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.

Dravid looking like a walking wicket at the moment.

For what it's worth I dreamed that India were all out for 111 in the first innings... unfortunately Aus were 3/10 in reply.

Starc is looking venomous... lots of swing and sheer pace there.

Sounds more like a nightmare

Sidds into the mix now. Loose shot from Dravid... you're right, he looks like a walking wicket at the moment.

Nightmare dream FC. I hope you dream of a 140 run partnership on Day 2.

Dravid again lets one through - off the pads this time.
32/2 as Siddle strikes.

"The door" Dravid gets bowled yet again.

Dravids misery over and Siddle gonna get his shot at Tendulka.

The Little Master sees off the first ball.

Great pitch map to right handers there...

Harris: short-good length outside off stump
Hilfenhaus: short-good length, straight but with off cut/outswingers to RHers
Starc: on a good length but much wider spread from outside off to outside leg
Siddle: fuller length deliveries outside off stump mainly

Harris despite his lay-off looks to be in very good nick.

Yes, he's a hard worker and has been impressing everybody in the nets according to Michael Clarke.

Gambhir is looking like he's settled in comfortably at the crease now. One more wicket before lunch would be nice.

Plumb the big one

Rhino gets Tendulkar... lbw for 15.
59/3 just before lunch.

Did that wake you up mate?

It's been a little quiet on here during the last 20 mins.

Harris has been brilliant today.

Imagine when Harris, Pattinson and Cummins play together. Hopefully not the Ashes

That would be great to see them all in the same attack. Do you think they would do OK in English conditions?

Linebreaker wrote:Did that wake you up mate?

It's been a little quiet on here during the last 20 mins.

Just peeved, my last 10 mins cricket for four days.

Gambhir edges one to Haddin... off Hilfenhaus.

63/4

Oh my, it's going belly up for India. Happy Australians.

India 63-4

Linebreaker wrote:That would be great to see them all in the same attack. Do you think they would do OK in English conditions?

Quite an attack, I think they would do good things in England, WI, NZ and SA. Lots of the guys on here rate Pattinson and Cummins very highly.

It's ironic how it will now be up to one of these two; VVS and/or Kohli (and probably Dhoni) to try and salvage a half decent 1st innings total.

Yeah, especially for VVS, a big big game for him.

We Aussies know what he is capable of...

Oh well, gl for the rest of the game. Happy hunting. Thanks for the chat Lb

Linebreaker wrote:We Aussies know what he is capable of...

So true.

Thanks Skye. Have a safe trip to Glasgow.

An interview with the curator during the lunch break. Should be worth a listen.

Kohli out. Caught by Warner at point off Siddle.
131/5

VVS Laxman edges it to Clarke at 1st slip... again off the bowling of Siddle.
India 138/6

Vinay Kumar is now at the crease with Dhoni.

The session started well for India with VVS Laxman and Kohli putting on a 68 run partnership and looking quite settled.

Like I said yesterday, if it goes against them there isn't much resolve.

But I think the problem is twofold.

Mentality, but also Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman needs to be phased out now. If they all go at the same time India will struggle until they can replace their middle order with experienced players.

How old is Gambhir and Sehwag?

Gambhir is 30, Sehwag 33.

I'd say Laxman and Dravid should go first, then Tendulkar. Problem is they don't play any tests until next September. The FT Schedule had a series against Pakistan at home but I think that's been cancelled.

144/6 at tea.

Kumar out lbw to Starc... who get his first wicket.
152/7

India in complete disarray now as Dhoni departs for 12 off the bowling of Hilfenhaus.
152/8

Khan having a swing and only succeeds in edging it to Clarke.
Hilfenhaus gets his 4th wicket.
157/9

Great conditions for bowling and Clarke obviously made the right decision to send the opposition into bat this morning. That easterly breeze is quite strong now so it will be interesting to see how Australia fare on this green top.

Unfortunately for India, only Kohli and Laxman tried to bat sensibly and most wickets towards the end have been thrown away.

India all out for 161 in just over 60 overs. Starc gets his second wicket.

Harris 18/6/33/1
Hilfenhaus 18/5/43/4
Starc 12.2/3/39/2
Siddle 12/3/42/3

F.o.W: 4,32,59,63,131,138,152,152,157,161

This is unbelievable. India are getting absolutely creamed here again. Beggers belief really when you consider they were the best test team in the world not that long ago.

I have a theory about that.

When Kirsten was coaching India, he had the ability to manage a lot of strong ego's. He could make them work for each other and themsleves as a collective.

Since he left the slow demise of India began and with it the team spirit and collective effort has once again fallen way where you now have individuals not playing for each other but rather for themselves.

You may be right Biltong but in all reality, India are seriously in trouble. They could be looking at another whitewashed series. We all know what the Aussies are like once they smell blood.

I just find it amazing that they have slipped this much, they almost dont look competitive

6-0 must be one of Australias best opening stands for some time

Yeah, Fletcher got the wrong end of the stick didn't he?

My theory is that India has had some phenomenal bastmen over the last decade or more but the bowling department has probably over achieved... or done it's job very well at home. This was still a massive achievement.

A few tours have been successful but since the retirements/non-selection of Kumble, Harbajan they have lost something in that department. So when the batting began to struggle - the demise has been accentuated.

Nothing really Duncan Fletcher could do in that situation except plead with the BCCI to bring in some new blood - but that would be near impossible for a foreigner to achieve within the Indian cricketing framework.

Their bowling has overachieved breaker, i will agree with you on that one. They do have some young (ish) talent coming through but India must be one of the hardest sides to break into because they rarely incorperate new young talent.

I forsee a few tough years ahed for them.

Eirbilly.Yeah, and the worrying factor is this is good for australia. It took a plethora of world beaters to retire before australia started a little slide where other teams could beat them, and then really only occasionally.

If you look at SA vs Oz.

When we came back into international cricket there was a period where we were competitive against them.

Dec 1992/Jan 1994. Away series draw to OZ 1-1
Mar 1994. Home series draw to Oz 1-1
Feb 1997/Mar 1997. Home series loss to Oz 1-2
Dec 1997/Jan 1998. Away series loss 0-1

Up to that point it was SA 3 wins, Oz 5 wins, 4 draws

Then the dominance of Oz over us began.
Dec 2001/Jan 2002. Away series loss to OZ 0-3
Dec 2005/Jan 2006. Away series loss to OZ 0-2
Mar 2006. Home series loss to OZ 0-3.

Then when their stars started to retire.
Dec 2008/Jan 2009. away series win to Oz 2-1
Feb 2009/ar 2009. Home series loss to OZ 1-2
Now 2011. Home series draw to OZ. 1-1

OZ have now beaten Sri Lanka away, Drew with SA away, going to beat India at home, you give these buggers anymore confidence and allow hilfenhaus, Siddle, Cummins and the like enough experience to add to that, then tough times will once again be ahead for all of us.

Agreed Biltong. The Aussies are starting to build a very decent team and they are a very confident side when winning. Still a ways to go yet for them but they are certainly heading in the right direction.

language Biltong!

True, we've had the wood over SA since their return. I can remember nearly chewing my nails up to my elbows in the 90s - so many thrilling contests in both forms of the game.

I think we almost save our best for you mate... more so than England in this last decade. Australia always seem to have more luck against SA than they do against England.

To be honest - if you asked me in 2008-9 I would have said Australia would struggle when India returns in 2011-12. Then we lost a series there (unlucky we would say) but I really feared India more than SA. Now we can start to concentrate on our greatest foe - England again but not before you guys have a crack at them first. That should be a fantastic series.