Sunday, January 6, 2008

The Sydney Test ~ A mixed Bag !!!

Five gruelling days of cricket and it would ve been a shame if the match ended in a tame draw. Australia emerged victorious in the end barely minutes before stumps were to be called, therby winning their 16 th consecutive test match - an astonisihng feat indeed !!! . India had clung in there for nearly 71 overs before the man with the "golden touch" Michael Clarke wrapped things up for the Aussies. The match had seen everything ~ some wonderful cricket, horrendous umpiring decisions and other controversies as well . . . Phew ! what more can we get from a test match ???

So a quick recap of events in the match starting with RP Singh's exploits with the ball reducing the Aussie score to 134/6. Enter Brad Hogg & Andrew Symonds, reviving them with a partnership of 173 runs. Aus finally ending with 463. India in relpy had VVS Laxman & Sachin Tendulkar carving out wonderful hundreds along with Sourav's useful 50 & some dogged and determined batting by the Indian tail. India surprisingly had taken a 69 run lead by the end of day 3 much to the surprise of everyone especially after the mauling they had taken at Melbourne.

In the second essay, Aus had Matthew Hayden & Mike Hussey slaming hundreds taking the Aus scoreline to 401-7 dec . Aus had given themselves a maximum of 72 overs to bowl at the Indians setting them a target of 333. With just 2 overs left for lunch, India came out to bat & had a horror start losing Wasim Jaffer in the very first over. The Indians tried hard but it was all over in the penultimate over of the day when Clarke had Ishant Sharma nicking one to the slips. Now, all these sequences gives the impression that the match was incident-free isn't it ? But, there were a lot too many of them in the course of the test match which might not go down well particularly with the Indian supporters.

Now many might complain the fact that both Ponting & Symonds had stood their ground instead of walking when replays had suggested that there was contact off the bat. Now the law does not state that a batsman must walk if he is out. Then what are the umpires for ??? I would blame this situation on technology. What technology has done is that, we are now able to scrutinize each and every ball from various frames and ultra-slow motion replays. Whereas the umpires out there have to take a decision within a second or two. Its easy to blast the umpires when we comfortably rest our behind, sitting on the couch and arrive at a decision after watching several replays. One might argue saying why not go for the 3 rd umpire's decision ? Sure, one can do that but it must not lead to a situation where every catch and LBW decision is referred to the 3 rd umpire, then you dont need the on-field umpires at all. Yes, they have made some glaringly bad mistakes in this game. Bucknor is way past his prime & probably needs to be spending some quality time with his grandchildren instead of commiting such blunders out there. Mark Benson seems to have lost everything : he's looking completely out of sorts and probably needs a break from the game.

There were instances when the 3 rd umpire should ve been consulted ; particularly when Symonds was stumped on 148 and the Michael Clarke catch to dismiss Sourav Ganguly. But the 3 rd umpire himself wasn't good either. He should ve given Symonds out stumped when on 48 but instead gave him the benefit of doubt !!! And with regard to the catches, its every players right to appeal for a catch. And I don't have any problems with Clarke appealing for the catch, but what went wrong was that Benson should ve gone to the third umpire instead of going by what Clarke & Ponting had said. They did seem quite confident but again TV replays showed otherwise. In my opinion, Simon Taufel, the best umpire in the world at the moment, should ve stood in this series. But since he happens to be an Aussie, & as the ICC follows a neutral umpire policy, he wasn't considered. If i say bring in Simon, there would be some opposition stating that he'd be biased and favour Australia. As Darwin said, its a survival of the fittest & Simon being the best should ve stood here. The ICC should also reconsider the umpires in the elite panel. Now it really is tough to beat Australia in their own backyard and when the rub of the green does not go your way, it makes matters even more worse. Commiserations to the Indian team but they had come up with a spirited display than what they had shown in Melbourne. Another incident that took the sheen off this test match was the alleged racist row between Harbhajan Singh & Andrew Symonds. I do not wish to comment on that as there are different versions of the story that I ve been hearing. Whatever it may be, there should be a zero-tolerance policy not only in cricket, but in every other sport as well.

The media plays a huge role in sport, no doubt about that. Indian media I feel survives mainly on two words - Glorification & Vilification. Had India won this test match, the media would have simply adored the cricketers stating that they ve beaten the lions in their own den etc. But now that they have lost, the media is using very strong words like cheated. The news channel might just be running a half-hour show to analyze the game but they run these clippings of shocking umpiring decisions for almost 25 mins leaving the remaining 5 minutes for commercials. This repeated telecast just rubs salt into the wounds of the supporters and infuriates them further.

The Indians also need to be disappointed for their dismal display in the second innings. Apart from Rahul dravid & Sourav Ganguly who received bad decisions, the rest just came apart. Jaffer has looked utterly uncomfortable in Australia. Sachin misjudged the bounce and length & played on to one. Yuvraj Singh, claimed as the future of India's batting, lacked application. Yuvi might have scored tons at home where the ball barely comes above your knee. It's here in Australia that he should ve shown his skill, instead he's just busy romancing with Deepika Padukone. Dhoni looked scratchy and padded up to a one that was clearly coming in. Lapse of concentration doing him in. Anil Kumble was the only stodgy performer with the bat, apart from Sourav. The Indians need to rethink their composition for the next game at Perth. Probably bring in Sehwag for Yuvraj and let Dravid in the middle order. It's going to take a lot for the Indians to regroup and come back strong in the next game.

As a strong Aussie supporter, I feel glad that the match has been won by Australia. The Aussies would be going for the kill in Perth where things don't favour the Indians one bit. Its going to be one hostile experience awaiting the Indians at Perth. I'm very eager at the moment to see Australia beat India at Perth & secure a memorable 17 th win on the trot thereby eclipsing their previous record of 16 successive wins. It'd be an icing on the cake indeed since it was India who had stopped Australia's dream run back in 2001. And now to beat them & go past number 16 would be the ideal situation that Ricky Ponting could have ever hoped for !!! Good luck Aussies . . .

6 comments:

Unknown said...

nice blog dude!u summed it up perfectly.as aussies fans we wanted this and it happened.god was just not in the side of ind!

Rajiv said...

Congrats to Aus for winning 16 in a row..but this is 1 test Ind never deserved to lose..Aussie fans stop harping..U didnt win through ur efforts..if it weren't for the umpires Punter wouldnt have emulated S.Waugh..A really frustrating test for me barring Sachin's&Laxman's brilliant centuries!!

Unknown said...

hella traitor :P

inds deserved to win this match.. it was so unfair.. i just hope n pray they win at perth n break de damn aussies dumb records..

Srividya Jayaraman said...

The umpiring goof ups were in your face..come on,is this what u called blind support?

displayName said...

ricky pointing is a cheater...grounded the ball and he appealed for a catch...aussies are cheaters ..

Unknown said...

ater the sydney match there is nothin to be proud to be an australian fan but then india proved a point in perth..