielder in a Test against Pakistan at Multan in 1980-81. Angered by the barrage of fruit and pebbles, he picked up a brick being used as a boundary marker and threw it into the crowd, seriously injuring a local student leader.

2 Roy Gilchrist
"I bin watchin' cricket 50 years and, if owt's faster than yon lad, they're fired from bloody cannons," said a seasoned watcher of the Central Lancashire League after seeing the Jamaican Gilchrist bowl for Middleton. Gilchrist played 13 Tests for West Indies and took 57 wickets but his Test career ended abruptly, sent home from India in 1958-59 for bowling beamers and a "knife incident".

3 Colin Croft
"Genuinely nasty," wrote Imran Khan. "He didn't seem to enjoy playing cricket very much." Built like a lock forward, Croft bowled from wide of the crease spearing the ball towards the batsman. When Australia met Guyana in 1977-78 Graham Yallop fractured his jaw trying to hook Croft and Bruce Yardley was hit on the head. The tourists' manager Fred Bennett described Croft's bowling as a "direct contravention of both the law and the tour conditions".

4 Charlie Griffith
His partnership with Wes Hall for West Indies in the 1960s was one of the most hostile of all pace double-acts. Griffith was the master of the toe-crushing yorker but is notorious for his dubious action that caused him to be no-balled for throwing twice in his career. In 1961-62 he hit Indian Nari Contractor over the right ear and Contractor had to undergo a life-saving brain operation.

5 Harold Larwood
Not a real meany but gets in for being the executor of Bodyline against Australia in 1932-33. He took 33 wickets at 19.51 but achieves his place as an anti-hero because of the blows sustained by Bill Woodfull and Bert Oldfield in the third Test at Adelaide. Woodfull was hit over the heart after ducking into what he thought was a rising ball while Oldfield was hit on the head by a ball that rose off a length.

6 Jeff Thomson
He set his stall out before England's visit to Australia in 1974-75 by saying: "I enjoy hitting a batsman more than getting him out. I like to see blood on the pitch. And I've been training on whisky." Whatever his secret, his partnership with Dennis Lillee in the 1974-75 series was devastatingly successful. The pair took 58 wickets between them and both averaged two or three bouncers an over as the capacity crowds bayed for blood.

7 Courtney Walsh
West Indies v England, first Test, Jamaica, 1993-94. It was Mike Atherton's first overseas Test as captain and Walsh bowled "harrowingly fast and short" according to Wisden. But it was the "unwarranted and unpunished intimidation" of England's No. 11 Devon Malcolm that shocked all who saw it. Walsh had had enough of a last-wicket stand between Malcolm and Andrew Caddick so came round the wicket to launch an "unedifying assault" at Malcolm's body.

8 Michael Holding
Don't be fooled by the mellifluous Jamaican burr. `Whispering Death' wins his place for the onslaught at Old Trafford on the evening of July 10, 1976 when 45-year-old Brian Close took blow after blow on the body. West Indies captain Clive Lloyd admitted afterwards: "Our fellows got carried away. They went flat out, sacrificing accuracy for speed."



Curtly Ambrose: angry when roused © Getty Images
9 Curtly Ambrose
The meanness of Ambrose left was usually confined to his bowling analysis but when riled his temper was ferocious. Playing for Northants against Warwickshire in 1990, he was so annoyed at having a caught-behind appeal against Dermot Reeve turned down that he bowled three beamers at him in quick succession. Reeve made 202 not out, his highest first-class score.

10 John Snow
The man whose autobiography was entitled Cricket Rebel was easily wound up. On the Ashes tour of 1970-71 Snow hit Graham McKenzie in the face and in the final Test at Sydney felled Terry Jenner with a bouncer. He was warned by the umpire for intimidatory bowling and then had his shirt pulled by an inebriated spectator. As beer cans rained on to the ground England captain Ray Illingworth led his players from the field.

11 Sarfraz Nawaz
An unpredictable Pakistani, Sarfraz had the temerity to bounce Jeff Thomson, playing for Northants against the Australians, and Joel Garner, in the 1979 Gillette Cup final. At Perth in 1978-79 Andrew Hilditch picked up the ball at the non-striker's end and threw it helpfully back to Sarfraz, who promptly appealed successfully for `handled the ball'.

This article was first published in the March 2004 issue of The Wisden Cricketer.
Click here for further details.

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1361103

 

[siddharth]

Well even the final score to chase is 400+ with two wicketas already down ,Aussies are there with the chance and fight .U have to give the credit to the Ozzies .They are the only team which give an ''uneasiness '' to the oppostion always .

They have created such an impression through sheer hardwork and proffesionalism .Indians can't relax at any time .

 

[OZGOD]

If the OZ somehow manage to win it, it will be an epic win indeed. But I think they left themselves with too much to chase - I reckon they'll fall about 50-100 runs short.

 

[UP]

Finally someone challenging Mighty Aussies !!!

Lets see what Auusies are made of when theres so much pressure.

 

[bones20]

Ah i so much wish we had zaheer and sreesanth here. I would have totally backed india to win had they been there.

 

[Indiagem]

India is the team who stopped Steve Waugh's team's run of consecutive 16 wins.

It should be fittingly so again for the Ponting's team.

India should do this, especially after the Sydney test fiasco.

Go India Go. Many people wish you luck today.

 

[Indiagem]

What a chance to beat that group of professional cricketers and also over-confident and arrogant men who definitely don’t know how to behave, so my Team-India.....just go out today with the new zeal and forget everything that happened in past......make full use of every ball u bowl out there……

 

[david_becks]

What a chance to beat that group of professional cricketers and also over-confident and arrogant men who definitely don’t know how to behave, so my Team-India.....just go out today with the new zeal and forget everything that happened in past......make full use of every ball u bowl out there……

They should remember what happened in past to kick some a**** now.

 

[Random Aussie]

Ah i so much wish we had zaheer and sreesanth here. I would have totally backed india to win had they been there.

Sreesanth would have gone for lots of runs on this pitch

India's bowlers have been disciplined and bowled intelligently. If they keep doing that today should win the game.

As OzGod said, it's just a bit too many runs to sucessfully chase (barring something extraordinary or India falling apart)

 

[Random Aussie]

It was the same with the WI of old though - when teams won against them, you knew that they definitely deserved their victories because they were hard-earned. Makes it more fun for the viewing public too (I mean it's nice to see those crushing victories, but they don't really say much for the games as contests). Kind of like when we beat the All Blacks in the rugby - it happens so rarely that we consider it an epic victory when it happens.

Yep those matches right at the end of the WI era when Australia finally started to draw or beat them were awesome - after years of being flogged.