SCG has become the 3rd test venue to host 100 test matches only after Lords and MCG. Bright sunny day at the SCG, perfect conditions to start the 2nd test of the India-Australia test series 2011/12. Wasim (Akram) at the pitch report said it was perfect batting conditions if the batsmen can see through the first couple hours or so. Dhoni surprisingly won the toss and elected to bat first.
Gambhir is having a really tough time facing the new ball from the Australian pacers. He is not adjusting his technique to the bouncing Australian wickets. It is very important to leave the good balls early in your innings and Gambhir has failed to do that at MCG and is continuing that at SCG as well. He has to be playing a lot straighter rather than trying to work the ball on the on-side, or through the point region. There is no point in having an opener who exposes the likes of Dravid within the first few overs of the morning. It can happen once or twice, but the problem with Gambhir is he does not seem to learn from his mistakes.
Dravid has been solid throughout 2011. He was a lone battler in the test series at England in 2011 where he scored 3 centuries (everything in vain though). He had problems with the uneven bounce at the MCG pitch, but here at the SCG he was solid in defense, watching the ball till the last minute before he nipped one to the forward short leg fielder.
Laxman and Sehwag have been in international cricket for a long time without impressive feet movement. When you are driving, it is important to get to the pitch of the ball, which Laxman has not been doing in Australia. Sachin has been the only Indian batsman who looked like scoring each time he comes out to bat. Dhoni looked better at SCG as obviously the ball was old when he came out to bat and was coming on to the bat nicely. Once again after a sorry show by the Indian batsmen, they put up a miniscule 191 in their first inning and were bowled out within the first day.
It is a tough ask from the bowlers to defend a score of 191 on a track which has looked very good for batting. Zaheer bowled impressively picking up 3 early wickets on the first day and that was it. (Ricky)Ponting and Michael(Clark) batted wonderfully in the 2nd day each scoring centuries and Clark going on to make a double ton. As quoted in cricinfo "The best thing India have done is bowl their overs on time". Crowd clapped for each of the Indian bowlers when they gave away 100 runs. This is of-course not a good sign for the bowlers. At the end of day two at SCG, Aussies lead by 291 runs with 6 wickets in hand and seem to increase the lead more than 350. If India had to save this test match, they will have to bat more than 2 days which looks a mammoth task with the form in which the batsmen are in.
Trivia:
Michael Clark scored his first double ton in test cricket
Pradeep K Chandra
Gambhir is having a really tough time facing the new ball from the Australian pacers. He is not adjusting his technique to the bouncing Australian wickets. It is very important to leave the good balls early in your innings and Gambhir has failed to do that at MCG and is continuing that at SCG as well. He has to be playing a lot straighter rather than trying to work the ball on the on-side, or through the point region. There is no point in having an opener who exposes the likes of Dravid within the first few overs of the morning. It can happen once or twice, but the problem with Gambhir is he does not seem to learn from his mistakes.
Dravid has been solid throughout 2011. He was a lone battler in the test series at England in 2011 where he scored 3 centuries (everything in vain though). He had problems with the uneven bounce at the MCG pitch, but here at the SCG he was solid in defense, watching the ball till the last minute before he nipped one to the forward short leg fielder.
Laxman and Sehwag have been in international cricket for a long time without impressive feet movement. When you are driving, it is important to get to the pitch of the ball, which Laxman has not been doing in Australia. Sachin has been the only Indian batsman who looked like scoring each time he comes out to bat. Dhoni looked better at SCG as obviously the ball was old when he came out to bat and was coming on to the bat nicely. Once again after a sorry show by the Indian batsmen, they put up a miniscule 191 in their first inning and were bowled out within the first day.
It is a tough ask from the bowlers to defend a score of 191 on a track which has looked very good for batting. Zaheer bowled impressively picking up 3 early wickets on the first day and that was it. (Ricky)Ponting and Michael(Clark) batted wonderfully in the 2nd day each scoring centuries and Clark going on to make a double ton. As quoted in cricinfo "The best thing India have done is bowl their overs on time". Crowd clapped for each of the Indian bowlers when they gave away 100 runs. This is of-course not a good sign for the bowlers. At the end of day two at SCG, Aussies lead by 291 runs with 6 wickets in hand and seem to increase the lead more than 350. If India had to save this test match, they will have to bat more than 2 days which looks a mammoth task with the form in which the batsmen are in.
Trivia:
Michael Clark scored his first double ton in test cricket
Pradeep K Chandra
No comments:
Post a Comment