Mumbai beat Rajasthan

My take - here

A shade better than Mohali

41 overs bowled by spinners. Half an hour added to the end of the day's play.And Australia manages only 87 of the 90 overs required?

Murali Vijay looked good. As did Sehwag. And Laxman.And Sachin Tendulkar. And Saurav Ganguly. And yet four of the five fell to mental mistakes. Which made the Australian bowlers look better than they were.

I think this Australian bowling attack is grossly over rated. If India's batsmen dont throw their wickets out of boredom or playing for the break ( are you listening Sachin), I will be surprised if this attack can get 10 wickets in the entire match.

Rahul Dravid has to go. He has exhausted all his get out of jail cards and all the goodwill built over the years.It is not the fact that he is not getting runs, it is that he is doing his utmost to kill whatever momentum the team has leading up to him getting to the crease. And this has been in evidence since that innings in Cape Town!

Overall, even stevens. Which is fine as far as India go. It is Australia that had to do all the running going into this test, given that it is they who are trailing in the series. They lost the toss and have been playing catch up ever since.

If India gets to around 450, with the purchase Krejza was getting, it will be an uphill task for Australia to make a match of it.

India has two quality spinners and a part timer coming off a 5 wicket haul. India's best bet will be to bat a little beyond midway between lunch and tea and get about 8 overs before tea at Australia.

If India push the score above 400, it will leave Australia chasing not only runs but also time to force a result. And that can lead to indiscretion.

As it is, Australia's thinking has been muddle all through this series.

Which is a brilliant opportunity for India to force the win!

'Sensationalism is outweighing accuracy'

After shedding copious tears on media sensationalism

Distressingly, the role of the media in all this has been quite dubious. Instead of acting as the voice of reason and sanity, large sections of the media have become active participants in creating and feeding the frenzy.

Cricinfo has gone and done just that

Justice Albie Sachs, appointed by the ICC to hear Gautam Gambhir's appeal over his one-Test ban, has upheld the penalty imposed by match referee Chris Broad. The BCCI has refused to accept the decision, and has sent its objection to the ICC.

In a release, the Indian board said: "The said order has been passed without affording the player an opportunity of personal hearing, legal representation and without acceding to his request for certain documents/recordings to be given to him and also denying him an extension of time."

Gambhir was banned for one Test by Broad after he pleaded guilty to a charge of not conducting play "within the spirit of the game as well as within the laws of cricket" during the third Test against Australia in Delhi, a Level 2 offence under the ICC Code of Conduct. The incident that led to the ban occurred in the 51st over of India's first innings on the first day, when Gambhir, who had verbal altercations with Shane Watson, appeared to elbow the bowler during a run. He was told of his ban before the third day's play after which he filed an appeal.

When making his decision, Broad took in to account Gambhir's previous fine for running into Pakistan's Shahid Afridi during an ODI in Kanpur last year. He had been fined 65% of the match fee after he was found guilty of a Level 2 charge of inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players as well as a Level 1 charge of not conducting himself within the spirit of the game.

Under the ICC rules, Gambhir was permitted to play pending the result of the appeal, but with the ban upheld, he is set to miss the final Test in Nagpur, which starts on Thursday. The selectors have called up M Vijay, the Tamil Nadu opener, to join the squad. Gambhir has been the leading run-getter in the series so far, with 463 runs in three Tests at an average of 77.16. He scored his second Test hundred in the second match in Mohali, and followed it up with a double-ton in Delhi.

Justice Sachs, Cricket South Africa's representative on the ICC Code of Conduct Commission, is a senior judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

No mention of the fact that Justice Sachs reached his conclusion without holding a hearing!

'Sensationalism is outweighing accuracy' - Indeed!

Whither due process?

Whats with the South Africans?

First, Mike Proctor at Sydney and now Albie Sachs at Nagpur.

Now, as then, due process has been circumvented to arrive at a decision (hastily!). Now, as then, the BCCI has expressed outrage.

And now, as then, this issue can quickly go out of hand and become a raging controversy.

So this is what I want to know from the ICC- why do they have rules and regulations and all that other good stuff when their own appointees willfully ignore these very same rules and regulations?

And why does the ICC choose to appoint people ( and pay them good money) and not hold them accountable for their actions?

Snapshots and blog posts

At that stage, India were 167/8, and obviously dead to rights.

And then came the most brilliant part of the match, as the tempestuous Srinath struck calculated blows - including an outstanding straight six off Steve Waugh - while Anil Kumble, every inch the responsible deputy skipper, guided, coaxed and cajoled his more temperamental partner through a stand of 52 runs in only 40 deliveries that brought India past the winning post with seven deliveries, and two wickets, in hand.

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Amid all that, Kumble ended up unbeaten on 110, scoring the only Indian century of the series so far as India eventually closed on 664. Then, in the eight overs that remained a tired Strauss pulled Zaheer from well outside the off and only managed a catch to fine leg, leaving England at 12 for 1. Alastair Cook stayed largely away from the strike, and trouble, as England ended on 24 for 1, a staggering 640 behind with three days to play.

And that's the key, as the man of the day put it. "I always knew I could bat and I didn't think it would be 17 years coming," said Kumble. "I'm really satisfied, and we'll celebrate, but there's still a lot of work to be done in picking up the remaining 19 wickets."

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But Anil Kumble battling on till his body wouldnt do his mind’s willing anymore. One hand hurt going for a catch that would ordinarily have been well left by most in the team. That hand then administered 11 stitches under general anaesthesia. Kumble asking if the stitches could be administered under local anaesthesia ( I need to bowl tomorrow) and being told that it was a medical decision and not a cricketing one. Then coming out to bowl the next day and taking three wickets including a caught and bowled

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This is probably true, but the night after facing him many a batsman has looked at the ceiling of a Delhi hotel thinking, “how the fu©k did I miss another straight one”.

He is not so much a bowler, but an artist who uses minimalism to deceive you.

Like Samuel Beckett he strips away the reality of spinners needing to turn the ball a mile. He brings bowling back to the very base level of the human condition.

Kumble turns batting into an introspection of life itself. The batsman has many questions to face during his spell.

Do I go forward, do I go back, is it turning, is it going straight, should I attack, should I defend, when is the right time, is he a leggie, is he an inswinger, can I pick his wrong un, is my pen1s really satisfying my partner?

A normal bowler tries to beat the batsmen, Kumble makes you define the very idiom of bastmanship.

Then he bowls the straight one.

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