I thought about this question after a brief discussion on Uncle J's blog on this particular post . Did, a commenter on the post said "I think the IPL should be renamed the Antipodean Premier League anyways cause it would be twice as $%^ without the backbone provided by the Aussies and Kiwis." And he went on to mention that the Aussies had won 14 MoM awards in 34 games, 4 of the top 10 batsmen were Aussies, as were 2 of the top 10 bowlers. It won't be a surprise if the IPL teams are reliant on Aussies as they are the best cricket players in the world. But are the teams actually reliant on them?  read more »

India beat Australia by 72 runs in the Perth Test today. In doing so they have broken Australia's 16 Test match winning streak (for the second time). Australia have play 90 Test matches in this decade, and they have amassed a 68-11 record so far. Out of the 11 Test defeats, 5 have come in dead rubbers (after the series has already been decided). They have played 15 times against India, and have a 7-5 record. One of India's wins has come in a dead rubber (Mumbai 2004). The next best record against Australia is England's - 4-14.

As impressive as this is, it is only part of the story. India have scripted an epic at the WACA ground. A fast bouncy wicket (more on that in a moment), a genuinely quick Australian attack, Australia chasing a record 17th Test win, the dispiriting defeat at the SCG and the Harbhajan situation meant that when Anil Kumble walked out to participate in the toss, the overwhelming majority of cricket fans had probably written India off. For Australia, the 17th Test win seemed a formality. Adam Gilchrist had told the world to expect a sizzling day. The curator and knowing folk were telling us that this Perth pitch had been part of a newly relaid square and had the old fire. It looked very forbidding for everybody but the members of the Indian squad.  read more »

Mahendra Singh Dhoni lost the toss but everything else went right for his team, beginning with some tight bowling, as the Chennai Super Kings won the match against the Deccan Chargers and a spot in the semi-finals at the expense of the Mumbai Indians. Chennai will face Kings XI Punjab, whom they have defeated twice, [...]

The home jinx for Deccan Chargers continued, as Bangalore Royal Challengers powered to a five-wicket win to register their fourth win of the IPL and assure themselves of seventh place. Set a modest target of 166, Bangalore started slowly, but cameos from Misbah-ul-Haq, Rahul Dravid, Cameron White and B Akhil ensured they got home with [...]

The Racing Post's Ed Hawkins looks ahead to Wednesday's big one...

While Australia's series with India has attracted attention for alleged racism, accusations of cheating and Ricky Ponting's popularity with his countrymen plummeting fast, it may have escaped punters' attention that one thing of more importance has happened: India have been written off.

The hullabaloo that has gone on should be forgotten and instead we need to be focusing on whether the tourists really are [9.8] shots to win in Perth in the third Test, which starts early on Wednesday.

For if you can block out the cries of claim and counter claim, there have been nagging voices mumbling away that India will be blown away on a WACA pitch that has pace and bounce. With the match almost upon us, they have got increasingly louder.  read more »

Adam Gilchrist has played 96 Test matches for Australia. He played in Test match winning teams 73 times. This is a record which will almost never be matched. For Australia he has been the icing on the cake - following a talented, skillfull batting order at number 7 and demolishing what was left of the opposition. On the few occasions when opposition bowling line ups did manage to run through the specialist batting, Gilchrist was there to thwart them. He has had a career of uninterrupted triumph. He won all three world cups that he played in and played in winning Test series in every Test playing nation in the world. He has been a worthy gloveman for the most successful international cricket team in history. John Buchanan wrote about multi-talented cricketers, ambidextrous cricketers and other such supermen who would wear national caps and change cricket in the future. His inspiration for this idea may well have been Gilchrist. Many have suggested that Gilchrist was not even the best wicketkeeper in Australia during this time. Indeed, he was never the best wicketkeeper in the world. But as wicketkeeper batsman, he is unparalleled.  read more »

That’s not a particularly arresting statistic on first glance, but think about it. When Virender Sehwag passes 100 he almost always hits in excess of 150. That’s something.
A running theme of this site of late has been the importance of imposing yourself on the opposition. We alluded to it in our retirement posts about Marcus [...]

Regular readers will be aware of my interest in wicket keeping and my preference for real wicket keepers . However, with the effect that Alec Stewart and particularly Adam Gilchrist had on the position, being just a wicket-keeper is no longer good enough. Righly or wrongly, a keeper needs to be selected on the basis of his batting skills more than his keeping skills, otherwise Chris Read would have been the England keeper for the past 5-6 years.  read more »