Australia v. India. 4th. Test - Gabba.

[K]

...smith is the only batsman to get over 50 in this Second Innings.
...

Smith is a Flat-Track Bully. This is literally India's 3rd XI bowling attack. Look at what FTB Smith did against India's (almost) 1st XI in Adelaide. What was it? 1 run off 29 balls that included being given a life? He's been a failure this series, but will get away with numbers that look so-so, 'cos of FTB runs against India's 2nd XI on a dead deck in Sydney and against India's 3rd XI in Brissy.

Re. this second innings: You forgot to mention that everyone in the top 8 except Wade (caught down legside) got to at least 25. You also forgot to mention that Smith was given another life when Siraj dropped a sitter off Sundar's bowling.


And the only batsman who got a move on was Marnus with 25 (22).


It won't be a picnic picking up 10 Indian wickets on the final day. The draw is short favourite with the bookies right now. (Anyone who disagrees maybe should put money on the win now while the odds offered are good.)

[Pies4shaw]

^ I wish you’d just stop trying to spoil everyone else’s pleasure watching the best batsman of the last 70 years. If they’d got him cheaply today, Australia would likely have been bowled out for 140-160. If Australia win, it will be Smith, as usual, who has carried them to victory. At the very least, his last 4 innings have enabled Australia to draw or win the Series - and kept India from the door, even as Australia fielded a team of only 3 Test-standard batsmen. That’s why, of course, amongst players who have made at least 1,500 Test runs, he has the second best Test average of all time, behind only Bradman.

By the way, if you think that was a “dead track”, you obviously didn’t watch much of the game today.

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

I think we will get a full days play in at Brisbane the rain has passed and nothing on the radar only a couple of spots thats it.

I feel stumps will be around 6:15pm or 6:30pm melbourne time. More like 6:30pm plus shorten breaks.

For the aussies need to keep getting wickets and keeping the pressure on dont let them get settled is the key.

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

Need india 4 down at lunch currently 1/41 so the runs are leaking to easy too. Need 2 quick wickets now. Still early in the session too. Aussies need to go bang bang and get into the middle order asap. Ill change it up to in regards to the bowling short sharp spells and keep india guessing.
Need to strike and every given chance.

[piedys]

Australia
369 & 294

India
(67.2 ov, target 328)
336 & 186/3
Day 5 - Session 3: India need 142 runs CRR: 2.76

Now if this test is lost; I expect numpty Langer GONE immediately; biggest buffoon since Neilsen, and I didn't think that was possible.

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

Yep Tim pain can not wicket keep.
Time to go: Warner,wade, smith and possibly Lyon.
Got reservations on Tim pain continuing on too.
Need to look at shield and club land to get raw young talent for once.
Langer needs to go too plenty of better cricket coaches out there too.
Aussies have chocked this series.

[Jezza]

Have to give credit to India.

After an abysmal first test and losing Kohli for the rest of the series, most people wouldn't have expected them to turn it around and win the series.

Australia needs to do some soul-searching on where we go from here.

[Pies4shaw]

It was a fine effort by India.

Australia needs to try not to play the next Test three batsmen short and needs to find some more bowlers who can take wickets in the last innings. I was unable to watch the game today but I watched much of the 4th day - and the wicket was two-paced, uneven and causing some fairly average Indian medium-paced bowling to move violently off the cracks. It beggars belief that Australia couldn't take 10 wickets on that track.

Congratulations to Cummins as POTS. He needs some more help. Hazlewood and Cummins were asked to do too much without support in this one.

[Lazza]

Unfortunately, Lyon was not at his best on this wicket. But that can happen sometimes. He’ll fight back. Class is permanent.

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

Aussies got to re build now. This series has shattered their moral.

[K]

...
By the way, if you think that was a “dead track”, you obviously didn’t watch much of the game today.

How are your fantasies looking now? Who made the correct prediction, you or I, about what might happen on the last day?

You made a big fuss about Smith scoring 55, which was only because he was given a life. Really his innings was indistinguishable from his reckless teammates who scored 38, 48, 25, 37, 27, 28 not out. I have no idea how you think 55 with a life is so much better than 48 without a life.

I noted that Pujara, who you chose to ridicule, made 56. But that of course was nothing compared with Pant's innings of 89 or Gill's of 91. So are you claiming the 56 was putrid but the 55 was fantastic?

It was sad but no surprise to me what happened on the last day.

You choose to pretend it's just me, but I had nothing to do e.g. with Michael Slater (who is generally biased towards batsmen) condemning Marnus for making only 100 instead of at least 150 in the first innings.


And about "dead tracks": If it starts off on Day 1 like a Day 2 batting paradise (as Matt Hayden said), then we'd hope that with natural wear etc. it will not be so easy to bat on for the last day or two. (We can only hope, not assume, because modern pitches can stay the same for five days, like the MCG pitch a few years back that was rated very poor by the ICC.) I was hoping the last day pitch would be like a Day 6 pitch. It wasn't. It was fine to bat on.

Having a crack or two is good optics, but harmless to the batsman unless the ball that hits it bowls the batsman. Really the cracks are just a source of easy runs. It hits the crack and you get four runs without doing anything (i.e. it kills the keeper and goes for four byes).