Omg! I haven't written on here since the world cup in 2015 owing to two final years of high school . I'm back. I'm gonna start off with the India vs Australia series, I will also 'try' to write about the West indies vs Pakistan and the New Zealand vs South Africa series. I wanna cover as much of the ipl as i can ... i may miss some matches owing to the fact that i have to prepare for my entrance exam. Looking forward to the Champions trophy which starts from the first of June in England i think.
So starting off with the IND VS AUS series . whew!! , what a feisty , dramatic series this has been!
Australia came into the series as underdogs , but proved their critics wrong by winning the first test match by a huge magnitude of 333 runs. They outplayed India in every manner in that test match. Poor performance by the Indian batsmen in that test match , i think the bowlers bowled well though. The Australian spinners - Nathon Lyon and Steve O'Keefe were amazing. Lovely century by Steve smith . The second test match was interesting , in a twist of tales India ended up winning by 75 runs. This is the match , the huge "Drs controversy" started up , when Steven Smith looked up to the dressing room , when he was given out lbw. Good contributions By KL Rahul and Pujara in this one. They have been two of the best Indian batsmen in this series. Josh Hazlewood picked up 6 wickets in the second innings and Nathon Lyon 8 wickets. Excellent bowling performance by Ishant Sharma , Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin in the second innings to get Australia all out for 112. The third test match in Ranchi ended in a draw . Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh batted beautifully to ensure the match ended in a draw , the contest was otherwise swinging in India's favor. Another lovely century by Steve Smith who has been a run machine for Australia this series. First test hundred for Glenn Maxwell who proved that he has what it takes to play test cricket. Looking forward to seeing much more of him in test cricket. Excellent partnership By Pujara and Saha to get india a lead of 150 runs. Pujara scored yet another double hundred , well supported by Saha who scored his 4 th test hundred i think. Jadeja got a five wicket haul in the first innings and Umesh Yadav chipped in with 3 wickets. Pat Cummins picked up 4 wickets , supported by Steve o keefe who got 3 wickets. We havent seen much of a contribution from Virat Kohli this series. I personally felt that he was a bit too aggressive against Australia , and was a bit too emotional as well. I'm sure that he will be among the runs again. Virat Kohli was unable to play the fourth and final test match at Dharamsala owing to a shoulder injury . He was off the field for periods of play during the thrid test match at Ranchi.
The final test match in Dharamsala , wow , what a ground to play cricket on. The Australian camp made a little visit to His Holiness The Dalai Lama at his monastery on the eve of the test match.
It was amusing to see Steven Smith and The Dalai Lama rub noses!! Ajinkya Rahane lead his team to a win in the fourth test match and hence India won the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2-1. Yet another century for Steve smith this match. Kuldeep Yadav made an excellent debut by picking up 4 wickets in the first innings and he contributed to Australia's fall from 140-1 to 300 all out. Another half century by Rahul and a brilliant innings by Jadeja and good cameos from ashwin and saha as well to get india , a lead of 32 runs. Pat cummins and Josh hazlewood were fast and furious and intimidated the indian batsmen. The game really turned around because of a phenomenal bowling performance India's opening blowers , Umesh Yadav and Bhuevaneshwar Kumar who got early breakthroughs for India. Australia got all out for 137, leaving india to get 106 runs to win the test match . Very good cameo by rahane and a good half century by rahul yet again. This series has been a very emotional one for both the teams , there were a lot of controversies . The australian media showed us their wild imagination by calling Virat Kohli - "Donald Trump of the sport world" . A comment which did not go down well with a lot of people. Steve Smith apologized saying he had let his emotions get the better of him during parts of this series , i guess especially referring to what he said about Murali Vijay. Virat Kohli on the other hand has said that he no longer considers the aussies friends , even off the field. Bit of a harsh thing to say . considering he has to play ipl alongside some of them . But well that is his opinion , not entirely sure that the rest of the team feels the same. Bit surprising as well, but this series has done weird things to people , made them do stuff they normally wouldn't. I dont think the aussies are big fans of Kohli either. Sad to see this happen actually. Maybe Kohli could have put his statement about the drs controversy a different way , rather than almost calling Smith and the Australians a cheat. I think they have much more dignity and integrity than what we have observed this series.
