Test 3 : Day 1, Who's gonna win this one Options

[p1j]

>India did ok today ! Not a bad performance !

>Martyn was sheer class as always, what a player. However, was dissapointed >with the captaincy, during the last session, there was a clutter of wickets, and >the field was too defensive for my liking. Another slip and gully, with Kumble and >Karthik bowling from both ends, with perhaps another close cathcer in.

Overall a fantastic day of cricket with both teams worked hard to reach where it ended on day one.. I think none of the team is disappointed with the score of day one, though Aussies have a upper hand as of now.. But if we look at the sessions, India won two sessions (morning and post tea), but Aussies dominance in Post lunch session took the game slightly away from India.

Our bowlers bowled their heart out yet there was not much of support from the fielders (or the luck factor, specially none of the half chances could be converted and dropped as many as 4 simple chances).. still I feel sorry fro Dravid as he is leading one of the weakest bowling attacks of recent times.. Had Pathan (what a pitch for him) and Harbhajan available to him, it would be a different story for sure.. I think we are going to miss Pathan and Harbhajan much much more than Ganguly and Yuvraj...India can comeback if they can get the remaining three before Aussies reach 400 considering the fact that its a very good batting pitch as the bounce is consistent.

Much is being said about the pitch, but I found it as one of the finest pitches in India and it is heard that Ganguly didn't played as he wasn't happy with the pitch..
With the best batting line up of the world, should he be really concerned, what kind of Pitch he is playing on... His statement against the Pitch was a statement of cowardice.. and it would definately heart breaker and discouraging for our batsmans and more importantly our fast bowlers.. remember, we had been crying for long that we are unable to produce good fast bowlers as we dont have good fast pitches for them.. and when we come up with a good pitch, the captain giving such a statement is a representation of his own weakness, which has been forced upon the team..

Patel had a mixed bag behind the wickets and his misses are proving to be far costlier than his takes.. He should be immediately replaced, but should be sent for a specialized training for a long term prospect)..

As for Dravid's captaincy is concerned, I think he overrated the pitch (in terms of reading the bounce), and kept the slips a bit too far (as we saw dozens of half chances could not be converted, as the ball was not carrying too far in initial sessions).. but overall the day belonged to Damien Martyn.. What a classy player he is... He paced his innings brilliantly and his dominance over Agarkar and Kumble was just too good..

All eyes on tomorrow... on clarke, mcgrath, chopra and ofcourse sachin!

Pavan Jha

[vivekpm]

Yes all eyes on tomorrow...

Sachin has good record on this ground I guess. This is the same ground albiet a different pitch where he got 179 against West Indies, 176 and 201 against Zim

So looking forward to a great comeback by him...

Cheers,

[p1j]

A few more observations....

As we have given them a green top pitch, Indian Pace Bowlers for the first time won the opening session of the match and restricted the aussies to 90 for 3 in first innings first day lunch session (on the other two occassions, it was 107 for 0 (read 136 for 0) in b'lore and 100+ for 2 (read 171 for 2) in chennai)... and critics were not happy with Zaheer's performance.. but when Zaheer Khan was given a fast bowler friendly pitch, he did delivered the goods.. even Agarkar was very good in his first spell, but when a few fielders erred on his bowling, he lost heart..

and the most important point here is the even if we had spin friendly tracks in first two matches, did we took advantage of it and eventually WON? so why is the CRY?

another important aspect is the fitness of our players who cant survive even in Indian conditions, while Aussies have remained unchanged and every one is perfactly fit despite playing in tough (hot) conditions.. and remember Aussies have more 30+ members in their squad, while Indian team is more youthful

[suhana_safar]

One can't afford to give an inch to a side like Australia and we are giving miles here.

It is shocking to say the least about the Parthiv Patel. His keeping skills would not give him a place in a local club. How in the world is he still told to do the job.

We could have won the second game inspite of the rain but we had to take literally 17 wickets instead of 10 due to the crappy wicketkeeping. And guess what he has done it again.

We need to show aggression in our selection but what is seen is nonsensical approach of selectors when the drop Yuvraj for nothing, call back Chopra for nothing (what can he achieve now that he could not achieve in the alst 12 months), and they do not change the keeper.

Further as discussed earlier we are already hampered by poor fitness of our players and poor fielding all around.

How can we win against a side like Australia if we keep on giving so much to them and getting back literally nothing from the professional Australian side.

[Anil4]

[quote=p1j,Oct 26 2004, 10:49 PM]
>India did ok today ! Not a bad performance !

>Martyn was sheer class as always, what a player.



I dont know about always but by scoring two centuries in a row he has managed to secure his place in the team

[unni]

252 behind in the first innings and the top order gone!

Unless Kaif and Patel pull off an unlikely Dravid/Laxman stunt, this Test is going all the way downhill for India.

But then, historically India has always done better in the second innings. As the wags used to say, "India should play the second inning first".

[Anil4]

When Glen McGrath scores more runs in one innings then what Sachin Tendulkar makes in both the innings then ..................

Yeh cricket me kuch mazaa hi nahi hai!