India vs Australia | 3rd Test | Mohali | 17/3/13 | Day 4

[Convict]

This is where Hughes bats best. When he goes out and bats rather than getting mentally preoccupied with what he's doing wrong

 

[BaaliSoda]

Hughes successessfully sees off the last over of the day. Ozs still trail india by 17 runs.

Imho, it was kinda mixed bag day for both the teams

 

[OZGOD]

LOL Ashwin taking the p!ss

 

[OZGOD]

Sill a decent chance of a result. 50% India win, 30% Draw 20% OZ win IMO. For OZ to win we need to put up another couple hundred runs by lunch and make India chase the last couple of sessions. It has to be a small enough total that they will go for so we can take some wickets.

 

[BaaliSoda]

@OZGOD - Agreed, There is a very big chance for a result tomorrow.

 

[AamchiMumbaikar]

Either we win or it's a draw

Need to get Hughes n Clarke early, pitch still seems good for batting!

 

[IndianWillow]

Surprised at a lot of Indian comments on the scoring rates. Guys, please don't forget this is a test match. India got 499 from 132 which is a very decent rate of 3.77. There may have been periods of play where they were a bit slow, and that is how a test match is. May be you want India to score at 5 RPO every match??

The match was heading towards a draw after the first day wash out, barring an unusual turn in the match.

 

[BaaliSoda]

Surprised at a lot of Indian comments on the scoring rates. Guys, please don't forget this is a test match. India got 499 from 132 which is a very decent rate of 3.77. There may have been periods of play where they were a bit slow, and that is how a test match is. May be you want India to score at 5 RPO every match??

The match was heading towards a draw after the first day wash out, barring an unusual turn in the match.

TBH, I could relate their(and my) feelings on this scoring rate issue. If you had watched today's play fully, you would find in the morning session there was simply no intent from either of the settled batters to score any runs (even the bad balls were not scored off). Similar thing happened in the post lunch session after the fall of Ashwin. It appeared that we were going nowhere with all this time wasting non-run scoring tuk tuk approach. This approach, somewhat reminded me(possibly many others) of MSD's (infamous) drawn test in WI few year back.

I believed(and still believe) if we had(have) more overs to bowl at OZ batters then we have got greater chance of winning this test instead of ending up in a dull draw.

The above could be the reason you saw those cynical posts from Indian PPers(including mine) on scoring rate.

 

[IndianWillow]

TBH, I could relate their(and my) feelings on this scoring rate issue. If you had watched today's play fully, you would find in the morning session there was simply no intent from either of the settled batters to score any runs (even the bad balls were not scored off). Similar thing happened in the post lunch session after the fall of Ashwin. It appeared that we were going nowhere with all this time wasting non-run scoring tuk tuk approach. This approach, somewhat reminded me(possibly many others) of MSD's (infamous) drawn test in WI few year back.

I believed(and still believe) if we had(have) more overs to bowl at OZ batters then we have got greater chance of winning this test instead of ending up in a dull draw.

The above could be the reason you saw those cynical posts from Indian PPers(including mine) on scoring rate.

Vijay and Tendulkar were the only ones to strike below 50 and Vijay was playing very sensibly really. Can't expect more than this from Tendulkar these days. The fall of Dhawan and Pujara in succession obviously made them cautious. Siddle's 5/71 should tell you it wasn't very easy to bat as there was swing.

The only reason the match picked up any attention was due to the whirl wind innings of Dhawan. But India needed to maintain that tempo till lunch and preferably till tea. Due to early wickets, India just played if safe. Why should a team that is 2-0 up take big risks on day 4 to a win a match curtailed by rain?

Allowing Australia to get 408 from 251/7 is the bigger problem than India's batting which was good overall. The match was nearly a draw from that point, barring a miracle. A miracle in the form of Dhawan's innings has given us a slight chance to win. It is upto the bowlers to complete the miracle - batters have done their job.

 

[BaaliSoda]

^^I can understand Vijay and Sachin's earlier apprehension and cautious play for an hour but this approach was continued even post lunch. All the batters including normally aggressive Kohli too tried playing for time rather than runs. Ball was reversing a bit but not to the level of unplayable and most part of the morning session was bowled by Steve smith/Doherty/ and Lyon. Neither Vijay nor Sachin tried attacking these average spinners.

I am somewhat suspecting this tuk tuk approach to the instruction the batters must have received from the pavilion.