Bharat Rakshak

both in the military and to be no1 in sports someone said (NBA) you should train so hard that you are at the doors of death but not dead , than you are in peak condition.

Mayank Agarwal turned out to have a great test debut inning, almost getting to a debut ton at the MCG of all places. Good first day overall.

Shubhman Gill should be tried as he is a specialist opener and in a great form in Ranji Trophy.

This test is nicely poised! I guess Kohli is afraid of batting last otherwise Australia should have followed on.
Losing 4 wickets for 44 runs is bad. It will be tough to chase any score more than 300 for Australia with 2 days left

SBajwa wrote:This test is nicely poised! I guess Kohli is afraid of batting last otherwise Australia should have followed on.
Losing 4 wickets for 44 runs is bad. It will be tough to chase any score more than 300 for Australia with 2 days left

Batting second, India has lost in England and then second test of current series. There was just no application by the batsmen.

I am sure those losses have left a scar and weigh heavily in Kohli/Shastri's decision making. Otherwise any other team would have pressed on with just 67 overs bowled, of which 22 were by Jadeja.

With the current total, India should win easily.

Mayank has been a good find. With Shubnam and Prithvi, opening problems should be completely sorted out in next 1-2 seasons.

I must say, bowling was a sight for sore eyes. Indian pace bowlers were in complete control, and ran through the aussie lineup.

Bumrah is very intelligent bowler., applying skills he learned in T20 like bowling an odd slower one,. consistently bowling between good and full length with good pace this gets batsman confused whether to go forward or behind.

Listen to the commentary

Oman at 82 is ranked higher than India but the difference is quite glaring. India has a long way to go to catch up.

That video could only showing the Omani attacks and not ours. So you could say onesided video for Oman.

Australia may be saved by the rain. How can a #8 player score 60 runs is beyond belief.

SBajwa wrote:Australia may be saved by the rain. How can a #8 player score 60 runs is beyond belief.

Old ball and a slowed down pitch?

Now we have to win or defend even if we lose the toss in sydney. Winning the toss would be awesome though.

Lungi dance time. Finally one off the bucket list. Seeing India humble the Aussies in a MCG Test.

Mukesh.Kumar wrote:Lungi dance time. Finally one off the bucket list. Seeing India humble the Aussies in a MCG Test.

An Indian win or a draw at Sydney, will herald a new era of Indian cricket.

Without Warner and Smith Aus has a weak batting line-up. India should win series.

Meanwhile, AFC Asian cup is going to start next week. India plays Thailand on 6th Jan. Other teams in the group are Bahrain and UAE. If India can enter the QFs it will be a great achievement.

Warner & Smith are cheaters. All games Aussies won with them in team are now suspect.

Supratik wrote:Without Warner and Smith Aus has a weak batting line-up.

Wouldn't really have changed the result, lets not detract from India's good performance.

Warner, Smith and Bancroft are being missed in the bowling department more than anything, if you get my drift. (hint: Check Starc's record since the sandpaper experts were banned).

^^^

disha wrote:Warner & Smith are cheaters. All games Aussies won with them in team are now suspect.

I try to avoid broad-swath statements, however, I agree with this one.

In my mind, most, if not all games by these players are suspect. And by extension, previous aussie teams that won were also staffed by players who cheated but did not get caught (unless you believe that Smith and Warner were the first Australian cricketers to invent cheating.).

And if indeed they were the first to invent Aussie cheating, who wants to believe that their cheating ways were initiated on a foreign tour (in S.A.). They had to have tried and perfected their cheating ways on home soil first. I think the games won by Mr. Integrity Ponting (thou dost protest too much, Mr. Integrity) are also suspect.

The other thing this match exposed is the latent racism in aussie spectators. I dont know how widespread it was, but news reports mention some spectators chanting 'wanker' and 'where's your visa' to a visiting cricket team.....to the point that stadium authorities warned the spectators that they would be removed. Racism is not far below the surface. The Indian team was legally in their country and the country-bumpkins from the great city of Melbourne were too dumb to understand this basic fact.

Added later: I would still expect Aussies to cheat on their home soil if they can get away with it. Aussie TV camera persons will not be as cooperative as the S.A. TV camerapeople in catching them in the act. Aussie cricketers will behave only on foreign tours.

Handscombe catch of Virat was clearly taken on half volley. That is the only reason these B****** won the perth match. These sons of criminals can only win that way. Racism in all anglo-saxon communities is rampant sometime it is overt sometime covert. A hypocritical, lying and thieving race they are.They rob other people,s property and kill the owners and than claim they discovered it (Americas, Australia, Newzealand and so on )

for a start, every DRS review during smith era was decided by oz dressing rom with access to replays. because poor baby didn't know it was illegal.

Virat is our son. We the people of India will decide whether his behaviour is over the top. No Muzzy or foreigner has that right. So far he has not crossed any line and his behaviour is that of a top athlete whose controlled aggression enhances performance. No paki loving people squating in India have that right including one nasserudin shah.

Suresh S wrote:Virat is our son. We the people of India will decide whether his behaviour is over the top. No Muzzy or foreigner has that right. So far he has not crossed any line and his behaviour is that of a top athlete whose controlled aggression enhances performance. No paki loving people squating in India have that right including one nasserudin shah.

Tell this to Nasirudeen Shah! who does not think highly of Virat's behavior.

Guys, could we please go easy on the invective? This is the sports thread, let's discuss something positive. Like tomorrow's test at SCG, for instance. What are our chances to clinch the series?

Pretty good with 303 for 4 and Pujara and Vihari going good We should score at least 500.

622/7 declared. Great performance from Pujara and Pant, with support from Jadeja.

Australia might be saved by the rain!!!

Play has resumed, but looks like it will be a draw. Either way, series won!

No boss India are going to win . This Australian team can not survive on a fifth day wicket

Super match. AFC cup. India 3 thai1 by 77 min

4-1 now.

well the ghosts of the waugh ponting era are finally laid to rest.
beat aus in india.
beat aus in aus.

so whos next ?

udanta and thapa, what composure in front of the goal, what finish. of course sunil chhetri is still incredible. we have our next stars.

Second half me dho dala. India beat Thailand 4-1 in AFC Asian cup. Commanding performance in second half. With more ball control and accurate passing they can have good results. Defense made only two mistakes (one led to goal). This is a first win in the AFC cup after 55 years. Next they face Asian power and host UAE (higher ranked). That will be the test as to how far we have come.

Singha wrote:well the ghosts of the waugh ponting era are finally laid to rest.
beat aus in india.
beat aus in aus.

so whos next ?

South Africa, the only remaining country where we have not won a series, now the final frontier

What is impressive is that we retained our #1 ranking through a couple of seasons of mostly away tours, and the next two seasons will primarily be home seasons so India should have a clean run of 4-5 years at least, as the #1 ranked test side in the world.

It is totally nonsensical to not include pant across all formats. Dhoni is past his prime for last several years. He should be forced to retire. it is a Indian tradition that our cricket stars of the past have to be forced to retire , list is long from kapil dev to sachin tendulkar to saurav ganguly to now dhoni.They will not retire until forced.They will continue to play even if it harms the interest of the country.Mayank Agarwal also should be included in the 50 overs list, he will be far better than Rayudu and karthik and rahul.

What on earth is wrong with Hockey India ? They've removed Harendra Singh as the chief coach and invited applications for a replacement. He's been shunted back to chief coach of the junior team. Idiots.
Indian hockey back to square one

Below is a better article. I think they are putting emphasis on winning tournaments. It is now a high pressure job as the boys are good enough to win top tournaments but are not doing so.

https://www.thehindu.com/sport/hockey/m ... 952943.ece

Meanwhile, India lost a good chance against UAE. But lost 2-0. They missed three open goals in the first half and one hit the post. Chetri missed two, Ashique one. With good teams like UAE you are not going to win if you don't convert chances speically open ones. Chetri in particular had a bad day. The goal was due to defensive lapse. The second at the end when they had moved up to score. As far as football skills are concerned a long way to go. Ball control and accurate passing are still missing which is why possession is only 30%. Hope they win against lower ranked Bahrain and move to the knock-out stage. Need more international exposure for sure.

Revamped hockey india league.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... n-5432871/

URI is great, did not take bathroom break (the need was great, believe me). Planning one more time

Supratik wrote:Below is a better article. I think they are putting emphasis on winning tournaments. It is now a high pressure job as the boys are good enough to win top tournaments but are not doing so.

https://www.thehindu.com/sport/hockey/m ... 952943.ece

Meanwhile, India lost a good chance against UAE. But lost 2-0. They missed three open goals in the first half and one hit the post. Chetri missed two, Ashique one. With good teams like UAE you are not going to win if you don't convert chances speically open ones. Chetri in particular had a bad day. The goal was due to defensive lapse. The second at the end when they had moved up to score. As far as football skills are concerned a long way to go. Ball control and accurate passing are still missing which is why possession is only 30%. Hope they win against lower ranked Bahrain and move to the knock-out stage. Need more international exposure for sure.

here's the highlights from the AFC cup match against UAE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLiBDdZvVBI

anyone who has even a passing interest in Indian football, give it a watch. we basically toyed with a team ranked 20 steps above us. while scoreline shows 2-0 against India, it could easily have been 3-1 or even 4-1 in our favour. the last goal happened because the entire team was trying to score at that point.
I am guessing the only reason they couldn't convert the many chances is the players still don't believe they a top 100 team. it's the confidence that's missing.