India vs Australia - Third Test - Day 1 - Aussie take

Australia were again outplayed by a better Indian side today, and I've got some views on all this that I want to air.

At 2 for 27 Australia were set up to play their way back into this series. They were denied of this opportunity by "back to basic" pure Test cricket. Watching Australia bat in the last test, I started to wonder whether they'd forgotten that you still get credit for running singles. You get a run - right! But, that's one quarter of a boundary. Yet you'd think this was baseball and you only score by smashing the thing out of the park. Yesterday India continued with what I am now calling "team batting". When Australia bat, you get the feeling everyone wants to be the hero. Too many superstars! India don't care who scores the runs or who is the centre of attention (save maybe Ganguly). After 2 for 27, India went on to score 1 for 270!

Their score included 91 singles! 91 out of 148 scoring shots were singles. This has a huge impact on so many things. A tired batsman, like Gambhir, late in the day gets to rest for a start. The bowlers are continuously changing there focus, doubly so when one of the batsman is a left-hander, but the biggest impact is on the scoring rate. Australia want to go out and score at 4 an over, but you can't do that by hitting a four, every over, especially against bowling of as high a quality as Sharma, Khan and co. Score three singles an over and hit a boundary every four overs or so, and suddenly you have 4 and over. Add the odd 2 or 3 in there, and viola, you only need a boundary every 10 overs or so.

India showed us how with class yesterday. Wake up Australia it's your turn. For more of my Test cricket rants...see STUmpcam.

Labels: aus v ind 2008