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aussie great calls on australia, india to show more ‘bravery’ to end test debate

LISA Sthalekar has bemoaned India’s unwillingness to take their historic Test against Australia, with the visitors batting well into the third day of their four-day match on the Gold Coast.

After being sent in, India batted and batted and batted over the course of three days where the best of an entire day was lost due to heavy rain on Thursday and Friday night.

It took until the second session of the penultimate day for the tourists to eventually declare their innings, where they decided that at 8-377 they had scored enough and taken enough time out of the game.

India scored their runs at 2.60 an over across 145 overs.

But on the back of Smriti Mandhana’s impressive 127 off 216 (strike rate 58.8), India refused to move the Test on with any urgency or intent on pushing for a result

“The easy thing for both teams to do is say, ‘you know what, we’ve lost a day, let’s just draw it, two points and we’ll go into the T20s,’” Sthalekar said on Fox Cricket.

“But if these sides are brave, and if they actually want to see more Test cricket, there is an ownership on both teams, both captains, both coaching staffs, to try and see if they can move the game forward.

“It would be a brave

with no one else in the top seven scoring at more than 50 runs per 100 balls.

First-drop Punam Raut managed just 36 off 165, striking at 21.82.

Scoring rates across the three days also saw the run rate drop, with India scoring at 2.99 over 44.1 overs on day one, 2.50 over 57.4 overs and 1.87 over the opening 37 overs of day three.

Midway through the opening session on day three, wicket-keeper batter Allysa Healy remarked: “It looks like a beautiful batting wicket. I can’t wait for them to let us have a go.”

Asked on field when wearing the gloves whether she was surprised by India’s lack of intent, the experienced World Cup-winning opener showed some frustration.

“It doesn’t look like it at any point,” Healy said.

“We’ve actually bowled quite well to be fair, but they don’t look like they’ve got any intent.

“Deepti (Sharma) has played two sweep shots and that’s about all we’ve seen today. Interesting times.”

Sthalekar - a former Australian captain and one of the most respected voices in the game - called on both teams to show some bravery to try and produce a result.

decision from both captains, but boy all of us sitting and watching want it.” While the short forms of cricket - T20 and ODIs - are played somewhat regularly in the women’s game, Tests are very rare. Meg Lanning - one of the modern greats - is playing just her fifth Test of her near decade career at the top. It has led to some showing leniency to the slow scoring rates, with very little longform domestic cricket played too. The multi-format series, which sees the ultimate winner determined from results across the ODIs, Test and T20s, has also led to some believing the Test doesn’t incentivise a team to push for an outright victory, particularly India who are the underdogs and 52 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, October, 2021

ipl 2021, rr vs csK highlights: rajasthan win by seven wickets, move to sixth

IPL 2021, RR vs CSK Highlights: Ruturaj Gaikwad's maiden IPL century went in vain as Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets in Abu Dhabi.

IPL 2021, RR vs CSK Highlights: Rajasthan Royals (RR) ended table-toppers Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) unbeaten run in the second leg of the ongoing IPL 2021 with a seven-wicket win at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Chasing an imposing target of 190, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (50) and Shivam Dube (64* off 42 balls) hit half-centuries as RR reached 190 for 3 in 17.3 overs to win the match. Captain Sanju Samson and Evin Lewis contributed 28 and 27 respectively in a show of batting prowess. Earlier, Gaikwad took his bat through the innings with his 60-ball unbeaten knock of 101 which had nine fours and five sixes after CSK were asked to bat first. Ravindra Jadeja contributed 32 off just 15 balls while Faf du Plessis made 25.

'how did this guy play for india? he hasn't got any shots': former england allrounder recalls early impression of dravid

WhEN the great Rahul Dravid burst onto the scene in the year 1996, despite a handsome 95 on debut, it took him time to become an irreplaceable part of the Indian team. He began with an impressive string of scores, but since Dravid was never the quickest of scorers, he had his fair share of doubters early on.

One such was former England all-rounder Dermott Reave. When Dravid played County cricket in England during maiden stint with Kent, Reave, then the coach of Somerset, came on as a substitute fielder and chirped away at Dravid. Reave revealed that he was able to successfully sledge Dravid, which The Wall himself admitting it had gotten inside his skin. "He was the Wall of India. He told me, 'You are the only person who has knocked that wall down. You gave me so much stick, I ended up going after one and getting caught. You're the only person who's ever got under my skin'," Reave told The Daily Mail.

Reave revealed he wasn't the most likeable player, but he did not care. His early impression of Dravid weren't great either. By the year 2000, Dravid had pretty much established himself in India's middle order, coming off a successful World Cup in 1999, but it did not matter to Reave. "How did this guy ever play for India? He must have had family on the selection committee. He hasn't got any shots. He just blocks it. I went on and on. And he got out. Things like that made me very disliked. But I wasn't out there to make friends. We were there to win matches," the former England allrounder recalled.

Dravid wasn't the only great Reeve did not have the greatest of opinions about. He and former West Indies captain Brian Lara played together for Warwickshire in the year 1994, and Reeve recalled how one season in particular with Lara was not a pleasant one. "Despite winning three trophies, it was possibly the most unenjoyable season I ever had. The energy between myself and Lara wasn't right for the whole season. I believe his agent told him I didn't want him, so he arrived with a chip on his shoulder," Reave said. "I believed on the field he was undermining me. Brian and I are OK now when we bump into each other. It's just funny that the most successful season was not really enjoyable."

might fancy their chances of holding out for a draw and winning the T20 matches.

Yet, Sthalekar said it was important for both teams to play a positive brand of cricket if they hoped to encourage broadcasters and the general public to get behind the Test version of the game.

“You’re thinking when is India going to declare,” Sthalekar said.

“They don’t have to, to be honest, they actually don’t, they can eke-out a draw and if they actually draw the series in Australia, I’m sure this group would go, you know what, that is actually a win against a really quality Australian attack.

“I know there will be some people out there that are going, why are you guys pushing for results, it’s because we actually want to see some entertaining cricket, we want to see these women start playing Test cricket a bit more.

“But before the dinner break, the Australian pair of Allysa Healy and Beth Mooney would not be expecting to bat unless they pick up the wickets of course.”

Veteran commentator Andrew Maher added: “I would hate to think that there were supporters of the Indian cricket team thinking we are being harsh on them by the way they’re going about this.

“The reason, I speak for myself, having seen the tour so far, they are capable, they are more than capable of taking this game to the Australians.

“Now they might be backing themselves to go into the T20 series two points down, three games to come, they might be backing themselves to win those three to win the series, they might back themselves to win two and have a victory, go home, series tied, big tick, huge ticket and let’s be honest it would be.

“But if they can win this Test match, what does that do for women’s cricket in India and, more to the point, what does that do for international women’s cricket.”

“Well, that’s it,” Sthalekar said.

Australia’s hopes of applying pressure and ending the Indian innings weren’t helped by their poor catching.

The home side dropped at least six catches, with Lanning dropping a couple of tough ones in the slips while Ash Gardner spilt a simple caught-and-bowled.