3rd Test: India v Australia at Ranchi on Mar 16-20, 2017

[Tweed Titan]

How the f**k did the school boy get the AB medal over smithy?

Smithy didn't sell enough OLEDs for the sponsor's liking.

 

[Eelectrica]

Just wish I could say I was surprised. Sadly It's all too predictable.
Can Smithy bat for the day tomorrow? Can anyone hang with him long enough?
Come on Australia surprise us.

 

[TheFrog]

Didn't Bradman reverse the batting order in a test in a similar situation?

That is a much better tactic than a night watchman.

That was after heavy rain in the days of uncovered wickets.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

Did it work?

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

Is it just me or does Pujara look like the stick cricket dude?

Best phone game ever!!

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Should have sent Smith with Renshaw. No wickets would have fallen

 

[T-Boon]

Best phone game ever!!

I don't know. An old school prank call is a lot of fun.

 

[hineyrulz]

I did say get in the queue and we can't lose from here, i think it's time to get out of that queue. Were farked.

 

[Pete Cash]

We knew this would happen.

If im going to offer criticism on the bowling side of things i think we went negative a bit too quickly and id like to see smith more willing to try different bowlers. Im not going to rip into them too much because this shit is indias bread and butter. Putting on a ridiculous first innings score on a flat wicket is just what they do. Sometimes on a tough wicket the opposition will just grind you into dirt.

What upsets me is that every man and their dog knows india will do this. So why the fudge didnt we bat with more care in the first innings. We had to grind like they did.

I will say this and i hope cricket australia pay attention because they clearly want flat wickets for asian sides. Prepare flat wickets for india at your peril. Their batsmen love just love to cash in for huge scores on flat wickets. Say what you like about kohli once he gets past 50 the merkin is thinking 200.

If they win the toss on a flat wicket and put on 600 we could very easily lose a test series here to them

 

[TheParraboy]

Good thing is we probably don't need to bat all day tomorrow to force a draw

but we would need to bat at least he first 2 sessions and some overs after tea. Be interesting if we got to a 100 run lead or so, and India only had 15 overs to get them to win. They would have to take some risks, and on this deck that is no no.

 

[WaznTheGreat]

Pujara faced 60000 balls and our batsmen can barely last a few overs,that's the story of this game

 

[Tommy Smith]

Pujara faced 60000 balls and our batsmen can barely last a few overs,that's the story of this game

Fun fact:

Cheteshwar Pujara just faced 525 balls in his innings.

David Warner has faced a combined 511 balls in his last 13 innings in India.

 

[TheFrog]

Did it work?

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62643.html

 

[JJ]

Davey is lucky the Bangladesh tour was cancelled or his away average would be well under half his home one lol

But Ch 9 said he's the best opener in the world? He'll be performing flat track heroics at home again soon and getting media plaudits and more medals, not to worry

 

[JJ]

Also, it's been said a few times above, but seriously you have to question the selectors, Lehmann, Smith and Smith's on-field advisors (laughably I guess Warner is among them).

You just bowled 210 overs, and your all-rounder bowled 4 - WTF, there's been this fetish having an all-rounder at #6, MMarsh barely got a bowl anywhere, and they replace him with Maxwell (who obviously batted very well) and when the bowlers bowl 210 overs Smith uses Maxwell for 4 (and himself for 0). If Cummins or Hazelwood struggle now people will blame the pitch but the Australian leadership is equally culpable

 

[mave]

Hard to argue with that.
Strange decision to keep plugging away with just the 4 bowlers

 

[hineyrulz]

Yeah they bang on endlessly about bowling workloads is the reason we need an all rounder and then don't bowl them when picked. Maxwell couldn't of bowled any worse than the GOAT.

 

[Hutty1986]

Cummins will probably be sent home this week with stress fractures after having to bowl about 40 overs on this shit pitch.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Yeah it truly is baffling that you'd select a guy at 6 as an all-rounder and only give him 4 overs out of 210.

Steve Waugh bowled every man and his pet dog back in 2001 when VVS and Dravid put on that partnership.

Steve Smith has very little imagination as a captain.

Presumably it also means that Toy was picked as a batsman and is considered higher up the pecking order than Usman Khawaja. Granted it worked out well but it still makes no sense.

Poor Usman must wonder if Pauline Hanson is chief selector.

 

[JJ]

Cummins will probably be sent home this week with stress fractures after having to bowl about 40 overs on this shit pitch.

That's really the worry here - Starc's already home, Pattinson was sensible IMO to say "I am not rushing"

Cummins could well be the best of all of them, but bowling him that much when he's barely played first class cricket on a flat wicket just made no sense, it was incredibly short sighted and shit planning/captaincy - and at the end of the day Bird should have played on that deck, and if Maxwell is only bowling 4/210 overs surely Khawaja deserves that spot (prior to Maxwell playing really well of course)

The wicket is fine, at the risk of just paraphrasing everyone - your top order just didn't do it's job (Smith and Maxwell aside)...

Anyway, just looks like mental disintegration to me... it's a long game in India, Australia have put up a good fight, but like England and NZ in the preceding tours look like they're ready to roll over (mind you when the v/c seems to give up once he passes through Australian border control there's a bad example being set)