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October 19, 2008

India vs Australia - Day 1 & 2 - An Aussie's lament

Fair to say, Australia pretty much under the pump now!

Hayden failed again, third ball again, Zaheer Khan, again! That guy can seriously bowl.

India smashed the Aussie bowlers on day 1, exposing their lack of penatration and fire power. Then, they beat up on a weary top order. Leaving Australia four down at the end of the day. Again, last over bunny, Michael Clarke falling in the last over! This is a disturbing pattern. If you were a debutant bowler and Clarke was in at the end of the day, you'd be itching to get your hands on the ball, particularly for that last over.

During the first test you sensed that India didn't quite click and Australia were hanging on. These two days proved that, as India really clicked into gear and Australia succumbed.

You'd think India would go onto win from here. Only a massive, massive innings from Hussey, and some remarkable support from Watson, White, Hadden and Lee can get them out of this.

It wasn't just India's big score in the first inning (you don't lose when you make 400+ in the first innings - not often!) but their decent scoring rate, that has left them with 3 full days to get the remain 16 wickets they need, and maybe, score a handful of runs.

What will be interesting is how Ricky Ponting and Australia will react to being behind early in a series for the first time I can remember. Even in their Ashes loss in '05, Australia won the first test.

Of particular interest will be, what will happen to Hayden? He hasn't looked good. He didn't look good leading up to the Ashes tour 4 years ago - they persisted and he didn't come good until the last Test. And Watson! What is going on with this guy? It appears he's injured again. Hopefully that will force him out. But who do you bring in? A batsman or a bowler?

You certainly don't surrender after just a couple of bad days, and Australia won't. But I think, finally, we are starting to see the impact of losing the greats, over the past two years.

Labels: aus v ind 2008

Thus spake Stuart Helwig @ 3:31 am |

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4 sledge(s):

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By Sanju (19 Oct 2008, 6:58:00 am)

"That guy can seriously bowl."
- can this be conveyed to ricky?

By Ganesh (19 Oct 2008, 5:50:00 pm)

The best ball was the one that got Clarke in the First Test - end of Day 1.
I was watching the slow motion replay for the first time. As the ball pitched, from left arm over the wicket, right in the middle of the "zone" I thought "Oh no, surely that's going across the batsman?!?", then, it straigtened like a smart bomb, and just went straight at middle, about half way up. I normally find ways to give LBWs not out - 95% of the time I reckon, but not that time. And he seems quick and fiery too.

By Stuart Helwig (20 Oct 2008, 5:19:00 am)

Zaheer is a much improved bowler in the last year. He's become fitter, has a lot more variety (swinging in, cutting it away, bowling from around the wicket).

I think Australia's problem with the bowling attack is that it is fairly uniform, especially when Lee isn't firing.

It is still not beyond Australia's ability to go to Delhi with the series score still reading 0-0.

But it will be fascinating to see the way they play tomorrow.

By Jagadish (20 Oct 2008, 7:19:00 pm)

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