Mouth watering prospect in melbourne!

[manoj_admlab]

Richard Earle December 08, 2007 12:00am INDIA is poised to receive the ultimate Christmas gift - a Boxing Day Test wicket that resembles a flat, sub-continent track. Batsmen struggled to score on the drop-in pitch in Victoria's Pura Cup clash with New South Wales this week. Bushrangers skipper Brad Hodge said the sluggish wicket would "promote boring cricket". "What we need is to prepare wickets that suit our cricket rather than the Indians," former Australian Test captain Allan Border said yesterday. "If it is slow and low the Indians really come into the contest. They like that sort of surface. That is the worrying thing for me. You should try and get a bit more bounce, it doesn't have to be sideways movement, then it will suit our cricket." Fellow Test batsman Darren Lehmann recalled the turning strips that greeted Australia on its 2004 Test tour of India. "It would be nice to have a fast track as when we go to India the tracks turn square from day one," Lehmann said. He said conditions at the MCG could mean the world's most explosive bowler - Shaun Tait - misses out on a game. "He is bowling the fastest of any bowler I have ever seen but if reports about the docile pitch are true you will need some variation," Lehmann said. MCG curator Tony Ware this week indicated he would attempt to instil "more pace" for the Boxing Day Test. India spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh loom as an extremely formidable pairing, while Australia will hope wrist-spinner Brad Hogg can translate his limited-overs form to the Test arena. Australian chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said he would reserve judgment on the Melbourne surface until closer to the Test.

[Cricketics]

win the toss and bat first.. however the freakin pitch is.. aus welcomez everyone with score around about 270 -1/2 on day 1 of the series.. we don't want this to happen again.. same thing happned to us in Brisbane, the first test of 03-04 series.. though we we came back strongly on day 2..

[DesiChap]

They got square turners in 2004 The only place they got it was in Mumbai. Did they forget the Nagpur pich ?

[sm332]

They got square turners in 2004 The only place they got it was in Mumbai. Did they forget the Nagpur pich ?

dont bother with boof ... he wouldnt know his mouth from his rear end ....

[King]

Slow and low doesn't mean spinner's track. Wonder why they didn't schedule a game in Brisbane first up as usual.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[SachDan]

Slow and low doesn't mean spinner's track. Wonder why they didn't schedule a game in Brisbane first up as usual.

Ravi, Brisbane has already hosted one test vs SL..and the traditional boxing day test is always played at MCG.

[Anakin]

Had any Indian Ex-Player or Official said the same thing as Border did .... he would have been hounded senseless by now. I guess its ok for the Ugly ones to do whatever they want?

:two_thumbs_up:

[manoj_admlab]

Waugh says spin-friendly schedule gives India hope Jon Pierik December 11, 2007 12:00am TEST great Steve Waugh has raised the prospect of an Indian uprising this summer, saying the tourists have been handed a favourable schedule. While many believe Ricky Ponting's side will steamroll to a series victory, and bookies have the Aussies $1.28 favourite, Waugh isn't so sure. The former Australian captain says India has a "pretty good" program with two of the four Tests at spin-friendly venues in Adelaide and Sydney. The Indians could have up to three spinners in their 16-man squad, which arrives in Melbourne next week. Skipper Anil Kumble is nearing 600 Test wickets with his quick leg-spin, while fiery off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will also feature prominently. Figures suggest India will have the advantage in the spin department over an Australian side that is likely to have Brad Hogg, who has played just four Tests, as its frontline tweaker. Waugh said the tourists had to play to their strength and use three spinners in the second Test in Sydney and fourth match in Adelaide. "They have got a pretty good draw really," Waugh said yesterday. "I think there is some hope (of an Indian victory) because they are playing at two spinner-friendly venues, Adelaide and Sydney. "They will have three good spinners in their squad and that will give them the chance to take 20 wickets. "It seems in the past decade in Australia they haven't been able to take 20 wickets. "It doesn't matter how many good batters they have got, they can't win a Test unless they can take 20 wickets. "They have to pick a team capable of taking 20 wickets otherwise they'll get thrashed." India has had four victories from 32 Tests in Australia, the last coming in 2003-04 when it led 1-0 after a win in Adelaide. That advantage disappeared in Melbourne and a drawn series finale in Sydney ensured Waugh's last campaign before retiring didn't leave bitter memories. Waugh doesn't expect any drawn Tests this series, which begins in Melbourne on Boxing Day. The third Test will be at the WACA Ground. "I don't think it's possible to play a draw against Australia, you either win or lose," he said. "It really depends on how they bowlers go. I think their batters have got enough experience to get them runs. If they bring an attack capable of taking wickets they are a chance." Waugh said the tourists were fortunate the series did not begin in Perth on a pitch Australia hopes will offer pace and bounce. "It's lucky they are not going to the WACA first. They have got time to adjust," he said.

[Ram]

Hmmm.. Why do i see many Aussies coming out in the open and talking favorably about India's chances. If Sreesanth had been there, I would have given ourselves a realistic chance of bowling the Aussies out twice in a test match.

[dial_100]

honestly... I miss this guy.... He is something... He was outstanding in Eng. Not that he takes loads of wkts but he manages to remove set batsman with his energetic spells....

[Chandan]

I still do not think that we have an attack to their 20 wicket what with all their batsmen in prime form, right from the rookie Jaques to veteran Ponting and Hayden. And at least in one of the tests we'll certainly self destruct ourselves. So, I don't see any realistic chance of a victory or even a drawn series!

[manoj_admlab]

Australians are at it again Veturi Srivatsa - CricketNext Posted on Dec 13, 2007 at 13 : 37 The mind games are part of modern cricket before any tour, but the Australians seem to be giving it a fair amount of tweak. If former coach John Buchanan has a recipe to counter Sachin Tendulkar’s onslaught, former captains Allan Border and Steve Waugh have reservations about the slow-paced, low-bounce drop-in Melbourne pitch and the spin-friendly Sydney and Adelaide tracks that suit the Indians. Greg Chappell may be the number one enemy of Indian cricket, yet his brother, Ian’s syndicated column (pun unintended), can influence the Indian selectors to pick Virender Sehwag, runs or no runs in any grade of cricket, just because his approach to batting will be ideal on Australian pitches! The Indians have not been able to put it across Pakistan even after running up 600 plus scores in the last two Tests, and on pitches which were supposed to help their spinners and that might prompt some Australian to roar that the Indian spinners cannot bowl out opponents twice even on slow and low pitches they play in their four-Test series. First Buchanan’s theory, he makes it all so simple to dismiss Tendulkar: Soften the master with a barrage of short-pitched bowling and then let slip a fuller one and he will play into the hands of the slips! The former Australia coach finds Tendulkar’s footwork sluggish as his feet do not move early in his innings. He also find Tendulkar vulnerable against left-arm pace because Mitchell Johnson got him a couple of times ago in Malaysia a couple of seasons ago! Buchanan was talking of the time when Tendulkar was dogged by injuries and even the Indian media experts, in their anxiety to be first with the news, had written him off, even punning with his surname by dropping the first letter, not realizing some of the changes that came into his batting are age-related. If Buchanan’s theories are to be believed, then Tendulkar has Hobson’s choice, he will not be able to bat in Australia at all! The best man to answer Buchanan is none other than Sourav Ganguly who has spoken up for not only himself, but also Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, by giving a new punch line to Indian cricket: Never write a senior cricketer off. His batting in the Pakistan series is a revelation, particularly his decisive footwork. He has proved that quality batsmen will score even on pitches which are helpful to bowlers and not so conducive to free strokeplay. The Australians will still not be impressed with the Indian batting as they have always run them down, saying they are all flat-pitch bullies, amassing huge scores at home, forgetting the mammoth totals the Indians posted during their last tour Down Under when they should have won the series hands down. In modern cricket, it is a question of grabbing opportunities at crucial moments and coming on top. The Indian have the wherewithal to stand up to the bouncy-track bullies and as Anil Kumble says have the bowling to bowl them out twice. Why blame Indian pitches, tracks world over are changing. Border is worried about the pitch at the MCG, which he looks like a subcontinental pitch to him, but then what about the pitch at the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) ground at Perth? There was a time when the pitch used to be the nightmare of batsmen. It is no longer that intimidating with horrifying pace and disconcerting bounce. In the last couple of years, batsmen reveled there and teams included two spinners. Waugh is right, the Indians should gab their chances at Adelaide and Sydney. The Australians say the Indian pitches turn square from Day One. For them the matches at MCG this season were boring, they only want fast bowlers savage batsmen. They should know that they have won as many matches with Shane Warne’s spin as they have done with the battery of pace men. So, they want bounce in the pitch and not sideways movement because the Indians can be handful to their batsmen if the ball does something in the air or even off the seam. So, the Indians are not the sole proprietors of slow and low (read lifeless) pitches. The curators can only doctor the pitches to some extent, but it is too much to expect them to change the climatic conditions to suit the surface or vice versa. The Bangalore Test pitch was prepared with the expert advice from two New Zealander who are supposed to know a thing or two about pitches. They said all they did was to tell the curator how to use the fresh grass blades in pitch preparation instead of rolling it out sprinkling dead grass. The two sides were dismissed at least once and only the last session drama swelled the wickets column as 1609 runs were scored. Some nitpicking analysts have found out that a high percentage of runs Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid scored on slow pitches and fast pitches and the wickets Kumble claimed at home to prove the point. It is only natural for a player to score more runs or take wickets at home and that doesn’t prove anything. Someone has even come up with a startling fact that Ganguly scored more runs on faster pitches than the other two in the triumvirate. Glenn ‘Pigeon’ McGrath has a different take. He doesn’t believe the Indians can stand up to fury of fast bowling and he wants an all-pace attack of Brett Lee, Johnson, Shaun Tait and Stuart Clark, thus aping the West Indies of the 70s. Ganguly has already answered some of these questions in an interview and the other Indian players will a lot to say before the series gets under way. Watch out. Tail-piece: At last it is nice of chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar to speak to Parthiv Patel and perk him up after the selection of the India squad for Australia and explain to him that his time will surely come.

[bharat297]

The only reason the WACA pitch has changed over the past 2 or 3 years was because teams with strong pace attacks , that have struggled against Warne, were here, such as England, South Africa and Pakistan. Expect the "old" WACA pitch, just in time for the Indians. The Aussies are the masters at pitch doctoring.

[fineleg]

Even Adelaide they will try their best to suit pacers. Sydney will be the only place where spin might play a role.

[riya]

To be fair Aussies are capable of beating all the teams at their home .So no need to worry . Chalo kangaroos ,bring it on .

[Chaos]

Mouth watering prospect in melbourne! Tait and Lee bowling at our batsman!! god i wish sachin will be at his aggresive best or we are goners :nervous:

[bharat297]

Yea they are ... however last series against Australia in India, Australia lucked out by getting a greenish pitch with extra bounce (similar to Australian conditions) in Nagpur in the 3rd Test

[Desi Cartman]

Yea they are ... however last series against Australia in India' date=' Australia lucked out by getting a greenish pitch with extra bounce (similar to Australian conditions) in Nagpur in the 3rd Test[/quote'] It still makes me sad when I think of that day when India lost the series in India ... Thanks to all the bloody politicians. I remember Ganguly & Bhajji were pissed off and refused to play. Bloody politicians :cry_smile: and on the thread topic .. I think they will make India struggle on any of the Aussie pitches ...

[The Outsider]

Adelaide will be a patta, so will Sydney. When the glorious turner was turned into a graveyard by the Aussie curators the last time round, we can expect nothing more this time. MCG will be a result for sure and Perth a wild card. I think 3 tests will see results with a 2-1 scoreline in favor of one team or the other.