Century-makers Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay left Australian skipper Michael Clarke without a prayer as they combined to give India command of the second Test at Hyderabad with an unbroken 294-run stand yesterday.
They clinically monstered the Australian attack that Clarke selected with coach Mickey Arthur and chairman John Inverarity for India to lead by 74 with the “Little Master” Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and double centurion MS Dhoni still to come.
Australia’s decision to drop Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon for Glenn Maxwell and Xavier Doherty was always asking for trouble.
And the selectors got it. Big Time.
As prayers weren’t answered nor rain intervened, Clarke desperately needs wickets in a hurry. But from where?
The scoreboard told the sorry tale – James Pattinson 0-56 off 18, Peter Siddle 1-51 off 19, Moises Henriques 0-38 off 19, Doherty 0-85 off 26, Maxwell 0-55 off 10, and David Warner had 14 ripped off his only over.
Why didn’t Clarke bowl a ball?
Why didn’t Shane Watson put up his hand to bowl a few overs? His country was in dire straits.
Pattinson is Australia’s best hope today, but he must improve his line and length on yesterday.
Henriques was the cheapest bowler as the medium pace all-rounder, but he’s a long way short of the Doug Walters of 1965 to 1981 and Steve Waugh from 1985 to 2004 to be a consistent partnership breaker. But it is early days for the New South Welshman.
Clearly Doherty and Maxwell aren’t Test quality as both Pujara and Vijay played well within themselves for the first session scoring just 49, They upped the tempo in the second to 106, and set sail in the third with 151.
And the way they batted suggests they could well bat most of today as well.
We will see a lot more of Pujara sooner than later.
His 162* was his fourth ton in just 11 Tests to go with his 159 against the Kiwis last August, and the 206* and 135 in back-to-back Tests against England last November – all in India.
The 25-year-old is an accumulator with plenty of time to play his shots.
In successive first-class games for Saurashtra late last year and early this year he cracked 203* and 352 – serious numbers.
Content to play second fiddle and to cement his place in the side after a double failure in Chennai, Vijay’s 129* was his second ton in 14 Tests after the 139 against the Australians in Bangalore in 2010.
The one bright spot for Australia yesterday was batting legend Matt Hayden in the television commentary box. He was excellent, and long may that be the case.
Hayden started by saying this will be the day the great Australian fighting spirit will surface. If only.
That was the only mistake Hayden made all day. But he was patriotic.
Let’s hope some of that Hayden magic can rub off today, especially on Maxwell.
After all, it was Hayden who presented the Victorian with his debut baggy green.
The side needs an injection of success from somewhere. Anywhere.
Prateek
Guest
"India is getitng smashed left right and centre when they play away from home in test cricket." Some series since 2003 West Indies: 2006 - Inida won 1-0, West Indies 2011 - India won 1-0 Australia: 2003-04 - Drawn 1-1 Pakistan 2003-04 : India won 2-1 New Zealand 2008-09 : India won 1-0 England 2007: India won 1-0 SA: 2010-11: Drawn 1-1 This is a very ordinary record and if you compare this with Australian record in the same era, this stands nowhere. But still it appears that you statement is more motivated by recent tours of India to England and australia.
cuzza
Guest
sorry my bad, can u name 4 australian spinners currently playing 1st class cricket?
Rob Barrow
Guest
Lets hope they give him a real crack this time around
Jonah Anthony
Guest
To be honest, the only things that amaze me with the side is how someone can criticise Ed Cowan's batting efforts after 15 test matches. Shane Watson has played more than twice the amount Cowan has, and only averages 5 runs more? Doherty IS NOT a test standard bowler, no variation, they're better off setting up a bowling machine at the crease.
V44
Guest
One swallow does not make a meal. Do not believe Wade is a test level 6. Likewise his keeping, at best, is only just. He does not handle spinners well nor the taking of pace bowlers "on the left side". Both these are inherent problems / issues within his game and have been for some years yet they continue, why? Essentially, my main beef is the quality of the coaching support. It is poor, batsman are not adapting or being shown how too modify their game and play straight. Our shot selection and failure to adapt to different conditions, for professional and so called "specialist" batsman, is unacceptable. Bowlers, especially spin, where it is acknowledged we are VERY weak, is in the hands of an ex wicket keeper / fielding coach, who only got the job because of his personal relationship with Michael Clark. Pace bowlers are managed by bio mechanical / high performance management teams yet Jackson Bird, who has not bowled a ball over there "in anger", gets stress fractures. Ask yourself did he have these before the tour? All in all and whatever level you look at, CA have a lot to answer for...this tour and this team is a shambles and was in some trouble even before it left (why DID M Hussey retire?). Hate to say it but there has to be another review but the difference has to be that CA do not simply "cherry pick" what they introduce. (Lawson, Border, Warne, M Taylor would be a good "team" to do this) Cricket in Australia, from Juniors to Grade to State to National Level,is in strife and needs to very quickly address many of the issues confronting it or be overrun by better managed and structured other sports.
lolly
Guest
Have you watched him play Shield cricket David? I've watched him on the streams. He's good, but he's 19,, and utterly inexperienced. There is no point in sending him to India just to get brutalised by the stupidity of the Aus coaches and smacked about by the skill of the Indian batsmen. He needs to learn his own game a bit more before he is exposed to that environment.
JGK
Roar Guru
Zampa, Holland, Agar, Boyce, SOK, Fawad
Jonny Boy Jnr
Guest
Shire Ump further up the page has picked a very, very good Ashes side IMO. Would probably drop Siddle and put in Harris, otherwise fine with the rest. To be greedy: I would happily take a 4-0 drubbing in India for Cummins to come good and really cash in on his promise in England !
Go_the_Wannabe's
Guest
Hmmmm, you're right.....another disaster....shielding Hughes from Sth Africa hasn't done us any favours. Who shields a player from one team in the hope they'll come good against another? Either you're good enough or you're not.
Go_the_Wannabe's
Guest
That's really the awful truth, isn't it?
dave gray
Guest
don't think it was supposed to be funny, maybe we should add Huss's mate.. see ya Nathan...
cuzza
Guest
can u name 4 spinners?
cuzza
Guest
the australian selectors need to take a good hard look at themselves, if we dont have spinners good enough then just play the best bowlers we have. pattinson and johnson both have the ability to take wickets and siddle and lyon to do the stock bowling., with back up from warner and clarke. questions need to be asked why smith henriques and maxwell were even picked!!!! on what basis were they picked? and why was hughes hidden from sth africa???? maybe if he was exposed as inadequate against them we could have found someone gainst sri lanka!!
cuzza
Guest
starc is rubbish, cheap wickets against sri lanka and sth africa, another nsw left-armer who cannot swing the ball.
Scuba
Guest
Yeah,Wade looked really bad in the first dig. Irrational dislike of Wade? Welcome to The Roar! You'll fit right in.
Scuba
Guest
Can we start calling him The Great Pretender rather than The Big Show?
Scuba
Guest
The Big Show is the 2013 version of Chuck Norris - he can do anything!
Scuba
Guest
Given the way that David's new number one cricketer got deposited around the ground in the 2nd warm up game, you'd be wasting your time asking him to bowl defensively.
Scuba
Guest
Agreed Christo. The suggestion that Watson is a better opener than a 3 or 4 hardly holds water when he comes in at 1 or 2 for not many (hardly different from facing the new ball first up) and then fails. Mind you, the same could be said about the captain's unwillingness to move up a spot. Is coming it at 3/50 much different to 2/30 (besides heaping more pressure on Clarke as the last recognised batsman)?
JGK
Roar Guru
Hard to argue with this: "If the young spinner wants to play Test cricket for Australia, then maybe they have to back themselves to learn how to bowl before taking up the options available to them around the world in the shorter forms of the game. "Easy to say, I know, but I believe we should identify our top four spinners and put them on a decent contract and have them play nothing but first class cricket for twelve months and then take a view and re-assess."