Looking back and ahead

The 8-1 field employed yesterday by India was not so surprising in the end. As pointed out by one and all, Australia had neatly positioned themselves to put some pressure on India if they could continue at the same rate of scoring they had maintained on the second day. Both batsmen were set, and both are very hard to dislodge. If they had stuck around till lunch, India would have been sweating hard. Given that, a new captain suddenly facing the burden of heightened expectations (its all very fine captaining India as a substitute, things change quickly when the post is yours), and a dead pitch (sigh, double-sigh), India had to go on the defensive. What that defensive strategy was going to be wasn't clear but it turned out to be the most extreme one of all: a packed offside field, and an outside-offstump line. I detest this sort of stuff, as it doesn't make for good watching and more often that not, the side employing that tactic is resigned to drawing the match. But, somehow it turned out well in the end (India did after all, in the end, take eight wickets and a lead of 86 runs) largely because Australia got suckered in by a couple of things. For one, Australia didn't try and shake anything up by unconventional batting; some pressure from that end, and India might have panicked a bit. Secondly, once a couple of wickets has fallen, and the fields had become more conventional, Australia stuck to a meandering sort of strategy, not going on the attack even when it had become clear that their best chance of coming back into this match would have been to get stuck into the Indian batting (Australia could have landed up giving up the same lead and a few more awkward overs at the Indian openers).

All said and done, I still think the game will be a draw but Sehwag could change all that (how many times have we said that?). If India don't get bowled out on the 4th day, I'm not sure they will declare till after an hour on the 5th day.

One last point: just like Sehwag can move this innings, unfortunately, Dravid can bog it down (for as long as he is out there, which might not be very long). Still, whatever happens to the openers, I don't think we will see Dhoni come out at #3. But I'll be looking forward to Dada's last innings. Hopefully, he'll go out in style.