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Cricket XXV - The long runup to the World Cup


Stubby

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So India manage to hold out for a draw. The series may have only ended 2-0 but this was a comprehensive series win for Australia. India did get themselves into some decent positions but were never able to capitalise and as a result they were always chasing the game. At no point in this series did I think that India were going to win the Test.


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It was pointed out that India never took 20 wickets in a match, which is a damning indictment of their bowlers but the pitches in general seemed to favour the batsmen.



The first innings totals were always large, plenty of batsmen got in on the runs (not just Smith and Kohli, but plenty of others like Rogers, Murali Vijay, etc) and there was no bowler who really stood out in the series. I'm not sure whether it was the pitch's fault or the quality of the bowling (probably a combination of both) but I would have liked to see more of a contest between batting and bowling. For many sessions it seemed that batting was winning hands down.



At least for Cricket Australia, it did mean that they got pretty much all of the days in every Test - a cynical person might say that the pitches were prepared with this in mind...


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Yeah I agree with Jeor. I'm not interested in a series where both teams score 400/500 in their first innings as a matter of course.



As an aside, I wonder if any other visiting side has scored more than 400 in the first innings of every test match in Australia?






At no point in this series did I think that India were going to win the Test.





You didn't think they were favourites at Tea on Day 5 at Adelaide?


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At least for Cricket Australia, it did mean that they got pretty much all of the days in every Test - a cynical person might say that the pitches were prepared with this in mind...

Yup, until people stop turning up at the ground, the rubbish pitches will remain entrenched. Any pitch that has not significantly deteriorated by day 3 session 2 is likely to produce a draw when you have batting line-ups like India and Australia (I'd probably say the same for SA, SL and maybe NZ too). The Adelaide test was livened up by an aggressive declaration by Clarke and an ambitious chase by Kohli- barring this, a draw was likely. The Gabba test was decided by a single bad batting session for India. If they had batted like they did during the rest of the series, a draw was not off the cards there either.

Having had my whinge, it was a pretty good test series to watch. There was plenty of good batting performances. I enjoyed watching the two off-spinners bowl- though both were terribly hampered by docile pitches. Hazelwood was the standout new player for me- if this guy stays fit he'll end up with 300+ test wickets.

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Considering NZ and SL's test records, your mention of them and the non-mention of England is telling.

Apologies, I couldn't resist having a (not so) subtle dig at England. But to be honest, they should feature on that list as well.

Truth be told, it was meant to be a critique of the pitches more than anything else.

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*shrugs*



I actually thought India were pretty good value in that series, and but for Lyon at the Adelaide Oval and Johnson at the 'Gabba could've snatched it. Certainly it was a far stronger performance than Australia has put up recently against Pakistan and India in away series.

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I actually thought India were pretty good value in that series

I don' think anyone will argue with that point. After India's second consecutive capitulation in England, hopes for this series were not high. I think most people were expecting that India would have no answers for a rampant Johnson.

The pitches were substandard though. Like you pointed out, it was only a couple of short sections of the game in both Adelaide and Brisbane that were decisive in terms of producing a result. The rest of the time was (by the end) predictable domination of the bat over ball.

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Good value, sure, but India always found themselves chasing the game in every Test. Even at tea on day 5 in Adelaide, India still needed 150 odd runs for victory. Never an easy task and I had the feeling that the fall of a wicket would change the complexion of the match, with a draw being the most likely result. Did not foresee India capitulating in the manner in which they did.



Adelaide and Brisbane perfectly illustrates the difference between the two sides. Whereas India squandered good positions, Australia drove home their advantage.


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It was much better than they could have hoped for after the first 10 overs, but I think England will have a hard time defending it. Australia has a pretty good batting lineup and reasonable depth with Faulkner at 8.



Great knock by Morgan though. No one else got past 28 but he held it together with his 121, more than half his team's runs.


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Comfortable win with 10 overs to spare. Don't know what was going on with everyone else, though. Take Warner and Morgan out and the highest score on either side was 37.

Australia were trying to get the bonus point for chasing within 40 overs. Not that it matters much in this series, but it's good practice for the world cup. If they paced their innings for a 50 over chase, I'm sure Smith or Bailey would've also gotten fifties.

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