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Excellent fight back by Australia in the second session as the morning session belonged to Virender Sehwag. Dhoni and Bhajji saved India some blushes with what could be a match-saving partnership. Ricky Ponting lost the plot after tea when he brought on part-time spinners instead of Watson who had bowled superbly. Australia finished the day needing 369 to win the fourth test and draw the series.
Watch this, Gauti vs Watson and Katich. Gautam Gambhir has been banned by the ICC for 1 test match. His appeal against the ban has been rejected by ICC. As expected, Shane Watson was penalized only 10% of his match fee. Simon Katich has not even been reported for his “mental disintegration”, aka sledging, tactics.
Watch this video closely and you will see how well the Aussies play “in the spirit of the game”. If this is what they call a “gentleman’s sport” then Australia should be banned from playing any form of cricket, their Test status should be stripped, and all the trophies that they have won should be returned back. If this was the military, Australian players would have been court-martialled a long time ago.
If the first three days were anything to go by, this match was going to be won by one team only. But cricket and maths don’t go well together. There is always hope for the unexpected, a quick fire 50, a match-winning spell of bowling, a run-out against the run of play. There are so many things that could go wrong, or right depending on how things happen. The champions, however, do not let their opposition take control. And if Australia are champions, then they need some serious contemplation to do as India dominated their 4th consecutive day in this test match.
Resuming at 100/0 and already in front by 301, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir kept scoring at a belligerent pace regardless of what field placements Ricky Ponting could conjure up. Despite having 4 men at the boundary, he was unable to stem the flow of runs. Gambhir reached his 50 during the day, and the two now have become the most dangerous opening pair in the game. Both Gambhir and Sehwag score freely and have a wide array of shots. They can easily manufacture shots depending on the situation and it is their aggressive attitude to dominate the bowling that sets them apart from other opening pairs.
Sehwag, however, was the first to depart edging Peter Siddle to Brad Haddin. Siddle picked up his first wicket of the innings and so did Australia. Dhoni came in at one-down, a rather unusual position for him in tests, although he has played a few match-winning knocks at that position in the shorter format of the game. He was quickly into his stride as he saw Gambhir score just his second test century, which was also his first against Australia.
India continued their domination of the second test at Mohali. Australia crumbled from their overnight score of 102/4 and ended the innings at 268. They were still 2 runs short of avoiding a follow on. Not that it mattered as Dhoni decided to bat again.
Australia were always going to be under pressure after losing 4 wickets yesterday for less than 100 runs. Michael Hussey was the first to go after scoring a terrific 50 edging to Dhoni off Ishant. The lanky youngster is living up to his reputation of picking up the best batsmen in the world. Australia were 130/5 when their chief tormentor, someone by the name of Harbhajan Singh, struck again. Brad Haddin was clean bowled by a delivery that was pitched outside off-stump, then turned viciously and took the off stump.
It was Mishra’s turn next as he scalped Cameron White with an exceptionally perfect google to break his defences and crash into the stumps. The visitors were reduced to 167/7. Shane Watson survived a close LBW appeal off Ishant and went on to score his first test fifty. Giving him terrific support was Brett Lee, who himself survived baptism by fire from Ishant.
What a day and what a match. Intriguing so far. Perfect to up the ante. Australia under pressure, yet come back strongly in the final session. Indian bowlers kept the pressure pretty much for the while day, however, it seemed that the energy was completely drained out of the Indian bodies in the final session as two Aussies, with not much test experience, fought the pressure and came out on top.
India looked aggressive and the fielders were attacking when they started their second innings. Perhaps they were buoyed by the performance of the tail enders. Perhaps it was Dhoni’s aggressive tactics (yes Kumble was did not come in for about an hour and a half due to a sore shoulder). Indian bowlers made the first move by picking up Hayden and Ponting early. Zak and Ishant have been a revelation in this series, as a pace combination.
Harbhajan finally got his sting back, more so because of the assistance he got from the pitch. But whenever he bowled, he looked like getting a wicket. Dhoni made all the moves initially to get wickets. I think that Anil Kumble has lost the plot. His tactics are not aggressive and he is way too by-the-book. Perhaps the reason why he has failed to grab a wicket in this test match. Definitely a cause for concern for him and the selectors. India, fortunately, have a couple of talented, yet inexperienced, leg spinners in Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla, the latter already made life miserable for the tourists in their tour game.