Melbourne Test Day 2

Day 2 began promisingly for India, with Zaheer Khan dismissing the last Aussie batsman for the addition of only six runs to the overnight score. Still, 343 was a good total. The moment of truth arrived when Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer walked out to bat for India to face Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark.

This was the first of India’s gambles for this Test, with a scratch opening combination. They had discontinued the Karthik-Jaffer combination. Karthik had struggled against Pakistan and a fifty in the middle order on the last day at Bangalore did not help him. This shift to Jaffer and Dravid as i wrote before was a risk compared to the tried and tested Jaffer-Karthik combination. If it worked, the reward would be significant too. Australia tend to be at the best when the ball is new, and one school of thought would say that this should be tackled by making the batting order deeper, rather than by propping it up at the top. Another would say that India should play the strongest possible opening pair to tackle them head on.

As it turned out, a woefully out of form Rahul Dravid was faced with an Australian opening bowling pair in crackling form. An inform Dravid might have taken to Mitchell Johnson, who bowled an impeccable line (to his field), but in his current form, with his judgement and confidence outside off stump in tatters, he was reduced to leaving everything he could. When he did try to attack, he played an missed many times, was dropped at third slip once, was caught at second slip off a no ball once, and had one successful stroke for two, and that too only when Johnson came round the wicket. It was as good as batting blind for Dravid. Sadly, he seemed to set the tone for the rest of the innings. There is much criticism about the tactics – that he wasn’t looking to push singles, but i don’t think it was a matter of him not trying, it was basically a matter of him not being able to. What we saw was a perfect storm created by the big occasion, a pumped up attack of not inconsiderable quality and an out of form batsman of great class being pushed into an unfamiliar role.

I looked back at the 2006-07 Ashes series for pointers. India are playing a side which has won 14 straight Test matches, and 5 of those came in the Ashes. McGrath and Warne were playing then, and so it was all presumably different. It doubtless was. But Lee and Clark formed the Australian attack in that series along with Warne and McGrath. I expected to find Warne and McGrath dominating the Australian bowling averages in that series. Clark and Lee together took 46 wickets at 24.06 in that series. Warne and McGrath took 43 wickets a 27.9. Clark led the Australian bowling averages, by a long way. He took 26 wickets at 17! Whats more, and this i always find to be the most telling statistic for a top pace bowler – he conceded 2.27 runs per over, to McGrath’s 2.4. Since that Ashes series, Brett Lee has now had 5 consecutive innings in which he’s taken 4 wickets in an innings. McGrath and Warne are clearly irreplaceable. They retired as all time greats and batting line ups around the world were happy to see them go. I just wonder, and this may be premature, whether in a few years time we will be waiting for the era of Lee and Clark to end.

Clark came on and decimated India’s middle order. He accounted for Dravid, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. While Lee accounted for Jaffer, Ganguly, Kumble and Zaheer Khan. The brief period of Indian ascendancy was during the Tendulkar – Ganguly partnership. Both these players have spent most of this year either turning back the clock, or being engaged in a titanic struggle to find the ability and confidence to turn it back. Tendulkar’s battles (there is no other way of describing those innings) at Cape Town, Trent Bridge and the Oval gave way to his sumptuous ODI form against England and Australia and to his feast against Pakistan. Ganguly’s battling half centuries in South Africa and England lead to his run glut against the visiting Pakistan side.Until Tendulkar fell to one which misbehaved ever so slightly off the wicket from Clark, it looked as though we could sit back and enjoy yet another vintage stand. Both players looked in touch (in contrast to Dravid, who didn’t), and both players benefited from not having to bat with Dravid, something which Wasim Jaffer and VVS Laxman did. Neither VVS nor Jaffer were ever settled enough to be able to take some pressure off Dravid by taking on the bowling. Tendulkar might have been able to help him.

196 all out is a disappointing first innings score. India ought to have matched the Australians, or at least gotten within 50 runs of their total. As it happens, Australia end day two having taken 10 of the 20 wickets that they need to take, with a lead of 179. Australia lost 10/208 in their first innings. India can hope for a better effort in the second innings. A 4th innings chase of under 400, would be something to dream about for India. The bowlers will have to rescue India again for that to happen.

I don’t think Indian fans should throw in the towel yet. There is still cricket to be played in this game, and there is too much quality there for the result to be a foregone conclusion.