India thumps Australia at Hyderabad and goes 2-0 up

Happy days for the Indian fans………… Aussies catapult to a lowly 135 run and innings defeat – Australian Press is screaming….

Sunday telegraph:  This is not the crisis Australian cricket was meant to have. Not with the Ashes 16 weeks away. Searching for answers, defiant captain Michael Clarke will move up the batting order in a desperate bid to stop the rot after Australia crashed to an embarrassing innings loss against India in the second Test.

Australian.com.au:   Australia  has gone from bad to worse and then off the adjectival scale, losing 8-56 today to lose the second cricket Test by an innings and 135 runs to India. There are words to describe the loss, but there is also a need to be mindful of using them in polite company but in essence the painful truth is Michael Clarke’s men were humiliated by lunch on the fourth day. They trail two-nil in the four-match series. Their tail will trail behind them to third match in Mohali in nine days time.

theage.com.au : Clearly, in any sense, Michael Clarke ain’t broke. After the Horror In Hyderabad, he is one of the few Australians who doesn’t rattle, squeak or have clouds of black smoke billowing from beneath his baggy green. Clarke was knocked over by a jaffa in the second innings – understandable given he doesn’t face much spin in the nets. But he is still seeing it like a beach ball, his captaincy is intuitive and his wife was recently mistaken for an athlete and given an endorsement contract by a sporting goods retailer. On cricket’s Titanic, they are still serving champagne and caviar at the captain’s table.

On my friends Facebook read this comment :  A year and couple of months ago, Indians were down 0-2 in Australia and they went go-karting after the loss;  Aussies now are 0-2 down and they went to Nets.  Who are professionals ? The comment below was :  Indians, for they knew that anyway they cannot adjust to bouncy wickets downunder and had nothing else to do; poor Australians cannot leave it at that – they have to practice to show their Indian bosses that they will perform in the forthcoming IPL.

Away from jokes,  Indians after the debacle took their eyes off cricket and tried keeping away from the road and instead of preparing for the bounce of Perth, Duncan Fletcher allowed them enjoy the trip, going go-karting.  At Hyderabad, Clarke admitted that Indians did outplay them but added : There is no doubt we have a lot of work to do. There will certainly be no stone left unturned. The batsmen haven't put enough runs on, and there is no excuse for that. There will be no break between the Test matches. There will be a lot of hard work, I can assure you. You don't get better sitting on the couch. We have had guys get in and out without making big scores. That's unacceptable."

A match where Indians clicked as a Team.  Aussies batted first made 237 – Clarke top scored with 91, Wade made 62 – Ravi Jadeja and Bhuvaneswar took 3 apiece. India made 503 with Cheteshwar Pujara making 204 and Murali Vijay 167 and then bundled Aussies for a paltry 131 – Ashwin 5/63 and Jadeja 3/33- defeating by an innings and 135 runs.

Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara  had  little in common. Cric info wrote that they don’t share language, friends, same taste in food, music, lifestyle or even favourite cricket shots; but they shared a big partnership, making Sachin Tendulkar wait impatiently with pads on.   Vijay the comeback man was under pressure especially after the twin failure at Chepauk but moulded himself to be in the middle and score what matter most – his 2^nd ton while Pujara exploded to a more majestic 4^th.

With this win, the skipper, who only recently was questioned about the place in the XI, now has won 22 of his 45 Tests, the most by an Indian - Sourav Ganguly had won 21 out of 49. Seventeen of Dhoni's 22 wins have been in home Tests, where he has a 17-3 win-loss record in 26 matches.  That  great knock at Chepauk not only turned the match, also the fortunes of Dhoni.  In the post match conference, asked if Sehwag was on borrowed time and would be persisted with, Dhoni called the question a "difficult one." It was not as ringing an endorsement as was enjoyed by Harbhajan Singh, who Dhoni said had "shown improvement" in his last three Tests.

India lost badly in England and then in Australia and just when everyone were talking about their outstanding performance at home, they thumped the first test…………… but then on things turned worse as England played so well at India.  Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann outspun India earlier this season, but India's belief at home has come surging back with two thumping victories over Australia.

At the start of the day, Indian win was very much on the cards but not in this fashion and so soon.  Ravindra Jadeja,  was not regarded as the effective spinner but produced a beauty or a beast that beat Michael Clarke's forward defensive to crash into off.  Ashwin completed his eighth five-for in 11 home Tests.

Mohali, typically has been  a swing-friendly surface, but given Australia's ineptness against spin, the curators are likely to work overtime to produce a turning track there as well. In the buzz of victory came Gautam Gambhir's tweet: "Smells like revenge. Half way there boys. remember Perth? Remember Adelaide? Two more, come on."  For India, Jadeja has become a more than useful 5^th bowler and Buvaneshkumar clearly is a find of the season. 

Sidestep :  one team that may not be relishing Indian win as much could be Mumbai Indians.  Their $1 million (Rs 5.3 crore) buy Glenn James Maxwell made his debut at Hyderabad – made scores of  13 & 8 ; bowled 26 overs gave away 127 claimed 4 wickets.  A go-kart is a small four-wheeled vehicle, powered racing machines, some  being able to beat racing cars on long circuits and at this moment Indians are cruising along…..

with regards – S. Sampathkumar.