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Well - a bad start to the series for Yuvi and Dhoni. Both get ducks. Also what were Dravid and Jaffer trying to do ? Save this test ?

Dravid has 4 runs in 67 deliveries :Shockked: and he did not even try and rotate the strike in singles and Jaffer got 4 in 27 (?) deliveries. And we know Jaffer is not a good runner between the wickets too.

So now what ?

Aussies proved once again. If they could bundle India will a deficit of 125+ runs, they will go for attacking cricket and get more runs on board to apply pressure on INDIANS. Poor batting display by Indians.

This makes the case to get the guy 'who has been there & done that'.

Our batsmen looked woefully short of match practice in Australian conditions. This happens every time -- we get blown away in the first couple of test matches and then it is too late to try to climb back into the series. Ganguly and especially Tendulkar looked good, but did not convert the good starts they got.

Looking at Stuart Clark, he is not really quick. He has about the same pace as Irfan Pathan (125-130 kmph). Pathan could become a similar bowler if he can move the ball around like Clark.

@Eddy: Pathan coiuld be taken as the fifth bowler. I am all for that if he can contribute usefully with the bat. But for that to happen we will have to leave out a batsman and back Pathan to do the required job with the bat. This will not happen with our conservative selection policies.

I know.. and going by today's batting performance, it will DEFINITELY not happen.

Looks like a 100+ runs defeat now for us.

Duh.... More than that I think :(

Looks more like 250+ to me.

\N

Dravid's batting is scary, to say the least. I know he's The Wall and all that, but right now he looks like a wall that may give way anytime.

India need to score 493 runs in 2 days with 10 wickets in hand to win this match.

I would be happy if they score anything over and above 350 runs. (happiest if they reaches the target :)

Sangakaara almost did it for Sri Lanka. We need one of the free flowing batsman, Sachin or Yuvraj, to score a double and other guys to play around them. But alas........................

Hi all,

My take on some of the matches in which India has chased near 400 runs in 4th innings:

Flashback to the 1967-68 series against Australia. Indian team, led by Tiger Pataudi, had arrived in Brisbane for the third test, with Australia leading the four test series 2-0. ML Jaisimha had just joined the team as a replacement for Chandra. (Yes, an opening bat replacing a leg spinner. Strange were/are the ways of Indian selectors). But the jet lag did not prevent Jaisimha from scoring a solid half-century in the first innings. Set to score a daunting 395 runs in the fourth innings, India soon slumped to 191/5, at which point Chandu Borde joined the stylish Hyderabadi. They carried the score to 310 and just when India's first win on the Aussie soil looked probable, Borde glanced one down to fine leg for Ian Redpath to snap a good catch. Indians folded for 355, falling short of the Aussie total by a mere 39 runs.
Scorecard

Clive Hubert Lloyd's captaincy was under serious threat. The Australian attack led by Lillee and Thomson had walloped Windies 5-1, just few months ago. Against this background, Indians had arrived in West Indies to play a four test series in 1976. West Indies won the first test and narrowly avoided a defeat in the second. Indians had sensed blood. Port of Spain, where the second and third tests were scheduled, was Gavaskar's favourite hunting ground. Set a near impossible target of 403 runs, which hitherto only Don's Bradman's invincible team had achieved way back in 1948, most Indians had given up hope. The batsmen though, had other ideas. Gavaskar laid a solid foundation with a regulatory century, only for Mohinder Amarnath and Gundappa Vishwanath to cap it with a victory. India won the match by whopping six wickets to set a new fourth innings record then.
Scorecard

Fast forward to the 1977-78 series. Kerry Packer had wrecked most of the cricket teams. Australia being the home country was never going to be an exception. Only Jeff thomson had decided to stay back with the national team. Bobby Simpson was forced out of retirement to lead the hugely weakened Australian team. The five match series was tied at 2-2 when the teams arrived at Adelaide for the series decider. Australians had set an improbable target of 494 runs in the fourth innings. Almost every frontline Indian batsman chipped in, with Amarnath, Vishwanath, Vengsarkar and Kirmani scoring creditable half centuries. Their valiant effort was in vain however as the team fell short of the mammoth Aussie total by just 47 runs.
Scorecard

By the time Indian team arrived in England in the second half of the 1979 summer, they had acquired reputation of scoring big in the fourth innings. The 4th test at Oval test bears testimony to that. English bowling was led by Willis, Botham and Hendrick. As Indians began chasing a record 438 runs, they met with an unexpected stroke of luck. Hendrick was injured and England had to rely on Willis and Botham for pace. Gavaskar, in company of Chetan Chahan, put on a record 212 for the opening wicket, erasing a 43 year old record set by Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali at Manchester Oval. Gavaskar looked in ominous form as he scored a glorious 221, which Len Hutton describbed as one of the very best innings played in England. Only an error of judgement on the part of Indian skipper S Venkatraghavan, who promoted Kapil Dev ahead of Vishwanath in hope of getting some quick runs, prevented what could have been yet another famous victory. India eventually settled for a draw at 429/8, just 9 runs short of the huge English total.
Scorecard

Team India sets out on yet another mammoth run chase tomorrow at MCG. For a team that has managed just 196 runs in its first essay, it would come as no surprise if it fails in the second. But tomorrow is the day for atleast one of the lead batsman to carve out a place in history and play an immortal innings. An innings that would put to shade even VVS Laxman's epic 281 at Eden Gardens. That alone should be good enough a motivation!

Alas!!! if this happens. We have seen our people how they bat from past couple of years. The less said the better. We are all hoping that a draw would be better at this point of time. But let us watch t'row's proceedings. If your people does not lose any wicket or 1 wkt in the first session, then I would think of a draw could be a possibility.

What should not happen is that Indians start defending like there is no tomorrow. There is no way they can prevent the Aussies from taking 10 wickets in two days. From whatever I saw today the pitch is still decent to bat upon.

If India is to make a match of this atleast two of the top five have to stand up and be counted with atleast one century and one near double. The best bets are Dravid (yes I know he is out of form but Indian team is down... this is the kind of time when Dravid usually puts his hand up) and Sachin (in glorious form he has the last chance to finally score a century in 2007)

A nice read
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