Australia v. India - Test Series.

[Donny]

If no more rain, play will start in about 15 minutes.

[Donny]

Cummins falls after long rain delay.

When play finally got under way, on day 4 of the 4th. Test, Pat Cummins was bowled by Mohammad Shami, without adding to his o/night score of 25.

7/236. Peter Handscomb 28 n.o. Shami 2/55.

https://www.facebook.com/AussieCricket-278637879094/

[Donny]

All out 300. Starc 29*, Haz 21, Yadav 5/99.

Follow-on enforced.

[K]

Trouble now. Just avoid the follow-on and there really is no time for anything other than a draw.

[K]

Ponting quoted as 'slamm[ing] Australia for showing "no desperation" after Nathan Lyon opted not to review his lbw ... despite there being two challenges remaining' (cricinfo).

I'm not sure this is lack of desperation so much as inability to think and concentrate, just as with those mind-boggling run outs in the past few years (e.g. Hazlewood run out at the bowler's end twice in a relatively short period).


Ponting again: "If they're flat, get some runs on them."

Yup. A batting lineup so weak that they cannot even get runs on dead wickets. That's why they need bowlers' wickets, even spin-bowlers' wickets. They find ways to get out to nothing deliveries anyway (e.g. Head), so it's better that at least there's a lot for their bowlers to use.

[K]

Lunch taken, as the rain continues. Looks like a draw will follow and a 2-1 series loss.


Ric Finlay tweets: "This is the 12th consecutive home Test that has gone 5 days, a sequence that started after the day-night Test v RSA at Adelaide in 2016-17. The last sequence that went longer was the 13 Tests between Adelaide 1981 and Sydney 1983."

Whether or not that is an indicator of it, flat tracks are an existential threat to the game.


And Aakash Chopra tweets: "Annoying...rain is neither getting intense nor going away. English weather in Australia."

English weather in Australia. And Indian pitches. And Zimbabwean batting line-ups.

[K]

Meanwhile, twice-convicted ball tamperer (among other things) Faf du Plessis has been suspended for slow over rates.

This is like Al Capone being jailed for tax offences.

[Pies4shaw]

Looks like Harris and Khawaja will get through entirely untroubled by the Indian attack.

[K]

Game ended.

[Donny]

5th. day rained out. Draw.

Series: India 2-1.

Some thoughts.

I reckon you're a bit harsh, K. India is the #1 ranked Test team, coming into the just completed series, 8 ranking points ahead of second placed England and 14 ahead of Australia, in 5th.

Even if Oz beats Sri Lanka, 2-0, they'll still be 5th.

As I commented earlier, the Aussies have lost Smith and Warner - rated the #1 & #5 Test batsmen in the World, before their ban. Take that sort of talent out of any Test team's top 6 - frinstance, Pujara and Kohli, for India, Williamson and Taylor for NZ etc. - and it's a vastly different picture.

I've no idea how it could be done better, but the coin-toss is also a factor: Tim Paine lost the tosses, 1-3. The only one he won was also the only Test the Aussies won. Losing the SCG Test toss was a bitter pill to swallow, given the state of the series.

"India's Test record after Kohli wins the toss is remarkable; 18 wins and three draws.

The only other Test captain in history to have won at least 10 tosses and avoided defeat on every occasion is Don Bradman" - SMH

On the toss, in general. I think the idea of a Test Championship tournament or series of matches is nonsense, because of this way of deciding who does what, and when.

On to two Tests v. Sri Lanka. One at the Gabba, starting on the 24th. Jan. and one in Canberra, at Manuka, Feb. 1.

With drop-in wickets, these days, it's difficult to know what will be served up.

[Presti35]

If only Australia managed to get up in Adelaide

[K]

[K]

And the media characterization of Ponting's comments as "slamming" the side are no doubt gross sensationalism.

[K]

"From behind the scenes, I hear reports of sporadic bursts of temper. Langer is said to have told team members at one post-match meeting that he would not want to be in the trenches with them. I hear, too, that during the fourth match of the recent Test series against India, he went into his team's Sydney change-rooms with icepacks on his eyes and asked: "Who am I?" When no one could guess, he said he was Cheteshwar Pujara, the Indian batsman who scored three centuries on his way to winning the player-of-the-series award. "My eyes are sore from watching the ball so hard, like a hawk," he said. Behaviour that seems endearingly quirky if things are going well can look merely flaky if they're not."

J. Cadzow, Good Weekend, 26/1/19.

[piedys]

Langer is a flog; he needs to get over his hatred of Maxwell