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Ricky Pnting would have been a relieved man after having won the first Test against West Indies in the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy. With Mathew Hayden and Michael Clarke not playing, and Stuart MacGill having more off-days than usual these days, Ponting would have been a little worried at the end of the third day.
After taking over 100 runs in lead, the Aussies would never have expected the hostility of the West Indian fast bowlers that awaited them. By the end of the third day, Australia had lost four wickets for seventeen, and when they lost their fifth at 18, the nerves would have been jangling for the skipper.
And then, as has been the case so often, Andrew Symonds walked in and banished some of the bowlers to the fence to get another fifty - his second of the match - as the Australians took a healthy lead, and set a target of over 280.
West Indies did begin well, but once they lost a couple of wickets after their good start, they collapsed against some great bowling by Stuart Clark and Brett Lee. Clark relishes such 'up and down pitches', and took full toll of the opposition, getting a five wicket haul and ending with a Man-of-the-Match award. Lee did not have too many wickets to show for his effort, but rest assured he was quite a handful!
Now with both his premier batsmen coming back for the next Test, it should further swing it in Aussies' favour.
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Even as I type this, the Australians are in a position that they would not have liked to be in. After getting such a wonderful start to the Test match by Ricky Ponting - who scored a masterly 150 as mentioned in our previous article, the Aussies collapsed in the first innings. The Chanderpaul played an innings so reminiscent of him, to take the West Indians within about a 100 runs of their total.
A lead of 100 odd hould have been enough for the Aussies easily seal the match. Not that they cannot right now, but they would have expected it to happen more easily if they do. Batting the second time around, the Aussies collapsed to 17/4 at the end of day three, before recovering a little to capitulate to a 165 all out. It was only an inspirational, aggressive innings of 79 by Symonds that saw them to such a total.
Currently the West indies is at 38/1, having lost brenton Parchment. With another day to go after today, it sure may turn out to be a battle to remember. Or at least one hopes for a gripping contest that goes down to the wire.
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Ricky Ponting was said to be in a patchy form. However, looking at him bat the way he did on the first day at Kingston, Jamaica against the West Indies, one wonders whether the bad form story was actually a myth!
Ponting slammed a 158, Hussey scored another 50, where as Hodge is still batting with a fifty on board. Australia were 301/4 at stumps on the first day.
Earlier the Aussies won the toss and decided to bat first. Mathew Hayden was out with a heel injury, where as Michael Clarke had yet to arrive, and so Simon Katich and Brad Hodge took their places.
For the West Indies, Chris Gayle was not yet fit and so Sarwan took over the captaincy reigns. Off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth made his Test debut and scalped the prize wicket of Michael Hussey.
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Shane Warne is making the news for all the right reasons these days. His captaincy has been much talked about in the ongoing IPL, he is one of the top bowlers and his mentoring of the Indian youngsters have all left him in a very good stead.
So when Shane Warne speaks about making a comeback in Test matches, one better take him seriously. Despite Stuart MacGills's return to form in the side game that Australia played against the Jamaicans. And one can visualise one very nervous team out there after havng heard this news; England
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According to news reports, Kevin Pietersen has been approached by one of the Indian franchisees for a three year contract, for a whopping sum of $4million! Apparently, the news reports have mentioned the franchisees to be one of the business families of India, which could be an allusion to the Reliance group.
The Reliance Group currently owns the Mumbai Indians team, and has Sachin Tendulkar as its captain
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Ricky Ponting, the Australian skipper, would be leading his side to the Caribbean, and is worried that because of the Indian Premier League, not a lot of Aussies would be tuning on to watch the Test Series! And so he has urged the audiences in Australia to not watch retired Aussie cricketers play, but his own team!
Technically, there are only a handful of retired cricketers playing in the tournament. And secondly, and most importantly, it does not remain Ricky Ponting's prerogative to deide who watches what! Interestingly, the IPL and the Test matches would begin at approximately the same time, 1430-1500 hours GMT, which would make it next to impossible for audiences to follow both
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Vijay Mallya has made it clear that the Indian Premier League is not all about cricket, it is also similar to a corporate entity, where in the owners need to see some visible progress in terms of results. Else, the pink slips would be doled like the ones handed out to their CEO, Charu Sharma.
People have to understand IPL has a corporate side to it. It is not all cricket in the traditional sense. I just want to tell Rahul Dravid to do the best he can with this team and produce results. Dravid doesn't enjoy being at the bottom of the league and neither do I
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Ricky Ponting minces no words, whether on field or off the field. And when asked for his opinion on the latest Harbhajan Singh, Ponting's reply was as simple and blunt as it could get,
The incident was him dealing with a guy that he has probably played 20 Tests with. Harbhajan has been unmasked
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Just when there seemed to be a toss up between risking Abdrew Flintoff for the first Test match against New Zealand, divine intervention has sealed the decision against the all round giant. A side strain has effectively ruled him out of the first two Test matches of the series.
Flintoff's woes with injuries means that the whole of England would have to wait for atleast a couple of weeks before they view the cricketer in action again. And with Paul Collingwood not quite fit as well, the English team may face some tough decisions before the first Test at the Lord's
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According to ex-Aussie cricketer, Greg Matthews – he had starred in that famous tied Madras Test in 1986 – he is very happy with the fact that the Asian block is one of the most powerful one in the ICC, and is vurtually ruling the cricket world. The reason?
Hear it from the horse's mouth, "I'm very, very happy now that Asia is running the game now. The English had 100 years of it and did a pretty average job
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