gsmith12

Another school girl effort from Lyon in the field let's Kohli off the hook again and probably puts paid to an Aussie win.

After all the cricket Lyon has played you'd think he could keep his eye on the ball.

... the Mandela-Whitlam Trophy

Nice joke.

Well done so far Shaun Marsh on a crucial innings, taking us some way to what is looking more likely then not a Test victory or draw. And I'll admit, I'm a Shaun Marsh knocker.

Highest ever run chase at the G is 332, and we're now 326 ahead.

I'm all for adding 20 odd runs in the morning in 5-6 overs and then declaring and setting India 350 in 90 overs, if they can manage that then well done to them.

We've certainly left the door open with two bad dropped catches that cost us big (Rahane on 70 & Kohli on 88) and now this poor 2nd Innings batting display.

We're just about enough ahead that I'm more confident then not. But the door is certainly wide open for India, that's for sure!

350 the bare minimum the way this track has played and the talent in their top order plus Dhoni.

lol ... when did t20 ever "have" you? The sport has only been around 5 minutes.

Anyway, I reckon Smith will take the conservative route tomorrow if our batsmen can last that long ... we bat for an hour? Maybe longer if the target figure of 400 is on his mind.

He wouldn't want to lose his 2nd game as captain as besides all that, the 'Border-Gavaskar' trophy is on the line ... that trophy may not mean a lot to the general public but it will do to the players and CA.

Means a great deal to me Macca particularly after the flogging they handed us on our last tour.

Sad to see no-one saying anything positive about Kholi's superb knock. I actually took some pleasure from him not taking a backward step against both Johnson's bowling and aggression. The match is set-up for a very interesting final two days... a draw is obviously the most likely outcome now, but if either side collapses in a heap in their second innings (something both have proven that they are very capable of doing), there could still be a result.

That was the third great innings of the series by Kohli, no doubt he is a great talent, however it's difficult to heap praise on someone who gobs off for the wrong reasons.

Johnson had every right to throw the stumps down as Kohli was out of his crease and Kohli took the course of action any cricketer worth his salt would do and stayed in the line between the stumps and the fieldsman.

He was hit, so what, cop it and get on with the game.

Virat has far more aggro than is healthy for his game.

Meanwhile we lead by 112 with all second innings wickets intact and in the ascendancy.

The Indian out fielding was appalling in our first dig as was their catching.

Whilst Haddin took two rippers he also put down two easy chances and Lyon's effort was laughable, as Bill Lawry said 'a ten year old would not miss that chance'.

For a team that has taken great pride with their work in the field for many years, we need to lift our game.

Was having a watch of the Klinger innings last night also.

Is he becoming the next Simon Katich.?????

No, Simon only played for two States

Probable lineup - 1 Chris Rogers, 2 David Warner, 3 Shane Watson, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Shaun Marsh, 6 Joe Burns, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Ryan Harris, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Nathan Lyon

Nothing like the Boxing Day Test at the mecca of cricket.

The form of Usman Khawaja at the beginning of this summer, prior to his injury, was as good as anyone in the competition, he can handle the number 3 and I feel he should still be under consideration.

Boxing Day Test squad: Smith, Haddin, Rogers, Warner, Watson, Marsh.S, Burns, Johnson, Starc, Siddle, Harris, Hazlewood, Lyon.

Burns gets the nod.

Not unhappy with that selection, reward for very good form.

Yes, thankyou Grapeviney, don't know where I plucked 9 from. Still 7 wickets on a very impressive debut. As long as his body holds up he's a shoe in for the rest of the series you'd think.

As for the Nick Riewoldt comparison, you're onto something Grapeviney. My wife's a St Kilda supporter, and ever since she first saw Smith a few years back she's nicknamed him mini roo.

Yep, was a good contest, as both tests have been so far. It was funny how the game unfolded looking at it from stumps each night.

DAY1: India on top.

DAY2: India slightly ahead

DAY3: Australia slightly ahead

DAY4: Australia win comfortably.

India will make some changes for Boxing Day you'd think. I'd expect one of Ravindra Jadeja or Suresh Raina to come in for Rohit Sharma to give them an extra bowling option and Mohammed Shami may come back in for Aaron, who although quick, hasn't exactly set the world on fire.

As for Australia, Mitch Marsh won't play you wouldn't think, which means do they bring an all rounder in like Henriques, Faulkner or Christian or do they get a specialist batsman like Voges, Ferguson, Cowan or Burns. Hopefully Warner will be fine to play and you'd expect Harris to come in for Starc.

Good summation TD, I would like to see Voges given a chance if Marsh is unfit as he is in good form and bowls handy left arm orthodox.

Watson bowled very well in this test and will handle the medium pace roll at the G.

Good win in the end although the Indians were in the game right until the death, credit to them.

Kohli and the two Sharmas' badly need to rethink their attitude.

Take a leaf out of the MS Dhoni book boys.

Thanks to Rohit Sharma for gobbing off at Mitch Johnson before he had faced a ball, thanks heaps.

Goose.

Terrible day.

Shaun Marsh's two dropped catches were horrendous, both of them displayed of terrible technique and were so atypical for Australian fielders. Multiple injuries and generally toothless bowling on a Brisbane pitch weren't great either.

If Marsh can't bowl then he shouldn't be playing on Boxing Day. Ed Cowan's making a stack of runs; I know he's an opener but with the form he's in maybe there's a spot at 3 for him?

A good effort in the field in the morning session saw the Indians rolled for 404, Hazlewood with 5 seems to be the next G McGrath.

Top order all got starts with only Rogers and Smith reaching fifties.

We have the job ahead of us.

Well it'll certainly be a different looking team for the GABBA test!

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/josh-hazlewood-mitchell-starc-replace-ryan-harris-peter-siddle-for-second-test-20141216-128677.html

Hopefully the bouncy GABBA wicket should suit both Hazlewood & Starc and hopefully we'll see Rhino back for Boxing Day with any luck.

Smith to number 4 no great suprise I don't think. The question will be which Shaun Marsh will turn up this time at number 5? Golden Duck, or one of the best 150's we'll ever see?

India will field a stronger unit with Dhoni back and Ashwin likely to play.

But back onto the test just completed.

Well done once more to Nathan Lyon. To put it all into perspective as far as what he's achieved so far in his career, he is now 3rd on the list of all time Australian wicket takers as far as finger spinners are concerned as his 12 wicket hall moved him past Monty Noble and into 25th overal for Australian wicket takers with 127.

He's now only 5 wickets behind Ashley Mallett and 14 behind Hugh Trumble to become our greatest ever off spin wicket taker which is an amazing achievement. And in other wicket taking news, Peter Siddle is only 8 wickets shy of becoming the 15th Australian to the 200 wicket mark, but sadly I don't think he'll ever get the opportunity to add to his 192.

Was looking at the raw stats in the Courier-Mail this morning.

Trumble is a mile ahead of the others for wickets taken per test and average cost per wicket, still Lyon has some time to improve those figures.

Yeah I can't believe that I overlooked Lance Gibbs, pretty big oversight there. I lost him in the sea of awesome West Indian fast bowlers.

Deadly Underwood's left arm orthodox I think is a field all on it's own which includes the likes of Vettori. Yes they're bowling off spin, but it's spinning the other way, so personally I class it in it's own category.

Agree Deadly Derek and Vettori are exceptions, can't think of other prolific lefties off hand.

Derek Underwood 297 @ 25.83

I see what you mean Nasher.

Outside of the sub-continent I'd have to agree with you, off spin bowlers just don't seem o have the same success that the pace or leg spinners have been able to get.

Only one off spin bolwer outside the sub-continent has taken more then 200 wickets and that's Graeme Swan with 255, the next closest is another Englishman in Jim Laker who according to Richie Beneaud is the best off spin bowler he ever saw play. Laker took 193 wickets with a bowling average around 21.

The other non sub-continent nations best performers have been Hugh Tayfield from South Africe who took 170 but stopped playing in 1960, Sonny Ramadhin for the Windies with 158 who finished in 1961 and Hugh Trumble for Australia with 141 who stopped in 1904. Worth noting New Zealand haven't produced one off spin bowler to get to 100 wickets.

Once you look at Sri Lanka, India & Pakistan all of the sudden we see names like Muralithern, Harbijan Singh, Saqlain Mushtag & Saeed Ajmal who get to play on dust bowls on a regula basis.

Nathan Lyon has been able to play a role in this Australian team and shown steady improvement while doing so. Something Hauritz was unable to do and none of the many spinenrs tried looked like being capable of doing. If he's able to become our first ever off spin bowler to 150 wickets and the second ever outside the sub-continent then it's a credit to him and to the coaches who have been able to turn him into a valuable player. I stiil don't think he's effective playing in the sub-continent though given his style of bowling.

You have overlooked one of the greats, Lance Gibbs 309 @ 29.09

We have any number of ODI types who can replace MC in the WC however not so at Test level.

Not arguing, just sayin'.

He'll be back ... the selectors have been unbelievably patient with Watto so you'd reckon that the captain will at least be afforded the same luxury. Haddin should captain in his absence - Clarke's next aim should be to get back and firing before the World cup starts (the world cup commences on Feb 15)

I like Watto as a cricketer but in my opinion he's best suited to the late middle order. For the foreseeable future I see Watson at no.5, Mitch Marsh at 6, Smith to move up to no.4 and Shaun Marsh to probably come in at bat at no.3 (as titan pointed out in the above post, he's probably next in line) What complicates things a bit is that Shaun Marsh has been batting at no.5 for W.A.

As an alternative to Shaun Marsh I'd take a chance with a young up and comer (Burns, Maddinson, Silk, Bancroft, Stoinis, Handscomb or Carters) 5 of those aforementioned 7 players are in the top 10 for aggregate runs this season in the Shield ... only Maddinson & Silk are missing from the top 10 but previously, both those players have performed quite well ... Shield aggregates (Cowan and Voges top the list but I'd be looking elsewhere)

I hope you are right in regards to Clark although I would forget the WC and make sure he is 100% for the Ashes tour.

Selfish from my view point as I will be in attendance at Lords and Edgbaston.

Yep, hats off to Nathan ... we've been waiting for a performance like this from him and he sure did deliver.

Kudos to him.

Have we seen the last of PUP ?

I'm not sure Lyon is necessarily a 5th day wicket bowler Smithy as he seems to be at his best when the surfaces give good bounce ... you'd reckon that the uneven bounce that is generally on offer later in games would aid him but from what we've seen so far in his career, it doesn't seem so. I wish him well today though.

It's not that Lyon bowls badly later in the matches - he just can't seem to get the wickets that we want him to get. I agree with 'TD' in the above post to a certain extent - horses for courses. Unless a player is 'A' grade in the Test side, I believe others could be tried to a certain extent. At the moment we've got about 4-5 players in the side who wouldn't be classed as A grade although I believe that one of those non A grade players (Mitch Marsh) should be given a decent run.

Players who can be relied on to play a role can get favour as well but you can't have too many in the side who are in that category. My reckoning is that each player in the test side should 'generally' at least have have that 'A' grade possibility.

... looks like Dhawan has copped a howler - the ball might have just nicked the glove but I reckon the umpire might have thought the ball "hit" the glove ... I was just coming to terms with DRS and a few of it's flaws but the luck can go both ways without DRS. We may well get an LBW turned down today which is out (or something similar)

You were right about those LBW's Macca All the same the Indians copped the worst of the decisions overall and serve them right for their anti DRS stance, anyone would think that they run world cricket

Great to see an Aussie offie perform at last, well done Nathan.

Kohli was brilliant.

That took all of 2 minutes ... the cricket thread mozz factor at work again

As for the outcome of this Test ... we'd have to be favourites now. The Adelaide test so often comes down to the wire after often looking like a draw early on - I'd expect Clarke to declare overnight but he may bat on for 30 minutes.

A word of praise again for our skipper - a fantastic innings on his part given all the circumstances and he continues to lead the team with excellent tactical awareness - he always seems to be ahead of the play.

Smith is coming on in leaps and bounds and Warner is just amazing - he's come a long way from the swashbuckling t20 player he was when he first started out.

Nice to see Lyon pick up a 5 wicket haul too ... if he can get a few wickets tomorrow, all the better.

It should be a fascinating day tomorrow regardless of the result (I believe at least 7 hours of play is available)

98 overs to be bowled which should be enough to dismiss the Indians.

Pleased to see Lyon have success however he must follow up.

Amazing that the bounce he obtains in Oz makes NL a threat whereas he was pitiful in the UAE.

Another wicketless day with ball in hand for Siddle.

It really is sad at how quickly he's fallen away. Less then 18 months ago he was streets ahead of the rest of our bowlers.

Inclined to agree TD however apparently he has been ill today and took early leave.

It's only 2 weeks ago that he snared 5 in an innings in the Shield.