Uneasy calm before Melbourne Storm

Less than 24 hours before the mega-showdown at Melbourne, nostalgia, serenity, and a sense of history enveloped Indian newspapers, succinctly described by a headline in the Times of India, calling it ‘’calm before the storm’’.

There was also an interesting piece of statistics which said Australia have won each of their last eight matches on this ground beginning with that thumping 180-run win against India in 1999. India were whitewashed 0-3 in the 1999 series – a result ‘predicted’ by the then BCCI secretary Mr Lele even before the series had started!

For India too, this is their most successful ground in Australia as they have won two matches against Australia here, the last one being that famous almost ‘walk over’ match when under Gavaskar’s leadership, Ghavri and Kapil’s heroics with the ball helped India defend a meager total and beat Greg Chappell-led Australia.

The Hindustan times had an article ‘’Bowl India Bowl..Fast’, where the writer tried to convince that ‘’given the general lack of success that finger spinners have had in Australia, a lot is going to depend on India’s pacemen.

However, her opinion goes against what many experts believe. There looks to be a general consensus among many ex-players that India must carry their best attack on this ground even if they have to have two spinners. They believe the ground will assist spin and help India if Australia play the fourth innings with marginally defendable total.

Even Australia will bank on Hogg, a relatively inexperienced spinner, to make inroads in the absence of McGill. Yesterday, even Ponting and Gilchrist had come out in support of Hogg.

An interesting item in the Indian Express was on Gujarati community. They were full of admiration for Indian cricketers, little disappointed that fellow Gujarati Parthiv Patel was not there, and celebrated the re-election of Narendra Modi!

But come tomorrow, the politics of cricket will take the centrestage among the Indians and Modi will be forgotten. As of now, both the teams look eager to take the field. While Ganguly has remarked that he is not feeling any pressure as he goes for this century, Clarke is adamant that Australia will put the pressure back on the Indians.

It is indeed uneasy calm before the storm. In the battle of words, Indians have so far proved to be equal to the Australians. Beginning Wednesday, they will be eager to back their words with action.

Meanwhile, Below is the link to Christmas and New Year wishes, which I have prepared for friends and readers of this blog.
http://spiritualsolace.blogspot.com/2007/12/may-this-christmas-and-new-year-endow.html