The Thunder Down Under: review of the 2nd test from Sydney

“The Aussies will do all the things to make you feel the heat. But when you play down under you have to always be on the cards” - Sourav Ganguly.

That’s what you have to do. Actually in the third day’s play there was a improvement in the bowling department. But that failed to to pick up a wicket. Actually the ball was not reversing, which made life easier for batsman. Dhoni was also waiting for it to reverse as he used his off spinner Ashwin for a period of time to get roughness on one side of the ball, but it was only dry. If the ball has to reverse, shine should be at one end and at the other it should have roughness. For India the only one who can reverse the ball is Zaheer Khan. So that was not happening. But credit to the Aussies the way they batted. Its amazing. What made Australia take the advantage is that Ishant was bowling too many balls down the leg side and he also gave the batsman too much width outside off stump, which made life easier for the batsman.

But the way the Aussies batted was excellent. When they were at 37/3 on day1 they did not panic. Clarke came in and he just started playing his shots. That sort of positive attitude is needed when you come under these circumstances. This also comes to show the way the fast bowlers have bowled. They did not stick to the basics. When the new batsman has just entered, your line should be on off stump and then get the ball moving away or get the ball into the batsman. But what the Indians were bowling down the leg side. Once the newcomer settles in and starts scoring some quick runs, he will gain some confidence and go on to make a big score. That is what happened to Clarke. It was a good team effort from the Aussies. The youngsters, the likes of Pattinson, Coawan, etc, are also chipping in.

You see at day 5 the Indians approach was positive. But one disadvantage of Indians is that if one set batsman has been dismissed, all the others get out quickly. Why is that happening ? Reason behind the loss:

The Indians do not know how to handle the swing when it is pitched up full. The way Hilfenhaus bowled was simply amazing. The wicket of Dravid and Laxman in the 2nd test’s 2nd innings shows that a small movement is able to beat the batsman. Actually its very difficult to judge which way the ball moves when it is pitched up. So if they are able to rectify that and come hard at the bowling, they can put up a fight with the Aussies in the 3rd test. So let us hope for good performance from India in upcoming test matches in overseas……..