Boxing Day test Review thread

[MCcricket]

Its been a while since I've commented on ICF but watching this match, the key points I noticed were: 1) Poor shot execution by the batsmen. The Aussies were showing intent and there was no better example than Hussey in the 2nd innings. At 4/27, he didn't retreat into his shell but kept playing his shots OR looking for singles. 2) Consistency of the bowlers. The Aussies were relentless. Its all well and good to criticise Dhoni but the Indian bowlers were consistently giving a boundary ball away almost every over. Zaheer didn't make the batsmen play enough, Ishant wasn't moving the ball much and Umesh was bowling too many short deliveries in between his good ones, Ashwin gave too many boundary balls in between good ones. The changes I would make for the SCG test are 1) Replace Kohli with Rohit. As much as I admire Kohli's tenacity his tendency to fall towards the off side is a bit of a concern on quicker tracks where he'll be rapped on the pads like he was today. Rohit Sharma is technically a lot more solid, although is lazy. However, we do lose our best fielder, so it won't be the end of the world if Kohli is retained. 2) I doubt the SCG pitch is going to be a turner (Aus wouldn't do that), so retain the same bowling attack. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and come back stronger. I would bowl Kohli or Sehwag more though to try to change it up a bit. 3) Keep a close in fielder on both sides, so short-leg and closer cover to prevent these quick singles. We allowed Australia to take too many this match.

Good observation , more or less agree with most things except, bowlers bowl well if they are given good field placements, a defensive field, not attacking Tailenders, not making an attempt to get Hussey or Ponting out and giving them singles, this has been going on tactically for quite a while as far as Captain is concerned, why be defensive when we could have polished the tail , lower order in both innings and have to chase 100 runs less.

[Aussie-r-best]

You had them on the ropes, but your knees went. What is up with this India team On paper they are far better than this. Maybe you will soon only be able to win at home

Better side on paper true, but the problem with this Indian side (and it has been the same for a fair bit of time) is consistency and reliance on past performances. Save for SRT who is consistently great, there is not enough continued ongoing strong performances from this 'star-studded' batting line up. Simple old rule will always apply "a team of champions will lose to a champion team". There is always talk of who is great in this indian team and when there is a loss talk of who is at fault (generally individual based) no talk of how the team did not gel. Happy to be proved wrong but look at the great or No. 1 sides (except India) of recent years: England - no real super champions but a close knit team that work well together and play hard as a team to sit as current best; SA - kallis is a great, but a solid group that support each other and play for the team; Aust - Warne and McGrath legends but when they were off the rest (gilly, hayden and ponting for example) got behind and worked for the team. Again happy to be shown as wrong but look at the threads and comments looking for a skapegoat

[MCcricket]

Better side on paper true, but the problem with this Indian side (and it has been the same for a fair bit of time) is consistency and reliance on past performances. Save for SRT who is consistently great, there is not enough continued ongoing strong performances from this 'star-studded' batting line up. Simple old rule will always apply "a team of champions will lose to a champion team". There is always talk of who is great in this indian team and when there is a loss talk of who is at fault (generally individual based) no talk of how the team did not gel. Happy to be proved wrong but look at the great or No. 1 sides (except India) of recent years: England - no real super champions but a close knit team that work well together and play hard as a team to sit as current best; SA - kallis is a great, but a solid group that support each other and play for the team; Aust - Warne and McGrath legends but when they were off the rest (gilly, hayden and ponting for example) got behind and worked for the team. Again happy to be shown as wrong but look at the threads and comments looking for a skapegoat

First things first, Australia just lost to New Zealand , has only won once in India under Waugh recently. India has done well in Australia lasy two tours, this team did so well because of the fab 4, weak point being the captain , who is very defensive , also not a decent bat outside India, bad selections , especially if you look at the bench . This is just the first test, we shall win test's in OZ, WHO KNOWS EVEN DRAW OR WIN THE SERIES, INDIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN A POOR STARTER AWAY, we had the Aussies on the mat twice and let the advantage slide, Ponting, Hussey,Cowan were the only notable scorers among the Aussies, also Hussey was dropped early in his innings, bad umpiring decisions hurt both sides, yes Australia deserved to win , not because ogf being a better side , but because they tried harder and were more aggressive.

[jairamesh]

Both team's batting was atrocious, I still believe Australia's batting is rubbish. Their tailenders bailed them out in both innings, their tailenders have been bailing them out in the last couple of series. Funnily Australia have more to worry than India. Dhoni really need to sort himself out closing out the tail, especially with field placements.

[Stuge]

My feeling is India will bounce back.

privates :woot:

[peterparker]

for me it was the third seamer not picking up wicket..in the second innings..from 26/4 aus should have bowled out withing 70-80 ideally,but since india lacks this attitude..i would have given them a lax of 120-130..but ishant failed there..

[peterparker]

and i hope this time batting is not considered as a failure..test cricket is all about bowling and picking 20 wickets..to win it

[wobblydoggy]

Like England?

I seem to remember we thrashed Australia 3-1 last year at the same venues, you are losing at:--D

[deathmonger]

I seem to remember we thrashed Australia 3-1 last year at the same venues' date=' you are losing at:--D[/quote'] I seem to remember we won a series in the Caribbean this year, same place where you were 51 all out and lost the series.:--D

[peterparker]

I seem to remember we won a series in the Caribbean this year' date=' same place where you were 51 all out and lost the series.:--D[/quote'] :haha:

[Aussie-r-best]

I seem to remember we won a series in the Caribbean this year' date=' same place where you were 51 all out and lost the series.:--D[/quote'] Hey deathmonger, true we all have some bad innings, or embarrasing losses. Could be a little similar to the: 76 v SA in durban; 100 v Eng at Mumbai; 99 v NZ in NZ; or ..............

[deathmonger]

Hey deathmonger, true we all have some bad innings, or embarrasing losses. Could be a little similar to the: 76 v SA in durban; 100 v Eng at Mumbai; 99 v NZ in NZ; or ..............

Or to the 47 in Cape Town 98 in Melbourne 88 in Leeds

[Aussie-r-best]

Or to the 47 in Cape Town 98 in Melbourne 88 in Leeds

Yep just goes to prove my pont even more doesn't it. Al teams have some low scores in their past

[vayuu1]

the problem is our batsman are just surrendering and not even putting a fight ,u need atleast 330-350 score to be safe,but barring few individuals nobody is willing to guts it out,they say class is permanent, but our experienced players are getting older we need to groom our youngesters .

[vayuu1]

I seem to remember we thrashed Australia 3-1 last year at the same venues' date=' you are losing at:--D[/quote'] tu phir se aa gya :bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack: bhool gya kya.

[peterparker]

tu phir se aa gya :bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack::bumsmack: bhool gya kya.

arre to unhone trash to kiya tha...

[ganeshran]

The most disappointing thing about this loss was that it came with our best 11 not a injury hit side like in England. Zaheer and Viru were both fit. That being said, I expect us to bounce back at Sydney. No way this series is going the England way.

[deathmonger]

The most disappointing thing about this loss was that it came with our best 11 not a injury hit side like in England. Zaheer and Viru were both fit. That being said, I expect us to bounce back at Sydney. No way this series is going the England way.

Our batsmen need to score runs. Bowlers are bowling their hearts out and in the second innings you could see they were pitching it up instead of the short pitch stuff they did in afternoon session on day 1 leading to easy runs. Bowlers will bowl well throughout the series. What we need is aggressive captaincy and decent batting. no need for 500-600 totals. 350 is good enough to defeat oz.

[ganeshran]

Making 350 is the biggest challenge. We have crossed 300 only twice in our last 20 away innings. Either the batting is poor (number 6) , or out of form (Dhoni and Gambhir), or 2 of the big 3 are not clicking.

[Laaloo]

The most disappointing thing about this loss was that it came with our best 11 not a injury hit side like in England. Zaheer and Viru were both fit. That being said, I expect us to bounce back at Sydney. No way this series is going the England way.

It's over dude. Even in the first innings, if Aussies hadnt dropped catches, we would have been bundled out for 150 odd and would have been chasing 500 instead of 292. Even if we get a good start from hereon, our middler order-tail will manage to **** up. It's one thing to be optimistic when we see our players trying their hardest. But Sehwag's shot 10 minutes before lunch or when he faced the first delivery in the 2nd innings, gambhir keeps prodding outside the off stump, dravid has been bowled 3 times already in this match, dhonis pathetic captaincy ( keeps repeating the same **** over and over again), and coming up with so many lame excuses, kohlis attitude after being given lbw. I'll be surprised if we manage to win any one of the next three tests.