India Australia 2nd Test today - when Shivlal Yadav made his debut

After Chepauk victory, the scene now shifts to Uppal, an eastern suburb of Hyderabad ~ the newly built Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, which has been hosting matches now a days. It was  the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium earlier.   Dhoni was being criticized in many quarters and people were even questioning his place in the Test side, leave alone the captaincy – that one knock has changed, that brilliant 224 has cascaded him in to keeping captaincy for at least a couple of more years. 

The clinical victory in Chennai marks a good beginning – but against England we won the first Test only to loss the series.  Aussies are tough fighters and hence India has to keep the tenacity and pitch in newer strategies.  One of the Qs raised is whether we should have 2 offies and does Harbhajan deserve a place over Pragyan Ojha ?  ~ the left-arm spinner, was perhaps India's best bowler in the series defeat to England but was surprisingly left out in the first Test.  or perhaps Ojha would come in the place of Buvaneshkumar who batted well but had little to bowl.   Will Murali Vijay open with Sehwag is also another Q.  After the Chennai victory, MS Dhoni had talked about India having found a 'settled' side, indicating that there aren't likely to be too many changes.

It will be hotter in Hyderabad than in Chennai, with the temperature predicted to be around 35C in the afternoons. There is no rain forecast over the next week. The pitch is expected to provide help for the spinners.

Before the start of the Border-Gavaskar trophy, I posted about that  bespectacled debutant at age 32,  Dilip Doshi. He debuted in the 1st Test of the Series in 1979/80 against Australiaat this same venue,  Chepauk.  It was Test no. 855 played in Sept 1979.  Kim Hughes and Sunil Gavaskar were the Captains.  In the same series, in the 2nd Test at Bangalore debuted another spinner who went on to play for India for sometime with recognition – it was Shivlal Yadav, the off spinner.  He played 35 Tests and 7 One dayers – took 102 test wickets too. 

In his debut Test, Australia playing first were all out for 333.  Andrew Hilditch and Kim Hughes made half centuries. The debutant Yadav took 4 for 49.   Dilip Vengsarkar made 112 and Gundappa Viswanath was unbeaten on 161 when India declared at 457 / 5   . The rain affected match meandered to a draw.  Shivlal Yadav was to display his grit playing with a broken toe in that famous Melbourne Test better remembered for Kapil’s heroics, Indian win, Greg Chappels zero and Gavaskar’s ‘smoke was coming out of my ears and I heard nothing’ brawl with Dennis Lillee. 

In the Bangalore Test, Yadav played alongside Srinivasan Venkatraghavan another great Off spinner and Dilip Doshi who had made his debut in the previous match.

Security has been tightened before the match, with two units of an elite anti-terror squad deployed, and 60 CCTVs being used to monitor the stadium and surroundings.  Unconnected, is the newsitem that the  Bombay High Court on Friday lambasted the Board of Control for Cricket in India for not paying protection money due to the Navi Mumbai and Nagpur police for services rendered during the Indian Premier League matches in 2010 and 2011. A Division Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and A.P. Bhangale was hearing a Public Interest Litigation petition filed by Santosh Pachalag, secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Navi Mumbai unit, seeking direction on payment of dues.

For the three IPL matches played in 2010 at the Vidarbha Cricket Association’s stadium in Nagpur, the BCCI owes Rs. 2,30,33,821 to the Nagpur Rural Police and Rs. 23,22,826 to the Commissioner of Police, Nagpur.  The bill for providing police protection for the matches organised at the DY Patil Stadium at Navi Mumbai is Rs. 5,65,26,238. The BCCI has paid only Rs. 47, 53,000 to the Navi Mumbai police and, despite reminders, has not paid anything to the Nagpur police. “We fail to understand why the issue has remained unresolved for such a long time,” said the Bench.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar