CricDigs Blogs

Hogg had scalped the priced wicket of Tendulkar in one of the recently concluded ODI series that took place between India & Australia in Hyderabad. At the end of it all, Hogg had taken a photograph of that dismissal and had requested Sachin Tendulkar to sign it. Sachin signed it, and left a note to Hogg saying “This will never happen again, Hoggy”.

Well one should be surprised if Hoggy says he’s got butterflies all over his stomach after that incident. Quite differently, he says he is all set to take up this challenge. Isn’t the match perfectly set now ?..Hogg will give it his best shot to prove the master wrong, and Sachin would do all it takes to defend his wicket against the inspiring Hoggy. Its gonna be a contest that is really gonna be worth watching . Good luck Sachin and Good luck Hoggy. Do you guys think Sachin can live upto the challenge ? I believe Hoggy might prove Sachin wrong

Flash news saying Indian’s have amassed a formidable total on the board, and when Pakistani’s are pitted against the wall struggling to even save the follow on. It was so obvious that their batsman’s were not too sure how to go about chasing India’s first innings target. At the end of the first session today, with five wickets down not one would have thought that there was a tremendous fight back about to be staged.

Then came the second session. Then came in Kamran Akmal. This little dynamite always promised a lot, but never delivered. Cometh the time, Cometh the man. Today he applied himselves superbly and paired up with the ever solid Misbah and staged a tremendous fightback. From nowhere in the game, suddenly it looks like Pakistani’s are by no means out of this game yet. A Draw is a definite possibility now. A Pakistan victory is not yet out of scope. Indian’s are still in the driver’s seat, but you never know with Cricket. Eden Gardens, hughe first inning deficits also does reminds me of India’s victory against Australlia quite sometime back. Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait to see what happens in the remaining crucial days to come.

Well played Kamran & Misbah. The game is on now!! Indian’s were not at their ultimate best today. They were let down by this tremendous fight back, but its time they lift their game a little better and come back strongly aswell to have a stamping authority over this game. This seems to be developing into a very interesting contest, what say ?

What will India do between now and January 2nd to make a difference? Change of personnel? Change of approach? Change of Order?

Though it might be difficult to single out any one factor that was the difference between the two teams, the opening pair’s performance might be a good candidate for it. Compare Australia’s pair of Mathew Hayden and Jacques to India’s Dravid & Jafar. Had the Indian openers played a little more positively and given India some semblance of a start, things could have been a bit different.

This does not mean that everything else has worked out as planned for India. Hardly the case. With the exception of Sachin, Laxman and Saurav, all other batsman have totally failed as well. Yuvraj, coming off a tremendous batting display against the weakened Pakistani attack, have failed to make any impression with the bat. From some of the reports, looks like he has made an impression with his “attitude” problem and might be axed for the second test. One can not deny that Indian management had changed the batting order just to accomodate him in the line-up. I won’t be surprised if it goes back to Jafar/Sehwag combination at the top with Dravid coming in his usual #3 spot.

At the moment though, how India will fair at the SCG is anybody’s guess. Australians are at the top of their game already and barring an occasional spark in the bowling attack, the Indians don’t even looked warmed-up. That is not a good sign at all.

Will there be a lot of changes to the side? One possible line-up could be..

Sehwag, Jafar, Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, Laxman, Dhoni, Pathan, Kumble, Zaheer, Harbhajan

Any thoughts?

India will fight a four match test series, one twenty-twenty match and a tri-angle series with Australia and Sri Lanka. The trios are very strong teams. The team will play the match in Australia, So the most important thing is to know the time schedule or time table. When the match will start and what are the venues both are important thing for the cricket fans. The first Test Match will start on 26 December 2007, the twenty20 match will be held on 1 February 2008 and the Commonwealth Bank Series 2008 (One Day International) triangle ODI series between India, Australia and Sri Lanka will be held from 3rd February 2008. Watch now

It’s high time that India shed the burden of its elder players. Jaffer should be dropped and Dravid be given one last chance in the next test match. Their is no room for duds like him in the team. He can’t go in the middle and put pressure on other batsmen to score. I am sure that even the spectators would agree with me. It’s make the game really boring when you have a batsman who keeps blocking all the time.

India does not have much option, but to go with sehwag. It’s a gamble, but if it pays off then their is a very good chance that he gives India a good start. I would have liked Robin Uthappa to be in the team. He is a dasher like Sehwag but has a better technique to cope up with Australian conditions. I really hope the managment takes some tough decisions and punt with sehwag. It will not win India a match but alteast give them an opportunity to take attack to the Australians.

Opening Pair, Opening Move, Opening Act, Opening Statement(s).

These are arguably the most important actions in their respective fields. Wrong opening move can easily mess up a Chess game. A powerful Opening Act can and would generally carry a show a long way. A great opening statement always helps the speaker hold the audience listening to all he/she has to say.

For Indian Cricket Team visiting Australia this Aussie Summer, “Whom to send to open the innings?” might be the biggest decision to make. It will surely decide the balance of the Indian team and could have a significant impact on it’s performance playing down-under.

Jafar is the only designated opening batsman, excluding of course Sehwag, who in turn, was a last minute surprise addition. I am assuming that they will not send Sehwag with Jafar, because that would mean one from Dravid, Sachin or Laxman would have to sit out. Bowling attack would need to have 3 seamers and Kumble as lone spinner. So no space there either. There have been talk about asking Dravid to open, as he had done in Pakistan a couple of years back. He as very noncommittal when asked that question during an interview after the Banglore test.

What would India’s opening pair for the Boxing-Day-Test-Match be?

Australians begun the day’s proceedings in a typical Aussie fashion. They were simply unstoppable and the first session by no means belonged to India. Things were going the way the Aussies would like it to, and not many would have predicted an Indian comeback in the second session. Thats the specialty of Cricket. Cometh the second session, cometh the breakthroughs and India got right back into the game. Haydon keeps getting better and better against the Indians, and he was simply unstoppable today. At the end of it all, Anil Kumble’s splendid 5-For spoke volumes of his fighting spirit. He led the way from the front, and the Indian’s could not have written the script any better. At stumps, i am sure the Indian’s were a much happier lot. Let us see, how the test match proceeds tomorrow onwards. Looking at day one, i would say Indian’s should feel more confident. But you never know. Let us hold on till tomorrow and follow the action !!

It all starts in less than 12 hours from now. First Test between India & Australia at the MCG. Call me immensely optimistic, but I can feel that something special is going to happen for India here. Australia is a Huge favorite to win at the “G” (looks like that is what MCG is called as locally), but India has an overall leveled record against them in the recent 5-6 years.

Will India pull off a surprise win? Who will win the toss? Looks like Dravid is going to open for India, so the playing 11 should be……

Dravid, Jafar, Laxman, Sachin, Ganguly (or Ganguly, Sachin), Yuvraj, Dhoni, Pathan, RP, Zaheer & last but not the least Captain Kumble.

I am personally very excited about Indian team’s prospects and for very obvious reasons would like Sachin to rock in this series. It seems as if the Australian spectators would like him to succeed as well.

Ganguly looks and sounds very confident. Dravid should be his “Wall” self in the opening slot and the rest of the batting order should play positively (like they did in Kolkata) to put up sizable total on the board.

I know that I am all over th place here, but the excitement of being on the Eve of what promises to be a thrilling encounter is not allowing me to stay focussed

I can already hear the bell indicating start of round one…..May the best team win and may that be India……

Tendulkar rocks….. and so does Dada……

Hopefully this turns out to be a series to savor for years if not decades to come. I always feel that whenever India-Australia plays (either ODIs, T20 or Test) against each other, it invariably generates quality Cricket.

Here are the first few newslets/jabs:

Kumble says that India has the batting lineup to put up big totals against Australia and have enough bowling to take 20 wickets.

Ganguly says that India would not be intimidated by the Aussies.

Glen McGrath would like Aussies to have a go at the Indian line-up with 4-men pace attack, comprising of Bret Lee, Stuart Clarke, Mitchell Johnson and ShaunTait and forget picking a spinner.

That would be interesting and gives an idea as to what the Aussie approach would be. Only if Sreesanth was visiting with the Indians, it would have added more spice to an already “hot” situation.

Stay tuned. I am sure more verbal stuff would follow as we get closer to “Boxing” day

Australian’s are invincible, but its impossible to not have any weak links. Australian’s do have their problems, but they often overcome that with some breathtaking efforts. Indian team has to do a homework and analyse how could they possibly make use of the weak links if any the Australians have. That will be a real challenge !

One definite weak link, is their bowling attack. They bank heavily on Brett Lee. If things don’t go Brett Lee’s way then there is a definite chance for India to stand a chance. MacGill is no means a Warne. Well playing spin is not a big proposition for Indians and hence that should never be a problem. The only way to make use of this little opportunity is to play fighting aggressive cricket with a never say die attitude. If the Indian players can play to their potentials, then i believe Australlia by no means could feel they are in the drivers seat.

Good luck both teams ! A fascinating competition on the cards !! I just can’t wait to watch the action. How about you guys ?