Friday 22 February 2013

Random Thoughts on Day 1, 1st Test, Ind Vs Aus at Chennai, on 22nd Feb 2013

Some Random thoughts

  1. India's best bowler of the previous series (Ojha) has been dropped. 
  2. Jadeja and Harbhajan come in. Murali Vijay, who hasn't done anything special, except for some big runs in the Irani Trophy come is. Still no place for Rahane. 
  3. Sehwag drops a sitter. At least, he didn't smile or laugh after the drop. Since Dravid and Laxman's retirement, how many catches have gone down there?
  4. Ashwin creates 2 chances in his first 2 overs. Sehwag drops one and Dhoni misses one stumping. 
  5. Harbhajan's bowling hasn't changed much Why is he in the team? And that too, in place of Ojha?
  6. Kumble would have kept on bowling from one end. Unless, he wanted to change ends. Already, Jadeja and Bhajji have been rotated in and out. Ashwin bowled 11 overs continuously from one end and then was replaced.
  7. A fantastic article on cricket's obsession with 1st Test, 1st day, 1st hour, etc.
  8. After 58 overs on the 1st day, Ashwin - 5/49 in 20 overs. Bhajji - 0/66 in 17. Jadeja - 0/30 in 13. Why the hell isn't Ojha playing this Test? He would have at least strangled the runs at the other end.
  9. End of over 59. Clarke is putting on a show. Will be nice if he can get to a 200 (He has scored 4 double 100s in his career so far, all of them last year, all in Australia) outside Australia. Mahela Jayawardene or a Dravid/Ganguly/Sehwag wouldn't have been treated so kindly if they had hit all their double 100s in their country, right?
  10. "We've all heard it about 5000 times". Shane Warne on Dean Jones's Chennai double hundred. Lol.
  11. From Cricinfo:
    64.2
    Ashwin to Clarke, no run, down the wicket to kick this away.
    Short leg thinks he has got a catch, and he has got a
    massive inside edge. Oh boy. Clarke has got away with
    one big time. Umpire Dharmasena must have thought it
    was bat hitting the pad, but he has smashed this ball
    Since it is CSK which has got hurt now, will it be time for an about turn on DRS? Or will be content from banning Dharmasena from all India matches?
  12. From @chetannarula on Twitter: "Warne, Murali, Kumble took 5-wkt hauls in their 100th Test. Ashwin has done Bhajji that honour."
  13. A 100 run partnership for the 6th wicket. This is getting into Hussey / Gilchrist territory. Aided by Dharmasena and Tendulkar (his reluctance to accept DRS has BCCI kowtowing), of course. 
  14. From Anannya Deb: (@anannyadeb on Twitter) The reason why the Indian team is facing scarcity is because all those smart bowlers and batsmen are in their armchairs and tweeting.
  15. 2nd New Ball taken after over no 82. Jadeja bowling over no 87.  Clarke nearing his century and his partner Henriques is getting a debut 
  16. Clarke gets a 100, after being reprieved. Ashwin gets 6, after being deprived of 3 wickets (2 of those wickets fell to him later, Clarke is still there). Overall, Australia will be the happier team.
  17. After end of day 1, Harbhajan proves to be a wrong pick. He may still get 7 wickets in the 2nd innings, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a wrong pick. Ojha should have been our 1st choice bowler, ahead of even Ishant Sharma. With Ojha at the other end, Australia's innings might have even ended today.
  18. With 3 spinners bowling 73 overs today, we should have got in a lot more than the 95 overs that we did.  A more proactive fielding team with 3 spinners might even have got in 100 overs. At the end of the day, Dhoni may claim they bowled more than the mandatory 90 overs, but still, with 5 wickets down for 150 odd and 7 wickets in the whole day, another 5 overs of spin could easily have been squeezed in.
  19. Ishant Sharma and Bhuvanesh Kumar got 2 overs each with the 2nd new ball. Though they bowled 11 overs each through the day. We might as well have played Ojha or Rahane in lieu of one of them and could have asked Kohli to open the bowling. Or played both of them and open the bowling with Ojha and Ashwin. Dhoni has 3 more Tests in this series to implement this. And if he doesn't win here or at Hyderabad, we will definitely get to see this. Or, Raina will somehow come in the squad for the 3rd Test and will play instead of Rahane.
  20. Sehwag didn't bowl? 





(More thoughts as the game progresses)