India come back after Hayden's Hundred

Australia 242/5 after 63 overs. At one stage it looks Australia will blast their way to 600 plus total.
they 135 for no loss with Hayden and Jaques going great guns. Then Kumble strikes with Jaques wicket. Then Ponting World No.1 batsman in both forms of the game and Hussey dismissed in consecutive overs. Ponting bowled by Zaheer, Kumble followed next over by dismissing Hussey Lbw. At tea they were 211 for 3. Immediately after tea Singh got Clarke's wicket. Hayden finally got out for 124 caught by dravid. Still 25 overs to go for the close of play.

Boxing Day test Australia bat first

Ponting won the Toss and decided to bat in the MCG test. India go in to this match with 2 medium pacers zaheer and RP two spinners kumble and bhajji. Pitch will be good to bat during first few days.

Boxing Day test match

Indian cricket team will play first test match of the four test series against australia starting tomorrow at MCG. As an Indian fan I am very much looking forward to this test match. I think this series will be closely fought test series. Dravid might open first test with Jaffer to enable Yuvraj to play in the middle order. In the batting department india looks ok. bowling bit weak compare to the Australian team.But if we look at recent matches Indian bowlers always bowled well. Even when they travelled England earlier this year England bowling looks bettter on paper.But Indians bowled better than England team and eventually won the series 1-0.

For Sachin Ganguly Dravid this will be last test series in australia. They have been part of winning test team everywhere except Australia and South africa. So it Final Frontier for them.

Dada will be playing his 100th test match tomorrow. This will be remarkable achievement if we consider he was thrown out of the team when Chappel was in charge Indian team as coach. At that time most people consider Ganguly's test career is over given his short comings against shor pitched deliveries. But as a Ganguly's admirer I was always hoped that he will make
come back into the Indian test team. Those days i used to follow where ever Ganguly plays.
He is in superb touch now. He has made 1000 test runs for this calendar year 2007.

In Barclays Premier League Manutd trails Arsenal by one point. On boxing day they will play Sunderland away. It will be a tough match. Sunderland team coached by former Manutd great "Keano". I expect manutd win this tough match by a goal if not by more. Manutd can go top of table provided they beat sunderland tomorrow night Singapore time. Then can hope Portsmouth to get something out of the game against Arsenal Thursday morning Singapore time.

Cheers,
Vasurkrishnan.

Curator rules out green top at MCG

I will tell more about me later.

Indians (Cricket followers) can feel better this Christmas

In what is sure to come as music to the visitors’ ears, pitch doctor Tony Ware virtually ruled out a green top at the MCG and advocated the inclusion of left-arm spinner Brad Hogg for the Boxing Day Test between India and Australia.

Ware rued poor weather did not allow him to prepare the pitch well and said it would not seam much.

In such case, it would be ideal for Australia to go into the match with three pacers and a spinner in Hogg, especially with enough purchase for the tweakers on offer, Ware argued.

“I still don’t think it will seam any more than usual. My personal view would be to go for a balanced attack with a spinner in it.

“Shane Warne got a five-for on the first day of the Boxing Day Test last year, and we’ve been getting turn in all the Pura Cup games this year. The weather is shocking but I still think we’ll have a pitch that isn’t too greened-up,” the curator was quoted as saying by ‘The Age’ on Sunday.

Ware was upset with inclement weather which, he rued, hampered pitch preparation for the series opener.

“In a perfect world we would have 10 days of mild weather before the game, but we’ve had our Test track under the covers for the last three days and that’s not ideal for us.

“I’m not overly concerned yet. We need a break in the weather, though, so we can get the covers off. We basically need one good day to finish things off. We’re at the mercy of the weather,” he said.

Ware’s observation would definitely make the Australian think-tank review their initial plan of unleashing a four-pronged pace attack, comprising Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson, against the Indians.

So it will be even contest hopefully