Its Only Cricket

3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

Filed under Ind v Aus-Melbourne test

They've won 14 test matches in a row (list) and would do anything for 15th. They're the home team, knowing that the highest 4th innings successful chase is only 418 (list).. but above all - its Aussie cricket - always filled with some ego & lots of challenges!

So, ball is in into India's half. Can they chase 499? next 180 overs should be action packed!

Requirement - two 100s & a half, from a batting lineup that has more centuries in test cricket than any other team in world cricket.. simple!

Now if you ask how this Melbourne test reached this stage - Day 3 was anything but walk in the park for Australian batsmen. Indian bowlers toiled hard, bowled maidens & showed positive attitude. Hayden & Jaques started cautiously, then accelerated against Zaheer & Rudra Pratap. Harbhajan bowled around the wicket, didn't allow Hayden to sweep him before being caught at long-off. Jaques continued his conservative approach past his fifty as Ricky Ponting had left early. Hussey was't as comfortable either, neither was Andrew Symonds.. but positive approach made sure Australia reached a significant lead & gave themselves enough time in this test match to get last 10 wickets.

India vs Australia : 1st test Melbourne 26-30 Dec, 2007-08 series
Australia 1st Inn : 343 all out in 93 overs	India 1st Inn : 196 all out in 71.5 overs
Jaques 66, Hayden 124, Ponting 4,	Jaffer 4, Dravid 5(66 balls), Laxman 26
Clarke 20, Hussey 2, Symonds 35	Tendulkar 62(77), Ganguly 43 (79)
Australia 2nd Inn : 351/7 dec, 88 overs	Yuvraj 0, Dhoni 0, Kumble 27, Zaheer 11
Jaques 51, Hayden 47, Clarke 73	India 2nd Inn : 6/0 in 8 overs
Symonds 44, Gilchrist 35, Hogg 35*	Jaffer 2 off 19 balls, Dravid 3 off 30 balls
To win = 499 with 2 more days (180 overs) more to go!

Day 3 notes
**Anil Kumble has started this tour well. When he dismissed Phil Jaques caught and bowled, he equalled Muthiah Muralitharan as the most c&b by any bowler.. 31 each! The srilankan has the most wickets in International test matches whereas Indian captain is 3rd in the list of all time wicket takers!

**Yesterday, Brett Lee completed 250 wickets for Australia. Today, Harbhajan Singh completed 250 scalps. 62 test matches for Lee, 61 for Harbhajan.
**Ricky Ponting was dismissed for 3 after he made 4 in the first innings. This is the first time Ricky has been dismissed on a single digit score in both innings of a test match after 6 years.. that too was against India, in that famous Kolkata test match!

What is Boxing day test match

One last test of Dhoni's abilities!

Preview : It's time India wakes up, & early.

Not another brick, but the WALL himself

Day 1 : In-form Indians gallop first 9 wickets

Day 2 : Great Indian batting collapse, revisits..

Day 3 : Aus bets famous Indian bats - Target 499.

Indians blown away at Melbourne, series 1-0.