Kumble, and the essence of Indian spirit

Indians are apologetic (Even if they do not need to)
Are always forgiving (just to uphold the spirit of the game)
Compassionate without fail (Even if they feel somebody does not deserve it)
So read on.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23052495-2722,00.html

Harbhajan has gone mad!

It is the eighth time Harbhajan has trapped the Australian captain and ''he has gone mad.''

This is how a commentator reacted after Harbhajan got Ricky Ponting for the eighth time in his career. Apt words to describe Bhajji's reactions after another tremendous display by the turbanator against the World's premier batsman.

Few over before , After Phil Jacques had lifted Anil Kumble to midwicket boundary to give Australia a sense of relief by getting them in lead (without losing a wicket), things were looking increasingly difficult for India indeed, in terms of winning this match.

Now with two critical wickets fallen, one will hope for India to get few more in the post lunch session. The key will be to get Australia all out before the end of day’s play, otherwise chasing an Australian target of 250-300 on Sunday will put India under pressure again.

Going by the way how Australia continued with their assault even after losing wickets in the first two tests, the only way to stop this team is by taking wickets at the regular intervals and finishing them off.

If Australia survive the day without a major weather interruption, the 60-65 odd overs after lunch time, at a rate of just over four runs, will take them to an additional 250 runs. They lead by 21 at lunch.

Getting them out at the earliest is also important for another reason. India’s fourth innings displays of late have not really been encouraging despite making those 200 odd runs against Pakistan at Delhi.

But then strange things have happened in cricket before. Including the showers which started soon after the umpires signalled lunch, which usually the opposition welcomes, and not this Australian team!

Forget about an explosive start from india

When India start their innings , they will be in a defensive frame of mind, commented Gavaskar just after Australia crossed 400 runs.

That is understandable when you are chasing a total in excess of 400 runs because the first thought will be about saving the test.

Also, as going 0-2 down will curtail your ambition drastically to the thought of just saving the series.

That should be the only strategy available to India right now, and it will be a good one too unless they go ultra-defensive. Now in this test, if India are allowed a look in with nearly 50-70 overs left today, the two teams will still have a possible 320-340 overs left for the last three innings. Australia, one fears, will not be required to face more than 50 in their second essay unless India put up a great total. That would mean negotiating 125 to 150 overs in each innings for India.

That should be a tough job, but it is not impossible by any standards as the wicket is playing very true. Shastri believes that it is easy. In fact, the average second innings score at Sydney is close to 400, and that should give heart to India.

But once again, India will need to score too and not just preserve their wickets. Australians did that beautifully under pressure by trading in singles and twos when boundaries were not coming. India may not be allowed too many boundaries if Ponting's approach, alternating between offense and defense, is any indication.

Meanwhile, I am awaiting morning papers to read what they have to say about the umpiring goof-ups, which allowed Australia to escape from the gallows. Did not Navjot Sidhu say on NDTV that if Sachin is allowed three innings in one innings, he (Sidhu) would bet on him scoring a century every time!

Australia have lost their eighth wicket just now. Hopefully, there will not be any big partnership anymore in this innings.

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