Stuart Clark is out for Australia with a sore elbow, bless him. They’ve brought in some bloke called Peter Siddle as his replacement in the attack. He’s only played 12 first class matches in his life! I would have thought Doug Bollinger was a shoe in, but apparently he’s coping badly with the conditions on the sub continent (I hear their toilet facilities are not the best). Siddle took 9 wickets in a warm up game, so he’s been impressing.
I don’t expect Anil Kumble to play and Dhoni will take over as capitan.
I don’t expect this to be a good test, though hopefully its a faster wicket. A draw I predict it to be (he said in his best Yoda impression).
India are 270/4 at the moment and Tendulkar and Ganguly have brought up the 100 partnership. The Little Master earlier broke Brian Lara’s record for most ever test runs and I hope he goes on and gets a century - he’s on 61 at the moment. They’re well on course for a 400+ first innings total now and that would give Australia something to think about.
5-311 at the end of the first days play. really hard to see where this will go now. Its a very flat track, not offering much movement for the bowlers and plenty of opportunity for the batsmen. So Australia haven’t done too badly to get 5 wickets, but you can’t see India with less than 400 for the first innings. Draw on the cards.
However, the real story of this test is the fact that Sachin Tendulkar has now become the highest run scorer in test history and the first to go past 12000 runs.
He’s a remarkable sportsman, we truly are blessed to be able to watch him.
Peter Siddle - first test wicket - he takes out Tendulkar. That’ll be a nice one to tell the grandkids about.
Sachin had just smacked Cameron White for three 4s in one over and was really opening up when Siddle got him so that was a shame. I wouldn’t call this a draw too early as Harbhajan and Mishra should be a threat bowling last on a day 4 or 5 pitch, much more so than the Australian spin duo were in the first test anyway. But India need to push on with Ganguly and Dhoni especially (when Sharma the nightwatchman gets dismissed) and ensure they get at least another 120 runs on the board before they set about bowling at the Australians.
Great day for the Indians earlier on. Ganguly and Dhoni certainly delivered with innings of 102 and 92 respectively as they posted 469 all out. They have the Australians in quite a bit of trouble now at 102-4, with Mishra taking 2 wickets and the important one of Clarke in the last over of the day. Hussey’s the big wicket now and they’ll obviously want to get rid of him as soon as they can tomorrow. Australia have a lot of work to do to avoid the follow-on actually.
Australia have just been bowled out for 268 but India have decided not to force the follow on and I agree with them. They can plunder a few runs now and put themselves out of sight and it also gives their bowlers time to rest and freshen up ahead of taking the last 10 Australian wickets. In addition, it also ensures they’ll be bowling last on a wearing pitch, which should be ideal for Harbhajan and Mishra. The latter got a Michelle and Shane Watson provided the main resistance with 78 for Australia.
Cracking day for India. Sehwag’s a joy to watch when he’s in full flight like this. When will they declare? Midway through the afternoon session tomorrow or even shortly after lunch? They’re leading by 300 give or take a few runs after three days so I expect they’ll look to push the lead up to 440-450 and then give themselves plenty of time to bowl the Australians out. Should be good with the spin duo in tandem and Khan and Sharma getting the reverse swing going.
Looks like we could be heading for an Indian win, thank christ, I feared this entire series would become a load of boring draws. India have batted exceptionally well, I’d fully expect them to win it now with the pitch deteriorating, as Bandage says, not enforcing the follow on a good idea.
Australia in real trouble, they’d be fucked without Hussey and Watson (who is having a very good series, glad to say).
They might still need the bones of five sessions to get 10 Aussie wickets. Wouldn’t be surprised if they put the Aussies in for half an hour tomorrow morning.
I think India could have declared a bit earlier as I would have expected a lead of 450 odd to be plenty. They’ve declared now on 314-3 and Australia have four and a half sessions to bat to save the game, and a nominal 516 chase to win. Gambhir got a ton and Sehwag and Dhoni got big runs too. The fact that Cameron White only bowled 8 overs shows the dearth of the Australian spin options.
Australia came out swinging the bat and were going a run a ball against the quicks, with Zaheer Khan even going for 32 runs from 4 overs. So the Indians turned to Harbhajan and he’s taken both Hayden and Katich in his first over. 'Mon the Indians - Australia are 50/2.
The Turbanator traps Hussey and Sharma uproots Punter’s off stump. Tremendous scenes in Mohali as India have the Australians rocking at 57/4. Another couple of wickets and they might be in a position to finish it tonight.
Fair fucks to India, really upped the pace of this game when it looked destined to end in a a draw. Australia are far too reliant on Hussey, without a big score/time from him they’re doomed.
Have cricinfo and BBC both open - good backs to the wall stuff by Clarke and Haddin here and they’ve added 65 so far. There’s 7 or 8 overs left today so India will be looking to nip another 1 or 2 out tonight. Either way, they should wrap it up comfortably enough tomorrow.