Australia win by 122 runs over India in the first test of the series at MCG

The depression cycle in Team India’s overseas hunts continued with a fatal collapse in the first test against the Australians at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, Melbourne. Initially the team was contemplating over the bowling capacity. Critics said, with a strong batting line up, India will have problems only in the bowling arena, as most of them were new to the foreign environments. But things turned the other way round, the bowlers dominated the show restricted the batsman from scoring huge runs, bowled to line and length, grabbed all the wickets in both the innings. Ashwin and Yadav even made some good attempts with the willow.

On the other hand the batsmen failed to fire as expected, or rather anticipated by million fans across. The application was somehow lacking in their approach. The entire batting department was handled by 90 percent seniors. These members were stalwarts in their own styles, but lacked application on the D-day.

Sachin 100th 100:  The most awaited ton from the firing Tendulkar has been delayed further. Immediately critics started speaking at lengths about the legend. But as senior columnist R Mohan had quoted the man who had persuaded 99 hundreds knows when it is time to grab the next one. Because 100th 100 is just a mile stone for the statisticians and matters nothing to the batting blaster.  As the Cricket legend quoted earlier playing and winning for India is great when compared to records.

But of course the Wisden’s cricketer of the year has set records that would most probably take some time before being surpassed. But all of them by one player might be just, next to impossible. In fact at the MCG on the second day the little master was in stupendous form, till the ball of Siddle that capsized his skills. Well a genuine credit must be given to the bowler than criticizing the legend. Infact in the entire match among the top scores our Sachin was the tallest in the averages of scoring rates.

Now it’s time to end the post mortem analysis and get the game going, planning strategies, practicing better, realizing past follies and gearing up for the cliff hanger at Sydney on January 3.

So with this we end our cricket analysis for the year and wish all the fans `HAPPY 2012.’ For live updates and analysis, stay tuned in 2012. (AarKay)