Lyon was named POTM for his 9 wickets.
Australia has now won 5 of its 24 Tests in India this Century. The previous victories were in 2001, 2004 (twice) and 2017. The victorious Australian captains were Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist (twice) and Steve Smith (twice).
All-time, Australia has won just 14 of 53 Tests against India in India. The Australian captains who have won a Test in India are:
Ian Johnson (2)
Richie Benaud (2)
Bob Simpson
Bill Lawry (3)
Mark Taylor
Steve Waugh
Adam Gilchrist (2)
Steve Smith (2).
Oz tour of India. Tests & ODIs.
Also, in the last 11 years, India has lost only 3 Tests at home. 1 to a Root-led England (England got first use of the typical Indian detriorating road at Chennai - they put on 578 in the first innings of the match and then, in typical fashion, the team scores were 337, 178 and 192) and 2 to Bradsmith-led Australian teams.
Meanwhile, the Match Referee has awarded Indore 3 demerit points for a "poor" pitch, reporting, amongst other things, that:
Meanwhile, the Match Referee has awarded Indore 3 demerit points for a "poor" pitch, reporting, amongst other things, that:
The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/indo ... st-1361701The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match.
As always, I was right.K wrote:...K wrote:Might see just that this Test. It's like the 1st Test on the last Indian tour. Overcooked pitch. So it's a shootout. Then SO'K gets 12 wickets. Oz win.K wrote:...
There was nothing wrong with the Delhi pitch. e.g. Look at Axar's innings. Nothing wrong with the Nagpur pitch either. India made 400 on that! How can it be "bad" for batters?? It's just bad for obese flat-track bullies, etc. They get found out.
Journos have said it and they're right. India don't want to produce dustbowl pitches. 'Cos if it's a dustbowl shootout Oz might win. India want to produce pitches that give just enough for spinners to be dangerous. Then they just sit around and watch hopeless FTBs' defective techniques destroyed.
This Test, maybe Kuhnemann does a SO'K. Gets 12 wickets. Oz win?
...
'Indore’s overcooked and treacherously turning pitch offered even more for spin bowlers on day one than India’s team management wanted...
According to the host broadcaster, the track at Holkar Stadium offered twice as much turn on day one as Nagpur and a third more than Delhi...'
...
An overcooked pitch. A shoot out. An Oz win.
Please, India, please... give us another pitch like this one for the 4th Test!!
L. Cameron:
'Match referee Chris Broad submitted his verdict on the Holkar Stadium third-Test surface in remarkably quick time on Friday, seeing India earn the first "poor" rating on a pitch since the ICC's new regulations were introduced five years ago.
A repeat in Ahmedabad would be unprecedented.
The only non-drawn Test ever played in India that saw fewer runs scored than this week's match in Indore was England's two-day encounter in 2021 when neither team scored more than 145 and none of the four innings lasted longer than 53 overs.
The ICC rated that pitch as "average".'
(cricket.com.au)
Mark Taylor:
“So I don’t think there was any skulduggery going on at the Gabba. I think with Indore, I hope I can say the same thing there, but what happened there, the pitch was so poorly prepared it actually made the game a bit more of a lottery, which didn’t favour India at all.
“It probably brought Australia’s spin bowlers into the game a lot more than they [India] thought it was going to.”
[Yup, like SO'K with his 12-for!!]
..............................................
Rohit Sharma:
“Former cricketers, I don’t think they played on pitches like this. These are the kinds of pitches we want to play on, this is our strength.
“When you’re playing at your home, always play to your strength, not worry about what people outside are talking about. Our strength is spin bowling and batting depth.
“Everyone uses that advantage as the home side, so what’s wrong with that? We’ve got to do that as well. Especially when we are getting results. If we were not getting the results, I would think otherwise. But we are playing well, getting the results we want.”
[Err... Not this result on this pitch!! Please, please, India, another pitch just like this one for the 4th Test.]
“So I don’t think there was any skulduggery going on at the Gabba. I think with Indore, I hope I can say the same thing there, but what happened there, the pitch was so poorly prepared it actually made the game a bit more of a lottery, which didn’t favour India at all.
“It probably brought Australia’s spin bowlers into the game a lot more than they [India] thought it was going to.”
[Yup, like SO'K with his 12-for!!]
..............................................
Rohit Sharma:
“Former cricketers, I don’t think they played on pitches like this. These are the kinds of pitches we want to play on, this is our strength.
“When you’re playing at your home, always play to your strength, not worry about what people outside are talking about. Our strength is spin bowling and batting depth.
“Everyone uses that advantage as the home side, so what’s wrong with that? We’ve got to do that as well. Especially when we are getting results. If we were not getting the results, I would think otherwise. But we are playing well, getting the results we want.”
[Err... Not this result on this pitch!! Please, please, India, another pitch just like this one for the 4th Test.
]Sharma needs rubbish Indian pitches to get by. He has 9 Test centuries, 8 in India (although he's played less than half his Tests there). He averages a Steve-Smith-like 67.82 in India, where fast bowling - always the true test of the comnpetence of batsmen - is irrelevant. In Australia, he averages 31.38. In South Africa, he averages 15.37. In the West Indies he averages 25. No-one cares what he thinks about pitch preparation.
Mike Kasprowicz is in the cricket news. He was a commentator for the first two Tests.
Kasprowicz says "don't believe the hype" that the pitches are really bad for batting. Pitches were much worse when he toured late 90s/early 00s.
I guess Axar won't disagree with Kasprowicz!!
...
Nathan Lyon, speaking on an Unplayable Podcast episode to be released this week, joked that he might ask Axar and Ashwin for batting lessons."
(cricket.com.au)
What is FTB Smith averaging?
Kasprowicz says "don't believe the hype" that the pitches are really bad for batting. Pitches were much worse when he toured late 90s/early 00s.
I guess Axar won't disagree with Kasprowicz!!
"Axar Patel... is averaging 92.50 and has scored more runs in this series (185) than any Australian top-order player.K wrote:...
There was nothing wrong with the Delhi pitch. e.g. Look at Axar's innings. Nothing wrong with the Nagpur pitch either. India made 400 on that! How can it be "bad" for batters?? It's just bad for obese flat-track bullies, etc. They get found out.
Journos have said it and they're right. India don't want to produce dustbowl pitches. 'Cos if it's a dustbowl shootout Oz might win. India want to produce pitches that give just enough for spinners to be dangerous. Then they just sit around and watch hopeless FTBs' defective techniques destroyed.
...
Nathan Lyon, speaking on an Unplayable Podcast episode to be released this week, joked that he might ask Axar and Ashwin for batting lessons."
(cricket.com.au)
What is FTB Smith averaging?
^ Team scores in the Tests he played in suggest he's got a very bad memory.
In his first Test in India, India made 4/418 (declared) and Australia 328.
In his second, India scored 5/633 (declared).
In his third, Australia made 400 and 2/192 (batting last - Taylor 102*) and India made 424 in its first innings before falling apart in its second on a wicket that gave Kasprowicz himself some assistance (5/28 in the second innings bundling).
In his fourth, Australia made 445 and then India was bundled out for 171 (McGrath, Kasprowicz and Gillespie took 8 of the 10 wickets and Warne took 2) before making 7/657 (declared), following on.
In his fifth, Australia made 474 and 228 and India were bowled out twice for 246 and 239 (the seamers took 16 of the 20 Indian wickets and Warne took the other 4 - 2 in each innings).
In his sixth, Australia made 235 and 369, while India made 376 and were 0/19 when the match ended.
In his seventh, Australia made 398 and 5/329 (declared), while India were bundled out twice by the seamers (16 wickets between them, with Warne taking the other 4).
In his eigth and final Test in India, the pitch was atrocious - biut it didn't especially favour either team in the first innings (Australia's seamers again did the damage, taking 7 of the wickets as India were bundled out for 104). In the second innings, however, the writing was on the wall when Michael Clarke's occasional legspin took 6/9, so it was no surprise when Indian spinners took 9 of the 10 wickets in knocking Australia over for 95 and claimed victory.
The pitches he played on were, as the results show, nowhere near as hopelessly disabling to teams with a pace-strong attack as the rubbish dished up on this tour.
As for your comment about Delhi - the pitch was atrocious. The best bowler in the World - by a very considerable margin - looked like he was bowling pies, as the Australian spinners took 9 of the 10 Indian wickets in the first innings. By the second Indian innings, Australia did not give the ball to a player who wasn't a spinner. In Australia's second innings, India also opened the bowling with spin from one end, as Shami sent down 3 overs in total. Delhi was not a cricket pitch. It was a joke. Only in India could it be described as anything other than "atrocious". Patel has a Test average of 38 in India. He has only played there and in Bangladesh, so it is not yet possible to say whether or not he is yet another in the long run of Indian players who look capable in India but then spud it up in the rest of the World. In any event, the better measure is that after Patel's statistical anomaly (two 50s and a couple of notouts leaving him with an average higher than any score he has made in the series), only one other Indian batsman is averaging 40 in the series - and every other Indian player's series average is under 27. Even Sharma, who has the average of 41.4, has produced his modest return on the back of one 120, two scores in the low 30s and two scores of 12. It is true that Patel has made more runs in the series than any Australian top-order player. He has, of course, also made more runs than everyone in the series, except Sharma.
Moreover, it must be said that after Patel and Sharma, the next 4 highest series totals (and averages) are all Australians (Head, Marnus, Handscomb and Special K). Thus Pujara is averaging 24.5, Kohli 22.2, Gill 13, Rahul 12.66 and Iyer 10.5. If Cummins, Starc and Boland were running through these guys, that would be a different matter - but the damage is being done by Australians who, Lyon aside, would not even rate consideration in any other place than India. Australia has taken 42 wickets in the series. Spin has taken 38 of those and Lyon has taken just half of the 38. These have been poor pitches, on which Test cricket plainly should never have been played.
In his first Test in India, India made 4/418 (declared) and Australia 328.
In his second, India scored 5/633 (declared).
In his third, Australia made 400 and 2/192 (batting last - Taylor 102*) and India made 424 in its first innings before falling apart in its second on a wicket that gave Kasprowicz himself some assistance (5/28 in the second innings bundling).
In his fourth, Australia made 445 and then India was bundled out for 171 (McGrath, Kasprowicz and Gillespie took 8 of the 10 wickets and Warne took 2) before making 7/657 (declared), following on.
In his fifth, Australia made 474 and 228 and India were bowled out twice for 246 and 239 (the seamers took 16 of the 20 Indian wickets and Warne took the other 4 - 2 in each innings).
In his sixth, Australia made 235 and 369, while India made 376 and were 0/19 when the match ended.
In his seventh, Australia made 398 and 5/329 (declared), while India were bundled out twice by the seamers (16 wickets between them, with Warne taking the other 4).
In his eigth and final Test in India, the pitch was atrocious - biut it didn't especially favour either team in the first innings (Australia's seamers again did the damage, taking 7 of the wickets as India were bundled out for 104). In the second innings, however, the writing was on the wall when Michael Clarke's occasional legspin took 6/9, so it was no surprise when Indian spinners took 9 of the 10 wickets in knocking Australia over for 95 and claimed victory.
The pitches he played on were, as the results show, nowhere near as hopelessly disabling to teams with a pace-strong attack as the rubbish dished up on this tour.
As for your comment about Delhi - the pitch was atrocious. The best bowler in the World - by a very considerable margin - looked like he was bowling pies, as the Australian spinners took 9 of the 10 Indian wickets in the first innings. By the second Indian innings, Australia did not give the ball to a player who wasn't a spinner. In Australia's second innings, India also opened the bowling with spin from one end, as Shami sent down 3 overs in total. Delhi was not a cricket pitch. It was a joke. Only in India could it be described as anything other than "atrocious". Patel has a Test average of 38 in India. He has only played there and in Bangladesh, so it is not yet possible to say whether or not he is yet another in the long run of Indian players who look capable in India but then spud it up in the rest of the World. In any event, the better measure is that after Patel's statistical anomaly (two 50s and a couple of notouts leaving him with an average higher than any score he has made in the series), only one other Indian batsman is averaging 40 in the series - and every other Indian player's series average is under 27. Even Sharma, who has the average of 41.4, has produced his modest return on the back of one 120, two scores in the low 30s and two scores of 12. It is true that Patel has made more runs in the series than any Australian top-order player. He has, of course, also made more runs than everyone in the series, except Sharma.
Moreover, it must be said that after Patel and Sharma, the next 4 highest series totals (and averages) are all Australians (Head, Marnus, Handscomb and Special K). Thus Pujara is averaging 24.5, Kohli 22.2, Gill 13, Rahul 12.66 and Iyer 10.5. If Cummins, Starc and Boland were running through these guys, that would be a different matter - but the damage is being done by Australians who, Lyon aside, would not even rate consideration in any other place than India. Australia has taken 42 wickets in the series. Spin has taken 38 of those and Lyon has taken just half of the 38. These have been poor pitches, on which Test cricket plainly should never have been played.
