Australian tour - Oz Planning - Part II

Continuing from the previous post on Gautam Gambhir's dismissals, here would like to point the planning done on other Indian batsmen.

Rahul Dravid came into this series with a rich vein of form - scoring 3 centuries on the ill-fated tour of England as well as contributing heavily against the Windies both away and home. After this series, he was left contemplating a retirement decision based on the ways he has got dismissed. Look at the details below (courtesy Cricinfo)

• 1st Test at Melbourne - he's bowled 'em! what a ball to get early in the morning, as straight as you can get, fullish length, bang on off stump, straightens enough to sneak past Dravid's push and rattles the off stump, Dravid's front foot did not come as forward as he would have liked 214/4
• cleaned him up! Dravid left a big gap between bat and pad to let the ball sneak in, Pattinson is besieged by his team-mates, it was angled in fullish and moved in further, Dravid was caught in the crease and ended up pushing way outside the line 58/3
• 2nd test at Sydney - through the gate and the malaise hasn't escaped Dravid yet! Hilfenhaus squares him up for a delivery that comes back in, Dravid gets forward but leaves a gap between bat and pad, the ball sneaks through and hits the top of the off stump 100/2
• 3rd test at Perth - Dravid is bowled, yet again! It wasn't the movement this time as it had been on previous occasions this series, that was a yorker aimed at the legs, Dravid was struck on the full outside leg and it ricocheted off the pads onto the stumps, quicker from Siddle and Dravid's bad run this series continues 32/2
• 3rd test at Perth (2nd innings) - Dravid is bowled again, yet again! Done in by a ball that swung in and was bowled full, moved in a touch further after pitching, Dravid got across to try to drive it through midwicket, he missed, it clipped the pads and then knocked out leg. 135/5
• 4th test at Adelaide - would you believe it, he's been bowled again, tad unfortunate, but full marks to Australia for sticking to a tight line and length, he was just a touch late in motioning forward, the ball bounced from a length, hit him near the elbow, and ricocheted on to the stumps 31/2

Sachin Tendulkar started and ended the series in the conquest of a 100th hundred. His technique was also tested by the opposition and his scores after a confident start went southward. Two of his dismissals were planned out very well in the series

• Melbourne test - Sachin has looked positive throughout his stay, and that is what consumes him now, he reaches out to drive this pitched up widish delivery that moves away a touch, and gully accepts the thick edge, Siddle is overjoyed, Australia are dominant, and India face a stiff defeat 81/6
• Adelaide test - Siddle strikes big, Tendulkar looking to push away from the body towards cover with a slightly open face and Ponting takes a very low catch at second slip, pitched up, the angle in to Tendulkar and the fuller length draws him forward, the open face takes the ball straight to Ponting, it was taken low enough for them to have a second look at it, looks alright 78/3

Virat Kohli enhanced his reputation in this series with a string of good knocks against the Aussies. He was one who was quick to recover from the initial errors he made in the series. Witness his dismissals in the beginning that the Oz bowlers capitalized on

• Melbourne test - Virat departs now, caught in front, front foot moving across a long way, the bat had to do a lot of work in coming around it, it even brushed the pad on its way down, and the length ball had already nipped in to strike him in front of middle, Virat looked rather cross with the decision, wonder why 69/5
• Sydney test - It landed on that crack on a good length and kept really low, the ball nipped back in sharply after pitching and as he tries to whip it to the on side he's trapped flush in front of the stumps and falls over at the crease 286/7

One can go on with similar examples of others dismissals as well but the bottom-line is that the amount of planning and execution to go along with it had been top-notch in this series. Kudos to Billy McDermott and his wards for the whitewash.

Boxing day test - Australia take 1-0 lead

Australia took a 1-0 lead in the test series by dismissing the Indian team for a paltry score in the second innings on the penultimate day of the MCG test. It was a good performance by the young bowlers against the batting might of the Indians who were expected to fare much better than this. Continuing a run of low scores in away test matches, the Indian team struggled to score against a target of 292.

The stats reflect the travails of the Indian batting - 1 score of 300   during the England tour as well as 1 score of 300+ in the 3 Caribbean tests does not do justice to a team that has four players in excess of 8000 runs in their career. Now, the Indians will do well to put this defeat behind them and look at the same time last year when they made a remarkable comeback against the Proteans on their soil (who had a much better bowling attack than the current Aussies). From a position of 200 for 2 when they were primed to take a good lead over their opponents, the Indians succumbed in the next 2 days to lost by more than 130 runs.

The day started with the Aussie tail scoring valuable runs and taking the target to a formidable 292. The Indian attack would take their deficiency to wipe the tail as an area of improvement for the forthcoming tests. Even then, the likes of Dean Jones thought that the Indians were favorites to score the runs required in the last innings. If the target was less than 300, Sehwag was confident of chasing it down. But, he was the first one to leave the crease even before lunch was taken. This dismissal raised the hopes of the entire Oz team so much so that after the lunch break, the bowlers were all over the Indians. The bowling coach, Craig Mcdermott, would have been very happy with the way his wards responded to his suggestions.

The Indians seemed to have lost the battle in the mind more than on the ground. Gambhir was once again dismissed poking to a delivery outside the off - a failing he had few years before his big innings. Sachin started well but failed to continue the show once again. The 2nd innings savior, VVS, once again failed in MCG - a bizarre statistic in his Oz tours. Dhoni and Ashwin tried to score runs but the Aussie win was just a matter of when and not if. Ashwin, meanwhile, showed that he can be a suitable No.7 (if Dhoni takes the No.6 position) batsmen for the tour and thus accommodate an extra spinner in the playing eleven. This will give the much needed depth for the bowling attack while putting the onus on the batsmen to contribute more.

Once again, a defeat in the first test match of the series for the Indians. But, there are many positives they can take from the match as well as areas of improvement. With the arsenal in their army, they should be able to mount a comeback in the series very quickly. Will the New Year seem them coming back? If I were a betting man, I will still put my money on India!

Related articles

• Boxing Day test - Bowlers rule the MCG (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
• Boxing Day test - India grit their way vs Oz (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)
• Down Under - who will shine for India? (myhistoryisinteresting.blogspot.com)