1st Test (Day One)

A  hot and humid day in Chennai and Australians after winning the toss elected to bat first.
Out came the opening pair Cowan and Warner.Had a quick start hitting boundaries at regular intervals.
Meanwhile in the slip Sehwag dropped a catch of Warner when he was batting on 18.
The partnership soon raced to 64 runs before Cowan was stumped on a beautiful flighted delivery by Ravichandran Ashwin.

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The second wicket fell soon as Phil Hughes was Out Played down by Ashwin.The score read 72/2.
Out came the man in form from Aussie side. Shane watson and Warner steered the ship to 126 runs with some good looking boundaries as the lunch was called.Just after lunch Watson was out LBW ye again by Ashwin.A wicket after lunch.Warner's stay didnt last too long as he too fell LBW yet again by Ashwin.
Out came Mathew Wade who along with Michael Clarke tried to rebuild the damage but Wade too couldn't    cope up with a solution to Ashwins superb bowling spell as he departed LBW bowled Ashwin.Now the score read 153/5 as came in the debutant from the Australian side Moises Henriques.
But Boy what a day is this local boy Ashwin having. His sixth 5 wicket haul in an innings.Beautiful day for  the Indians

                                                 Ashwin after dismissing Mathew Wade


Meanwhile the captain Clarke and henriques steered the ship and were making sure they do not suffer further damage.And the same happened as Henriques and Clarke took their home team to a safe total ensuring that they do not have to worry about getting out below 300.
The partnership between Clarke and Henriques grew tall and tall as Henriques reached hi first half century before getting dismissed by Ashwin on 66.But the Aussies were now in a rather comfortable state.But soon Jadeja who bowled really well dismissed Stark bringing back the Indians into the game.At the end of the day the score card read 319 at the loss of 7 wickets (316/7)
Meanwhile Clarke reached his Century,his sixth against India and 23rd in total and 9th as Australian skipper.
Clarke is not out on 103 and siddle on 1*.

                                                  Image Source : guardian.co.uk
                                         
                                                   
That's all for today.
Cheers guys


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As time races itself to 22nd February the same question keeps on repeating itself over and over again.
Will India Win this Test Series
Well The Answer is Yes India will Win the Series.

Now you may ask HOW?
Well 5 Points you must know before watching tomorrow's match.

1.Harbhajjan's Record : 

M	Runs	HS	Ave	100s	50s	W	BB	Ave	5w	Ct
16	399	63	19.00	0	4	90	8-84	29.35	7	5

And clearly this record shows who is the boss of bowlers.
90 Wickets in just 15 matches. Surely he has the Chance to get his Ton of wickets this series.
More over from the Practice match it's clear hoe the Aussies faced difficulties before spin.
And Bhajji being a class spinner will make them pay for every run.

2. Little Master(Sachin Tendulkar)

While talking of records who can forget this legend's name.

M	Runs	HS	Ave	100s	50s	W	BB	Ave	5w	Ct
35	3438	241*	27.30	11	15	11	3-31	51.36	0	22

Wow such awesome figures,aint it?
So here also India gains one more point ove Australia.

3. Team Record

Series results

Series/Tournament	Season		Winner	Margin
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Australia in India)	1996/97		India	1-0 (1)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Australia in India)	1997/98		India	2-1 (3)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (India in Australia)	1999/00		Australia	3-0 (3)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Australia in India)	2000/01		India	2-1 (3)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (India in Australia)	2003/04		drawn	1-1 (4)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Australia in India)	2004/05		Australia	2-1 (4)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (India in Australia)	2007/08		Australia	2-1 (4)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Australia in India)	2008/09		India	2-0 (4)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Australia in India)	2010/11		India	2-0 (2)
Border-Gavaskar Trophy (India in Australia)	2011/12		Australia	4-0 (4)

Source : (http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/team/series_results.html?id=6;type=trophy)

Now from the above stats its clear that every time Aussies have visited Indian soil the have had t face defeat except for the series in (2004-2005).
Look at the bold highlighted text,you will notice that India leads this by 5-1 so its clear that India has the Upper hand here.

4.Form of Players:

Well this was a cause of concern for the Indians but well not to worry anymore because the players are back in form and ready to face the Australlians.
May it be Mr.Tendulkar , Mr Sehwag or Mr. Tubanator aka Harbhajan all of them have regained forms by playing in Ranji trophy.
Moreover after the India-England and India-Pakistan matches one thing is guaranteed that we can surely expect some quality bowling by our pacer Ishant Sharma who had an exceedingly well Series against England and Pakistan.

5. My New Bowling Hero :)

Well this one is a bit on my personal side but i think most of you will agree with me that Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is the new hero for Indian side. With his Inswings and Outswings he created problems for most batsman.Even a batsman of Cook's caliber faced difficulties in facing this young seamer.
His precision in bowling and Varieties in length along with mixed swing creates problems for bats man and the test ball being a  Red Ball will definitely rain problems for the Kangaroos.

I guess these five points will help you understand why is India favored this Series

Thanks and Cheers mates

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The Needs for a Classy Win against Aussies

With the Australians visiting Indian soil for yet another series,the time has narrowed to just one day.22nd February i.e tomorrow starts the test series against the Aussies.
Both the Teams have some young and less talented players on their side.
Taking the case of Australia Michael Hussey (Mr.Perfect) recently opted for his retirement which could well be a cause for concern for the Aussies.He was the Man who gave strength to the middle order and perhaps if any of you readers saw the practice match of Australia against the lesser experienced INDIA A you will admit that except for the top order Middle order perished to some beautiful and rewardsome bowling by young Indian spinners.
On the other hand as Matthew Hayden said "Leaving Out Gambhir will surely be a boon to the Australian side". No wonder you all will say Why Gambhir?He is Out of form,But if we look back then we might as well see which players are in form? Many Opening Pairs were tried out by India but most of them failed , so the selectors showed faith in Rahane,Dhawan,and Vijay in place of Gambhir. Now who opens the batting for India will be a question

On my personal note the team which can probably beat Australia will be
1.V.sehwag
2.S.Dhawan
3.S.tendulkar
4.V.kohli
5.Vijay
6.M.s Dhoni
7.R.Ashwin
8.H.singh
9.Bhuvaneshwar k
10.I.Sharma
11.Pragyan Ojha

One more name to add is Manoj Tiwary who has been in tremendous form but not added to this side
Raina and Jaffer are the names too but why i am mentioning Tiwary is because this man has been spending time more on the bench rather than on the field.Selected for many series but never given opportunity to play.

Well overall this series promises to be a good one because most of the Indian players have regained their form,Thanks to the Ranji trophy and the Australian side is a bit weak compared to the last time it visited India.
But none the less Watson,Clarke,Henriques and Siddle will be the player to watch out for.
And from Indian side MSD,Tendulkar,Sehwag and Bhuvaneshwar along with Harbhajjan who will be
playing his 100th Test.

ALL THE VERY BEST TO THE INDIAN TEAM AND IT'S SUPPORTERS :)
Cheers.

Nothing new in not being picked : Jaffer

Waseem Jaffer 

Born on February 16, 1978 Waseem Jaffer remains the unsung hero for the Indian side.He has never been lucky enough to secure a place in Indian team.
Despite of his Solid Defense,Fluent Strokes,Vivid batting techniques he has been ignored a number of times by the national selectors.This Ranji season scoring almost a thousand runs and 80 and 101* in the Irani cup he was thought as a favourite of the selectors but that was not the case.

Photo from : http://www.24cricket.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Wasim-Jaffer.jpg

Instead the spot was given to players like Rahane and M.Vijay who rather did not had an impressive season.
But the 34 year old quoted that he has lost no hope and will continue to play as he is and better and better

A short story:
When Jaffer was small he was once playing for his school team and made 77 before playing a reckless shot and getting out.His elder brother slapped him for this and asked him never to throw his wicket away.From that day onward no matter how many balls he faced he never gave away his wicket and made the bowlers work for it and even scored a 400 in school level cricket.
He had hard times though getting selected for the U16 level cricket but when he was selected he played a beautiful double hundred knock to impress the selectors and bringing him to the Mumbai Ranji side.He made his entry into the first class cricket scoring a triple century in his second match. His innings of 314 not out helped set a series of firsts for Mumbai. It was the first occasion that a batsman had made a triple century for Mumbai away from home and by putting on 459 runs with his opening partner Sulakshan Kulkarni the pair became the first from Mumbai to pass 400.

                         Image From: http://p.imgci.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/84100/84105.1.jpg

The Story After
After his success in First Class Cricket.He was brought into the Indian side but he did not do much as he scored 46 of his first four innings but later he showed his class as he made 51 in Bridgetown and 86 in Antigua.
He scored his maiden 100 at Nagpur against the English team.
His first test double ton came against West Indies at Antigua 2006. A knock of 500 minutes and 212 runs equaling the second highest score by any Indian at Carribean.
His second double ton came against Pakistan in 2007 where he made 202.
He could not do much in ODI's as he scored only 10 of 2 matches and was dropped instantly.
Despite Making 1944 runs in 31 tests averaging near 40 he was never given preference.
Let us hope he gets a chance soon and proves himself

Image By :   http://www.topnews.in/files/Wasim-Jaffer.jpg

His hunger for runs will never vanquish and he will continue to accumulate domestic runs.



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