India vs Australia | 1st Test | Chennai | 25/2/13 | Day 5

[Fire Bird]

How long will the Aussies extend this test. Or can they get enough runs to give themselves an outside chance

 

[Itachi]

India will win by 7 wickets.

 

[Fire Bird]

Why is Murali Vijay even playing. Cant even outscore the Aus no.11 the mighty Lyon

 

[cricketworm]

LOL Sachin!

This dude is craaaazy!

 

[cricketworm]

Staying up late was worth it! Two effortless sixes! From first two balls he faced.

Then played a watchful maiden over! !

 

[cricketworm]

Siddle bowled very good over despite only one more run to win.

 

[cricketworm]

We WON the FIRST test! Gulp!

Congrats those who supports India, consolation for Aussy. supporters.

 

[SL_Fan]

Congrats India well played. Dhoni's sublime knock was the difference in the end. Aus selectors and the players have a lot to think about before the next one.

 

[Avenger]

Need to play an extra spinner or 2. I think they need to get Maxwell and Dhortey in the team. I would axe Phil Hughes for Maxwell and drop an underperforming seamer for Dhortey

 

[memamia2005]

Ha Ha. Sachin trolled the Aussies there. Two sixes off the first two balls. Then plays a maiden.

 

[OZGOD]

Saved a bit of face forcing it into a fifth day, but all in all a bit of a shellacking. Mickey Arthur and Pup will have no shortage of issues to address arising from this Test, not the least of which was a very ordinary bowling attack. Obviously we're not blessed with an abundance of quality spinners to choose from, so the bowlers we have who ARE good will have to pick up the slack. I don't see the point in putting in another spinner for the sake of it, they have to be decent otherwise they're just a waste of space. We need to think creatively and figure out which of the quality bowlers we have can take wickets, just like Patto did. They have to find a way to do that, or at least to keep the runs down. The bowling on Day 3 was listless. I would be inclined to bring in MJ in for Starc because he can cut the ball off the seam on some of these dark side of the moon surfaces. Siddle looks unfit as well. They collectively allowed Dhoni to b!tchslap them which was ultimately the difference between the teams - that innings took the momentum away that the OZ had built over the first couple of days.

As for the batting I always expected it to be somewhat brittle especially with Hussey's departure, but what disappointed me the most was the lack of composure which led to a lot of the dismissals. Other than Clarke and Henriques the rest of them just don't look mentally set, to play each ball on its merits, to have a go when the opportunity presents itself, to value their wicket at other times, and to have the judgment to know when to do what. Cowan's dismissals showed me that he doesn't know whether to attack or defend, to drop anchor or to try and dominate the bowlers.

The thing is, while they bowled very well on Day 4 to a lineup of batsmen turned bunnies, these Indian bowlers aren't that great. The one I thought was a real handful, Ohja, wasn't even playing. This version of Harbadulkar isn't the Saint Harby that we saw in his prime years ago, and there's no Kumble to extract wicked bounce and turn, and no Zaheer Khan to reverse the ball. I shudder to think of what those blokes would have done to this side. There's no need to bat in a shell and be so fearful. They walked out for the second innings like they were going into Auschwitz or something. Henriques doesn't have the talent of a Hughes or a Warner or Twatto but he just showed confidence in his ability and applied himself to the situation with caution but not fear. They have to figure out how to overcome their inner demons.

As for India, I think MS would be the first to admit that there is plenty of room for improvement as well. Ashwin is pretty much going to be their only go-to bowler unless they bring Ohja back in. Harbadulkar and Jadeja got some ghetto wickets in the 2nd innings but they looked very ordinary earlier on. That said, you only need to be as good as the players you are bowling to, and this OZ lineup looks like a team of u-13s from India could take their wickets at the moment. The seamers were essentially ineffectual, and that might be a problem depending on the other wickets in the series. But Tendy looked to be in very smooth touch as did Kohli, who is a big confidence player - that ton will definitely galvanise him for the rest of the series. To not really play that well, other than Dhoni and Ashwin and Kohli, and still win by 9 wickets on the first session of the fifth day is an exceptional result.

 

[Fire Bird]

Great win for India. But we have some concerns. Apart from a few players as usual, the rest were poor. Can someone explain to me how this hack Vijay gets into the team ahead of Rahane who is still waiting for his opportunity despite scoring truckloads of runs.
Also I wouldnt be surprised if we bungle this series from this point considering how we were ambushed by Captain Cook and co a few months ago.

 

[IndianWillow]

Easy win for India today. Sometimes the post tea session turns out irritating for the bowler's isn't it. If Bhuvi and Dhoni had not added those crucial extra runs, this match could have gone either way, so it is really not an one sided match inspite of what the results say. That means Australia have not been outplayed and they will take the positives into the next match, and now I see a dangerman in Henriques who seemed very comfortable at the crease. India are still carrying passengers in Vijay, Sehwag, Harbhajan and Ishant and if they are going to repeat these kind of mistakes in SA, they are going to be whitewashed again. I cannot understand how Ishant is still in the team - his last 12 tests are at a bowling average of 80.

 

[Itachi]

Great win for India. But we have some concerns. Apart from a few players as usual, the rest were poor. Can someone explain to me how this hack Vijay gets into the team ahead of Rahane who is still waiting for his opportunity despite scoring truckloads of runs.
Also I wouldnt be surprised if we bungle this series from this point considering how we were ambushed by Captain Cook and co a few months ago.

rahane is a failure too. I want to see robin bist.

 

[Fire Bird]

rahane is a failure too. I want to see robin bist.

Explain to me how Rahane is a failure. He hasnt played any tests only ODIs that too very few. While hacks like Gambhir and Vijay get to play despite failing multiple times.

 

[Random Aussie]

Good summary from our pov from the OG.

We need a lot more application at the crease, like Henriques showed. And the bowling mix has to change.

Positives Patto, Henriques.

Negatives everyone else, including Clarke seeing as he is a selector.

But then again the Indian win was really effected by three or four players too, they have a few who were not up to it. Dhoni the difference in the end.

 

[bin_pendi_ka_lota]

Explain to me how Rahane is a failure. He hasnt played any tests only ODIs that too very few. While hacks like Gambhir and Vijay get to play despite failing multiple times.

The manner in which Rahane got out against inswingers of Finn was very pathetic. He seemed to completely miss the line of the ball. TBH a right handed batman must be able to deal with them else their is a gaping hole in his technique. I dont think he will last any longer then 2-3 overs against likes of Pattison.

 

[Fire Bird]

The manner in which Rahane got out against inswingers of Finn was very pathetic. He seemed to completely miss the line of the ball. TBH a right handed batman must be able to deal with them else their is a gaping hole in his technique. I dont think he will last any longer then 2-3 overs against likes of Pattison.

That maybe but still we need to try him out in the test level. Think about this even failed a few times. But he was persisted with and he eventually repaid some of the faith in him. We need to give Rahane a fair run. Plus I hate Vijay. Everynody should sign a petition to the BCCI to remove this brainless T20 player

 

[bin_pendi_ka_lota]

^ I know its not exactly match condition but What i think is he may be struggling with same in swingers in the nets too. It is a big weakness.. However I dont think neither Sehwag nor Murali is good enough openers for us. We are even better off trying Rohit as test opener.

 

[trogger]

Good to see clarke didn't whinge about the pitch, we don't want to turn into clones of this current indian team who raise the white flag if conditions aren't exactly what they want.

The pitch was fine we were just outplayed, our top 4 in particular are just too soft for this sort of examination.