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.

No Spinner - no problem : at stumps & quick is new Aussie trick.

Filed under Aus in Ind 2008

My memory goes back to 1998 when second Border-Gawaskar test match which was played at Chennai - and Australians had fielded Gavin Roberson - an off-spinner who could hardly spin the ball.

Greg-Chappell-Now-With-Australia.jpg Over a decade later - as the 2008 Ind v Aus test series (in India) is about to kick-off, Australia still haven't found a reliable twicker for sub-continent conditions. Spin Wizard 'Shane Warne' picked up only 34 wickets from 459.1 overs he bowled on Indian pitches (tests played = 9), so that too is no record to write home about. Since his retirement - Aussie selectors had looked upon Stuart McGill, Jason Krejza, Bryce McGain to fill the boots and upon Beau Casson, Nathan Hauritz, Cullen Bailey, Daniel Cullen and few other to step up but none did.

That said - who needs a spinner when your fast bowling artillery is as fine as any other country. Indian batsmen are known to drop guard against inspired fast bowling and that's what Australian plan is. Like 2006 test series in India - Aussie trick was to bombard Indian batting with fast, accurate seam bowling with not many fielders at slips but at forward short leg, short mid-wicket, short mid-off, short mid-on, short covers and so forth. Idea is not to allow the batsmen free singles and attack the stumps.. look for lbw or bowled.

It worked for them last time (Australia won series 2-1) & I'm pretty sure they'll try it again this time.

Australians vs Board President XI (tour match) : Important scores :
Indian Board President's XI, 1st Inn = 455 all out in 108.4 overs
Akash Chopra 25, Rohit Sharma 105 (144B, 12x4, 4x6),
Virat Kohli 105 (146B, 14x4, 1x6), Partiv Patel 62,
Irfan Pathan 56, Mitchell Johnson 4/75 & S Clark 3/67.

Australians, 1st Inn = 314 all out in 120.3 overs
Hayden 20, Katich 15, Ponting 41(67B, 5x4, 2x6),
Michael Hussey 126 not out (302B, 14x4, 1x6),
Clarke 18, Haddin 34, Stuart Clark 44 (107 Balls)
Piyush Chawla 40-7-89-5, Pragyan Ojha 34-10-72-3.

Indian Board President's XI, 2nd Inn = 292 for 4 dec, 70 overs
Wasim Jaffer 93 (159B, 12x4), Yuvraj Singh 113 (143B, 7x4, 7x6)
Stuart Clark 13-5-33-3..

Australians, 2nd Inn (target = 434) = 127/2 in 38 overs
Katich 5, Hayden 14, Ponting 58* & Clarke 36*.





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