India look set for long day in the field

For Indian viewers, who got up at five am to watch the first session of the most anticipated clash in recent cricket history today, it turned out to be a big letdown. It is not that India were not up to the task in first session of the test series at Melbourne. The pacers, after Australia opted to bat, did everything right in the initial few overs but that critical first wicket eluded them. They pitched it up, moved it beautifully, but missed the edge of the blade. (The details you will get in few of the sites on this blog just below the profile on the right).

And then the Australians took over. A score of 111 for none at lunch means Indians are well and truly on the backfoot and if Australia's recent performance is anything to go by, they are unlikely to let any side off from such situation. Commenting on pre-lunch play, Wasim Akram did feel that the Indians should have used the crease little more effectively. He also predicted a very tough post-lunch session for India.

The most interesting coincidence, as pointed out by Ravi Shastri when the match took off, was that left-handers were doing everything in the initial stages. The Australian batting was opened by lefties (Hayden and Jaques), the Indian opening bowling attack had Zaheer and RP, and the second commentator to describe the initial overs alongside Ravi, was Akram!