AGB Cricket

FOURTH TEST: THE SCG

At least it's not a dead rubber. Not quite, anyway. 

THIRD TEST: THE MCG

A day late to the party. Second morning and Australia is currently bowling really well to Pujara and Kohli, but without any luck on a featherbed road that needs luck. So much for the MCG getting rid of its dead pitches. Perth Stadium and Adelaide Oval, both carrying footy like the MCG, have managed to change from old pitch techniques to new. The question will be asked about why the MCG has delayed the changeover. (As I understand it, the techniques relate to the sub-structure for the drop-in pitches.)

SECOND TEST: PERTH STADIUM

After the tight First Test, talk has moved onto the stock topic for a Perth Test, the pitch - currently, according to reports, green, bouncy, send them in, auto-publish - and how India may play four fast bowlers and take the edge into the Second Test. Of course, this is not the WACA, so the pitch is an unknown for a Test. Doubtless India's quicks bowled better that Australia's quicks in Adelaide, but the not insignificant factor is that Ravi Ashwin bowled more than 86 overs out of 218, continually keeping it tight and continually proving a threat, especially to the left handers. Without Ashwin controlling one end, it's a stretch to imagine India's fast bowlers providing as much of a threat without the axle around which its bowlers rotate. There is even, if you can believe it, talk that Australia has doctored the pitch, that CA instructed the Perth Stadium curator to prepare a lively deck. When has CA ever demanded a lively deck? CA's only ever pitch-related demand is that a Test lasts five days; especially in Perth where CA still have nightmares about craters, ravines, crevasses and Tawny's lost keys. Nevertheless, when the curator say “They want to see this place fly. That’s like an early Christmas present for me. To get that fear in the eyes of the opposition turning up and seeing it fly ... beautiful” you wonder whether CA is starting to feel the heat after a string of poor results. Has the Value Broadcast Partner demanded a win? Whatever has happened behind the scenes, the First Test has set up an enticing series.

FIRST TEST: THE SACA

What's that, you say? A home Test match? Well, have at you then. Or, as they say in India, "They who say, have all things; they who withhold, have said nothing." (Except "I wish I'd said that at the time.")