Why so excited?

For days now, the news media been inundated with articles announcing the death of Australian supremacy. So then will some Aussie chicks burn a few bails?

Much as I would love to see that, this burning would be more than a touch premature. For some reasons, all the articles seem to acknowledge that the Aussies are still numero uno, and yet they come out with headlines that are either heart-rending in their soppy sentimentality or completely misdirected and fucked up with their superciliousness.

Ok, so there was a margin of victory that hasn't been witnessed in a really long time. So? And there was the general lack-of-threat, a directionless in the field that was distinctly un-Australian.

India have had much worse losses - some of them in the recent past. Did that vault them from a middling team to minnowhood?

India have appeared far more lackadaisical in the field, never hitting the stumps, for matches and matches on end.

True the Aussies 'have lost a few great players, importantly two match winning bowlers, and now their batting cannot stand the strain of putting larger scores up on the board. And yet, if their team plays anywhere near potential it is really difficult for any team to beat them. There is the best batsman in the world, the best (at least a couple of months ago) fast bowler in the world, and the statistical anomaly known as Michael Hussey. In combination, and with inputs from Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson, this team can easily make themselves near impossible to beat. It requires coordinated excellence from all quarters of a team to do so. Mohali had attacking batting, good quick bowling, some swing wizardry, spin magic, solid fielding and assured captaincy from India. In the last 20 years, only Australia has consistently ticked all these boxes.

Plus, everyone ignores the cricket superstructure in Australia. Spinning reserves might seem a bit of a problem, but why doesn't anyone acknowledge Peter Siddle's impressive performance on debut? In some way, his performance was as much a source of relief and optimism to Australia as Mishra's was to India. Siddle ran in over after over, and got the ball to lift off an uncomfortable length. Shaun Marsh is on his way here. David Hussey is an impressive guy. And Andrew Symonds is still in the picture.

So basically, let us not get carried away. Aussies are still number one, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Maha-Lee

24 - 5 - 86 - 1 - 3.58
14 - 0 - 61 - 1 - 4.35

Why is nobody talking about Lee's awesome loss of form? Is he carrying an injury? Is he over the hill?

Where is the next great Australian quickie?

Or is it only an Indian phenomenon to make sure that someone who has missed a footing falls down to never get up again?

Be (Ti)wary

For the third Test, the only reason I'd think of dropping either Dravid or Ganguly is if Kumble would consider a fifth bowling option. Yeah, so Rohit Sharma has been warming the benches when he might as well have been perfecting his game at home. It's easy to look at Yuvraj and say see what years of being benched in the Test squad did to him, but the more critical ones will recognize the merits of travelling with the team and Yuvi's portion of the blame as well. More importantly, it would be bloody crazy to blood Rohit in a decider against Murali and Mendis - he might take forever to recover. Let's not repeat Manoj Tiwary's trial by fire-breathing-Lee.

Brett Lee is a stud

Saw some highlights of the action that happened today, before I woke up to find Bhajji and Kumble batting.

Tell you what, if you go to sleep dreaming of Tendulkar's triple ton, and you wake up to find Kumble and Bhajji managing to survuve at the crease, you start to think negative. How much worse could the day get?

But the Kaptan and his Crazy Spin Twin, with a little help from Ishant, did what I thought was impossible. If India lose from here, it will be because of inept second innings batting and horrendous umpiring.

Coming back to those highlights, I am convinced that there is no better bowler in the world than Lee. If bowling is about sustaining pressure till the batsman breaks, Lee is its premier exponent.

Another one?!

Sehwag was caught at slip off a superb Lee delivery. It was a no-ball and Billy did not see it! And as far as no-balls go, this was a pretty big one. Somebody has got to do something soon, about these wrong no-ball calls.

Didn't see no blood

That's it, it is settled then that only the Aussie media can compare with the Indian media when it comes to creating hype. After all that talk, I thought I'd see at least Jaffer taken to the hospital by the end of the day. On the contrary, both Jaffer and Sehwag did their job, but no more. Sehwag got out to a ball he need not have played (what's new) and Jaffer got out playing a shot that deserved criminal consequences as he was looking comfortable, using his height to get on top of the bounce. Both fell in quick succession, leaving Tendulkar and Dravid to counter a pumped up Lee and nagging Clarke in a period of play that was really exciting. Lee brought out his entire armoury and even had Dravid nick one to The Next Captain of the World who dropped it. Tendulkar had to work really really hard.

And it paid off in the second session with Tendulkar running a lot of singles and audaciously slicing a few over slips, while Dravid looked much more fluent than he has al series. Through all this, one wondered who let the hot air out of the Tait balloon, but it is early days yet to say anything. A few balls of his today deserved wickets, but the pace certainly did not match the hype. Tendulkar's dismissal was not the cleverest of umpiring decisions, getting hit above the knee roll at the WACA, but it evened out when Billy gave Dravid a reprieve after he was struck plumb in front by a Johnson yorker. Both Johnsons were on view today. Stunning inswinger was followed by short ball outside off, cut away, quite regularly.

Ganguly came and went. He need not have played that ball, but on another day that would have scorched the grass on the way to the fence, we should not be too critical, but he really must make better use of his good form. And after Laxman played a few brave strokes, both him and Dravid started treating Symonds and Clarke as if they were Kumble and Bhajji bowling on Day 5 at Chennai. Perhaps it was because of the impending new ball and the unwillingness to expose Dhoni and Pathan, but they only ended up getting out to rubbish shots. Dravid in particular. Played like Dravid, got out like Afridi. And Laxman, ended up looking very stupid when he misread the line on a bouncer. And then another searing spell from Lee which Dhoni and Pathan managed to keep out.

Brett Lee is the Dude of the Day.

Moment of the day

Screaming bouncer from Lee, pitching on off and climbing to kiss Tendulkar on the nose. He moves to duck, gets under the bounce and at the last moment, sticks his bat out. Over the slip cordon, couple of bounces and into the boundary.