Boxing Day Test - MCG

[JLC]

Aussies getting flogged at the moment. MacGill needs to learn how to contain batsman as he bowls way too much shit. Katich is lucky he is a batsman cause he aint much of a bowler. Williams may pick up ONE wicket before the series is finished........LMAO Back to WA me thinks. Maybe then just maybe we may see some fresh blood introduced.

They better pray McGrath gets better by the Sri Lanka tour.

Will be tough for the aussies to dig themselves out of this one

jlc

[JLC]

Williams and Bracken along with MacGill appear to be short of what is required to be test quality bowlers. It is interesting to see the, without the luxury of a McGrath or Warne who did the hard yards to see how ordinary they look.

I think its time the selectors promoted some new faces ahead of Williams in particular.

Still a long way to go in this test match but the bowlers have been very very disappointing. Even Agrakar takes wickets......lol

jlc

[Donny]

And Tugga.

Waugh claims Dravid for 49 and Lee gets Tendulkar (0) first ball.

Sehwag is 189 n.o. - the highest first day score on the MCG.

He puts a Katich full toss into the crowd for his 5th. six and then hits another fully deep into the outfield to be caught by Bracken for 195.

[JLC]

A disappointing day for Australia. Their bark is louder than their bite at the moment. It took a guy who is retiring to make the break through required. Very very sad.

Australia is winning the battle with Tendulkar but losing the war.

Hopefully Trevor Hohns and his band or merry men will finally realise that Williams and Bracken along with Bichel are not the answer.

Also someone needs to tell Brett Lee that not every ball needs to be a bouncer........lol lol He needs to bowl smarter.

jlc

[Donny]

Sehwag century puts India in command

The Wisden Bulletin by Chandrahas Choudhury


A scintillating 195 from Virender Sehwag propelled India to a position of strength on a riveting first day's play at the MCG. India posted 329 for 4, though once again without any contribution from Sachin Tendulkar, whose horror run with the bat continued. Sehwag dominated the first two sessions and much of the third, putting on 141 for the first wicket with Akash Chopra and 137 for the second with Rahul Dravid, but Australia fought back strongly in the last session, taking three wickets for 33 to check India's progress.

Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman weathered a hostile spell from Brett Lee at the end of the day's play with the second new ball, and Australia could have actually had a fifth wicket when Ganguly spooned a catch back at Lee, only for the bowler to put it down. India would be satisfied with their position at stumps, and delighted with Sehwag's majestic effort, a contribution that went beyond anybody's expectations.

Sehwag's innings was one utterly characteristic of him, but on a scale much larger than anything seen from him in international cricket thus far. It included, on the credit side, 25 fours and five bludgeoned sixes, and on the debit side, two hits on the helmet, a reprieve off a run-out chance in the fifth over of the day, and further escapes just before lunch when the third umpire gave him not out off a close line decision, and just after the break when Simon Katich at point put down a chance off Nathan Bracken.

Sehwag made the best of his good fortune, and batted with greater patience and discipline than he had previously in the series. His batting early in the morning was watchful, and marked by a number of excellent leaves against Bracken, his tormentor of the last few months. He played the quick bowlers almost exclusively off the back foot, cutting past point or over the heads of the slips, and driving down the ground when the ball was pitched up to him. The pick of his shots was a soaring six off Stuart MacGill's second ball of the day, played inside-out over extra cover with a free and easy swing of the bat.

His fifty came right on the stroke of lunch, with a flashing cut off Lee, and by the time he brought up his hundred, powering Brad Williams through midwicket, he had hit 16 fours and a six. After getting to the landmark, he upped the tempo without doing anything excessive - by his standards - hitting another six off MacGill and clubbing Steve Waugh into the stands in the last over before tea.

The Indian batsmen followed the basic rule of giving the first hour of the day to the bowlers and then imposing themselves on the opposition. They made less than 30 runs in a testing first hour after Ganguly had won the toss and elected to bat, but they were 89 for no loss by lunch, and added another 130 runs in the post-lunch session, as Sehwag ran amok against some increasingly ragged bowling. Even though they lost three wickets in the last session, they added another 110 to the score. Sehwag made more than half the runs scored in each of these sessions.

The only wicket to fall in the first two sessions was that of Chopra, popping a catch off bat and pad to Katich off MacGill when just three short of a well-deserved fifty. A sentry at the gates of a city under siege could not have been more watchful than Chopra, who took the sting out of the Australian attack with his three-hour long vigil, mixing patient defence with nudges and deflections.

The Australians wasted a number of chances and half-chances through the day, most notably in the fifth over of the morning with Sehwag on just 4, when Lee missed the easiest of chances to run him out at the striker's end, with both batsmen stranded on the other half of the pitch.

If Australia were still in the game at the end of the day, it was partly due to luck, but also to a crucial breakthrough made by Waugh, playing his penultimate Test on the ground where he made his debut against India in the Boxing Day Test in 1985.

Waugh gave himself an extended spell after tea, but India progressed to 278 for 1, with Sehwag the cynosure of all attention as he rattled along merrily and Dravid, coming off his two splendid knocks at Adelaide, having worked his way unfussily to 49. Then, against the run of play, Dravid was suckered by Waugh into aiming a shot at a ball well outside leg stump, and chipped a catch to a fielder precisely positioned for that stroke just in front of square leg (278 for 2). Since Waugh had spent a good part of his spell bowling short balls at the two batsmen with a fielder on the square-leg boundary, Dravid possibly failed to note, and adjust his play for, the fielder coming up.

Waugh wasted no time in taking himself off and bringing on Lee to attack Tendulkar. Lee's first ball to Tendulkar was a loosener down the leg side. Trying instinctively to work it to fine leg, Tendulkar appeared to get the faintest of touches with the bat as the ball brushed his pad, and was caught down the leg side by a diving Gilchrist (286 for 3). The only Tendulkar-like stroke seen during his brief stay at the crease came from Sehwag, who whipped a Williams delivery to the square-leg boundary with the distinctive flourish common to him and Tendulkar.

Sehwag's response to the loss of two quick wickets was to swing the first ball of a new spell from MacGill over midwicket for six. Waugh was now prompted into bringing on the left-arm spin of Katich, bowling with several fielders on the boundary. Sehwag, on 189, lashed a full toss beyond the boundary for his fifth six, and moved to within one stroke of his double-hundred. The next ball was another full toss, and in trying to repeat the stroke, Sehwag holed out to Bracken at the long-on boundary (311 for 4). It was an utterly captivating innings, the highest score ever by an Indian batsman at the MCG.

[JLC]

It will be interesting to see how the Aussies cope with chasing a big score. It will be interesting to see if they play with as much bravado as they normally do when batting first or chasing smaller totals.

I like Bracken as well but would like him more if he actually took wickets.......lol If Katich is going to really on rank long hop full tosses to get wickets then we are in trouble. The selectors need to bite the bullet and get rid of Williams and Bichel and pick someone fresh.

Katich must be on thin ice as im not sure how long he can live off form against the weaker test teams like the Bangers.

jlc

[I@n S]

OMG things not going Australias way. Was the 3rd ump bent towards the other team for a change. Normaly other teams get the bad calls. How do you like it? hahahahaha GO India

[JLC]

What are your thoughts Donny ??

jlc

[JLC]

Brett Lee the only half decent bowler when he bowls in the right spot has made the break through this morning.

The door is ajar for the Aussies. Can either MacGill, Bracken or dare i say it Williams lend some support ??

jlc

[JLC]

The door is opening slightly wider as Bracken takes a wicket (finally) and a run out is effected (Williams i think it was good arm for throwing but not for bowling.....lol).

Great comeback by the Aussies now they need to clean up the tail with minimal damage.

Brett Lee needs to bowl fast and straight and that should do the trick.

jlc

[Donny]

My thoughts, JLC ? OK.

Brett Lee is a shadow of his former self.

As a time when he's played enough cricket to have matured, he's making the mistakes of a young cricketer.

It's completely hypothetical to say his terrible throw to Gilchrist, when a cool headed lob would've given his team a great start, would've changed the day's outcome but the other 191 runs Sehwag scored certainly hurt Australia.

This morning, with a chance to 'get it right', he bowled 3 no-balls in his second over.

He IS coming back from an injury but if he wasn't right, he shouldn't have been selected. His best weapon was speed and he hasn't got the variety and discipline to spearhead this attack without it.

Bracken is impotent when he's not getting swing and Williams needs a favourable wicket to be really dangerous.

MacGill lacks real class and variety and his early season Tests against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe weren't the best preparation to bowl against Indians.

We are seeing the other side of the coin. For many years we've had McGrath, Gillespie, Warne, Fleming and then Lee to compliment a superb batting line up.

The opportunity has just not been there to blood a young bowler and each time there's been an injury, the admirable but somewhere short of top class Andy Bichel has stepped in.

To win Tests, you must take 20 wickets and the Aussie attack has been doing that consistently.

The next lot of bowlers must step up and even with Pigeon and Warney coming back we must remember, neither can go on forever.

Having said all that, yesterday's wicket was a beauty for batting and some of the world's best attacks have sometimes copped a pasting on a good batting wicket.

Oh, there's one more thing the Aussies must overcome, JLC. You picked them to win this Test. That's a bit of a worry.

[Donny]

Australia has taken 4/37 this morning.

Wickets to Lee, Bracken and Williams and a run out from Williams, probably Australia's best fieldsman, has put life back into this Test.

India are 8/366 after the first hour.

[JLC]

Aussies right back in the game..........9 down now and a total under 400 brilliant receovery.........reminds me of a test match against sth africa a few years ago where the aussies came back from the dead.

jlc

[JLC]

Last 9 wickets for under 100 runs - you would take that anyday

Now its up to the dynamic duo in Hayden and Langer to lay the foundation for a huge total.

The key is being patient and building an innings.....lets wait and see....

jlc

[Donny]

India are all out !!

From 4/350 to all out for 366. 6/16 and 6/37 today.

MacGill took 3/70. India had 3 batsmen who scored golden ducks.