What a series it has been! The two most experienced test teams in the world today met in the best venue for Test cricket in the world, and produced a contest for the ages. This contest may not possess the glamorous history of the Ashes, but in this new year, it is clear that this has become the pre-eminent clash in the cricket world. I don't subscribe to historical rivalries, for when a generation of players retire, and a new generation takes over, the carry over to the next generation of contestants is purely symbolic. One need look no further than the Frank Worrell Trophy which was instituted in honour of the West Indies' first black captain Frank Worrell, who took a group of talented West Indian cricketers to Australia in 1960-61, and forged a great team. They played a series to remember, and the team Worrell built team dominated Test cricket for the next six or seven years. Since then the Frank Worrell Trophy has only rarely produced truly competitive series. It has invariably been either the West Indies who were dominant, or as has been the case in recent times, Australia. It is the series which marked the handing over of the reigns of power which have tended to be most exciting. The best comparison one can offer for the current India - Australia series, are the Pakistan - West Indies contests in the 1980's. In a decade where both England and Australia were regularly hammered by Viv Richards's pace battery, only Imran Khan's Pakistan could compete with them. They produced three thrilling 1-1 draws in the late 1980's.  read more »

As the Nissar Trophy game moves into its third day, Delhi have more or less overcome the advantage of having a conceded a 132 run first innings deficit to the visitors SNGPL. Virat Kohli continued his good form to reach 91 not out to add to his 52 in the first innings as Delhi reached 1/242 (Akash Chopra 93*, Sehwag 37) after having dismissed the SNGPL line up for 266 in their first innings. The highlight of Day 1 was a lower middle-order hattrick by 27 year old Imran Ali. He took 6/52 in the Delhi first innings, and was aided by his opening partner Asad Ali who took 3/32. Delhi were bowled out for 134. Ashish Nehra was amongst the wickets when Delhi bowled, but Ishant Sharma had an expensive opening spell.  read more »

India lost the Sydney test due to a bunch of umpiring and tactical errors. Throughout the test match it was clear that the Australian team had plans for every situation in the game and never flagged from their plans.

When the Indian tail was going gang-busters, the Australian bowlers were clear in their plans. Bowl no loose balls to Sachin, let him score nothing more than a single, get the tailender on strike and feed him balls to hit and induce an error. They executed it very well, despite the plan itself not ending the innings early. India on the other hand, with Sachin batting didn't decide to do anything except play into Aussie plans. There was no attempt to the quick doubles, no attempt to flay the bowling, no attempt to pile more runs and bat Australia out of the game or even bat out more time to force the pace on the fourth morning.  read more »

If Day 2 was good for India, Day 3 was even better. Starting at 3/216 with Tendulkar and Ganguly at the wicket, India batted almost through out the day to end with a first innings score of 532, a lead of 69 runs. Tendulkar remained unbeaten with 154, Ganguly made a strokeful 67 and Harbhajan Singh made 63 - an innings which got better and better as it progressed. Tendulkar nearly made a century after the sixth wicket fell, and the last four Indian wickets added 202. Brett Lee bowled magnificiently for Australia. He was clearly their designated strike weapon, and he delivered in champion fashion taking 5/119 in the innings. Australia's openers walked out to bat for about 15 minutes (thanks in large part to Australia's ridiculously poor over rate - they had bowled 51 overs in the day by Tea time) facing a rare first innings deficit.  read more »

The in-form man of Indian cricket Sourav Ganguly leads his Kolkata team out against Dravid's Bangalore in the opener of the IPL but who should your money be on?

So the jamboree is upon us. Six weeks of giddy hitting, pumping music and throbbing hype. Any ad breaks will be entirely superfluous as the entire event is one long commercial opportunity, a parade of India's political and sporting wealth and power. Rather like a trip on a new and dangerous roller coaster, many who saw the brochures and thought it would be exciting are now having second thoughts. As we get closer to the thing itself, the sheer scale of the enterprise and the long, long shadow it is starting to cast over cricket is becoming clearer. It could all end in disaster. Then again, it could change cricket forever.  read more »

My fellow Australian bloggers have reflected on the lost CB Series and moved on to commenting on the England vs New Zealand matches. On the other hand, the Indian bloggers are still basking under the glory of their first ever victory in the annual Australian tri-series. In the meantime, I have been away on conferences and have been wondering what went wrong for Australia?

I'd be a fool to call this the end of the Australia supremacy - when I did that last year after their consecutive losses to England and New Zealand, they went on to win the World Cup without losing a match.

But doing some scrutiny never does any harm.

The Australian bowling has been beautifully led by Lee and was outstanding. Bracken, Johnson, and Clark were all good with the ball and Hopes looked better with every game.  read more »

The visitors had their best Test Match Day in an overseas Test in a long long time on Day 1 at Motera, as they produced a near perfect morning in the field to bowl India out for 76, in just 20 overs before lunch. The knives are out for India, with all the usual cliches about India being clueless about seam coming into play. Already, they have been called an "amateur club third XI" and the obvious parallel to Johannesburg, where the South Africans were bowled out for 84 seems to have escaped some.

That said, India find themselves deep in the soup at the end of day 1. 147 behind on the first innings already with six South African wickets standing, it will take a miracle for India to make a comeback in this game. India being bowled out for 42 at Lord's was explained by Sunil Gavaskar as a case of "the top five specialist batsmen falling to good deliveries, and the tail not having a good day".  read more »

I should point out right at the outset, that this post is concerned with the Perth Test Match, not with the Sydney Test (on the field or off it). That matter is now solely in the hands in the unquestionably competent hands of Mike Procter, a New Zealand judge and the various patriots.
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It was Sri Lanka's day at the Sinhalese Sports Club today. At 422/4 they hold the upper hand in this game. It is fast approaching a stage where only Sri Lanka can realistically push for a victory. The wicket is quite slow at the moment, but Muralitharan will extract much more turn off the wicket than Kumble and Harbhajan.
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