Chika Talk
Kris Srikkanth
Oz are winners not champions
January 07, 2008
That does not absolve the Indian top order of a very ordinary effort. Yes, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were done in by poor calls. The duo could have well batted India to safety as they had got their eye in. Still there is no excuse for the rest of the team folding in less than 72 overs. The target of 333 was out of the reach of the Indians. All they had to do was bat out the day.
There was nothing in the wicket that suggested a hard time for the batsmen. And who got the wickets? Part-timers who usually bowl an over or two to give the main bowlers a break did the damage. To surrender to the off-spin of Andrew Symonds and the innocuous left-arm spin of Michael Clarke showed the Indians in poor light. The entire blame for the defeat cannot be squarely laid on the two rough decisions alone.
The Aussies, for their part, did not play the game in the right spirit. Adam Gilchrist who has taken upon himself to be the guardian of the spirit of the game, went up in appeal as if the ball had come off the meat of Dravid's bat. With so much noise around the SCG, the umpires can be misled by the spontaneity in the appeal. It is time the world champions also started setting the right examples. Kids watching them can be misled.
Why on earth did Mark Benson consult with Ricky Ponting on the Sourav catch? Is any player going to say he did not hold the ball cleanly with the match poised on the knife's edge?
This is one aspect where the West Indians, when they were the monarchs of the game, scored over the Aussies. Claiming to play hard but straight cricket at every opportunity and practising something else on the field is appalling.
The poor show of the Indians should not take anything away from the Aussies' record of 16 consecutive Test wins. They have a right to appeal and it is the umpires who succumbed to pressure. But they have no right to claim to be a sporting champion anymore.
Winning matches tops their list rather than playing the game in the right spirit. After this, let us hope they at least stop preaching the cricket world.
India continue to struggle because of their negative tactics. To beat Australia at home India have to be aggressive. They have to string good sessions together, it is important to maintain the pressure. In hindsight, Bucknor and Benson did not allow Anil Kumble and Co to finish things off.
The Jamaican continues to be adamant. Not going to the third umpire when Symonds was stumped off Kumble on the second day showed he had not learnt from his mistakes
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
There was nothing in the wicket that suggested a hard time for the batsmen. And who got the wickets? Part-timers who usually bowl an over or two to give the main bowlers a break did the damage. To surrender to the off-spin of Andrew Symonds and the innocuous left-arm spin of Michael Clarke showed the Indians in poor light. The entire blame for the defeat cannot be squarely laid on the two rough decisions alone.
The Aussies, for their part, did not play the game in the right spirit. Adam Gilchrist who has taken upon himself to be the guardian of the spirit of the game, went up in appeal as if the ball had come off the meat of Dravid's bat. With so much noise around the SCG, the umpires can be misled by the spontaneity in the appeal. It is time the world champions also started setting the right examples. Kids watching them can be misled.
Why on earth did Mark Benson consult with Ricky Ponting on the Sourav catch? Is any player going to say he did not hold the ball cleanly with the match poised on the knife's edge?
This is one aspect where the West Indians, when they were the monarchs of the game, scored over the Aussies. Claiming to play hard but straight cricket at every opportunity and practising something else on the field is appalling.
The poor show of the Indians should not take anything away from the Aussies' record of 16 consecutive Test wins. They have a right to appeal and it is the umpires who succumbed to pressure. But they have no right to claim to be a sporting champion anymore.
Winning matches tops their list rather than playing the game in the right spirit. After this, let us hope they at least stop preaching the cricket world.
India continue to struggle because of their negative tactics. To beat Australia at home India have to be aggressive. They have to string good sessions together, it is important to maintain the pressure. In hindsight, Bucknor and Benson did not allow Anil Kumble and Co to finish things off.
The Jamaican continues to be adamant. Not going to the third umpire when Symonds was stumped off Kumble on the second day showed he had not learnt from his mistakes
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
