Another Test, another challenge, but same old story on day 1 of 3rd Test.
Session wise First day-stats of all Test matchs in this series.
|
First session |
Second session |
3rd Session |
|||||||
| 1st Test | 2nd Test | 3rd Test | 1st Test | 2nd Test | 3rd Test | 1st Test | 2nd Test | 3rd Test | |
| (Lunch) | (Lunch) | (Lunch) | (Tea) | (Tea) | (Tea) | (Close) | (Close) | (Close) | |
| Runs | 126 | 83 | 109 | 215 | 187 | 180 | 316 | 237 | 273 |
| Wkts | 2 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
| Overs | 34 | 28 | 36 | 66 | 60 | 72 | 95 | 85 | 104 |
| SS | 58 | 30 | 52 | 116 | 82 | 93 | 172 | 111 | 140 |
| Avg | 63 | 20.75 | 43 | 46.75 | 60 | 45.14 | 26.33 | 39 | |
| R/o | 3.71 | 2.96 | 3.03 | 3.3 | 3.12 | 2.5 | 3.33 | 2.79 | 2.63 |
| B/W | 102 | 42 | 79 | 90 | 144 | 81.43 | 56.67 | 89.14 | |
| ball/ss | 3.52 | 5.6 | 4.15 | 3.4 | 4.39 | 4.65 | 3.31 | 4.59 | 4.46 |
| 4ss | 6.86 | 7.74 | 6.02 | 5.3 | 7.22 | 4.63 | 5.61 | 6.08 | 4.97 |
| 1ss. | 14.2 | 8.33 | 15.28 | 18 | 12.22 | 13.89 | 19.3 | 12.55 | 14.42 |
| C 3 | 17.7 | 28.57 | 36.11 | 32 | 26.67 | 47.22 | 32.63 | 34.12 | 44.23 |
| L 3. | 44.1 | 50 | 61.11 | 58 | 53.33 | 69.44 | 57.89 | 58.82 | 67.31 |
| 6+. | 20.6 | 14.29 | 13.89 | 17 | 15 | 9.72 | 17.89 | 12.94 | 11.54 |
| Md% | 17.6 | 35.7 | 16.7 | 12 | 20 | 22.2 | 12.6 | 21.2 | 23.1 |
| C M% | 2.94 | 10.7 | 2.78 | 1.5 | 5 | 6.94 | 1.05 | 4.71 | 5.77 |
Clarke promoting himself at No3 was a brave and a very good decision……but his getting out to first ball must have pleased to many of his critics both in media and in general, after the dropping of 4 players (Watson, Johnson, Khwaja & Pattinson) including his deputy Watson for not abiding captain/coach assignment which was not fulfilled in given period of time.
Clarke’s dismissal reminded me of Mark Waugh’s many first ball dismissals, mostly in sub continent(either L B W or caught) playing predetermined.
In International cricket ,
Mark Waugh – had 9 first ball dismissals (4 L B W)
Michael Clarke had 6 first ball dismissals, second time in a Test match.
And his action as a captain, well, it reminded me of something very interesting.
In 1999 in an Under-19 World Cup tournament in Sri Lanka, Australia were led by Michael Clarke who was told to come back and play for his state NSW in an important Sheffield Shield game….and he flew before the semi-finals clash against India, which they lost miserable…that team included E Cowan, S Watson(Australia’s successful batsman in the tournament) and M Johnson….
Here I am not suggesting that if Clarke was around they would have won the game. It was a call taken by Cricket Australia, which am sure Clarke was not very keen to take, and leave his team to face the strongest opponent(India) in that tournament, but he did leave and represented NSW.
Those days, Australia were the only cricket team, that did not get paid at under-age level tournaments(both National and International matches) irrespective of its importance.
Before Clarke, every Aussie cricket captain has left his own mark, a trend, a culture, which players abide – there is only one common message.
”It’s a honour to represent your country in any field, so there should be no excuse. And no player is greater than a game or country. “
Coming back to this Test, being a Australian cricket follower, i feel there is a slide in their performance when compared to previous tours to India.
more to come..
