India are 296/3 at the end of day 1 after winning the toss and batting. A good recovery after being reduced to 27/2 early on and Gambhir is still not out approaching his 150. Nice knock from Tendulkar too. It reminds of the old adage - ‘you can’t win a test match on day 1 but you can sure put yourself in a position to lose one.’ That start, allied with the batsmen still to come in, should ensure India don’t lose this one anyway and they’ll go into the last test still 1-0 up in the series at worst. 'Mon the Indians.
Saw a bit of this earlier, just missed the 2nd wicket going down, India looked a bit rattled but have obviously recovered well.
India, despite being prickly cunts, are a fairly cagey test outfit and will not risk the series lead in going tor a test win. They will be quite happy with a draw.
Australia off to a flying start and then it all went to shit. Some excellent batting by Gambhir, Tendulkar and Laxman, they should post a large total now against a pretty inept Australian bowling attack. Surprised that Kumble was picked along with Mishra. Surprised too that a tow injury kept Harbi out, I would have thought his fitness test would look like something from Monty Python’s the Holy Grail (“I’m not fighting you, you’ve got no arms” “Hah! Thats only a flesh wound, come here you bastard”).
India will be looking for the win, make no mistake, they have Australia on the ropes now and should go for the kill.
Reports of Tendulkar’s demise are greatly exaggerated, apparently he’s now looking at the 2011 World Cup! Christ he’s beautiful to watch in full flight though.
BTW TT - your signature-
Truly a compliment coming from Tipperary!
Holy fook. India racked up 613/7 declared in the end. Double centuries for Gambhir and Laxman. Some argy bargy between Gambhir and Laxman too. Pity Harbhajan’s missing as I don’t think Kumble’s up to it anymore and Mishra and Harbhajan combined to great effect in the second test. The cunts are 50/0 in reply.
Saw the highlights earlier…Laxman was hitting some savage shots - pure brilliance…Ganguly went rather easily and lazily - caught by Ponting.
At the end Laxman was on 196 and Zaheer Khan came in. India were going to declare as soon as Laxman got the double ton. Zaheer Khan proceeded to rack up about 30 in around 20 balls I’d say and Laxman wasn’t getting a sniff. The next time Laxman got on strike, Ponting pulled in the outfield so as to let Laxman get the last two runs easily and India would declare.
India didn’t really threaten to take a wicket in the last 13 overs though. I think the Aussies will dig in for a draw.
Fucking massacre, Australia have nothing and will of course play for the draw. But India should and will go for the win, and a big one it will be.
A long long time since we’ve seen Australia as bad.
TT, are you sustematically going to insult every county, or just the select few you don’t like?
Australia reached 338/4 by close of play on day and need another 70 odd runs to avoid the follow-on. It looks like this one is a nailed-on draw now and Gambhir has been banned for the final test for elbowing Shane Watson while going for a second run the other day. Australia’s best bet will be to win the toss and rack up a big first innings score at a healthy scoring rate and see how the Indians react.
Watson was fined 10% of his match fee but escaped a ban.
Haven’t been following the last 2 days of this but it finished up as a tame enough draw in the end. Pup Clarke got a ton and Australia made 577ao in reply to India’s massive total. There might have been a brief spell when they thought they could force a win when India were reduced to 93/4 on the last day but Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly got a few runs to see things out. Anil Kumble has announced his immediate retirement from test cricket in the wake of this game.