Hayden flexes his mean mouth muscles again [remember his 'Someone like Laxman is really scared of the short ball' bravado quote before the last series?] claiming that subcontinental batsmen focus too much on personal landmarks, especially in one-dayers, which results in them slowing down the runrate as they neared the century mark

You cant say he is wrong, thats for sure. There've been umpteen instances of Indian players over keen to get to the century mark and slowing down the runrate. It is certainly something which needs to be addressed. That said, Hayden should be close to the last person qualified to say so.

When Hayden went past Lara's 375 at Perth last year, Waugh didnt declare at tea. Instead, he let Hayden bat on, with the aim to let him make 400. So if this isnt selfishness, what is?

On an earlier occassion, during the magical Chepauk test in 2001, Hayden got to his double century in the first innings and added just 8 more runs in the company of McGrath and slogged Harbhajan down Ganguly's throat at mid-off. Instead, if he had not been so concerned with just his double century and focussed on getting a few more runs, Australia may have set India 175 and not 155 and the series result may well have been 2-1 to Australia.

Labels: aus v ind 2004