17th October 2008
Day one of the second test match starts on a pitch that is as flat as a concrete road. You really don’t want to lose the toss and MSD doesn’t. He wins the toss in place of Anil who has taken a rest so that he can be fit for Kotla.
Peter Siddle and Amit Mishra would be making their debut in this match. The Aussie debutant started with hitting Gambhir on the head in his first over. However that was only an aberration as Sehwag and Gambhir started like a raging bull, scoring at almost 6 runs an over for the first hour. But the start was just too good to last long. Sehwag perishing against the run of play nicking one down the legside to the keeper.
Gambhir and Dravid settled down into a nice partnership and the latter was looking in real good form and looked set for a big century. Just when you thought they players were settled both of them got out in the space of 3 deliveries and India were in trouble. Laxman again nicked one down the legside to the keeper. Mitchell Johnson had three wickets all of a sudden and it looked like India would fritter away the advantage of winning the toss.
The moment of truth for Sachin & Sourav had come the match depended on their performance but they would have viewed this as another opportunity to assert their worth to the team. Had they failed the knives would have been out again and people would again start taunting the fab four or fab five what ever you want to call them.
The reason I bring this to your notice is that this is unnecessary pressure that the media has put on these champions. Instead of watching and enjoying our champions and supporting them we have made their tasks more difficult.
But come what may the champions will rise, they will perform, they will make critics eat their words. The duo had a good partnership where in Sachin crossed Brian Lara and than crossed 12000 runs as a test batsman. Sourav over took the Don and than 7000 run mark and took India to relative safety at 311/5 however India will have to ensure that they get some good partnerships and reach atleast 450 or else the advantage of winning the toss will have been negated.
The kangaroos have been helped by the loose shots and the fact that none of the Indians capitalized and kicked on from the starts that they got. Even if Sachin would have been not out I could have written the day belonged to the Indians but I must say the end of day one the match is even steven.
The specialist spinner in Australia bowled 8 overs today which really makes me ask this question. Is he being masked as a spinner only to extend the batting lineup so that Ricky can ensure that his team has 8 batsmen which can help him draw the match. Surely there are doubts in the opposition camp that they can take 20 Indian wickets.
Day one of the second test match starts on a pitch that is as flat as a concrete road. You really don’t want to lose the toss and MSD doesn’t. He wins the toss in place of Anil who has taken a rest so that he can be fit for Kotla.
Peter Siddle and Amit Mishra would be making their debut in this match. The Aussie debutant started with hitting Gambhir on the head in his first over. However that was only an aberration as Sehwag and Gambhir started like a raging bull, scoring at almost 6 runs an over for the first hour. But the start was just too good to last long. Sehwag perishing against the run of play nicking one down the legside to the keeper.
Gambhir and Dravid settled down into a nice partnership and the latter was looking in real good form and looked set for a big century. Just when you thought they players were settled both of them got out in the space of 3 deliveries and India were in trouble. Laxman again nicked one down the legside to the keeper. Mitchell Johnson had three wickets all of a sudden and it looked like India would fritter away the advantage of winning the toss.
The moment of truth for Sachin & Sourav had come the match depended on their performance but they would have viewed this as another opportunity to assert their worth to the team. Had they failed the knives would have been out again and people would again start taunting the fab four or fab five what ever you want to call them.
The reason I bring this to your notice is that this is unnecessary pressure that the media has put on these champions. Instead of watching and enjoying our champions and supporting them we have made their tasks more difficult.
But come what may the champions will rise, they will perform, they will make critics eat their words. The duo had a good partnership where in Sachin crossed Brian Lara and than crossed 12000 runs as a test batsman. Sourav over took the Don and than 7000 run mark and took India to relative safety at 311/5 however India will have to ensure that they get some good partnerships and reach atleast 450 or else the advantage of winning the toss will have been negated.
The kangaroos have been helped by the loose shots and the fact that none of the Indians capitalized and kicked on from the starts that they got. Even if Sachin would have been not out I could have written the day belonged to the Indians but I must say the end of day one the match is even steven.
The specialist spinner in Australia bowled 8 overs today which really makes me ask this question. Is he being masked as a spinner only to extend the batting lineup so that Ricky can ensure that his team has 8 batsmen which can help him draw the match. Surely there are doubts in the opposition camp that they can take 20 Indian wickets.
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