Its Only Cricket

Day 1 : no one ahead, none behind


Tendulkar-Up-Cut-Perth.jpg Pitch at Perth cricket ground attracted much attention as we came close to this India vs australia 3rd test match, but Indian think tank didn't read too much into it & made the aggressive decision of batting first after winning the toss.. a move which should serve'em well if this match goes into 4-5th day!

Out comes Virendra Sehwag whose stroke-play from 2nd delivery he faced helped Wasim Jaffer take his time & settle down. For the first time in this test series, Indians openers put on a half century stand and although their number 3 & 4 batsmen started their innings before the lunch interval -- Indian ship had left the shores & build some momentum about it..

Breeze at Waca ground was so stiff that bails were coming off the stumps, causing much problems for any of 4 Aussie pacers when came to bowl into the wind.

After Lunch, Sachin Tendulkar started undercutting the balls over the slips cordon & Ricky Ponting had no clue what so ever. Rahul Dravid was rock solid at other end like always - so Australians started the trick of slowing down the over rate. India scored 104 runs in middle session without losing a wicket.

Last session, which was going to be 2 & half hour long - didn't start too well for Tendulkar who was given out lbw by umpire Asad Rauf of Pakistan when the ball had clearly hit over the knee role & Tendulkar was half jumped in his crease. But as everyone says "cricket is a great leveler" - Rahul Dravid got close one decision in favor of him when Billy Bowden of New Zealand didn't raise finger to a Michael Clarke delivery which would have hit Dravid's stumps.

Towards the end - both Dravid and Laxman threw their wickets away under some 'art of irritation' employed by aussie boys. Vice Captain MS Dhoni and all rounder Irfan Pathan saw off the last burst from Brett Lee, adding 13 runs in the process and looking to add more on Day 2.

Scorecard : Ind v Aus 3rd test : end of Day 1
India : 297 for 6 from 84 overs bowled.
Jaffer 16(53), Sehwag 29(58), Dravid 93(183),
Tendulkar 71(128), Ganguly 9(12) Laxman 28(57),
At Crease : Dhoni 8(14) & Pathan 8(9).
Lee 19-3-64-3, Johnson 21-5-61-2, Symonds 1/36.

Day 1 Notes from Perth
**Mathew Hayden is not playing this game. Meaning - he has missed a test match for Australia after playing 86 matches in a row - without missing any since starting his career in 2000 against Kiwis.
**Australia are playing 4 fast bowlers in this third test match - an aussie attack that last saw 4 seamers and no spinner for australia in a test match was 16 years ago when Mike Withney, Craig McDormot, Merv Huges played at this same venue - Perth, where australia have not lost a test match since 1997.
**Chris Rogers makes his debut. he's the 399 test batsmen for australia and 5th running left hander used by Australia as opener. the last right handed opener to play for australia was Michael Slater who was dropped early 2000.
** Sachin Tendulkar, in this current Indian line-up, is the only cricketer to have played a test match before at Perth cricket ground in Western Australia. it was 1992 then when India last played here, and Tendulkar was 18 years & 10 months old.. and guess what - he had scored a mind-boggling 114 in that test that India lost.
**Rahul Dravid got out in nervous ninites once again - 10th time in all - equals world record with Steve waught who also got out 10 times after scoring over 90+ runs but not completing his century in test cricket.




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