***Official*** Australia in India 2012/13

[Furball]

England A couldnt win a game against Australia A so we'll put an asterisk against that one

Lolno.

India toured England so they faced a full strength Lions side. Guys like Woakes, Onions and arguably Finn would be in an A side at home, instead of being with the senior squad.

 

[Furball]

It will now take atleast 2/3 tests to get Vijay out of the team again. Probably more to get him out of the squad and contention which is pretty irritating.

Remember when we toured England in 2011 and selected Raina and Yuvraj ahead of Pujara because Raina had done well in the Windies. Had a argument with few people on here who were saying how Raina should be selected. Vijay has done it himself in the past, and is going to do a Raina again especially if he gets selected in SA. But now you can't drop him. Sigh.....

Nah, this is garbage posting. Particularly your Raina point. Yes, you were 100% correct that Raina would be rubbish in England. However, Dravid excepted, he was India's best batsmanin the West Indies, he tonned up against Somerset when the rest of the top order embarassed themselves and batted ok in the 1st Test. There was absolutely no justificationfor not picking Raina, he was in the side on merit.

 

[Furball]

SJS also hugely under-rating England's attack.

And I disagree that bowling stocks are declining. They're much better than they were 5 years ago.

 

[Philhughesisbes]

Smith is another Cameron White in the making, its such a shame because he was genuine prospect but he has put his bowling on the backburner and his batting alone won't keep him afloat for too long at this level .

That just shows that he isn"t good enough because his batting was always his main weapon and as you say his batting alone won"t keep him a float.We should be glad that Smith gave up his bowling because if he was still bowling selectors might have convince themself that he is a top 6 bat.Smith shouldn"t be anywhere near an Australia test team regardless of whether he"s bowling.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Totally agree. They look like they have good bowling stocks (spinners apart) so can always stay in games, they need some bats to back up and support Clarke as he can't do it all on his own. Once they find a few good bats they will be up there towards the top of the game again, may take a few more years but it WILL happen.

But couldn't any team say that though? i mean give us maybe one or two more decent batters and another gun pacer to partner Roach than we'd be pretty good too, but the fact is there doesn't seem to be any decent spin prospects coming anytime soon, and no batsmen either, so Aus will most likely be stuck with the same collection of players for at least the next three or four years,

And yes they nearly beat SA in the second test, but again i'll stress that they had the security of Hussey in that middle order, now though the batting is a total lottery and that will not do the teams confidence any good.

 

[Son Of Coco]

If your selectors weren't so stupid you may have been number 1 anyway. Dropping the main pace bowlers for rotational purposes was the dumbest thing I have seen in years given it was a series and number 1 ranking decider.

I agree with you on this. Was the dumbest decision I've seen for a long, long time. Fought hard and could've won the 1st two tests and then it was like we went "**** it, we don't want to win anyway".

 

[Philhughesisbes]

But couldn't any team say that though? i mean give us maybe one or two more decent batters and another gun pacer to partner Roach than we'd be pretty good too, but the fact is there doesn't seem to be any decent spin prospects coming anytime soon, and no batsmen either, so Aus will most likely be stuck with the same collection of players for at least the next three or four years,

And yes they nearly beat SA in the second test, but again i'll stress that they had the security of Hussey in that middle order, now though the batting is a total lottery and that will not do the teams confidence any good.[/QUOTE

Maddonson,Burns are both very talented prospects.Australia do have talent within the squad Khawaja Warner Hughes and Clarke can form a very good top four and Watson and Bailey should battle it out for the number 5 batting spot.

 

[howardj]

Have calmed down a bit since last night, but geez hope we show some resolve on Day 3, otherwise this Series will go really pear shaped

 

[Burgey]

I don't think there's anything worth calming down about tbh.

 

[dermo]

unless we somehow keep their lead under 200 (unless patto pulls a miracle its very very unlikely) i really cant see india not winning this

 

[uvelocity]

odds on dhoni going up the order and having a bash?

 

[Spark]

unless we somehow keep their lead under 200 (unless patto pulls a miracle its very very unlikely) i really cant see india not winning this

honestly i can't see us batting before about lunch tomorrow.

by which time india could well have about 750 on the board.

 

[SJS]

SJS also hugely under-rating England's attack.

And I disagree that bowling stocks are declining. They're much better than they were 5 years ago.

I was mostly talking of about ten years ago then we started losing bowlers in most countries. In Australia specifically, even after the departure of McGrath and Warne things did not look so bleak with Lee and Johnson plus the others hence the five year mention. In any event when one says something like five to ten years ago, one does not go back to check the exact years for if I had said eight years and seven months it wouldn;t have made the point I was making more pertinent.

No I do not under estimate England's bowling but it is not a great attack. Swann is their best bowler and we can talk Monty only because of the wickets he took in that last series in India. We all know what England, and everyone else, thought of Monty before that.

Of course teams which have had bowling woes for longer could only improve so when one says the bowling standards around the world have gone down it does not mean in every one of the Test playing countries, all bowlers are inferior to all bowlers who existed. (I exaggerate here to stress the pint)

To pick on a word or a sentence to counter a point made over several paragraphs is a typical issue here which is what makes me often not respond to a lot of what gets written here.

I do not intend to do it again here too

Missing the woods for the trees was written with CC in mind :o)

 

[uvelocity]

india's top 6 average average is 75 so far this series. if these two got out without addition it would still be 63

 

[Jono]

Its interesting to see how, having criticised Vijay and consigned him to the dustbin of hoistory, everyone ois finding it so difficult to appreciate a high quality knock. Suddenly his innings is the result of Australia having just two decent bowlers. Wonder how many other great bowlers they had in Chennai during Dhoni;s incredible double hundred !

Come on guys appreciate a good knock when you see one. He played the first session in a completely different manner than he has been doing since he showed his aggression in IPL. He showed far better defense of not just front foot but even off the back foot which Gambhir hasn't shown after having scored thousands of Test runs. Ecaded the sharp short stuff aimed at his body in the best possible manner, bending backwards from the waist, not backing away, looking at the ball all the time and allowing it to go over the stumps to the keeper. How many Indian youngsters show that to genuine pace. Forget youngsters, think Sehwag, Ganguly and Gambhir only and answer truthfully.

Of course Vijay has been having a poor run but to use that to run down a remarkable show by Vijay and Pujara is amazingly churlish.

How much has been written in the past in glowing terms of hundreds by the stars against weaker attacks here at home. Who wants to take a bet that I can take out a dozen such records from the archives of CC in a day ??

Of course this Australian attack is not the one they had ten or even five years ago. Thats true for many attacks around the world. It does not stop fans from going gaga over the runs scored against these in recent years.

Pujara and Vijay first saw off the two good bowlers in the morning with the ball new ant the wicket a bit fresh, Then they started to consolidate against the second strng in the second session and finally put the entire attack to the sword in an amazing display in the final session. If Vijay had got out in place of Sehwag and Laxman somehow happened to br the number three who alongwith Sehwag then conjured up the same, near 300 run, partnership in the day, I bet this place would have been abuzz with over the board gushing words of praise.

****ing ey!

Just read the posts bagging Vijay and questioning how good these knocks were against this bowling attack. Ridiculous. No one is saying these innings were the best in history or anything, but these were very good test knocks. Such discipline in the first dig and then they just put Australia to the sword for the test of the day.

At the ground the one thing noticeable was how try we're just not troubled at all. No huge appeals, barely any plays and misses, they just looked like they weren't going to go out at all. And they didn't.

Siddle's bowling was a large reason why India do what they did. Yeah he got Sehwag out but the pies he bowled in that first session - on the pads and too full - resulted in India getting through that tough period and eased them into the day.

Everyone knew Doherty and Maxwell were going to get ****ed up in a pitch like that in India. The batting and Siddle is who should be embarrassed.

However Doherty was in front of me all day. He is shot. The blokes body language was of a broken man. Could not help but feel sorry for him.

Maxwell though - he can go and get ****ed.

 

[Burgey]

****ing ey!

Just read the posts bagging Vijay and questioning how good these knocks were against this bowling attack. Ridiculous. No one is saying these innings were the best in history or anything, but these were very good test knocks. Such discipline in the first dig and then they just put Australia to the sword for the test of the day.

At the ground the one thing noticeable was how try we're just not troubled at all. No huge appeals, barely any plays and misses, they just looked like they weren't going to go out at all. And they didn't.

Siddle's bowling was a large reason why India do what they did. Yeah he got Sehwag out but the pies he bowled in that first session - on the pads and too full - resulted in India getting through that tough period and eased them into the day.

Everyone knew Doherty and Maxwell were going to get ****ed up in a pitch like that in India. The batting and Siddle is who should be embarrassed.

However Doherty was in front of me all day. He is shot. The blokes body language was of a broken man. Could not help but feel sorry for him.

Maxwell though - he can go and get ****ed.

Can you do your "I was there" thing at the close of play so I can be asleep and miss you posting it?

 

[Contra]

Maxwell's bowling early on especially was hilarious, he was bowling so far outside off that he was never a threat, it was after a few overs that both batsmen realized that this is actually how he bowls normally and isn't trying some fancy thing to throw them off, after which they took him on with ease.

 

[Contra]

someone in the crowd "Watson why don't u bowl?"

 

[Jarquis]

This isn't even the biggest partnership Vijay has had against Australia

 

[Speersy]

india's top 6 average average is 75 so far this series. if these two got out without addition it would still be 63

Found myself cursing the Aussie display. However I pondered that this is an awesome batting display. No doubt we have our issues but I can sleep better (believing) knowing that we were beaten by the best...