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[iand123]

Steve Smith has slapped his way to yet another test hundred.

Where is that goose Freddie Flintoff, who took to Twitter to tell the world how he thought that the 21 year old Steve Smith was quite possibly the worst number 6 batsman he had ever seen? What were you doing at 21 Freddie, aside from eating pizzas and being a fat f**k?

Michael Clarke surprised everybody when he walked out to bat this morning. It was immediately obvious he cannot bend and play shots properly. Playing unusual stiff back swipes, Clarke has somehow turned his 60 Retired Hurt into a gutsy hundred. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Will be interesting to see how the much vaunted Indian batting line up goes on this flat pitch. Rain has wiped out a large chunk of play though...so, will be interesting to see if either team can force a result.

I think alot of people had that opinion of Smith when he first played for Aus, just goes to show

a) players grow alot from when they are 21
b) ex-pro's and pundits frequently talk rubbish

[csnew]

Sub continent pitches have more in it for the bowlers than this pitch. Had this been played on the sub continent I'm sure we would have got pages and pages of comments about the track and not how well the Aussies batted. Just puts into context those knocks when kohli can smash Johnson around the park.
Embarrassing when Lyon is the most potent bowler on both sides. India probably unlucky to be 4 down

[The Palmist]

Surprised some saw Spd as clubbie. He showed his class and temperament even in IPL. You could see he was always adapting to the  game.

Good to see Indians  getting some runs should make a good series.

[Gerry SA]

I'm not sure there's anything wrong with pitch. There's something in it for the quicks if they bowl the correct line and lengths.

India's quick bowlers lacked the skills as to how to bowl to this pitch. In Australia's case it's more rustiness. Johnson got better as the day went on.

But Australia made an error by not selecting Hazlewood, as Siddle was dreadful.

Pitch seems to be breaking up now, if Australia get a 100 run lead they'd back themselves to wins on D5.

[The Palmist]

India's quick bowlers lacked the skills as to how to bowl to this pitch.

That goes for any pitch for them really.

[Buzz]

Awesome from Virat and Che overnight.
It will be interesting to see how the Indian tail goes tonight against a newish ball. they are only 148 behind - if they can get within 50 there is a real game on.

[Stuey]

Another blow to the noggin http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/30425629
I've yet to see the footage, but could the regularity in reporting of batsmen being hit be due to looser techniques brought in by the amount of ODI/T20 being played or just more media focus?

[The Palmist]

Is there anyway one can watch highlights without sky sports.

[WalkingWicket37]

Another blow to the noggin http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/30425629
I've yet to see the footage, but could the regularity in reporting of batsmen being hit be due to looser techniques brought in by the amount of ODI/T20 being played or just more media focus?

"Johnson was visibly shaken by the incident"

Simple answer, stop bowling 95mph thunderbolts at the batsman's head then!

[smilley792]

In fairness it wasn't that short. Kohli ducked into it not judging the length.

[ppccopener]

and that is the problem in the post helmet era,you have to wear one to prevent injury,but there are more hits on the head now than there were back in the day.You tube anything from lille and Thomson v England in the 70's to Brian Close and England V Holding and the West Indies.How they batted without head protection is beyond belief,but they did and there were few really bad injuries....
Presuming the powers that be don't outlaw fast short pitched bowling the answer is re-designed helmets with more protection.
It's impossible to believe cricket would go backwards and reduce protection but the plain facts are less players got hit back then compared to today.
It's a difficult issue to solve...
rules were already put in place to prevent continuous short pitched bowling years ago.

[Stuey]

I think the onus is on the batsman to improve their judgement and technique, after all it's their career. The bowlers have enough to battle against, flat pitches, bouncer restrictions, strict wides etc..... Batsmen need to take responsibility, maybe less practising of 20/20 hitting and more on technique?

[Gerry SA]

Australia probably landed the deciding blow in the first Test on day 4.

Nathan Lyon's 5/136 ensured Australia gained a 78 run lead on first innings.

Then David Warner joined the legends of the game by scoring a 102 in the second innings. He becomes one of very few to score 100 in each innings of Test multiple times. And joined Gavaskar, Walcott, de Silva and Ponting to do it in  multiple times in the same year.

Australia lead by 367. Declaration should happen overnight.

The game got feisty today. Clashes between Aaron, Warner and Dhawan. Followed by Rohit, Smith and Kohli.

Australia and India just can't do friendly...

[ProCricketer1982]

"Johnson was visibly shaken by the incident"

Simple answer, stop bowling 95mph thunderbolts at the batsman's head then!

I think it's the batsmen's fault. They are not playing the short ball with enough respect. Stop taking your eye off it and stop trying to smack everything, play properly and stop playing ODI/T20 biffing in Test match cricket.

[smilley792]

I think it's the batsmen's fault. They are not playing the short ball with enough respect. Stop taking your eye off it and stop trying to smack everything, play properly and stop playing ODI/T20 biffing in Test match cricket.

He ducked into it. Stop turning every thread into moans on biffing.