Aussies lions in own den, but outside they are lambs to the
slaughter
 The Australian cricketers seem to be lions in their own den. Away
from home they are sadly lambs to the slaughter. If this is not so how
can one explain their 8 wicket and an innings defeat to the Indian
tigers away from home.In the Two Test matches played at the Chidambaram
Stadium in Chennai and at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium
in Hyderabad they have meekly succumbed.India romped home by 8 wickets
in the First Test and then added salt to the Aussie wounds by stabbing
on them a disgraceful defeat by an innings and 135 runs. Both games were
over with more than a day to spare. Ouch!
Reasons for poor showing
The reasons for the poor showing by the Aussies as I see it is this:
At home they prepare fast and bouncy pitches and let loose their pace
bowlers at the opponents who bowl them to victory.The Aussie cricketers
and their administrators then live in a fool's paradise, claiming that
their game is on the up and up showing signs of reaching their former
glory and invincibility. I have been on eight tours to Australia and
seen this happen.But once they come to the sub continent, where the
pitches are spin friendly which is now happening in India, their
invincible bubble bursts and they are like my friend Patrick Perera says
when ordering his bite at the Old Bens - boiled and fried.
Not only Australia
But this syndrome affects not only Australia. Most times when teams
such as Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa tour the sub
continent they get fixed. Similarly when Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh tour the above mentioned countries, the results are vice
versa. England was the only exception in recent times, standing up to
the spin that the Indians threw at them when they toured India
recently,beating the home team in the Test series which was an amazing
effort which England could be proud of.But what we are saying is that
any side to be labeled great side must be able to perform on any wicket
not only at home but more importantly when playing away from home. That
is the hallmark of a great side.
Hope Aussies will regroup
With two more Test matches to be played, we hope that Australians
will regroup, get back to the drawing boards, gather some spin bowlers
in India who are willing to help, or get the great Shane Warne who is
doing TV Commentary to don whites and spin at them at the nets.What
caused the Aussie debacle in both Test matches was the poor technique of
the batsmen to counter the clever spin of Ravichandran
Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Ravi Jadeja.Like I mentioned earlier and
to reiterate, the only batsman in the Aussie squad with a sound
technique to play spin is Captain Michael Clarke. That is because he
uses his feet to get to the pitch of the ball instead of staying put at
the crease and putting bat to ball, like all other Aussie batsmen do.
Clarke loses concentration
But Clarke lost concentration when on 91 and looking set for a
century, attempted a cross bat shot and was bowled. Now the cross bat
shot is an ugly shot to play and watch and should have no place in the
get up of any top class batsman.Not only Clarke, but most other batsmen
seem to have a penchant to play this shot and have paid the price. To
use a straight bat and the feet is the need of the hour and we hope
coach Mickey Arthur would have pumped this into his batsmen.When a team
wins the toss and decides to bat first it is paramount, that they bat
for at least up tea on the second day and run up a big score, so that
they would not have to bat a second time.
Tendency to crack
This is cardinal especially on sub continent pitches which have a
tendency to crack and take vicious spin as the game progresses. But when
the Aussies were down and out at 237 for 9, at which score Clarke
applied the closure, allowing India to have a bat on the first day, the
game was as good as lost.
With Murali Vijaya scoring 167 and Cheteshwara Pujara scoring a
double ton, and mincemeating the Aussie attack for a total of 503, there
was nothing the Aussie batsmen could do, but struggle to keep the game
alive, in which attempt they failed miserably.But what was fantastic was
this. When Vijaya was out he was cheered loudly. When Pujara was out the
cheer was louder. But what was amazing was that these cheerings paled
into insignificance the moment Sachin Tendulkar stepped on to the field.
Cheering was deafening
The cheering was deafening so much so that it the TV Commentators
Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri paused and asked viewers to listen to
the sounds that greeted the great man. But sadly the cheering may have
upset Tendulkar's concentration because he was out for seven.
His dismissal was big disappointment to the spectators who had
flocked in their numbers to see the master at work. Everywhere that
Tendulkar plays, 90 per cent of the crowd turns up to watch him perform
his heroics with the bat.He no doubt he is demi-god in India. His legion
of fans would not hear of him retiring and no one would dare ask him to
retire, unless he himself decides to do that In the First Test he batted
beautifully and was unlucky not to have added another hundred to his
ship load of runs. With two more Test matches to go, he will get amongst
the runs and keep his fans happy.
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