The Boxing Day Test Updates

Boxing Day is the big ticket day for Australian Cricket in its summer program. The MCG, with its 100,000 capacity and its coliseum like stands, was the birthplace of Test Cricket. This is the time where everyone in the country is suddenly a cricket expert and the main source of discussion in the lead up to the game has been about the future of the country’s leading run-scorer – Ricky Ponting. But by the end of the day, the DRS was the main talking point – or more correctly the Indian’s continued refusal to use technology, which cost Mike Hussey and Ed Cowan their wickets on a day were both teams would be happy with their position.

Michael Clarke was chipped by Brad Haddin in a pre-match interview, suggesting that Clarke was “hopeless” when it came to winning the toss. Talk was that the wicket was going to do a lot early, with the evidence being Australia’s capitulation for 98 against England last year, with support coming from the MCG curator, who said the first 30 overs would offer the bowlers plenty of support. However, MS Dhoni called incorrectly, and Clarke had no hesitation in deciding to bat first, with debutant Ed Cowan, on the back of four First Class hundreds in the last month, making his debut in place of Phil Hughes and partnering the in-form David Warner, fresh from the rare double of a Test century and a T20 ton in the same week.

With a large portion of the crowd being Indian supporters, you would have thought at times in the first session, the match was in Mumbai, not Melbourne. Warner was his aggressive self, trying to take the attack to Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan early. Cowan, was the portrait of a traditional test match opener, watching the ball closely, but eschewing any risk. Sharma was taken out of the attack after three overs, and replaced by Umesh Yadav, who belied his fast medium tag, by pushing the 150 kph limit. When a shower came over the ground after 13 overs, Warner had raced to 37 and Australia to 46. The five minute break was to Warner’s detriment, and he gloved a pull shot from Yadav’s first ball after the resumption, which ballooned nicely for Dhoni to take an easy catch.

Shaun Marsh came in at three, again another Australian who used a Big Bash T20 game to tune up his game, having made an unbeaten 99 for the Perth Scorchers to prove his fitness earlier in the week. Unfortunately for Marsh, he drove hard at his sixth ball, spearing the shot to point, where Kholi took a good catch and Australia were 2-46, and Ponting was exposed to a newish ball. Yadav wasn’t intimidated by the former Australian skipper, and hit him in the helmet with a short ball early. But Ponting dug in, striking two boundaries with his trademark pull shot, and within a short period of time, had overtaken Cowan, who was stuck on seven. The rain came again just before lunch, and Australia went off content with their mornings’ work at 2-67.

Play resumed after lunch, but the Indian attack had lost their radar. Yadav’s first four overs went for 34, as Ponting started to find form, finding gaps on the legside at will. Cowan had come out of his shell, and played a cracking pull shot to show that he belonged at Test level. Khan appeared to be struggling, in his first test back from injury, and was only bowling at just above medium pace. Ashwin’s off-spin posed no real problems, as Cowan and Ponting rotated the strike with sharp singles, punctuated with boundaries and their partnership hurtled toward the century mark.
With tea approaching, Dhoni bought Yadav back, and he responded by getting Ponting to edge to Laxman off his second ball for a well-made 62. Whilst it wasn’t the Ponting of old, he worked hard for his runs, and has probably kept the media off his back for another test or two. Michael Clarke came out and looked impressive, whilst Cowan continued to occupy the crease for as long as he could. Australia went to tea at 3-170, but the last session was to blow the DRS issue into the picture again.

After Clarke seemed untroubled in making 30, and taking the score past 200, he chopped on to Khan, who seemed to be getting some reverse movement. Then the test came to life, as Hussey got a brute of a ball from Khan first up, which appeared to beat him, but after what seemed like a pleading appeal from the Indians, Umpire Erasmus raised the finger. Replays quickly showed why Hussey showed so much emotion on his way off, which is out of character for the normal cool customer, as the ball clearly missed bat or glove on its way to Dhoni. Strike one for the DRS. Worse was to follow as Cowan, who in making 68 had made the highest score by an opener for Australia since Wayne Phillips in 1983-84, was beaten by a sharply turning ball from Ashwin and was given out by Umpire Gould. Replays showed again that he had missed it, so Australia had lost 3-9, two of which would not of been out had DRS been in play. Strike two for DRS.

From there on, Brad Haddin and Peter Siddle played sensible cricket, possibly aided by the good quality of this pitch, and the tiring Indian attack. The new ball was taken as soon as it was available, but Khan, Sharma and Yadav were spent by this time, and Siddle dominated the unbeaten and highly valuable partnership of 61, which sent Australia to bed at 6-277. Both sides could walk away happy with the days play, and a bumper crowd of just over 70,000, had watched a highly entertaining days cricket.

In the post-match interviews, Australian Coach Mickey Arthur said that he would have been happy with 300 as a first innings score, and considered they were in the best position. The most intriguing comments of the day came from debutant Cowan, who called on the ICC to do something about implementing DRS on all test matches. Brave words from a brave man, but Ed Cowan is a thinking cricketer, and as a victim of a poor decision, even he can see the benefit of common sense being applied. Given the furore after the Sydney test in 2007-08 between these two sides, on the back of perceived umpiring errors, wouldn’t the DRS be a given to avoid the same problems? Or will Australia, if beaten, threaten to cancel the series and ask to change the umpires? When will the best interests of the cricketing world override the negative ideas of one country?