Its Only Cricket Home | Profiles | Schedule 2008 | Info | Records | Controversies | Tricks | Law & rules | Fun | Exclusive | Photo Quiz
|
Day 4 - India : Australia : Draw = 2:8:90.Filed under
IndvAus Adelaide 2008
Champions take chances. Pressure is privilege.
After winning Australian open 2008 last night, Maria Sharapova revealed the above text message Billy Jean King had sent her before her final match. 
Something similar would be appropriate for Indian team who are extremely improved test match side but are now looking straight into the barrel of a big gun as Australia push them in this fourth test match of series at Adelaide Oval.Visitors are 8 runs ahead with 9 wickets remaining to set a target for home team. 90 overs of cricket to be played on last day! Since series is locked 2-1 in favor of Australia, India had to take the chances to square the series from the moment this last test match started. They did that by playing 5 bowlers but Rudra Pratap strained hamstring after bowling 4 overs and Aussie batsman had done their home work to negotiate Harbhajan's guile. Irfan Pathan didn't get as much help from Adelaide's slow pitch & Anil Kumble bowled few overs oweing to his troubling back pain. Result - Australia touched India's first Innings total and then added some more. Three centuries were made - special from Hayden & Clarke whereas Ricky Ponting struggled his way to 140 runs. It has to be said that only a batsmen of Ponting's class can be so much out of form yet manage to play out 266 balls against rejuvenated Indians. Ponting-Clarke partnership yielded 210 runs = new record 4th wicket partnership for Australia in test matches against India. Kumble still was reading the game well and attacked the newer batsmen like Symonds, Gilchrist and tailenders. Australian plan was to keep batting as long as possible to get more & more runs on board, but Kumble's presence of mind denied any Aussie tail wagging! Now if Indians feel like Champions like Maria Sharapova does - they have to take some chances on last day pitch and get 200 runs on board to be able to attack aussie batting in last 40 odd overs tomorrow. Kumble the madium pacer can come in handy like it did against Pakistan a month ago on similar sort of pitch at Bangalore. Australia, on other hand, would believe they can block singles & create panic inside Indian dressing room to get a winning target around 100-150 like they did in last match here against England a year ago. Undoubtedly - trick for India is to keep scoring!
4th day notes **As many as 6 Australian batsmen were out bowled in the first innings of this India vs Australia test match at Adelaide. This, of course, has little to do with Umpire Billy Bowdens' unwillingness to give Aussie batsmen lbw, little to do with great bowling by Ishant Sharma & lot to do with just sheer luck! Now the record for most batsmen out bowled in a test match innings rests with South Africa against England in 1889 at Capetown. Once 9 Australian batsmen were bowled by England bowlers in 1890.. apart from that - 6 times 8 batsmen have been out bowled in same innings. several times it had happened when 7 batsmen were bowled, so I guess 6 Aussie batters out bowled in 1st innings of this Adelaide test match isn't as much unique or record breaking! 
**Irfan Pathan says he's a bowler who can bat but he completed his double of 1000 test runs and 100 test wickets in this match where also was the opener. Irfan is 50th All arounder in history of test cricket to do this double or wickets & runs.. Irfan is playing his 28th test match and he's only the 7th Indian cricketer to achieve the allround record. Harbhajan Singh, Ravi Shastri, Kapil Dev, Vinoo Mankand, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath have previously taken 100 wickets for India coupled with over 1000 test runs!**I'll end today's notes with 2 interesting facts - do you know there's a box in the middle of nearly all Australian cricket grounds where fielding side can keep other fielding gears when not in use. Even umpires use it for keeping next new balls & other stuff.. and second note is a question - what's written on Michael Clarke's right hand? doesn't look like a tattoo but some words in some language.. Little bit of googling and I found out that it looks like something written in ARABIC but not exactly. In fact - Clarke has not told his team mates of his managers or coaches about what it says..? I also found out that Michael has a tattoo written 389 in his lower back, which of course is his test cap number as Aussie test cricketer! Related ArticlesIndvAus Adelaide 2008
|
Top Topics Today
England vs India 2008 series info
Should Runners be allowed in ODI Buy ODI Tickets: India v England Photo Quiz : Identify Cricketers Play free online cricket games Cricket Fixtures List Year 2009 Itsonlycricket.com
Get new posts in emailfeeds |
Random Pics
|
||||||||||||||||||
