Australia vs India, 4th Test

Wow. Wow. Wow. I mean, WOW. This is what everyone had been hoping for all along. First, india goes 526 ao. Australia responds with 563. Fine individual performances, Sachin Tendulkar gets a ton, Anil Kumble bats for 87, Ricky Ponting goes mad for 140, two other Aussies (Clarke and Hayden) get centuries, wickets being spread around amongst the bowlers. Which makes me and every other fan out there, pleased, and pissed at the same time. Why couldn't we have seen more of this and less of the whining and accusations?

4th Test, Austrailia v India, Day One

At stumps, Sachin Tendulkar is at 124 no, and India is at 309/5. This is the kind of performance most everyone had been hoping for. Nice play all around, from batsmen and bowlers alike. Scorecard is here. Now, while this is a nice welcome change, it leaves everyone asking, why weren't we treated to this since the start, instead of the soap opera we got?

Shades of Bodyline?

Dileep Premachandran of The Doosra, the South Asian cricket blog for the Times Online has written a piece about all the controversy with the latest Test. Now I don't think it is as bad as Bodyline, but I can't think of a Test with as much action away from the playing field. He does raise an interesting point,

Anil Kumble's remark at the end of his press conference on Sunday night - "There was only one team playing in the spirit of the game" - immediately invited comparisons with the events of 75 years ago. "Not since Bill Woodfull in the 1932-33 Bodyline series has a rival captain spoken so strongly against his opponents," said the Daily Telegraph in Sydney.

A very similar comment was made by Woodfull during the famous series. It is not the first time Andrew Symonds or Harbhajan Singh are involved in similar controversy, and sadly, it will not be the last. From shoddy umpiring to accusations of racism, what could have been a series remembered for stellar play, will now be remembered for controversy.

When Athletes Blow a Gasket

Ricky Ponting was none too pleased when the media questioned a catch during the Sydney Test.

When asked during the post-match press-conference about whether he caught the ball cleanly, an incensed Ponting took offence to the question.

"I claimed the catch and there was no way I grounded it (the ball)."

"If you are questioning my integrity, then probably you shouldn't be sitting here," retorted a furious Australian captain.

Now, the interesting thing here is, I just saw an athlete lose his cool on the field yesterday. As I mentioned yesterday, I work for a small club in Brasil. Yesterday we were playing a friendly against some "Washington Generals" type team. We were winning 4-0, and most of the reserves entered the match.

Now, we have a player who left after last season, under rather bad terms. Fate, however, brought him back. He was released by the team he had left us for, was on his way to try to catch on to another team, when he ran in to a member management at a bus station. He was literally waiting on his bus to go to another team and try out. He was apologetic about the way he left the team, and was given a second chance.

So back to the game, 4 nil, and he's got a breakaway, wide open shot, he hits it terribly, right into the goalkeepers hands. At this point the crowd turns on him. Screams at him, calls him a traitor and that type of shot is the reason the other team released him. Typical stuff, nothing offensive at all. The kid (he is 19, btw) lost his head. He rips off his jersey, throws it on the ground, and walks off in tears. Never seen anything like it. I guess it is because sports is so "public" that athletes errors and shortcomings are so visible.

SHOCKER: Symonds: I was out

The umps got it wrong?!? Nah, it can't be....
Symonds went 137no today, and led the charge for Australia 376/7. At 134/6 the Aussies were struggling, and Steve Bucknor gave Symonds an iffy call when Ishant Sharma seemed to get Symonds at 30. Then on 48, Bruce Oxenford turned down a stumping appeal from Anil Kumble.

"I was very lucky. I was out when I was 30, given not out," said Symonds.

"That's cricket though. I can sit here and tell you about my bad decisions as well, but I won't. That's the game. It's just one of those things."

We start the year with umpire controversy, whodathunkit!?!?

Australia v India, 2nd Test, Sydney

Australia and India face off in the second Test of their series. Australia dominated the first Test. Unless India makes serious changes, we may see the same result. India looked strong in their first innings, but the Australian attack was massive. Their bowlers came out in the second innings and made short work of India. Australia is strong at home, especially in Sydney. Lets face it, they are strong wherever they play. But India has the pieces they need to pull off a win, they just need to put them in the right places. Anil Kumble may still be learning his way around, but I think he's done OK so far. Perhaps one more spinner (I know, I know, who is that spinner?). Sachin Tendulkar was reported to be ill, but should be OK come game time. I think Kumble will put Zaheer Kahn in the line up, but right now it's anyones guess. India is facing a monster opponent, but they have plenty of fight and I think they will not go down as easy this in this Test.

Probable starters:
Australia 1 Phil Jaques, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Mitchell Johnson, 11 Stuart Clark.

India 1 Wasim Jaffer, 2 Rahul Dravid, 3 VVS Laxman, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Anil Kumble (capt), 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan/Irfan Pathan, 11 RP Singh.

Well, today I will spend the day putting the blog together, adding links, playing around with the layout. I hope to have everything together for the first of the year. I am considering mirroring the blog on WordPress, but that might not be necessary. There are things I like about both, but Blogger offers more customization, especially with widgets and gadgets. You cannot play with HTML over on WordPress, at least not that I am aware, but maybe I can figure it out.

On the cricket front, both Tests ended and were rather one sided. Australia dominated India and got their 15th consecutive Test win. The West Indies bested South Africa in "the other" Boxing Day Test. While India looked strong on Day One, Australia is, well, Australia, and showed why they are the best in the world. The Windies came out strong, and the South African bats challenged a bit towards the end. Some feared a Windies collapse, but strong bowling from Fidel Edwards sealed the victory. I will go more into detail on other posts about the remaining Tests, but I just wanted to get a quick post up.

UPDATE 11.51
Well I added most of the widgets/gadgets, whatchmacalits that I was looking for on the side. Still need to add some links but tihs is more or less what it will look like.