Category: Australia

Currently: Day four, India 260-3, trailing Australia by 208.

Last night, before lunch, I experienced one of my favorite cricket moments ever.  (Admittedly, my experience is limited.)

Michael Clarke was in the 280s. He had taken his helmet off as India had brought spin into the attack. The commentators were silent (still not sure if they were actually quiet or if there was a technical glitch.)  There was the softest of buzzes from the stands.

And there stood Clarke, in his baggy green hat, and his label-free bat, looking exhausted but focused, like a cricketer from another era, another century.

Some cynics will say that Clarke was playing up the part, hamming it up in order to regain the favor of the fans and the press, and well, no matter, he won me over.   It was a wonderful moment, and it brought out the romantic in me.

At this moment, however, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar look not like cricketers from earlier time, but like themselves from just a few short years ago.

Their partnership today is at 92 runs, and they look to be in good enough form to maybe, just maybe, keep India in this match.

Unfortunately, there looks to be no chance of rain today or tomorrow in Sydney, so if they want to earn a draw, they are going to just keep on batting.

And, really, once they lose their fourth wicket, that really could be it for India.  Next is Kohli, who has had a terrible series, and Dhoni, who as we saw in the first innings cannot carry this team all on his own.

So the partnership of VVS and Sachin is India’s only hope.

Thankfully, for India, they are in good hands.  Tendulkar, of course, has over 15,000 test runs, and Laxman has almost 9,000…

And just like that, just as I was looking into the partnership totals of Laxman and Tendulkar, the Captain Clarke strikes: Tendulkar: OUT for 80 off of 141 deliveries.

It is surely Michael Clark’s test match.

A lovely knock under pressure for the little man, but India needed more.

And that is probably it.  I was hoping to be able to have one more night of cricket viewing tomorrow evening, but I have a feeling will all be lucky if this match makes it to the tea break.

And with that, I am going to sign off an enjoy it while I can.

Until next time.

About five minutes ago, Michael Clarke became only the 21st cricketer to hit a test 300.  And he is still going, and I would not be surprised if he reaches 400, as India has seemingly all but given up on this test, on this series.  Clarke has buried them.

Like most Indian supporters and neutrals, I keep waiting for India to spring to life, to take a couple quick wickets, and then maybe bat on for two days and earn a draw and we all go to Perth with a smile.  But it’s just not happening.

But back to Clarke’s 300: there have been 25 triple centuries in test cricket in the 134 years of the format’s existence from 21 different batsmen.  And just like I always do here, I will try to put this into a bit of context:

The first thing that came to mind was the perfect game in baseball.  And, yeah, I know it is apples to oranges, as a baseball game at most lasts three hours, and the pitcher is only out there for half of it, and most perfect games are actually closer to two hours long than three hours. While Chris Gayle, for instance, during his 300 two years ago against Sri Lanka, batted for almost 11 hours, while seeing 437 deliveries.

But, still, the perfect game, like the three hundred, is five parts stamina, three parts mental fortitude, and two parts dumb luck.  And they are rare:  It has only been accomplished 20 times in the history of the Major League Baseball.  And like the 300, it is truly a modern accomplishment, with majority of the perfect games happening in the last two decades.

And considering there have been countless baseball games, while there have only been 2,000+ tests, one could even argue that the perfect game is a rarer accomplishment.

And that, really, is the only comparison I can come up with – in team sports anyway.   The 300, to me, is a solitary feat in modern sport, and has no equal anywhere.  To stand up, at the crease, in the pressure of a test match, for nine, ten, eleven, twelve hours; to defend, to score, to run between the wickets with the highest degree of skill and intelligence, in a sport where the margin of error is positively razor thin…well, it truly blows me away that it is even possible, much less that it has happened 25 times since 1877.

A couple of other accomplishments I kicked around were Pete Rose’s hitting streak, Cal Ripken’s consecutive games streak, or maybe, a professional cyclist winning a tough mountain stage without the help of teammates.  But at this point, we aren’t even talking apples to oranges anymore, we are talking apples to elephants.

The only other event I can think of, other than a perfect game, which even comes close to a triple century in cricket is a really long Grand Slam final in tennis.  Like, maybe, the 2008 Wimbledon Final between Nadal and Federer that lasted almost five hours.  A close comparison, I think, really.

Of course, Clarke’s 300 today at the SCG is even more impressive than most 300s, because he is the squad’s captain, and when he entered the match his squad was reeling at 37-3, but the captain stood up and batted on and on and on…and now they are 650-4.  He did what captains are supposed to do: he put them team on his back and carried them.

Now, truthfully, Dhoni did the same thing for India in their first innings, but unfortunately batting partner after batting partner failed him, while Clarke had the luxury of batting with two fellas that each hit centuries.

Back to the match and Australia are now ahead by 460, and they could probably declare now and still get a day off.  And, really, they should be continue and continue to bat at least a little longer to guarantee a win, because despite India’s poor performance with the bat, they are still India, and they still feature Sehwag, and Dravid, and Tendulkar,  and Laxman.

Clarke would be a fool to underestimate them.

Meanwhile, in Cape Town, Sri Lanka are steadily chasing down South Africa’s 580 on day three.  It has been a fine test match so far at Newlands, always great to see.

That’s it from here.  Until next time.

It is day two of the second test of India’s tour of Australia, and to this novice, it looks as if India is already thinking ahead to the ODIs, or maybe even to the plane ride home.

Dhoni and Co. look perfectly content to let Ponting and Clarke bat on and on and on and on.  151 runs for the partnership at press time, and they are cranking along at 4.28 runs per over, and they look ready to give Australia a decisive lead in the match, and if India allows that to happen, then for all intents and purposes the test series is over before a single ball is bowled in Perth.

It is everyone’s greatest fear come to fruition, as it is so far a repeat of this past summer in England.  Actually, that is untrue, as India actually gave England a real scare in the first two tests.  In Australia however, aside from a few moments on day two, and a few wonderful balls from Kahn, India has barely been in the ballpark.

Here’s to hoping we are all jumping the gun too soon.  But reading around the Internet today, as bloggers near and far attempt to dissect what exactly is wrong with India (remember this team was the number one test nation on earth six months ago) I am afraid to say that I think we are not jumping to conclusions too early.

(Two such articles are here and here, from The Reverse Sweep and a Cricketing View, respectively.)

Now, I am not going to write India’s postmortem quite yet, and in fact part of me believes there is life in their team yet, and Australia has honestly bowled really well, and their tail has batted out of their skins, but it is quite obvious even to me that considering the batting talent India has, there is something terribly wrong with the squad, something that can’t be fixed with a different player batting sixth or with a different off spinner.

So what’s next for India?

Well, unfortunately, as an extended stay at home might be what they really need, this is a long stay in Australia; their last ODI takes place almost two months from now, on February 28th.  Then it is off to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup series, and then home for the IPL.

Then again in July they are back on the road already, with three tests in Sri Lanka.  After that, however, they are home for one year (aside from the Champions Trophy) when they travel to Zimbabwe in 2013.

In other words, they will get their long stay at home to rest and examine their squad as players start to retire eventually, but it is going to be a while yet.

Australia, on the other hand, look like world beaters again.  Ponting, who was dead to the world not four months ago, has pushed the sky back into sky and looks to knock his first test ton since he scored 209 against Pakistan at Hobart – 32 test innings ago.

And their young quicks continue to impress, especially Pattinson, who just keeps taking wickets.  As such it might not all be India’s fault, that as I alluded to above, it might simply be that Australia is playing quite well.

Over in South Africa, another aging batsman is showing that age is just a number, as the 36 year Jacques Kallis is at 159 not out for the hosts, who have batted for 347/3 against Sri Lanka in the first innings of the third and decisive test.

At this point, it looks like it is going to be South Africa’s match to lose, and considering how tame Sri Lanka’s bowling attack has been, you have to ask: is it time to entice Lasith Malinga out of test retirement?

He is only 28 years old, and before he retired right after the 2011 IPL, he took 101 test wickets in 30 matches.

Now, I understand why he retired: Sri Lanka was not paying him and he needed to rest his injury prone body for the IPL and other one-day formats in order to make a living, but the Sri Lanka cricket board needs to look at the situation and figure out a way to bring him back into the test squad – pay him more, let him bowl part time, something.

His country needs him, despite their famous win at Durban. He is one of the most dynamic bowlers in world cricket, and he should be playing tests.  My two cents.

Unfortunately, the above will continue to happen as big money t20 domestic leagues lure players away from test cricket, and that is just simply the age we live in now, but when it comes to a player like Malinga, I feel like it is a real loss not just for Sri Lanka, but for cricket.

(Author’s bias, Malinga was one of the very first cricketers I fell in love with after discovering cricket.)

Now I need to get back to the cricket, and working on other writing.  I am starting to think I might get up before dawn to watch some of South Africa v Sri Lanka, see if Kallis can get only his second double century.  First ball of the day is at 3:30am local time.

That’s a giant maybe.

Until tomorrow.