India’s performance in Adelaide gives cricket fans hope this will be a fighting second Test match as Australia take on India in Brisbane. You can follow the live blog of the first day’s play from the Gabba in Brisbane starting at 11:00am (AEDT).
India were on the verge of pulling off a special win at Adelaide.
AUSTRALIA VS INDIA: DAY FOUR LIVE SCORES
While it will be easy to blame captain Virat Kohli for being overly aggressive towards the end of the game, it needed to be his decision as to how the Indians approached the chase in the third session.
Tactically, it could have been handled a tad better, with one of the two batsmen at the crease at any time dropping anchor and the other continuing the massacre. Unfortunately for India, all batsmen went for their shots and once Kohli had mis-executed a stroke against off-spinner Nathan Lyon, it was all over.
Lyon must be feeling pretty relieved too. After coming into the Test with the pressure of not having won Australia a Test on the last day of games, he exploited the conditions to a tee. Once the Kohli-Murali Vijay stand was broken, the rest of the Indian batsmen failed to hold up against Lyon.
The Gabba will be a more stringent test for the Indian batsmen, who had a very respectable time at the crease in Adelaide. In Brisbane, life may not be as easy, what with the excellent record that the Aussies have here to go with the extra bounce that the visitors will need to counter.
Australia have not lost a Test in Brisbane since 1988. That’s quite a record to have but with the visiting teams often struggling against the extra bounce, Australia have run away with the match on many an occasion.
More vitally, the Indian batsmen are known to have overcome their problems with pace, but that few extra inches of bounce have often caused havoc.
Mitchell Johnson, who bordered on being lethargic in Adelaide, could suddenly come to life at Brisbane. His battle against the Indian batsmen will be an enthralling one.
Interestingly, there will be two new bowlers partnering him for this Test as Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have been called up as replacements for the injured Ryan Harris and the struggling Peter Siddle.
Starc bowled a few decent spells in the UAE against Pakistan before being dropped again and he has a chance to prove his case in lively conditions. Hazlewood, on the other hand, has been chosen on the basis of his good form in white-ball cricket; how he goes on his Test debut will be something to watch.
Shaun Marsh has been drafted into the line-up as well, following the injury to Michael Clarke and it could well be an important Test for the southpaw given how his selection polarises fans.
India have changes of their own. The obvious one will be MS Dhoni replacing Wriddhiman Saha following a neat little break from the game, which the Indian fans will be hoping brings some fresh ideas to his captaincy.
There are questions around a few other spots. Shikhar Dhawan’s form hasn’t been the greatest and even accounting for a poor decision he got in the second innings, his place in the side isn’t tenable.
Rohit Sharma was steady in the first innings but the softness of his dismissal and the manner of batting in the second leads to questions about his temperament.
And then there’s Karn Sharma. His selection made a lot of sense as a second spinner in the side at Adelaide but to push him for his debut as the lone slow-bowler in Adelaide was a risky move that failed. Will he get another chance or will India bring their tried and tested spinner in R Ashwin back into the line-up?
Join me for the first day of this second Test between Australia and India. You can follow the live score of this game from 11:00am (AEDT) and post your comments below.
Payal jallewar
Guest
Dont worry we won next match.... Team INDIA
peter
Guest
isnt this amazing philip hughes is still with us india all out 408 philips number
DJW
Guest
Ok I have the plan, Warner to bowl, Smith tells him to bowl as quick as possible. Just as he starts to run in, Haddin and the slips put on Amla beards, Warner sees red and starts sending down 145km thunder bolts.
DJW
Guest
So does Haddin bowl, we may need him the roll the arm over!
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Yes but bowlers are in the team to take wickets as well as contain and Siddle wasn't performing against this criteria. The gamble to play Hazlewood paid off but playing Starc appears in hindsight to have been a mistake. Perhaps Starc is just a one day and T20 bowler. I've seen Starc bowl some good spells in the past when he swings the ball in to the right hander but his bowling plans appear to have melted in the heat of the Gabba yesterday.
FrozenNorth
Guest
Right but i touched on this yesterday, Siddle works as a foil when you have other bowlers that can spray it. I'd have played Hazelwood in place of Harris but kept Siddle as he can run in all day and not cost you much.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Siddle simply had to go based on his recent form. Absolutely no penetration. All the front line Aussie bowlers were disappointing today apart from Hazelwood. At least he was pitching the ball in the right areas and getting some movement away from the bat. Johnson seems to have lost his aggression, Starc has absolutely no idea and Lyon learned nothing from his success in Adelaide by refusing to bowl over the wicket. What were Boof Lehmann, Craig McDermott and captain Smith doing all day? Why didn't they get in Lyon's ear and get stuck into Mitchell Starc? Despite the heat this was a pretty pathetic display by the Aussies.
Matt
Guest
Stress less. 3 1/2 innings to go, we know India can collapse and struggle to take wickets, and Australia right now has 2-3 in form batsmen with the rest making up numbers, could make 600 or be skittled for 100. So far so good, I was expecting an easy whitewash based on their last tour and recent performance in England.
The BCCI says
Guest
There's no way the Indian bowling attack can take 20 wickets either unless rain freshens up the wicket when Oz bats.
The BCCI says
Guest
No Australia are still in it. This has happened before in 2003 at the MCG when Sehwag blitzed Aussies on first day but from then on Oz took control and won the match.l
Bobbo7
Guest
Agree. Complete lunacy. Australia are out of this. Bowlers gone and India have shown they can handle Johnson
Nudge
Guest
Sportsbet are offering 4.35 for an Australian win India 3.15 for the win and the draw at 1.97. Those odds are absolutely crazy. In my opinion india to win should be 1.40 Australia 15.00. If Australia come back and win from here, it would have to be one of our greatest test match victories ever
Shortfineleg
Guest
If you - like I - were wondering who ABC cricket commentator Cate McGregor is: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/aug/13/cricket-mike-selvey-column
Blake Standfield
Roar Guru
Could have used Siddle on a day like this.
Jo M
Guest
Why do you think this happened. All of them were obviously dehydrated. When have any of them ever gone down like that before? I haven't seen it.
Bobbo7
Guest
Can see India winning from here. Australia is bowling on 1 leg and Warner can't make 100 every game
Nudge
Guest
I really don't take offence to that at all. But just because you annoy me and your language and name calling is despicable I might report that a bit later. Might even report about 15 other of your posts in the past week. See how we go.
Scuba
Guest
Back home (very sunburnt) from the Gabba. Impressions: - Johnson quick but not as much of a menace to the Indians as expected - Hazlewood very very good - Siddle got a close up view of his Test career ending before Josh did his groin (I think?) - Starc - rubbish - M Marsh - good opening spell, shame he injured himself - Lyon - won't take long to erode the brownie points he got from Adelaide bowling like that. Rarely threatened, only removed a tired Vijay - S Marsh - you better make a big hundred, son - Smith - captaincy baptism of fire, let it meander a bit. Should have tried to stop the single on the leg side much earlier when Lyon bizarrely kept bowling around the wicket - Dhawan - rubbish shot - Vijay - rode his Marsh-given luck, made us pay - Pujara - unlucky but the lack of DRS giveth, and it taketh away - Kohli - silly shot, was looking good - Rahane - a more aware bowler would have had him caught and bowled for 0. Rode his luck, but settled well - Rohit - very average captaincy to let him get set. Could make us pay tomorrow. - Dhoni - can't comment yet, reckon Kohli and his attacking mindset would be thinking about declaring the other side of lunch tomorrow. Likely MSD will want to try to grind us in to the dirt with 500+ to take an Aus win off the table, but doubt he has the cattle to take 20 wickets
E-Meter
Guest
There's no way that our bowling attack can take 20 wickets in this game. We'll be relying on rain in this game.
Shortfineleg
Guest
I suspect if the unbreakable James Hopes was out there you would have had his figures something like: 15 / 6 / 2 / 30