India tour of Australia (Nov 22, 2024 - Jan 03, 2025)

[mikesiva]

India 260 all out

Rahul 84
Jadeja 77

Cummins 4-81
Starc 3-83

[mikesiva]

Australia 89-7 declared

Cummins 22

Bumrah 3-18

Target 275

India 8-0

Match drawn.

[backfootpunch]

Australia throw in 19yo sam konstas and bat first

Very much chucked in at the deep end for his first test. Boxing day at the MCG with bumrah, by a distance the world's best bowler, steaming in with the new ball

India pick 6 bowlers including 2 spinners. Jadeja down to bat at 6.

[backfootpunch]

2 attempted reverse scoops from konstas

He will get flogged by the aussie media if he gets out like that.

[backfootpunch]

Absolutely outrageous from konstas

1 normal scoops for 4
2 reverse scoops one for 6 one 4

In the same over off bumrah

Even in the bazball era never seen anything like it

[backfootpunch]

He's got the Indians rattled

Kohli just deliberately shoulder barged him

Next ball he slaps bumrah down the ground

[Arthur Crabtree]

I remember when England were getting battered by Gilchrist and Warner in ODIs in the noughties, they were going at about the same scoring rate as the Assues are today in the first morning of an important Test.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Or Gilchrist and Hayden rather. Doesn't look such a bad day for India now. No one going on to a ton, yet.

[alfie]

India pulled it back quite well in that last session - aided by a couple of daft shots by the Aussies , who were looking likely to totally dominate the day. But still anything north of 350 will be a pretty good score , I think - and Australia could go well past that if Smith gets going again in the morning. The best I've seen him play for a while : couple of close lbw shouts but otherwise unruffled , and looked more his old confident self.

That Konstas assault in the morning clearly rattled India and set the scene for later run scoring. Arguably they've not made the most of it - at least yet.

Might be a bit cooler tomorrow !

[sussexpob]

That Konstas assault in the morning clearly rattled India

Rattled by the fact they maybe couldn't believe he was getting so lucky. The reports suggest it was a classy, aggressive, wow introduction to test cricket.... for me, it appeared like he spent about 20 balls to start with realising that he couldn't get anywhere near the ball and being beaten, then decided he may as well have a hit, and on another day he could have easily been out 5-6 times in that 60 odd balls.

[sussexpob]

Reading the reports and outrage about the Kohli thing, I was expecting to see Kohli subject Konstas to the sort of violence you see in a Robert Rodriguez neo-Western film, so I was somewhat disappointed to find out this violent assault was actually something that would require some exaggeration to even be considered "handbags". Just a nothing moment, time to move on.

[sussexpob]

Far more worrying in my opinion is that for a second time this series, a player is hit on the pad while moving down the pitch, and hawkeye makes a clear error on the ball tracking of it.

The Comms didn't pick it up, but look at the Siraj ball to Khawaja right at the start of the innings. When Khawaja is hit on the pad, you can see the ball hits him almost perfectly on the middle of the knee roll, bat is pointing straight down the pitch mms from the ball, Khawaja's head is down and straight looking at the ball, and his front foot is planted just a toes length outside from the large worn patch on the pitch to judge how far down he is....cut to the hawkeye decision, Khawaja has his head looking at slip, bat is angled and miles away from the pad, and his front foot is now completely outside the worn patch on the pitch.....

Hakweye clearly superimposed the position of Khawaja sometime AFTER he was struck (looking at the replay 1-2 seconds after) to judge where he was hit, and not actually his position when he was hit. The ball tracking therefore concludes that he was hit well above the knee roll, probably 1 balls diameter if not more were the naked eye can clearly see he was hit... its not even close to be accurate. This makes sense, because Khawaja is moving forward when he is hit, and takes 2 steps further down the pitch with his momentum after contact, so using this "final position" as a judge of his body position in line with the flight of the ball, they have in essence made it look like he was hit further up on the pad.

Considering the ball scrapes the stumps on hawkeye, its an error that appears to have cost India a wicket. Don't think we can even debate its a mistake, its pretty unambiguous and totally obvious if you check the replay. Khawaja's body position is clearly from the future.

[backfootpunch]

They mentioned on commentary akash deep has been unlucky in this series. Beaten the bat with no reward.

Not sure i agree at all, like most of the Indians he's bowled a meter too short.

It's like they are scared of being driven.

Pitch it up, yes you'll get driven for 4 occasionally, but when the mistake comes they will nick it to slip.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Looks like another ton coming soon for Smith. Maybe news of his demise is premature.

[backfootpunch]

Cummins and smith capitalising on some buffet bowling from deep, siraj and reddy this morning.

Why is jadeja not bowling?
Why are Sundar and reddy even playing?

11th ton for smith vs india in just 43 innings

He averages 73 vs india at home with 7 hundreds in 12 games.

Makes you wonder how poor the other aussies must've done for india to have won the last 2 series in Oz. Though maybe smith and Warner were banned for one of them.