Blogs India Australia Cricket 2007-08: Round One.
December 25th, 2007 by prashantIt 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……
December 25th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
India goes with 2 seamers and 2 spinners. Bhajji in, instead of Pathan. Australia wins the toss and elects to bat.
December 26th, 2007 at 2:16 am
From 135 for no loss to 337/9, great effort by the Indians today. Not the kind of stuff Australians are used to, especially at home. On a relatively flat track, which did not seem to offer great spin (atleast on day one), it was very crucial to stop the Aussies… Crucial for the match, and for the series. They could have easily gone on to make a big score, especially with our team composition of two spinners.
Lets see how Aussies respond to this. If the Australians are on a 14 match winning run, Indians have also not lost any in their past 8 tests
December 26th, 2007 at 4:24 am
May the best team win?? Nope.. may india win… period
I agree with Prash. It was very crucial to stop the Aussies, especially on the first day of the series. India have declared that they are not ready to be trampled over and that they will fight it out. Even though it is not a dream start, it could have easily been a nightmare at 135 for no loss. I had given up hope! But I am glad to see the Indian bowlers proving me wrong again. The bowlers have done their job for the first inning and now its up to the batsman to match that effort and take India past the Aussie first inning score. Batting 4th will not be a huge problem on Aussie pitches, but it is still a huge mental block and chasing anything above 200 can be dangerous. Of course I am going ahead of myself here since there are still 4 days left in this game.
Promises to be an exciting contest and worth getting up at 5am everyday!
December 26th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Assuming that the 10th wicket partnership does not prolong for too long, honors are with India at the moment. As jatanr and prash have said, with 135/0 (or 0/135) it looked as if Aussies are going to pile up a huge total. But Indians kept chipping at the wickets. The best of them all was Ponting getting knocked over by a Zaheer beauty. Let’s hope India keeps pressing on…