Australia trail by 12 runs with 10 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
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| Micahel Clarke with MS Dhoni at Toss |
"Morning: 'will Sachin get a 100?' 2 Hours later: "will India get a 100?'" ,India 161 all out. 30 lesser than they managed at SCG in the 1st innings. Clearly, the go-karting sessions didn't help.161 is this a humiliation or a fact that the team is useless overseas? India way to lose its reputation.This is turning into the Agneepathetic series, Lets not be judgmental. Lets give the team their due. They did well to reach 161. Great feat for this team,at the end of day's play. India 161. Aus 149. India wins today .
Nothing in life can be so bad that it can't be made worse with a little effort....lesson learnt 4m team india.Need to stop playing home series on tailored pitches, need sporting tracks,Friday, the 13th...well! a whole team has been haunted dreadfully,Team needs to take some serious decisions.. Dumbness!! Are they having a vacation in the middle of the field..
Indian Media is suddenly want wholesome change in cricket team, really surprised to see how quickly they change colours.
India's openers fared very differently. They were confronted by a pitch that looked green but was already beginning to show evidence of cracking, which suggested it was not as moist as it appeared. Nonetheless there was still plenty of swing, seam and bounce on offer to Australia's bowlers, requiring astute judgment of line and length.
Sehwag had been at the centre of plenty of pre-match bluster surrounding his natural method, and the batsman looked tentative in his brief stay. Sehwag only faced four balls, the last of which was a beautifully pitched Hilfenhaus away swinger that flicked the edge and was well held by Ricky Ponting in the cordon.
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| Dravid bowled again |
Dravid walked to the wicket having been bowled in three out of four innings, and played at more than he might otherwise have done to avoid a repeat. He struggled for timing, however, and was so intent on defence that when Siddle delivered a leg side ball of full length, Dravid's unnecessarily conservative posture turned it into a yorker that clattered into middle stump via the pads.
Tendulkar drew applause for a trio of straight drives from Siddle that recalled his sparkling 114 at the ground in 1992, but was not in total command. Harris was rewarded for two unstinting spells before lunch when he seamed one back to pin Tendulkar in front of the stumps.
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| Hilfenhaus ended Gambhir's stony-faced occupation |
Next over Hilfenhaus ended Gambhir's stony-faced occupation, whizzing an offcutter across the left-hand batsman to prompt a push away from the body and an edge through to Brad Haddin. Gambhir admonished himself for succumbing to a nick for the fifth time in as many innings, the victim of another intelligent display of full, fast bowling from Australia.
Laxman and Kohli were more or less India's last hope of a substantial total, and their batting in the first hour of the afternoon was suitably grave. Starc, Hilfenhaus, Harris and Siddle continued to bowl well, but neither batsman offered quite so much in the way of probing bats that their predecessors had done. The ball grew older, the pitch settled under the sun, and the batsmen grew a little more comfortable.
The stand was gathering strength and tea was less than 10 minutes away when Siddle made a critical break. Bowling full and swinging wider, he tempted Kohli to press too eagerly forward, and the low chance was held by Warner at point. In Siddle's next over Laxman pushed firmly at a length delivery and offered a catch to Clarke at first slip.
Starc had been threatening to bowl the perfect inswinger for most of the day, and it was Vinay Kumar who received it to be palpably lbw. MS Dhoni played an ordinary stroke at Hilfenhaus to be caught in the slips, though Zaheer's ugly smear at the same bowler was arguably worse. Ishant edged Starc behind to complete what had become a procession - the last six wickets falling for 30.That's the end of an utterly humiliatingly day for India. If their fans were wondering how things could get worse after the England whitewash last year, there was the mauling in Sydney. If they thought that was the nadir, Friday the 13th brought on even more embarrassment. Shot out for 161, before Warner bludgeoned a magical century in less than a session. And to think, six months ago India were No. 1. As one reader posted, it was hard to decide whether the Indian bowling was worse or their batting.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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