CricDigs Blogs

It’s Sydney Cricket ground again, same venue where there was this big Drama that took place the last time India played Australia. In the end the Australians (with tremendous help from Steve Buckner and some unsportsmanlike behavior from the Aussie Captain) managed to beat India.

Now Pakistan have them in situation from where the Pakistanis can surely dictate the terms and delivery a series leveling blow. The question is whether they will keep the control they have or lose the plot??

We will find out today…The first session belonged to the Aussies but with a very potent bowling attack from Pakistan one would never know…

Why do we have to go through this pain again and again?? Why can’t Sachin either win all the matches from soup to nuts or somehow give strength to fans like me to handle the disappointment??

We could see it coming…When Sachin kept on batting trying to reach that huge target, you could almost be sure that it is going to end the same way it has ended so many times. Sachin would get out just before the victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat and then it would be all over..It would only be the details that would change..It could be run-outs, bad shots, great fielding, panic and so on…

This is exactly why many of Sachin’s innings get written off as playing-for-himself and not achieving the ultimate target of victory. What is most amazing is that despite all these disappointments, he continues to march on and keep making thousands of runs for himself and his country..

Now the million dollar question…Would Sachin end his astronomical career without having the most coveted trophy in Cricket, The World Cup? Looking at history, it scares me even to think about what will happen in 2011…

They have done it some may times in the past for India and when they are on-song, no target seem unachievable. After India were 50-odd for 3 while chasing a smallish target of 229, Dhoni and Yuvraj came together again and had a big 143 run partnership that all but finished the match for India…

They both have totally different styles, one is a sheer talent and the other sheer determination and cleverness. The one thing common between the two is they can take any bowling attack apart and can change any match in a course of couple of overs.

This was an important match in the series after a 1-1 situation and this very powerful pair made sure India wins it comfortably..

Here is a player who has it all….So it seems…Where Most Players long to get a shot at playing for the World Cup, He has won a couple as a Captain. He has been the # 1 Batsman in the both forms of the game for a number of years and have been threatening to post the most centuries and an extremely healthy average in Tests….His Team had held on the the #1 spot in ODIs and Tests for a number of years….And it looked as if no team can dislodge them…And Suddenly….

Instead of finishing his career on all of these High Notes, He is hoping that He can continue to play Tests Cricket for 4 more years so he can do what he has been unable to do in his last 2 campaigns (in 2005 & 2009,) that is to win the Ashes in England..His team is at #4 in Tests and #3 ODIs…He is way down in the Players ranking as well…

It is looking all dark and gloomy for this once all successful, all powerful Aussie Captain…

Where does he go from here? We will find out soon. Stay tuned.

If it wasn’t upto a heroic batting effort by Graeme Swann and an in-your-face kind of a half-century from Stuart Broad, England would have packed-up on the morning of the 3rd day itself. However, as it turned out, England added more than 150+ runs in the first session, scoring at a run-rate of nearly 6 runs per over, until the lunch break broke their momentum. Swann is still playing, while Broad got out after playing some swashbucling shots. What is heartening to see is English lower order trying to ensure that Australia don’t walk away with the victory and all the positives from this match. One thing is certain, England will lose this test match but if the players are crushed by Australia from a mental perspective then there is no chance of them competing strongly in the last and the decisive, Fifth Test Match. The one thing England can still do is bat and frustrate Australia a bit longer. This way the lower-order batsmen would have gained some confidence of batting and you never know, this may prove to be handy as both teams head for the final game.

It had to happen at some point during the Ashes 2009 - the England batsmen had been guilty of trying to be too flashy outside the off-stump and for some reason, or just plain luck, their edges had managed to seep through between the close-in fielders on just too many ocassions. As it turned out in the fourth Ashes 2009 test, the English batsmen pushed their luck too far, again and this they paid for it. England was dismissed for under 110. Some would say that it was Siddle and Clark who did the damage. However, if you look at most of the dismissals it is just poor technique against disciplined bowling. The ball wasn’t moving around too much but the batsmen kept playing away from their body and kept getting out. What must be bothering England is that Australia look set to take a good lead and the pitch won’t be very conducive to swing bowling on the second day when most Aussies would look to get stuck to the crease and make it count. Further, Australia doesn’t have a spinner this time around and an all-pace attack would come back to haunt the English batsmen in the second innings wherein they would be expected to score somewhere around the 450-500 region.

Michael Clarke is continuously building upon the reputation of being Australia’s next Steve Waugh as he delivered once again when the team needed it the most. Had it not been for his partnership with Marcus North, Australia would have surely gone down by 2-0 in the Ashes. As things stand now, the momentum seems to be with England as they are already one-up in the series and it is up to Australia to make all the right moves. However, if the England team does sit back and think that they can be passive and let Australia do all the hard work, then things could go horribly wrong. Australia would strike back with vengeance in the fourth test and if England cannot continue with the sustained intensity they have shown till now, it could soon be one all.

The England team was well served in having two all-rounders at number seven and eight. With Flintoff and Stuart Broad walking in after mark prior, it means that this English side does have some serious depth to its batting and it showed on Sunday. Hillfenhaus would have seriously dented any chances of England gaining a lead as he kept on dismissing the top-order batsmen. However, with these two bowler-cum-batsmen coming together, England was able to pile up the lead and more critically, at a fair clip. The run rate and the volume of runs were both important considering that this is a rain-hit match and conditions and the length of session could both go awkward at any time. As it turned out, Flintoff was the highest scorer for his side and Broad too contributed with a half century.

It was a James Anderson show according to some folks as he made the Aussie batting line-up crumble after being at a commanding situation wherein they were 125 for the loss of just one wicket. The conditions were typically English, moist and wet to the core, and two typical England bowlers who knew how to utilise them to their advantage — Anderson and Onions, swung the ball beyond conventional expectations. Everybody had been commenting about how Hillfenhaus has been consistently swinging the ball, but it was Anderson who created exaggerated swing this time around and claimed five wickets. Onions was the more controlled of the two bowlers. His four wickets were just as crucial, particularly the two he took in the morning, off two consecutive balls. Anderson looked like a completely different bowler once he started pitching-up the ball and some of his deliveries that came-in towards the batsmen were simply unplayable.

It took Graeme Swann’s bowling to provide England with the breakthrough after Australia chose to bat first in the 3rd Ashes Test Match at Edgbaston. It has to be said that the English bowling was mediocre during the initial 17 – 18 overs. For starters, nearly all the bowlers bowled too short, hardly ever enticing Katich or Watson to be invited on the frontfoot. This was surprising given the fact that it had rained so heavily during the hours just before the test match and everyone expected the ball to swing a lot. But then, to make the ball swing you would have to pitch it up and this clearly wasn’t the agenda of the England bowlers. Swann’s wicket too came more from a change of pace rather than having fooled the batsman or having spun the ball in any way. Even Shane Warne, as a commentator, stated that England were simply wasting the new ball, forgetting the fact that they won the second Ashes test match by making the Aussies batsmen play a lot more shots when they were new at the crease.