*Official* VB Series - Australia, India & Zimbabwe

[marc71178]

Brett Lee looks as though he's changed his action.

Not for the better though...

 

[Token]

Pakistan? Who just went down 1-4 to NZ? (on very bowler-friendly pitches but still)

Alot of stick is given out about the pitches over here yet the 4 lane highways they play on in Pakistan give bowlers little chance against somewhat decent batsmen. But in saying that yes most of the pitches were sh*thouse but Pakistan could have batted better (as we could have performed better when over there) as New Zealand had an 8 wicket win, a 7 wicket win and Pakistan a 6 wicket win which shows batting wasn't terribly difficult if done properly.

 

[Token]

Pakistan? Who just went down 1-4 to NZ? (on very bowler-friendly pitches but still)

Alot of stick is given out about the pitches over here yet the 4 lane highways they play on in Pakistan give bowlers little chance against somewhat decent batsmen. But in saying that yes most of the pitches were sh*thouse but Pakistan could have batted better (as we could have performed better when over there) as New Zealand had an 8 wicket win, a 7 wicket win and Pakistan a 6 wicket win which shows batting wasn't terribly difficult if done properly.

 

[biased indian]

by the end of series lee will be either out from the australian side for along time or he will be in it for a long time.only good bowlers can come back from sucha thrashing more than 200 runs in a test and 83 in an odi is tooooooooo much

 

[biased indian]

Aussies are not in kind of decline. Just a few very good players are out of form. I don't know what's wrong with Damien Martyn and Brett Lee. I don't believe Lee is rubbish, as sentiments from a lot of others shows so. He is just out of sorts. A player with 130 odd wickets in 75 matches isn't rubbish... Similar applies to Martyn. He's just going through an extended lean patch. I hope it ends soon.

About SA, Pakistan beating Aussies. Yes, they can do so.... But not consistently. Why AUssies are the best is because they consistently beat their competitors. If India wins the next two league matches against Australia, and then 2-0 in the final, then only I'll accept that Aussies are declining. If India can beat Aussies 4 in a row, only then I'll accept that they are as good as the Aussies.

A team is said to be in decline when more than 2 or 3 people are out of form at a time look at martyn,bevan,lee,bichel,hogg all where in the world cup winning team and all are struggling to keep their place in the team

 

[mavric41]

Lets give India credit for a very good batting display. The Aussies are not particularly out of form. Both openers have got hundreds in the last two games and Symonds and Clarke are also playing well. It is always tough chasing 304 and to get within 20 runs is a creditable effort. The question must be asked why Ponting bowled out Lee whilst Williams still had 2 overs left.

 

[V Reddy]

Very good century from Hayden, but really silly cricket over the course of those three balls. Can't help feeling that you get what you deserve when you show such contempt for the bowler, particularly when you've just been given a chance, and then been beaten the following ball. Lack of respect cost him his wicket.

I really really liked the aggressiveness of Pathan. In the first spell when Hayden pushed him down, i enjoyed the way he stood up and had a look at him. I enjoyed it too when Hayden laughed at Pathan when a powerful Hayden drive smacked Pathan below his knees. So when he came back in the second spell, he wanted to hit him out of the attack. It was the first time too that Pathan touched 140 km .

Balaji did really well especially in the second spell for a man who is considered by some to be one of the worst international bowlers :saint: .

I think it is more India lifting their game than Australia declining. Almost everyone played well today . What impresses me about this Indian team is about 6 main players are out but the other ones are standing up. This was Aus's main team without McGrath but they still won

 

[mavric41]

A team is said to be in decline when more than 2 or 3 people are out of form at a time look at martyn,bevan,lee,bichel,hogg all where in the world cup winning team and all are struggling to keep their place in the team

It will be interesting to see if the selectors will make any changes for the next set of 4 matches.

Players like North and Lehmann must be considered for the batting and Tait and Kasprowicz for bowling.

I forsee no batsmen being dropeed but both Lee and Bichel are chances of being dropped.

 

[Andre]

This was Aus's main team without McGrath but they still won

Don't forget Lehmann. This is the kind of match where he could well have been the differance.

 

[Mister Wright]

Very good century from Hayden, but really silly cricket over the course of those three balls. Can't help feeling that you get what you deserve when you show such contempt for the bowler, particularly when you've just been given a chance, and then been beaten the following ball. Lack of respect cost him his wicket.

It'll be tight here, but if the Aussies miss out by a small margin, I think it'll come down to Ponting's strange decision to persevere with Lee in the latter part of the Indian innings.

Real test for Bevo, but this situation is tailor made for him. Clarke's looking good at the other end, but I don't expect the tail to contribute much.

Bit harsh on Hayden IMO. You can't blame Hayden for the loss.

First of all, if he hadn't of got his 100 Australia would have been no chance.

Secondly, I think Hayden and Clarke had faith in their lower order. Next to come was Bevan and Harvey so there was still some batting to come. I was there and you just felt at that stage that if Australia had of picked up 20-25 runs in 3 overs the game would have been taken out of India's grasp and would have relieved the pressure on Bevan and Harvey. So I think the strategy was to try and belt some runs, then the other guy would bat with Bevan, but it didn't work out that way, next time it might.

If anyone to blame it should be Harvey. Australia were still in with a chance with him and Bevan batting, but the shot he played to get out was ridiculous, he should know if Bevan is at the other end you give him as much strike as possible and let him control the game. To much lesser extent Clarke is to blame aswell he also needed to build a partnership with Bevan, but still a good innings.

 

[SquidAU]

It really was a **** poor effort from the aussie bowlers. Seems like the only teams Le, Gillespie and Co can bowl out are poor quality ones such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Against quality opposition though (such as India), very poor. McGrath and Warne, we need you.....you're our only hope!

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Alot of stick is given out about the pitches over here yet the 4 lane highways they play on in Pakistan give bowlers little chance against somewhat decent batsmen. But in saying that yes most of the pitches were sh*thouse but Pakistan could have batted better (as we could have performed better when over there) as New Zealand had an 8 wicket win, a 7 wicket win and Pakistan a 6 wicket win which shows batting wasn't terribly difficult if done properly.

Agreed completely.

That actually proved my point, which was to say that Pakistan (in ODIs) aren't yet going to beat Australia on a consistent basis. Neither is, sadly, New Zealand...

 

[NikhilN]

Today India have shown the world that they are good as australia!

 

[marc71178]

Today India have shown the world that they are good as australia!

Do it more than once and you might have a point - So far it's only 1 win after countless losses.

 

[Mister Wright]

Do it more than once and you might have a point - So far it's only 1 win after countless losses.

2 from 10

 

[Neil Pickup]

Sounds very much like England's record against India.. and what happens when we try to claim we're on a par..

 

[Slow Love™]

Bit harsh on Hayden IMO. You can't blame Hayden for the loss.

First of all, if he hadn't of got his 100 Australia would have been no chance.

I wasn't blaming Hayden for the loss - if I had to blame anybody, it'd be Ponting for continuing with Lee late in India's innings.

The only point I was making was that it was silly cricket, and it was. Fair enough, Hayden might have wanted to force the issue and make things easier for Harvey and Bevan, and so the catch (even though it was dropped) he offered was just one of those things. But after that, and then after being soundly beaten by Pathan the next ball, I think he should have settled down. At that stage, the run rate really wasn't the problem - all we had to do was to keep the wickets under control, and the game was won. Instead, he marched down the pitch the very next ball, and threw his wicket. Yes, it was a good century, and I acknowledge that without it, we wouldn't have gotten close. But it was unnecessary under the circumstances, and I think his concentration went out the window.

Having said that, Balaji and Pathan did fantastically well. It's a pity our bowlers are struggling so hard to take wickets, and that's the main reason we're not looking so flash right now.

 

[NikhilN]

Do it more than once and you might have a point - So far it's only 1 win after countless losses.

Dont forget India beat Australia in the TVS Cup and in the test series

 

[CDAK]

After the fabulous test series, I was not able to tune myself to the likes of ODIs. But today after Sachin's classy attack on Lee, I got it done fast. Great work Sachin( special mention because nobody is seen appreaciating that.)
Laxman's affinity to Australia is really astonishing!!( all the 3 ODI 100s are against AUS). Salute to Mr.Consistency Rahul.
India's approach to the game has changed considerably for the last 2-3 years.( thanx to John wright,Sandy Gorden and Saurav) .
The highlight of the game in my mind are 3. 1) Sachin's 5 fours against lee 2) Gavasker's Catch 3) Hayden's deserving out and pathan's aggressiveness on that..
but the worry is, the next match will come so soon that this glory will be forgotten...

 

[Slow Love™]

Aussies are not in kind of decline. Just a few very good players are out of form. I don't know what's wrong with Damien Martyn and Brett Lee. I don't believe Lee is rubbish, as sentiments from a lot of others shows so. He is just out of sorts. A player with 130 odd wickets in 75 matches isn't rubbish... Similar applies to Martyn. He's just going through an extended lean patch. I hope it ends soon.

About SA, Pakistan beating Aussies. Yes, they can do so.... But not consistently. Why AUssies are the best is because they consistently beat their competitors. If India wins the next two league matches against Australia, and then 2-0 in the final, then only I'll accept that Aussies are declining. If India can beat Aussies 4 in a row, only then I'll accept that they are as good as the Aussies.

I think the Aussies are in decline, it just won't be a totally sudden process. They're past their peak, and now they'll slide downwards, slowly. The West Indies stretched their decline out for about five years before they relinquished the number one spot.

The Australian team just isn't as powerful as the team that won 16 test matches in a row. Mainly because the bowling isn't nearly as effective, and we have no guarantees as to how Warne and McGrath will fare upon their returns. And then there's the fact that a number of other teams are rapidly improving (South Africa, Pakistan, India). There's no doubt that the Aussies have really lost that "almost impossible to defeat" vibe.

This current season might be deceptive in some ways though, because for some reason, India play out of their skins against Australia. Which is why it's hard to properly guage how good India are. Their test results previous to this tour were fairly mediocre - they lost against NZ away, failed to defeat either West Indies or Zimbabwe away, and then drew with NZ at home. In one day cricket, their record is a lot better, but they're still ranked a fair way behind Australia and South Africa.