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Counter Steer
Before this Test match in the ICC Test championship table Australia was ranked first with 143 points and India was ranked joint second with 109 points and as such I expected a much tighter contest possibly extending to the fifth day but that did not happen.
India failed to reach 200 runs in both their innings and that tells a story on its own but it did not look that bad on the first day on Boxing Day when India managed to restrict Australia to just 343 runs but India's first innings fell short of that target by 147 runs.
Sachin Tendulkar's 62 runs made the score look not that bad but then Australia had an even better second innings declaring on 351. India's batting went from bad to worse and in the second innings none of the batsmen managed a half-century.
I don't know whether India's performance had anything to do with lack of preparation in Melbourne as they had just one tour match before the first Test and that match did not go all the three days because of rain.
I am looking forward to second Test at the SCG and lets hope its going to be a tighter contest but it will need the Indian batsmen to put some runs on the board as I think that their bowlers led by captain Anil Kumble did a decent job in both innings.
Meanwhile, its interesting to see that the West Indies have beaten South Africa to win their first Test in South Africa and also their first Test win in two years. There are two more Tests to go in
that series and I am sure South Africa will fight back to avoid a series defeat.