End of an era?

[undyingking]

India have just completed victory over Australia in the 4th test by 172 runs, taking the series 2-0. When was the last time Australia were nilled? -- and both victories were heavy, with Australia not really dominating either drawn game either.

Hayden increasingly looks like a man clinging to the memory of class, and Ponting has seemed more weighed down by the burden of leadership than ever before. Hussey, Clarke and Katich have scored in patches without really convincing. Watson you would have to call a failure with the bat, likewise the keeper Haddin. Did they wish Symonds was with them, I wonder? On the bowling side, Krejza's 12 wickets in this game shouldn't cover up the general poor performance and lack of control. No bowleraveraged better than 32. Ponting is a tough customer, so I'm not really expecting him to resign as captain (or Cricket Australia to have his head) -- partly because no obvious successor is in line -- but I wouldn't faint with shock if it were to happen. Maybe Hussey would get the nod? Or Clarke??

India are in a transition phase too, with Kumble retiring last game, Ganguly this, and Tendulkar and Dravid surely with not long to go. But if this means Laxman can at last get a firm place, that's not all bad news -- Gambhir has shown real class this series, with support from Sehwag and Dhoni (who made the very noble gesture, in his first Test as captain and just about to beat Australia, of letting Ganguly captain the side as they took the last few wickets). Bowling-wise they have no weaknesses, with the experienced Harbhajan and Zaheer and the novices Mishra and Sharma all performing really well.

We'll soon see how significant England's good one-day showing at the end of the summer was, when they come up against this powerful Indian outfit. Fingers crossed!

In more depressing news, West Ham managed to dominate their Saturday game for 82 minutes, and then suddenly ship three goals. Zola I think showed naivety by not using substitutions to toughen up once we had the lead. And the lack of Ashton and Cole was sorely felt, with a host of chances begging conversion. Lots of positives again, but very soon we will get fed up of saying that.

One of the positives is the sparkling performance of on-loan Congolese left-back Hérita Ilunga, and I've also found he has a rather charming blog, which I've syndicated to LJ as herita_ilunga if any of you are interested. "La mauvaise série continue pour West Ham mais comme toute série elle aura une fin..." he wisely says. (Most entries are [very loosely] translated into English too.)

Comments

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the syndication. I've subscribed, and posted a message.

I was pleased to see how well they played without Noble and I agree with your comment, Mullins should have come on. It seems a fairly typical West Ham problem: good play but no end product. I can't understand how Boa Morte can get a game but I guess we're short of strikers.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The other thing we seem to be desperately short of is centre-halves. It was so encouraging to see Neill starting at right-back instead of Faubert -- and then so discouraging to see Faubert back there after Upson came off and Neill moved over, because no suitable sub on the bench. And then Faubert's mistakes were responsible for two of the goals. I like him as a player, but he seems a hopeless right-back.

I'm a fan of Etherington's determination, speed and work ethic, so I would always play him ahead of LBM if fit. Once he came on alonside Sears and Bellamy we must have had the quickest front line in the league, for what that was worth (ie. nothing.)

[theo]

India seem to be te strongest test side just now and I think that they will not be threatened by England in the one-day game. Australia, on he other hand, look like they may provide no great opposition in the Ashes this summer. I rather hope that both these analyses are wrong.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

I think that Australia will be stronger on English pitches than on Indian ones, but time will tell.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Most of the time, the Aussie top order didn't seem to bat badly; Ponting managed to get a decent return from an Indian tour for the first time (as far as I am aware), Hussey Clarke and Katich did not, I think, embarrass themselves.

Conversely though, Hayden was lacklustre, and whether due to a weak Australian attack, Indian comfort on their own pitches, or simply a strong and experienced home side, the Antipodeans rarely looked threatening. On the rare occasions that they were in the wickets, they had to rest their quicks and proceeded to haemorrhage runs in order to speed up their over rate.

It will be very interesting to see how England do against them (in so far as I can summon a great deal of interest in a schedule of 7 ODIs and 2 tests... still, mustn't grumble I suppose).

I see that an England side led by none other than Ashley Giles triumphed at the "Hong Kong Sixes" tournament. Which is nice, although I will freely admit that I had never heard of it before I saw it on BBC News Online this morning!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I suspect if they hadn't won, you still wouldn't have heard of it...

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

Even in my current media environment, where Cricket is limited to occasional mentions on BBC world I've been aware that somewhere in the sub-continent a colossus has fallen. Very impressive stuff from the Indians, the thing about the Aussies is they're almost never worse than average. They just don't normally have off days, although from your review they seem to have had an entire off series.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

They had their moments in three of the games, and it certainly wasn't a humiliation. But yes, they never managed to really put it together for more than a session or so at a stretch.