[harry10]

Pitch changed a bit in last hour with some uneven bounce. With a light roller in morning and some sunshine hopefully it settles down for batting..

Gill was brilliant and Rohit looked comfortable till he played that shot.. was hoping one of them makes a big one.. all on these 2 now..

Overall I will still consider this India's day..

[vibbs]

What happened in the last hour. It was as if some one put a plug on the scoring.

Was the bowling that good?

[libranof1987]

Today might have been India's day but I don't see us winning this match, perhaps even drawing unless we bat tomorrow and most of Day 4. And hold out on Day 5 in the second innings. Or, a significant amount of play gets washed off.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Today might have been India's day but I don't see us winning this match, perhaps even drawing unless we bat tomorrow and most of Day 4. And hold out on Day 5 in the second innings. Or, a significant amount of play gets washed off.

Aus- 338 and if India manage to score another 330 runs by EOD tomorrow then there will definitely be a result. The pitch is getting slower and uneven, lot of foot marks to exploit. Hope we have a good century by Pujara and then good half centuries from Rahane, Pant and Jadeja.
Apart from Smith and Marcus, there isn't much of a threat from Aus Batting however on their day, only these two are enough

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by vibbs

What happened in the last hour. It was as if some one put a plug on the scoring.

Was the bowling that good?

The batsmen changed.
I mean the bowling was good but it was mainly Rahane and Pujara who put brakes. They both have batted 15 and a half overs between them and have scored only 14 runs.

[Oxy]

Originally Posted by vibbs

What happened in the last hour. It was as if some one put a plug on the scoring.

Was the bowling that good?

22 maidens out of the 45 overs we faced.

This is where flexibility in the batting order counts. Should have sent Pant in ahead of Rahane to maintain the momentum.

[Eddy]

I think India played it well. There was no point in risking more wickets tonight so the duo blocked and blocked. They would anyway start afresh tomorrow morning and I guess they will target overs 55 onwards for some run scoring.

The pitch is behaving a little funny and I still think Australia are the favorites.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Eddy

I think India played it well. There was no point in risking more wickets tonight so the duo blocked and blocked...

It was rather refreshing to see, to be honest.

Tests can more often be lost with one bad session than won with a good one, and seeing the in pair patiently playing out the day and targeting to go again tomorrow is a rather rare thing in these days of wham-bam cricket.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by Oxy

22 maidens out of the 45 overs we faced.

This is where flexibility in the batting order counts. Should have sent Pant in ahead of Rahane to maintain the momentum.

Then the scorecard would have read 120/4. It was quite sensible of Rahane and Pujara. The next 90 overs we bat tomorrow should be scored at a RR of 3.5 with just 3 more wickets down. Some good old test cricket flavour

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Oxy

Should have sent Pant in ahead of Rahane to maintain the momentum.

Maintain momentum for what? 1st goal is to come close to Australia's score & the run rate doesn't matter. Pant still has the chance to increase the momentum when his number comes.

[harry10]

I believe Rahane and Pujara batted sensibly to make sure one more wicket won't trigger a collapse. If we mange to bat all 3 sessions tomorrow we will surely match Australia's score and then some. Batting 4th will be highly tough so need to make sure we get a decent lead in this innings itself no matter how long it takes. I will take a draw over losing the match due to one stupid bad session like it happened in the first match.

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Maintain momentum for what? 1st goal is to come close to Australia's score & the run rate doesn't matter. Pant still has the chance to increase the momentum when his number comes.

Absolutely. Aim should be to tire and frustrate their bowlers without losing a wicket.

Pant and Jadeja too can always up the ante later against a tired bowling attack.

Keeping their batsmen in the field for long hours may also help in bundling them out faster in their second innings on a wearing pitch, by our spinners.

[landcruiser123]

India played well overall. Gill should have continued on to get a century, but the youngster looks promising for a long career ahead.

ChePu & Rahane held the ship well. They should rotate strike regularly against Lyon on day 3. India should at least add 200 more runs without losing a wicket. I'm hoping some rearguard action from Pant & Jadeja can get India to at least 450.

[vibbs]

I do get the importance of playing sensibly. But playing sensibly does not only mean dropping your anchors. The problem with an ultra defensive approach is that after all this blocking if you end up losing your wicket. You are not any better specially if both ends block.

I hope Rahane and Pujara will make most of this and we see them scoring big on third day.

[landcruiser123]

I hope ChePu & Pant can bat this whole day. Hanuma Vihari was disappointing. Barring a few circumstances, run-outs are stupid in Test cricket, run-outs, when it is your call, is another level.

Wild Idea: Why not drop Vihari for the 4th Test and replace him with Saha? Make Saha take the gloves.