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I haven't watched a lovelier innings than the one VVS Laxman played today in years. The cover drives were reliably sublime but it was the onside shots, the whips and pulls and flicks that made me grin and nod like a hypnotized child. When threading a packed off-side field wasn't challenging enough, he seemed to experiment, for the sake of his art, with more improbable angles. Long legged and stooped, Laxman occupies the crease like a slightly worried, but marvellously graceful stork. His stroke-play is non-violent; when he's in his zone the strokes seem to be played in some abstract cause - beauty? geometry? - rather than the needs of the contest itself. It isn't true, of course. His epic innings have always been played in ferociously competitive contexts; it's just that he never looks dogged or fierce or elaborately determined.

That said, this innings mightn't rank amongst his best because it doesn't seem big enough. Size matters; India needed a repeat of his two previous centuries at Sydney, a hundred and fifty at least. If stumps had been taken on the second day with Laxman and Rahul Dravid at the crease, Indian fans could have gone to bed dreaming of six hundred runs, Kolkata redux. As things stand, a sensibly optimistic scenario would have India matching the Australian score over two sessions and a bit on the third day and then look to RP Singh, Kumble and the enigmatic Harbhajan Singh to keep the Aussies down to a plausible fourth-innings target. One of Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh has to get a century for any of this to happen. If it is Yuvraj, he will have earned his Test spurs and this blog will happily abase itself and acknowledge its absolute ignorance. But someone had better do it, because if they don't, Laxman's magical innings will be diminished; it'll become one more pretty thing to be salvaged by desis from the familiar wreckage of defeat.

You say Roebuk has said all that is needed about the umpiring, then whinge about it for a paragraph. Then you neglect to mention Laxman's umpiring life. And fail to remember the multiple LBW shouts that went India's way in Melbourne. Classy journalism, mate.

Fair go, Pete! That umpiring was as bad as any of the dark days of Pakistani umpires, and these guys are meant to be neutral. Umpires make mistakes, yes, bu this whole series may ahve been ruined by a guy who should have retired years ago. It's not just players who should know when to bow out. And don't even get me on Ponting's double standards...

Thanks to Dave for that comment about Ponting's double standards, which should really read "Aussie double standards". If they believe the umpire's word is the last word, as they claim ad nauseam, they should accept all decisions with the same aplomb. But as Ponting just showed - and literally hundreds of Aussies before him have done - they will abide by the ump's decision when it suits them, and whinge and moan when it does not. Guys like Slater who never walked could create a scene when Dravid stood his ground back in Bombay in that historic series (and he wasn't even out!), and Langer never once thought he was out even if he was clean bowled. Its this double standard that infuriates the rest of the world - and of course the fact that on sheer cricketing merit, the Aussies are far and away the best team in the world ;) Oh well, at least there's VVS and a few others. We'll have to count our moments of individual brilliance - as always - and cede the spoils to the better team.

Yeah, Bucknor totally killed things off. There are way too many mistakes being made and I find it difficult to attribute them to human error. Even the third umpire managed to muck things up. Yes, Laxmans batting was magical but like Mukul said, it might not be enough to win India a test match. With all due respect to the Australian team, the scenario of this match should have been dramatically different and in favor of India.

I was just wondering if Symonds was not going to play the next two tests, that the umpires wanted to be benovalent by making him play multiple innings in this test itself. Anyway, the crowd cannot complain if he misses out on the next two as he is done with his quota of innings for the entire series.

Seeing that you are so critical of the umpires in this match I'm sure you would insist on being objective and even handed, and so perhaps you can explain why Tendulkar was given not out to Clarke on 36? Too high? No! Pitched in line? Yes! Hitting middle stump? Yes!
"Out" according to Cricinfo commentary (Indian)? Yes! Hawkeye "Out"? Yes! And Laxman yesterday? Out! But I'm just explaining, not complaining as only self pitying whingers do that! I hope Tendulkar makes 200 as he is a champion batsman if only a slightly above average cricketer given his inability to lead, his tactical and strategic weaknesses,failure to inspire, motivate and unite as a captain! Champion cricketers are much more than just champion batsmen or bowlers only in my view.

Gotta laugh at fools like Longmemory (how ironic) who would perhaps be better titled LongIndianMemory instead. It gets only better when Ponting is singled out for not walking when we saw the exact situation in Melbourne with Yuvraj.

Face it people, the overwhelming majority of batsmen from all nations don't walk! And as rext stated, Tendulkar got a life, as did Laxman. Move on, what goes around comes around.

I wouldn't have cared if Symonds' decision had been tough, or if it was a one-off. But he was reprieved not once, not twice, but THREE times. First one was a nick heard around the ground; in the second one, the umpire had all the time and visual angles he needed; the third was a routine referral denied.

Two things seem pretty clear: (i) The vast majority of cricketers - including the Indian batsmen - are non-walkers (in the sense that, like Symonds, they do not walk if the umpire has definitely signalled not out; some players walk in clear cases before the umpire has decided). (ii) There's no evidence whether close decisions in international cricket tend to go to the stronger team. Pretty obviously, our personal impressions here will be skewed. Close decisions going to the weaker team will generally be less critical - and so less easy to bring to mind - because they are less likely to be built on.

If I'm wrong, put up a relevant link and let's have a properly informed discussion about the cricketing morals of Symonds and the Aussies. Otherwise, what possible ground is there here for singling out Symonds for abuse, or whinging about Australia? Instead, surely, Ravi Shastri was right in simply expressing sympathy for India and calling for Bucknor to retire. And now let's move on.

This backbiting rubbish just has to stop. The only thing ruining this match is the carping and whinging on both sides of the fence. This includes supporters, media and retired cricketers. The match is not even half over and it really is turning out to be match. Australia will have to put India to the sword quickly and construct a defensible total, and India will have to show some mettle and make short shrift of the Australians if either is to have a chance to win this match. It is laughable to say that this match will swing on a handful of umpiring blunders. Cricket is winning - out on the field. It is only in places like this where the muckracking and t**d-polishing are taking the shine off it all.

Hey Rev: does the word "double standard" mean anything to you? I never said non-Aussie batsmen walk, and barring good old Vishy, Indian batsmen rarely walk. I was merely saying that no other country makes such a fetish of saying the umpire's word is final and yet bang on when questionable decisions go against them as the Aussies do. If you really think the umpire's word is all there is to it, keep the same damn expression whether you've been reprived (as Ponting was against Ganguly early in his innings) or given wrongly out (as he was when he inside-edged Bhajji onto his pads). Get it?

When traditions/practices are forced in the throats of protesting public, you may be sure someone is making lots of money on the side. Like lack of universal health insurance in USA, the drugmakers and insurance companies make money. It makes me wonder what could be the reason behind not adopting technology which is readily available for umpiring. Show me who benefits monetarily from such stupid decisions. NFL games are officiated with the help of instant replays, coaches challenge etc. which makes the game very fair. Cricket is unfair and what is perplexing the moment somebody mentions use of technology, former players, journalists jump on it as if somebody is slaying the holy cow. Now aussie cricket chief wants to go back to the days of widespread cheating i.e. home umpires. So instead of going forward and adopting technology, cricket wants to regress. What next!!

You reckon Bucknor and Benson are wearing Aussie sweaters under their coats, Dave? They aren't biased like the mid-80 Pakistanis, just incompetent, they're making bad calls against The Aussies as well. I'm just saying Mukul could bare that in mind when he goes off on one about umpiring, especially when he starts his blog saying that enough has been said about it.

Longmemory,

Um, while I'm not happy with Ponting and his whole "fair catching" and "no walking" I think as a whole Australians are very fair. Gilchrist is a great example of someone who walks ALL THE TIME, not just when it doesn't matter like a certain West Indian left handed maestro...

nothoing can make good the loss .....whatever my be the case.....especialy in cricket who knows what would have happend if all the three decisions against the australians had come off well and good .

If there is a more pretty and elegant batsman today in World Cricket than V.V.S. Laxman I would really like to see him all day !!

so from when has lbw qualified to be injustice !!! If that was the case ... ne team would lose out thanks to hawk eye. Mr.Rext and Mr.Rev, the point here was about not getting the audibility of "thick edges", and to miss out on stumping((s) - coz they were 2 of them).

Henceforth ... no evening up has actually happened ... am not cribbing ... but I guess you need to get the point.

Am enjoying our no.9 belting (thats true .... belting the leather out of the kookaburra) .... catch up with ya later !!!!

Well, I don't have a longmemory but i'm reasonably content with my short to mildly short memory. Anyway, its good enough that i remember all the Indian fans carping on BEFORE the series started about how hard done they are by the umpires. Sometimes your dreams do come true.
Just admit that deep down you're glad you got some bad decisions so that in case your team loses you can whinge and whine ad nauseum about how the world is against you and Australia is the great satan of world cricket.
I suppose in a perfect world it would have been a 'white' umpire who wronged you so you could play your beloved racism card.

Questioning the morals of the Aussies is definitely not the right thing to do here. The days of walking are long past. So I have no problems with batsmen not walking. But at the same time, the same batsmen can not expect the opponents to walk.

Anyway the point that the cricket administrators and aficionados must discuss very seriously is embracing technology the right way. Umpires are human indeed and there is no way you can blame Symonds for the incorrect judgements. Very soon ICC must do something about that. You can not let umpiring errors ruin good contests.

In my opinion the errors against weaker teams are magnified simply because they can not overcome these errors. Whereas same number of errors against strong teams don't affect them as much. Getting Australia out for cheap is difficult as it is, with the umpiring errors it just becomes impossible.

On a different note, it was brilliant to see Aussie PM Mr. Rudd come and talk to Harsha and Sunny in Star Cricket Commentary box.

he seemed to experiment, for the sake of his art, with more improbable angles

It is incredible that these australians are actualy crying about LBWs not given.Mate there is a hellova lot of difference between a run out or snick and an LBW where only GOD knows whether the ball hits the wicket or not.and FYI the Indian team has refused to complain about the umpiring unlike you whingers in 2001.

The difference between what happened to Australia and India is simple. India were denied four CLEAR (two stumpings and two catches) wickets by the incompetence of the umpires. Australia were denied two wickets because of their own (Gilchrist's) incompetence. You can't blame anyone except yourself when you drop catches. That sort of a let-off is quite different from what Bucknor and Bensen engineered when Australia was batting.

Once again Yuvraj Singh showed he has no class and is terribly over-rated (like 99.9% of Indian cricketers in history) whilst VVS Laxman showed he is terribly under-rated and one of Indians best ever batsmen. Tendulkar was plumb LBW to Clarke, and didn't once dominate the bowling- he played selfishly with RP Singh and Ishant Sharma, appearing to only care about wanting to remain not out at the end rather than get extra runs for his team.
Sourav Ganguly is the most selfish cricketer of all time, and when they showed the Indian dressing room standing and applauding when both Laxman and Tendulkar reached their centuries you could see Ganguly only clapping because he "had" to, and the look on his face was one of jealousy and bitterness.

Longmemory - its not what you said, but rather what you didn't.

Jason, funny you seem to be branding Sachin and Saurav as selfish when both of them were playing attacking aggressive cricket. And as regards to whether they dominated the bowling, a strike rate of 85 and 65 respectively proves it. Or better, ask a certain Mr.Hogg. It's no wonder 3 of the Aussie bowlers went for over 100 runs, with Mitchell Johnson, remarked as a bowler in a generation by Lillee, a whisker away from a well deserved 150.

'Indian': how can you complain about our supposed whingeing as you whinge yourself. Go look up hypocrite in the dictionary...

Other than that I have little to say as my friend Shaival has summed it up with more poise than could be hoped from any of the nationalistic ... that has spread like a virus across all of cricinfo's blogs...I suppose if it brings the punters in...

As regards to Sachin not being given out despite being out LBW as you say, that's a mistake of the umpire. I agree it was a howler. But after atleast 4 dismissals turned down in favor of Aussies, this was the least favor the shylocks-in-white-coats could do to the Indians. Also do not forget that so called "unselfish" Ponting who "upheld the spirit" of the game by not claiming a catch, did not walk despite being clearly caught behind. Double standards, cap? However, it has to be acknowledged it was within his rights, so was Sachin. So get over it.

The "posting guidelines" note that "the following are not allowed under any circumstances:

* racism and accusations of racism
* comments about bias by officials against specific teams or players"

There are clear instances of both in the posts to date. Go easy people!

Yes, India got the worst of it in 2003-'04 and probably should've won 2-1. Yes, Symonds' 162/3 was shocking umpiring, but Sachin and VVS also were lucky to survive very confident shouts.

Let's just hope umpiring mistakes are kept to a minimum, that they even out - and that the ICC uses common sense for once and brings in increased use of technology very quickly.

Hopefully teams head to Perth 1-1 :).

I don't get the casteist blog that Peter Lalor wrote about Indian fielding. From what I've read so far, his articles are nicely biased towards Aussies supremacy. Mukul, might I point out that the Aussies first need to hold the catches that matter, and then talk about their fielding being supreme, and Indians (and any other international team) lacking in it. This Australian attack is toothless.

Many a times I am critical of this blog... not today. Well said Mukul. It was a great inning from Laxman and yes he should have gone on. With a smile on my face I can write that one of the three did go on to make a big hundred. Sachin delivered uner pressure. Big time.

Whiners, give Yuvraj and Dhoni time in Australia. It is not easy to change your instincts. Remember even Laxman had clicked only in his last match (in his first series).

Folks-We can discuss about umpiring adnauseum....but let's pause and marvel at 'Object D Art' VVS! Watching him play the last couple yrs stoically instead of the free-flowing sublime style that we(hard core Laxman fans headed by Mukul)so desperately covet.....I worried whether VVS would ever recapture the incandescent form of 2003-4 series in Australia. This innings was so magical and beautiful I pinched(more than couple times) myself to see whether it was true especially after the drubbing in Melbourne. Isn't it laughable and utterly ridiculous that Laxman gets dropped in favor of XYZ in inconsequential series. He needs to be presevered and cherished. For India's sake and for his hardcore fans' sake may he flower like Steve Waugh in 2nd half his career....scoring a min of 30 centuries and 10K runs.....all the while enthralling with his pure, un-emulatable(lack of better word)strokes of symmetrical beauty! Game on and VVS pretty much very very special!

To Jason
Learn to appreciate good things. Sachin's innings was the fulcrum around which the Indian innings was built. When wickets were falling at the other end one has to be cautious. I dont think he was slow. Please see strike rate and it is perfectly okay for test match cricket. Coming into bat today he was on overnight score of 9 and he has added 145 runs with mostly the tail batting with him. And for your comments on Indian batsmen being over rated just dont warrant any kind of reply. The world knows of the feats of Sunny, Kapil, Vishy, Dilip and a whole lot of Indian batsmen who gave a lot of moments to cherish in different parts of the world. So if you dont know anything about that just keep your gob shut and just support your team.
As for Laxman he is a class apart and we dont need you to tell us how he is rated ok.
Your post warranted a reply and I think you just cannot digest that India scored over 500 because no other team has come anywhere near this.

Jason , i think u hit the nail on the head , abt lax being under rated and sachin batting selfishly. After playing cricket for so many years you expect him to protect the tail (the tail was good, well -- thats another story ).

To Jason

And mate you seem to have a good future reading faces of people and giving meaning to their expression. Ganguly clapping with envy, jealousy, your face reading is ridiculous

Thanks Mukul for the very balanced view and openess on Yuvraj.
He failed yet again, kind of underlying your point but thanks for
not labelling an Indian cricketer as a "pretender"
We are after all different than the media and press of the poms :)

any person who has watched more than a highlights package of test cricket would realize the crafty wisdom in sachin's handing over most of the strike to singh and sharma. the scg is a large ground and with spread out fields, had sachin gone after the bowling himself, we would have ended up with a lead of about thirty odd runs. instead with close in fields, sharma and singh were able to gather some valuable runs for the TEAM by merely lofting the ball into empty spaces. i wonder how someone could label sachin selfish for giving the strike to others and thus gathering runs for the team.

Rext and Rev probably need some umpiring goof-up to point out that the errors evened out,but there is a critical difference between CLEAR OUTS like edges and stumpings and LBW that would always be subjective..

I think that what most Indians would complain about are the fact that the third umpire got the stumping decision against Symonds wrong (he was plumb lbw to Kumble too btw but I think that very few umps give a lot of lbws so I think those evened out). To get the stumping wrong with all the angles available, the man has to be either blind and incompetent or a cheat (I will be charitable and go for option number one). Ian Chappell has been quoted as saying that "even when the technology is being used, they don't get it right" with reference to this decision. I believe that the Benson decision against Ponting was what our friends in the US would call a "make-up" call. The finger was going up almost as soon as the appeal was made :). Have to commend him for correcting an earlier eggregious error. No such luck with Bucknor. There was no difference in the Dhoni dismissal (given) and the Symonds dismissal (the caught behind not given). Is it a wonder that Indian fans and writers complain?

@Jason, I agree with you on Yuvraj. Everything happened so soon to him. He is not a 100% test player. If he should be there for the fielding alone in the team, sachin and ganguly fielded better than him in this test. He is a total waste and arrogant player to be played for the test matches. there are so many talents in india like Subramaniam Badrinath,Amol Mazhumdar not getting any place in the side.

Bad umpiring-defintely and most of it went against the Indians, but on the whole this Indian team thanks to Laxman, Tendulkar and yes, Dravid, played great cricket. I will be surprised if they loose this game. Next game India must include Irfan Pathan for Yuvraj Singh.They are showing that they have the right stuff to beat Australia.

I think that an Umpires pay should be docked 25% for each wrong decision...only then will these dudes concentrate or think of retiring...Bucknor surely would retire. Laxman's stroke play is like magic....just doesn't seem to use any effort...Incredible! It is a pity that the selectors sword seems to always rest on this poor blokes neck.

Mukul is right. We need to move on leaving behind what has happened. But hats off to Sachin and the three bowlers for adding nearly 200 runs to the Indian score. And to compare them with no. 1,6 and 7 adding a mere 7 runs!!. I think the time has come for us to take a realistic view and have specialist players taking the field for Tests. We have always been guilty of comparing our one-day cricket to Tests. For example, before the series started, every Tom, Dick and Harry were saying Yuvraj was the best that happened to Indian cricket. Now after 3 innings our "knowledgable" journos are saying we should drop him!! come on guys, wake up and be pragmatic. Test cricket needs specific and special skills.

I fail to understand why Tendulkar was taking singles off the first ball of each ovr when Sharma was at the other end considering that his highest fst class score was less than 10.Yuvraj will struggle against good spinners.Sehwag can be tried at Perth ahead of Jaffer.

hey Mick,your nonsense opinion is matched only by your short memory.You can be so haughty beacuse your team is no.1,but remember all cricket teams have ups and downs (remember the 80's?)And by the way the Indians regularly match your team not by whining against genuine bad umpiring;they fight it out against a much more professional and prepared side.And I would think that people have the right to call a blooper a blooper.If you think we have come to lose the series and then cry foul,you are in for a big surprise,mate.
Interestingly,crucial decisions have seldom gone against your team in this decade(Tendulkar''s shoulder before wicket,Sangakkara's outrageous dismissal comes to mind).Steve Bucknor played a bigger part than Steve Waugh in saving the SCG test last time.But we didn't complain,like you vehemently did in Kolkata.
I really love this Australian side for their game.But when pride turns into arrogance,the future becomes bleak

It was great moment when Sachin got his 100 .. FINALLY !!!. But he spoilt the magic by playing the way he played with RP Singh and Ishant. And ... when he says something like the team winning is more inportant than his century .. it gets more irritating. Comeon Sachin, accept that you play ONLY for your own records.

Im Pakistani and thus support Pakistan, but this team austrlia is wonderful, they are the best and there is no 2nd best. Aus is on another plane then rest of us mortals. I think cricket should be banned for masses, and Pak India and others shouldnt have a say game should be run by elites for elites. Most of indian pakistani fans dun know crap abt cricket yet wana talk crap, dun like it go watch soccer. Leave my game alone

I have to say that there are fair cricketers in both Australia and India. Gilchrist is a supreme example for Australia (Ricky Ponting was straight forward yesterday when he said he was not too sure if he had caught Dravid) and Sachin is an example for India. Whilst it is regrettable that these decisions are were bad, it must be noted that it is not anybody's domian to comment about it as an umpire's descision as it is final and must be respected for what it is. What is the need to have these umpires on the field if the rest of us can make descisions sitting in our armchairs? On a different note, the comments from Jason above is very inflammatory and ill-informed.

I thought this was supposed to be a post on a VVS innings, instead it has digressed to walking, non-walking, Bucknor, etc. Mukul, you need to screen the responses more closely so that no mudslinging is allowed by 'the lazy pampered know-nothings' to borrow your apt term.
History tells us that most visiting teams have copped it when touring Australia in the past. Some of them absolute shockers! Infact there was a time when India would get it real rough when touring overseas, where as our own poor umpires would get brow beaten by the aggressive visiting players like Tony Greig, Chris Old, Alan Border, Greg Mathews,the West Indians,etc. We are supposed to be hospitable you see! But what Bucknor has been doing for the past 4 years and 'Shocker' De Silva before he got chucked out is laughable. It is not just the dismissals, but look at what response Yuvraj got after showing 'dissent' and what Ponting got after showing 'disappointment'. One wonders if we have got the definitions right!

Jason, this aint psychology 101 mate, so stop analyzing the ulterior motives and behaviors of players off the field. You would be better served looking at the telling contributions that Ganguly and Tendulkar provided to the Indian total, in addition to making this match a very competitive one indeed. And I think there have been enough obvious umpiring gifts (like catches and stumpings) handed out to the aussies, that you would consider not whinging too much about an LBW decision in favor of sachin, which is not as obvious to judge as say a catch or maybe a stumping, right? Well I hope so. I do agree with you though that Yuvraj is overrated and not completely ready yet to play test match cricket, but claiming that 99.9% of Indian cricketers are overrated would really reflect badly on your ability to acknowledge the obvious facts (just look at the umpteen stats) and with that judgement of yours, I wouldnt be suprised if you were taking umpiring tips from Mr. Bucknor himself.

Mr Jason your comments about some Indian cricketers being overrated is probably true. However its stupid to say the same about the fab four of the current team. Also please get it into your thick head that all men are not alike and each one may have a different means of expressing his emotions. However just like a lot of other assholes you too seem to be a member of the "Hate Indian Cricket" and "Hate Ganguly" brigades so guess its too much to ask for any rational thinking from the likes of you.

rext is the greatest champion cricketer of all time..in fact they hav askd rev to replace richie benaud in channel 9s commentary team!!some fools who havint even been to a cricket field comment that sachin batted selfishly lik the above fool jason.when 7 players r placd on the bopundaries by the aussies and they bowl a containing line to sachin how do u expect him to hit 4s and 6s.?if he had got out trying to hit while harbhajan was new india cud hav been all out for 370 odd.he saw tat there were no demons in the pitch and saw the tail enders were determined so gave the strike to them.and see the result!so many boundaries.please jason,he has played the most test cricket aftr allan border..he knows wat to do in situations..give him credit man.ya a 156 n.o wil improve his batting average by 0.15 maybe.instead of 380 all out with sachin out on 180 we have 532.if the former had hapnd then senseless guys lik u will say"when sachin scores a ton india never wins"!feel so bad for sachin!

Jason - u've got it all wrong mate. If u heard what Sachin said about why he let the tail enders take strike u might not say it was a bad idea. After all it did pay off. He played the whole day and probably was tired to get big shots. Aussies set an attacking field for tail enders and kept men in the boundary for Sachin. So it made sense for playing the way he did. Dont let ur bitterness show this way mate. We've got to give credit where it is due.

Give a big hand to Jason ... The one who can read people's expressions! Hail Jason!

Give us a break dude ... all australians are patriots who play for the country, and all indians are selfish who play for themselves, is it??!!

There is a reason why we say you guys are racist. It drips from every pore and every word you say.

And Mick,this is not a blog about racism.If the non-whites write about racism against them it will fill a library.You suppose in a perfect world the umpire who wronged us would have been white.Mate,every time you suppose,do you do it in such an obtuse way?I envy people like you who make such allegations without responsibility.Does anybody seriously think that India plays the racism card?Funny,when it is an Australian cricketer who is the latest to complain about racism.

I feel that Gilchrist will make a better captain and is definetely more sportive than Pointing..I just hope that he gets his chance to captain..I also agree with Jason on sachin..Iam an Indian and I was utterly disappointed with him trying to keep his wicket intact to maintain his average..that was selfishness at its height..

Sadly I have to say I agree with Jason. really dissapointed that this so called 'great' batsman played such a dull, pathetic, spineless innings. I mean he played decently with ganguly in the morning but even after he got his hundred he was still missing balls consistently, how long does it take to get your eye in?? What a selfish batsman to let number 9, 10, and especially the 19 yr old Sharma to face the likes of brett lee!!! so much for sheparding the tail.. I thought he might have had a plan with bhajji but he honestly didnt care much abt the team situation. where was the urgency?? If he wanted to anchor the indian innings fair enough but when they were 9 down surely that was the time to attack if any?? what a gutless innings.. before watching this innings i held this guy in very high esteem, Ive never seen an inings more singleminded and monotonous than that, the ch 9 commentators didnt know what to say... at least his average at the scg has gone up..

Despite da umpiring errors, this turned out to be a really good test match and the main thing is India showed fight after long time despite moral destroying errors.
Though I still think, India needs to sort out their opening pair and bring Sehwag in and swap Jaffer and Yuvraj's position as Yuvraj is not great batsman of spinners. Maybe drop one of these two and try Karthick, got nothing to lose

Contd...
As of Laxman, one doesn't find words to describe it. He can exault and he can exasperate, thankfully today it was the former. At one time yesterday it was looking like it will be repeat of Eden 2001, unfortunately the late strikes pegged India back. However, the little champion who has now fully embodied Sachin Mark II was exemplary and Ganguly carries on merrily in sublime form, with a flawless innings. It is sad that Yuvraj is failing to get his bearings. But he still needs to be backed specially now where the problem seems more in the mind than in skill. His poor outfielding is giving this away.
No wonder India has a tough job of replacing the Big 4 in the future, unless we have selectors in the mode of one 'Jason' here who seems to read minds and faces where there is nothing to read. No wonder India is an inconsistent team, when you have such cricket followers around (assuming that this fellow is an Indian). Just like governments, you get teams that you deserve.

So much talk about plumb LBW. Pete et al, it's you whining now. It's interesting that you guys preferred to comment on the under written single paragraph on umpiring rather than other 3 paras in Mukul's blog. LBWs are always subjective and nobody started counting the possible LBWs against Aussie batting. Most of the teams including Aus would be out within 150 if Hawk-eye on LBW is implemeted. People were talking about clear edges and stumpings, those are much easier to decide using technology. Last time I checked Wasim Akram, Steve Waugh, Ian Chappel, Peter Roebuck were not Indian. So, it didn't take an Indian to criticise the umpiring on day1. I am proud that Indians took a good lead even after Aussie total was inflated by bad decisions. That should be the spirit in the team, play your best game irrespective of any external factors.

All the comments about the decisions going against the Aussies are heard of. None of them can be decided with a naked eye or ear. Be it Laxman's LBW appeal, which showed 2 stumps in clear view when the ball hit the pads or be is sachin's LBW.But what about a 3rd upmire, with so many angles to watch, so much time to decide going wrong? What about a nick, heard by the coffee vendor outside the SCG, and Mr.Windies getting it wrong?It has nothing to do with Australian palyers. Yes they do speak of morals and being straight. Beyond doubt it's proved that it is only a talk good to hear and make but not to follow.Still you can't blame the players for standing their ground as it is not their job to walk, and there are people to decide on that.Finally, India should consider itself very very unlucky as Symonds played 3 innings and Ponting 2. On another day, India would have been bowling at the end of the 3rd day with a lead of 200.

Shielding the tail means taking most of the strike to guard their wicket. Sachin did not shield the tail. Harbajan , Sharma played well. All he cared was for his average. Being not out. I expected him to get few runs from hodge's bowling. Every additional was imp at stage.

Guys lets face it...we are seeing a match setup inspite of 14 aussie batsman playing ..is something amazing from indians given the strength of aussies,day 2 of SCG was just one of the greatest batting displays one would ever get to see in recent times...hats of to VVS you really are Very Very Special..underrated yes,selfless teamman yes,soft dismissal asusual,i would rate his 281 as one of the best i have seen in my life,I would pay to watch him play any day..looking forward to a good second one and series..all the best.As far as decisions we are talking about clear nicks and stumpings,pls dont bring LBW in between..its high time we get technology and good decision making people sitting there pressing the button..unlike in case of symo .. Let the game be the winner.

Correct me If Im wrong. Symonds has a west Indies connection through his parents and our bucknor is also from the same country. ICC will have to do a detailed study and determine if a umpire is neutral on all grounds. I can understand umpires erring on LBW decisions and giving the benefit of doubt to the batsmen but that caught behind of symonds was too bad. At the end of 3rd day just visualize this; OZ allout for 200-250 and India 500 plus. bucknor you deserve the man of the match award and the third umpire should be retold which one is the button for not out and which one for out.

yes, sachin did get a life (i'm not sure abt laxman though)............

but, he got just the one life......and tht 2 was an lbw.... it wasn't a big outside edge or a stumping referred to the third umpire (or "not" referred to the third umpire ;-))........

nd i dont think it still evens out.... b'coz if the "5 or 6" mistakes in the uassie innings nd the "couple" tht were made in the indian innings had been avoided, india'ld have won this game......
smthing not very likely now.........

nd why do people keep talking about umpiring in the sub-continent.... the umpiring was biased in favour of the home side throughout the world.......

but, i guess it's too much to expect these people to be objective if they r blind nd cant see what went wrong in this test match.................

Remind me, how many blogs was it since this Kesavan... was lambasting England for feeling hard done to over an umpiring decision? And I recall that blog having a litany of comments by his adoring...suggesting that England should shut up. Time to take your own medicine my dears!

No wonder Kesavan himself refers to Indian supporters as "lazy, pampered know nothings".

if u guys remember andrew symonds did the same thing as sachin yest morning.he was on 137* and finished on 162*he added 25 runs while aus added more than 100 runs on the second day.indians had the field back and symo took the single.we brought the field in for johnson and he smashed 30 runs and so did brett lee who played lik harbhajan.but not even a single aussie newspaper or blog criticise symo's approach.when he wasnt confident of clearing the the long boundaries at the scg how can an aging sachin do it.but so many indians r scathingly criticisng him.he took a gamble and it paid off big time .we added nearly 200 runs for the last 3 wicks.he cud hav easily got 180 and got out but india wud hav been behind by 75 runs..not ahead.dont always critice our players.aftr batting so well he still gets the wrath of so many people.i feel sorry for sachin!

Jason, John, Dini to name a few experts of the game! Doesn't ring a bail? well people like Jason has added capability of face reading. He can tell whatever you are thinking with just once glance at you face. When a certain Steve Waugh makes the tail play more balls than him in an over, it's hailed as good strategy. After seeing that restrictive field has been setup for him, Sachin does the same, he is accused of selfishness. Even after the ploy had worked wonderfully! Get a life guys and don't try to teach cricket to Sachin. On Saurav's supposed jealousy, you just forgot that this guy was second highest scorer in 2007 and even now playing well enough to be jealous of anybody. The support and relationship between fav-four is going strong and they do not think ill of each other (this is not based on any face reading, this is based on the comments they have given about each other in recent past).

I was going to post to complain that nobody mentions Sachin's vital (and howling) LBW let-off after having screamed for days about Symonds but...everybody seems to have got in before me and that's got all my bile out for me.

Now I can relax and enjoy remembering the following lovely innings (none of which were flawless, but no less beautiful for that): Symonds, Hogg, Lee (he's so keen!), VVS, Dravid (lovely for grit, not style), Sachin. Ahhh! Gotta love Test cricket! And the game's only half over! :D

What's all this fuss about, dosts and mates? Cricket is all about exploiting weaknesses. If the umps get a couple wrong, a seasoned cricketer sees it as a blessing in disguise. You should be able to whine, pout, guilt trip and innuendo your way to snatching six lbws in your favor for the two catches they gave the other blokes. The two or three lbws the Indians managed to wrest from Benson & Co. seems below par to me, frankly.

That's just cricket, folks. You do a little gamesmanship between the overs, give the batsman or the umpire a mouthful, toss some mind flippers off the pitch along with the wrong 'uns on it, and then let the best man win and share a beer afterwards.

I liked the way Ricky snatched the moral lead when it threatened to run away from him. I'd disclaim that catch even if I'd taken it. Btw, when is Gilly going to cash in on his reputation as a walker? Dude doesn't have too many tests left, so now's the time I say.

Today (4th January 2008) shall be a day long remembered. Why? Today Sachin completed his 232 inning in test cricket. A brilliant 150 against world champions Australia. Brian Lara retired on 232 test match innings. Only now I believe you can make some general comparison between the two great batsmen.

A couple of things stand out straight away. Although Tendulkar has scored 4 more tons in the same about of innings as Lara, (both have 48 half-centuries) he has scored 433 runs less than Lara. 11520* compared to Lara’s 11953. We can also see that Lara batted in more of the matches he played in than Tendulkar has. 131 against 144 and counting. What does this tell us? Tendulkar wasn’t needed to bat as often as Lara was. Does this not say as much about their respective teams as it does about the individual players but this also suggests that Tendulkar was denied the chance to complete 25 of his innings A further example of this can be seen in the ‘not outs’ each player earned in their careers. Very rarely did Lara come to the crease having just 20 or 30 runs to knock of to win the match. Lara’s not out total (6) is closer to that of an opener than it is to a middle order batsman. People may say that when Tendulkar and Lara were batting with their respective tails Tendulkar’s and Lara’s attitude may have been quite different i.e. Lara – let me get as much runs as I can before number 11 gets out, or Tendulkar – number 11 will get out soon so why should I lose my wicket?. That is debatable and not formed of any facts only conjecture.

There has always been this great debate about who was the better batsman. Pundits have often stated that Lara’s genius is blighted by dips in form and that Tendulkar is by far the more consistent player. The cold hard stats do not suggest this is so cut and dry. Lara score 34 tons in 232 innings, Tendulkar scored 38. That’s a hundred every 6.8 innings for Lara and 6.1 innings for Tendulkar. They both scored 48 half-centuries, that’s one every 4.8 innings. When you remove the not outs from each player’s stats you get the true picture of how many runs each batsman actually made per inning. Lara made 51.52 runs per inning, on average, in his Test career. Tendulkar has so far made 49.66 per inning.

Weak Opposition???
Tendulkar has played 9 test matches against Zimbabwe making nearly a 1000 runs and three tons, one of them a double. Lara played 2 matches against Zimbabwe making 200 runs with 1 ton. Tendulkar has played 5 test matches against Bangladesh scoring 550 runs with 3 tons , one of them a double. Lara played 2 matches against Bangladesh scoring 170 runs with one ton.
So against these weaker teams Tendulkar has played 14 matches scoring 1550 odd runs picking up 6 tons. Lara played 4 matches scored 370 odd runs two tons. Now that’s not Tendulkar’s or Lara’s fault but Tendulkar has played over 3 times as much cricket against these weak teams as Lara did.

Strong opposition!!!
Tendulkar has played 23 matches against world champs Australia scoring 2000 runs making 8 tons (one double) and averaging 49.
Lara played 31 matches against Australia scoring 2850 runs making 9 tons (3 doubles) and averaging 51.

And how did our two champion batsmen fare against the world champions finest bowlers? Lara averaged 41.40 against Glen McGrath scoring 621 against him, Tendulkar averaged 22.16 scoring 211. And against the greatest leg-spinner of all time? Lara averaged 54.57 scoring 635, Tendulkar averaged 39 scoring 117.

And what if we were to throw in their respective battings records?

Lara has broken the test record high score twice 375 and 400*. He holds the record for the most runs test runs scored ever. He has scored more runs in one over than any other in test history ,28. Tendulkar has scored more tons than any other player in test history, 38. for a more detailed look at the records of these players Wikipedia is recommended. Tendulkar is the undoubted king of one-day cricket and in the top 4 or five in test cricket history. He will no doubt go on to break Lara’s most runs in test cricket total. But Ricky Ponting will go further than him. Will, can, either of these batsmen break the 400* or score match winning knocks like the 153* or single handily carry their team for years on end?

Sensible batting at the top, Sachin& Saurav accumulation, tail's bravado has ruled out the possibilty of an India defeat. However, before congragulating ourselves we need to see the cracks in the side, as play the next test at the dangerous WACA. SCG is a superb batting track. Sachin's was abominable, towards the end of the innings. He was not even willing to take the strike.While it is good to respect and trust the tail, it actually doesn't do any good if you don't take risks against bowlers like Hogh.I guess Deepak hasn't seen the match. Sachin played the last over of Hogh before attempting to pull/sweep Hogh for four off the last bowl n let Lee bowl to Ishant.
In the past he gave the impression that he likes to have an asterik next to his big scores and this innings was no different.Ishant was positive and would have added more runs if Sachin had dealt in 4s, instead of 1&2s. Sachin hit six at Melborne and SCG is a smaler ground. Yes fielders were on the fence but he didn't try.

Enough is said about India, however one must remember that INDIA is the only team in the world which can challenge and beat AUSSIES in their own land. Time and again, we proved it and today's play confirms the same!

I guess we need to realign the middle order. Yuvi, Dhoni are looking very inadequate. It is imperative that we need to send Dravid back to middle order. Yuvi is a pretender at this level. Any decent bowling attack (see his performance in WestIndies 2006) will sort this guy out. Dhoni, but for a solitary innings in England hasn't done anything in tests/odis that he has played outside the subcontinent.
It would foolish to sacrifice Dravid at WACA. No idiot will trade a rook for a pawn. I guess its time we need to analyse Dhoni. He has not done anything to note, but for accidental winning the T20. I guess Parthiv Patel will be ruing his luck, and Dhoni's plight should encourage Karthick n Patel to rework on their glove work, as they bat better than Dhoni. CongraTs to VVS& Rahul. Lets not ignore Rahul's vital contribution. Sachin& Saurav have scored well, but without VVS& Rahul(Indias most abused cricketers) we would have been starring into the barell. Good work VVS, well done Rahul.

"If it is Yuvraj, he will have earned his Test spurs and this blog will happily abase itself and acknowledge its absolute ignorance."

I will also join you in this and eat my hat.

But i doubt that will be necasary because the bloke is completely lost. Just watch him in the field

Another good article, Mr. Kesavan.

Despite criticism of umps by my friends, I have always told them that they are human and that they too make mistakes, but, frankly, the decision that let off Symonds off Ishant was simply unbelievable! The ball definitely changed direction after it hit Symmo's bat and the snick was clearly heard, but I can't actually believe that he couldn't hear it! Also, the fact that the TV ump couldn't get the stumping right was also a glaring mistake.

One more thing, Mr. Kesavan, I would like to know. When a decision is doubtful, as in the case of the Symonds' stumping, wasn't the rule changed during the 2006 India's tour of WI that the benifit of doubt should go to the fielder?

when i was watching sachin giving strike to tail, even i thought, he was playing a selfish game. i was amazed why he was doing that. it was clear that he was giving strike to tail deliberately.

in TV i couldnt really see, how the field was changed for Sachin vs Tail. i vaguely remember setting catching position for RPSingh and he hit a SIX. But i didnt comprehend that any team would put close field for tail and boundary protection for Sachin. so i assumed like that. but later when i heard sachin's statement, i started recollecting, and it clearly makes sense.

so people stop fighting about this. i felt sachin was playing selfish, when i was watching and i totally understand now that, sachin wont be a great batsman like him, if he cant think of these simple strategies.

if u think about it, its a simple strategy for bowling team, to set close field for tail and boundary protection for a batsman on 140.

and its also as simple strategy for batting team to ask tail to attack

Umpiring was bad but maybe it has been BAD all along and it is just that we have been aware of the obvious mistakes that Bucknor and his tribe are making.The errors are noticed only because of the increasing number of cameras that TV crews have been employing.So, theres no point blaming either Bucknor or Benson because through the naked eye or even ear WE might have made the same mistakes.Its just that because a majority of these mistakes have effected India that we feel outraged.
The problem is that the ICC should not take any half measures.Either completely go with the On field Umpires OR use the technology of cameras and Videos to ensure that every difficult decision is reffered.
The ICC has to take a stand.

According to me three possibilities are there in this test match:

1,Australia will bowl out around 300-350,In this case India's target will be above 250+.3 sessions for india to chase the target and for australia to take 10 wickets.Past history shows target more than 250+bit difficult for india.In these case chance for loosing the game for india is large.
2,Next possibility is india couldn't bowled australia tmrw.In these case australia will bat one session in last day and will put a target of around 350.In these case india will get 2 sessions.Result will be a DRAW.....
3,Last possibility is australia will bowl out less than 300.Then india's target will less than 250.So Chance for indian victory will be highhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

I have always wondered why a batsman of Laxman's undoubted ability and class reserves his BEST while facing the Australians.
His 5th Test century against them was right up there if not in terms of volume of runs then at least in terms of finesse, grace and unnatural talent.He was toying with excellent Test bowlers like Lee, Johnson and Clark.
Coming back to my initial observation on Laxman's affinity to the Aussies, could it be the genius in him craves to perform against the best and in the most testing conditions.5 centuries out 12 in total against the best means a ratio of nearly 50 %, overall.A guy who has an average of nearly 60 against Australia has a career average of under 45.Ganguly on the other hand has 1 century against Aus, as against 14 overall.
The conclusion I have come to, is that Laxman needs to be challenged to do well otherwise he gets bored and throws away his wicket.
Sad for his diehard fans like me who would have loved to see him get many more big scores.

Great performance by sachin and bhaaaji as slater says. But i think the law is not held for all. When yuvi stud there 4 some time referee fined him ( i know he got reprieved later ) but when ponting says a few words there is no problem . this is nonsense and i think it is high time to stop these double standards

how come whenever someone criticises an Indian player they all cry "racism"? For starters I'm not Australian and I support no team- I'm merely a cricket lover giving my objective viewpoint. I never said Tendulkar's innings wasn't a good one, I said when numbers 10 and 11 were in he appeared to play selfishly, and even the commentators were saying during the last few overs that they were just wasting time coz Tendulkar wasn't looking to score runs so India may as well have given themselves a few more overs to have a crack at the Australian batsmen late in the day.
I stand by my comment that 99% of Indian cricketers are over-rated... they inflate their averages by smashing runs on lifeless dustbowls but when they are faced with a decent attack on other wickets they're useless. Tendulkar is a great batsman, but unlike Lara, Ponting, Steve Waugh, and Inzamam etc he doesn't win matches for his side which is why I rate Lara above him.

contd....
Laxman is the exception- he is all class. As Bill Lawry said "We've seen players like Lara, David Gower etc but when it comes to timing there has been none better than Laxman". He also has the runs on the board, and he's done it against the best in the world (in both tests and odis) unlike pretenders like Yuvraj who all his supporters say "would" do the same, but guess what? He doesn't!

VVS Laxman is the ideal #3.... Tendulkar made the really big score, but Laxman was the one who turned this match, and indeed the series, on it's head! He took on the Australians, grabbed the initiative for India, and I believe he really gave them the belief that they could do it, which is what a good #3 should do. Dravid's days as a #3 should be over as he simply can't do what Laxman did anymore- had Dravid come in at #3 you get the feeling India's innings would never have gained momentum and we would have had the Melbourne test all over again. Well done VVS (see I'm not racist!)

All said and done. Decisions against Laxman and Tendulkar were LBW shouts (Lucky the ball didnt hit Sachin's shoulder or else he would be out) and not clear snicks.

All umpires give a huge dollop of benefit to batsman for LBW unless its plumb. I am sure there would have been a couple of close shouts of LBW against Australia too.

But we expect snicks to be heard clearly.

And we surely expect the third umpire to be 99% right.

And when was the last time a match referee called an Aussie cricketer or one Mr Andre Nel for behaviour. Asian cricketers find themselves in the dock more than normal. Isnt this racist?

A rhetorical question on Symonds not walking when he knew he was out.

Imagine being given wrongly “out” as akin to getting pick-pocketed and losing your wallet and imagine finding a wallet on the street being akin to given “not out” when you are out; are you the kind of person who keeps the wallet found on the street and don't turn it in ? And, do you count the money in it to find out if it is more than or less than the money that you've lost some other time (this question is especially for those who want to use statistics to explain whether bad umpiring decisions even out in the longer term).

Ask this of yourself . Also ask yourself whether you want to pay good money to see well-paid professionals who would rather not ask themselves questions like these.

Bucknor & Benson muckups in favour of Australia:
Symonds caught behind, stumping, stumping, lbw
Ponting caught behind
Total = 5

Bucknor & Benson muckups in favour of India:
Laxman = lbw
Tendulkar = lbw
Total = 2

I'm sure I've missed others but these are the ones I've observed, except for Tendulkar's lbw. Anyway, Australia have had more than twice the amount of favours than India...

eddy, Sachin has scored 117 runs against Warne at an average of 39?I remember Sachin taking apart Warne in 1998 and 2001 home series against Australia? Which world are u in buddy? Get your facts right before posting!!!!!

Mukul's comments seem pretty spot on, India are proving extremely competitive & without some egregious umpiring would be well on the way to a dominant victory (which they might yet manage anyway).

Umpires are going to make mistakes & over time those errors should even out but they can turn any one particular match. That's the nature of the beast.

I've not been able to watch the series so this comment may be off-base but I've often thought sub-continental teams would do themselves a favour by appealing less often. They used to appeal for all sorts of things which can only antagonise the match officials. When you appeal for something obviously not out you're telling the umpire "I think you're idiot enough to give that". Over time the officials become increasingly skeptical & unsympathetic (heaven only knows how Warne got away with it as successfully as he did).

Again, this may have no relevance to the current series, it's just something that I had bouncing around in my head.

Well, I wouldn't make too much of Tendulkar not taking the strike with the tail. When he came on strike, all the fielders were pushed to ropes and there was no chance for him to make fours of sixes. But the tail with the field up were able to take advantage of it and score runs.

As to umpiring during the Aussie innings, it was pathetic. It was just incomprehensible that the umpires supposed to be of international standards would deliver a third class performance. I always believe that the umpires should be fined for their mistakes as well.

More over, I still don't understand why they don't use the technology when it is available. They should be able to reverse the decisions if they are given wrongly. For example in Symonds case, the third umpire could have intervened and sent him packing, but, as it transpired, the third umpire himself made a serious blunder by reprieving Symonds. This is where they should be fined.

I hope the ICC does something drastically very soon.

good batting by the Indians...well played...just to get back to the umpiring...we should not compare subjective decisions such as LBW with stumpings and caught behind...Sachin was prob out today but Symonds was most definitely out yest (he was actually out 4 times)...Even aussies must admit that India have gotten by far the rougher of the umpiring and yet they are in a position of ascendancy despite being bucknored once again...no mean feat when playing against the best team in the world on their home soil...chak de

Good stats and analysis from Eddy on comparing Lara and Sachin. However, you got one wrong. Sachin's avg against Aus is better. Before this match it was M:22 Runs:1936 hst:241* Avg:52.32 (from StatsGuru). Since, today's was a 150+ not out and he may have been out about 35 times in 22 test, it will add another 4+ to that avg. So, it's 56+. However, we don't need to go into such nitty gritties; both are great players. If Lara got lot of big innings and still his avg is less, then it clearly shows he was less consistent of the two. I would rate both equally good in test cricket and Sachin decidedly ahead in ODI.

Remember this quote? "and yes, I did nick one through to the keeper (big smile)!" That wasnt Symonds...that was murali kartik in game 7 of the odi series vs Aus. The only reason India won that match. Dont recall anyone whining about umpiring at that time. Also, tendulkar got 3 lives in the chandigarh match..no complaints again I see.."coincidentally" these were the only 2 matches India won in the series. Also, where were the calls for Bucknor's retirement when he denied a plumb LBW to Monty against Sreesanth at Lords? The only reason India won the test series in England. Hypocrites all those who said the english media should get over it. Its for this reason I cant stand the Indian media and I read the Aussie newspapers even though am an Indian. I cant stand the complex they have. Everyone apparent has an agenda, has it in for them etc etc. Face it. Stuff happens. Deal with it.

Attention Steve Bucknor. The IPL is offering contracts to ICC panel umpires. If you need job references I am sure the whole Indian Team would give you glowing references.

hey all those aussie who are saying that Sachin and Laxman were given lives by umpires just get it right. Laxman was dropped by gilli on 45. and that lee's lbw decision was correct. It was going down leg side and may have just clipped leg stump. the appeal against sachin was not a whole hearted appeal even though thats out. what we are saying is use technology in cricket. its aussies who are against using that. saying that it wastes time is ridiculous. how many replays would it take to say symonds or ponting or for ur sake sachin was out.

Mukul, i'm ur on eof the most vociferous crtics. Perhaps my dislike for you is only exceeded by your's for YUVRAJ. However, i'm eating a humble pie and agree with you that yuvraj is not fit for tests,, not at present maybe in future. Still, you don't need to mention Yuvraj while mentioning mistakes committed by others, like you did at the start of this blog. I still believe that you are being over critical of the guy

@ Jason
Sachin has not won more games for India. Ponting stewe waugh could win games for their sides because they had 10 other players who were equally good. give sachin one of Mcgrath or warne or atleast one of wasim or waqar, even he would have won games. In 1990's we did not have a potent pace attack. Kumble could not win games outside Asia. there was no opening pair. rahul Laxman were not there. wicket keeper batsman was not there. India was one man army. many sides had simple strategy for India--- Sachin out, India out. and for Inzy pleas have a look at his stats outside Asia. and moreover he comes at number 5 in batting order where he jus need to finish the game which is already set up for him. so naturally his contribution for winning will be higher than sachins. but for sachin he always had to set up games but there were no finishers for him.

ANDREW SYMONDS HAS DISGRACED A NOBLE SPORT MUCH LIKE AN ENGLISH CAPTAIN IN THE 1930s. Its purely upto the batsman whether to walk or not but to go on an tell the media that he was out is ludicrous! What if Sachin comes out after the test and says he took 'performance enhancing drugs' when he score 150* but the umpires failed to see it?
Why is Shoaib failing a drug test after a match such an issue then?
Symonds has shown that his character is as beastly as his appearance by being chatty with the media about this. Thats my problem with him, not that he got lucky with decisions!!
About Sachin, we know he wanted to be not out but its just as well as I dont think he'd make any more than 30 odd by hogging the strike and hitting out. Sharma and RP Singh did slightly better than Sachin could given the fields and the fact that he's batted for 5hrs at that point. Remember hes 34 and runs real fast between wickets when needed!

I always had a feeling that Steve Bucknor sold himself to Aussies. Every time he has made a questionable decision in an Aussie game, it always used to go in favor of them!

FAO DYNANESH

Regarding your final paragraph.

My interpretation of your points leads me to believe that as opposed to anyone being racist, the only sensible conclusion is that you are in fact an idiot.

Without the umpiring blunders, India would be in a winning position now. Counting how many errors favoured which side is ridiculous. It is not the numbers, it is the timing that is the most important. If Ponting and Symonds had been given out when they were out the first time, Australia most likely would not have scored 200 runs. It would have been a very different game then. Now even if the umpires favour Indian batsmen, the most likely result is going to be a draw. And that would be a shame because Sydney was India's best chance to win.

Even in the first test, India got some bad calls in the first innings. They did get some good calls in the second innings but by then they were already chasing 500 in the fourth innings. Time and time again we have seen this in Australia. Umpires like Bucknor will never allow Australia to get into a really bad spot. For a visiting team to win in Australia, they need to overcome not only the Australian team but also the umpires.