Australia v India: 3rd Test, Perth

First topic message reminder :

Friday, January 13 - Tuesday, January 17 at the WACA
Start time: 1030 WST; 1330 AEDT; 0800 IST; 0230 GMT

Australia:
1 David Warner, 2 Ed Cowan, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Ricky Ponting, 5 Michael Clarke (capt), 6 Michael Hussey,
7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Ryan Harris, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.

India:
1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Virat Kohli,
7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Zaheer Khan, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Vinay Kumar, 11 Umesh Yadav.

Haddin out! Another one for Dhoni.
Zaheer blows Haddin a kiss to send him on his way.

303/6

Much better bowling from India today. Both Zak and Yadav bowling good lines and with considerable intent.
About time...

6/89 since Cowan's wicket. Much better for India!

Nice little cameo from Siddle.

He's finding the boundary with ease. Hussey taking a back seat almost.

Lovely clip off the toes from Sidds.

Aus lead by 178. 339/6 now.

Hussey slashes one straight to Sehwag in the gully. Gone for 14.
Vinay Kumar's first Test scalp.
339/7

Yadav bowls Siddle for 30 just clipping his off stump. Beautiful ball on a full length; hint of movement away.
343/8

Starc and Harris run 4.
350 runs up.

Harris mistimes a hook shot - it pops up and he's caught at square leg by Gambhir off Yadav.

Yadav gets a very well deserved 5fer

357/9

200 run lead up now.

A lusty blow from Hilfy... straight to Kohli at long on.

Australia all out for 369 with a 208 run lead.

Much better effort from India today.

Khan 21/3/91/2
Yadav 17/2/93/5
V.Kumar 13/0/73/1
Sharma 18/0/89/1
Sehwag 7.2/0/20/1

Tea.

Pitch still looks OK but footmarks around the crease and a few cracks will test the Indian batsmen. Also there was still a bit of sideways seam movement (late in the Oz innings) which the Australian bowlers will relish.

India will need to make a good start - no doubt Sehwag will want to emulate Warner but they'll have to perform a lot better than they did in the 1st innings with a lot more courage and a bit more more luck too.
There's still 3 and 1/3 days to go.

Gambhir departs for 14. Bounced by Starc, caught by Hussey in the gully.

India 24/1

Sehwag gone. Has a nibble at one moving away from him and edges it to Haddin. Siddle gets his first.

25/2

Australia allout 369, India 38-2. Sehwag and Gambhir gone, Dravid and Tendulkar out there in the middle, not looking comfortable at all.
Will Australia winn by an innings or not, that's the question of the moment.
Good comeback from the Indian bowlers, so think I'll watch on India play a bit more!.

Sachin plumb lbw to Starc for 8
42/3

Yes, was on the cards, Sachin Tendulkar goes, lbw to starc for 8.
VVS in, how many more will Australia get today?
Can't see this match lasting the first session tomorrow.

Feel for Sachin. That ball from Starc swung a bit.

First couple of confient shots from Dravid after his first 25 runs at the MCG. A cover drive of Hilfenhaus that went for 4, and a similar shot, not timed that well, but got him 3.
What to do? These have become highlights of the day with the Indian batting lineup these days!.

VVS yet to get going after playing 8 balls. Can't just be the best of signs.

msp... oh no, VVS goes now.
(I was just flicking thru other channels and missed it)

There still is time for Australia to pick up a couple more!.

drinks. 14 overs remain in the day.
56/4

Warner... not worried about his elbow saving that one from the rope.

I am actually not feeling sorry for India. They look like a side that simply dont want to be there. There is almost no fight/pride left in them.

morning all.

decent fightback from India with the ball, fine effort from Yadav to pick up five, though India really needed this sort of spell from him yesterday. Fantastic innings from Warner for Australia.

Poor effort from India with the bat again though. Gambhir and Tendulkar got good deliveries, but Laxman and Sehwag both played very poor shots. Seems Tendulkar was unhappy with the LBW decision? Not sure why, it looked very out when they showed it at drinks.

Think he was annoyed he didn't get his bat on it.

Stumps
Dravid 32*, Kohli 21*
India 88/4 trail by 120 runs.

So India ends the day at 88-4 with Dravid and Kohli in there. Still needs another 120 to make Australia bat again. Will be some achievement if they manage that.
Good fight back from India's bowlers led by Umesh Yadav and Zaheer Khan, but the batting again was a let down.
Another impressive performance from the Australian bowlers, it is all coming together for them again!.

Linebreaker wrote:Think he was annoyed he didn't get his bat on it.

That and the umpire clearly forgot the Tendulkar rule for LBWs when theres no review system.

Marsh must be starting to be a bit of a issue for you guys breaker. How do you see it?

tough times for indian cricket, however they have the batting depth and im sure they will be back soon.

eirebilly wrote:Marsh must be starting to be a bit of a issue for you guys breaker. How do you see it?

billy they will, keep him in the side...its only been a couple of games, and he was bang in form before he got injured, just give him a bit of time.

cricketfan90 wrote:

eirebilly wrote:Marsh must be starting to be a bit of a issue for you guys breaker. How do you see it?

billy they will, keep him in the side...its only been a couple of games, and he was bang in form before he got injured, just give him a bit of time.

It'd be an interesting one if Watson was fit - I suspect the selectors would almost push him into 3 now and keep the Warner/Cowan combo at the top.

Kiwireddevil wrote:

cricketfan90 wrote:

eirebilly wrote:Marsh must be starting to be a bit of a issue for you guys breaker. How do you see it?

billy they will, keep him in the side...its only been a couple of games, and he was bang in form before he got injured, just give him a bit of time.

It'd be an interesting one if Watson was fit - I suspect the selectors would almost push him into 3 now and keep the Warner/Cowan combo at the top.

Billy, I reckon they'll persevere with Marsh. Cowan would probably go when Watson gets back... but he would be waiting in the wings. (just my opinion)

Cowan would feel hard done by, however marsh is certainly worth perserving with.

Yeah he would but as I say he would be around the squad still.

Cowan is the glue at the top of the order Australia has been missing since Katich was fired. If and when Watson comes back, it should be in place of Marsh or Ponting/Hussey if one them retires.

I wouldn't call him 'glue', although he has made a good start to his Test career.
Don't forget Marsh made a century on debut in SL and this carries some weight in the eyes of the selectors.

Australia have plenty of free scoring batsmen, Warner, Punter, Clarke, Watson etc. Cowan is a good foil. Marsh looks all over the place.

Yes he has looked all over the place in this series but once he gets in the groove - he can score pretty freely too.

Steady start from Dravid and Kohli today. India trail by 80 runs now.

Dravid gets bowled again, this time by Harris. Pitched outside off, swung in and ricocheted off the pads onto leg stump.

The 84 run partnership comes to an end.

135/5

Dhoni edges it straight to Ponting at 2nd slip off the bowling of Siddle.

148/6. So India trail by 60 runs with only 4 wickets remaining.

Vinay doesn't look as if he's going to last too long. looks funny with his defense, and Siddle is right at him all the over.

Kohli showing some trust in Vinay, takes the single of the first ball of Hilffy.

Yes, Vinay going for it.

Kohli looks very good at the crease. Would be nice if someone could stay with him to see if he can reach 100.

Lunch. India 165/6 trailing Australia by 43 runs.

Kohli has worked hard and batted pretty well throughout that session I thought. The Aussie bowling has been very consistent - a few superb deliveries beating the edge... but Kohli has deserved to still be out there.

1/77 in that first session.

They're talking with Justin Langer in the Cricket show during the lunch break. He loves the grassy wicket but didn't envy the Indian openers on the first day.