Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Return Of Hayden


After the 3rd day's play at Adelaide between India and Australia,things are pretty clear as to how India could manage a win against the mighty Aussies-that too at a time when they were hungry for their 17th consecutive win.The reason is "Matthew Hayden".Yes..he is the culprit.

The man who scored hundreds against India in the first two tests was forced out of the team owing to a hamstring injury.Indians welcomed this with full hands to restrict their success streak to 16 once again.The WACA ground was something more special for this gentleman,because this was the ground where he scored 380 against Zimbabwe to break Brian Lara's 375 to become the highest individual test scorer-way back in 2003.

The 36yr old from Queensland recorded scores of (124 & 47 at Melbourne),(13&123 at Sydney) and (103 at Adelaide).A whooping tally of 410 runs at an average of 82.0.A much better contender for the man of the series than Brett Lee(in my opinion).Even last time when India put Aussies under pressure in 2003-04,it was not under the likes of Glenn McGrath,Brett Lee.

Adding to the debate,when Australia were beaten by England surprisingly in the 2005 ashes,the matches which England had a last gasp win were without the likes of Glenn McGrath in the 2nd test at Edgbaston and the 4th test at Trent Bridge.In the drawn 3rd and 5th tests,McGrath managed figures of 5/115 at Manchester and (2/72 and 3/85) in The Oval test.

After going through this,it would not be wrong to say that India have at most of the times been lucky than other teams whenever they face Australia.Anyway-the fact is that "if's" and "but's" do not form a part of cricket."JO JEETHA WOHI SIKANDAR"

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