India vs Australia 3rd Test Live Streaming 14-18 March 2013

In the first test Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain of the Indian side, broke the back of Australian bowling attack with his tornado like 224 and Ravichandran Ashwin denuded Australian bowling by scalping 12 wickets in total in the entire match. In this blitzkrieg of sorts Kohli’s century perhaps did not get the attention it deserved but Michael Clark got a warm ovation from his countrymen for his heroic efforts to save the sinking Australian ship and Henriques also received profuse kudos for his attempt to assist his captain by scoring a half century in the first innings and an unbeaten 81 in the second. The Australians should thank their stars that they did not have to suffer the ignominy of an innings defeat in that Test.

But that insult was also in store for them in the second Test when they lost the match by an innings and 135 runs. Here the chief destroyers were Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara with the latter hammering in a double century and the former scoring in excess of 150 runs. While the indefatigable Michael Clark scored 91 in the first innings he could manage just 19 runs in the second and just could not do to prevent the inevitable.

The third Test at Mohali is thus an extremely crucial occasion for the Oz team and they should go all out to salvage some of their national prestige and rekindle the famed Australian spirit of never say die in the face of stiffest odds. By seeing the meekness of surrender by the visiting Australian team, some commentators have expressed doubts about the lack of so-called Australian grit and determination that has made them such a formidable opponent in the cricketing arena and a cricketing superpower that held the world in awe with their prowess and ferocity.

It seems all is also not well within the Aussie camp either with Lyon coming out in the open and contradicting coach Mickey Arthur’s comment about the former not being suited to Indian conditions. This betrays some serious gap in thinking between coach and selectors and this should have been taken care of long before the tour had started.

Coming back to the third Test it must be mentioned that Aussie speedsters should for the first time in this tour get a surface at Mohali which they would relish as this wicket would have both pace and bounce. As the bounce generally remains true, the ball will come nicely to the bat and batsmen with sound technique and quick reflexes would also have the opportunity to score runs at a brisk clip.

That the Aussies are taking a hard look at their game and their individual performances is absolutely clear from the public utterances of their wicketkeeper Mathew Wade when he unabashedly declared that rest of his team mates have not been able to provide proper support to the beleaguered captain Michael Clark and it is now high time for them to stand up and be counted.