Defiant but defeatist? India's half-hearted conviction

At the risk of inciting most of the subcontinental cricket community, Peregrine (whose best performance was taking three or four wickets in a school game bowling considerably slower medium than Ganguly) offers the following observations on the Test series to date.

India have been determined to take the game up to Australia and not be intimidated by their opponents, the conditions or the media. The problem is that this very determination belies an internal siege mentality which afflicts most of the teams which arrive here. This attitude has manifested itself with the bizarre tactic of permanently stationing fielders on the boundary for any recognised batsmen, the quick removal of attacking fielders, the reluctance for spinners to flight the ball except within a few overs of taking a wicket and the adoption of two defensive openers at the start of the innings.

On top of these defensive tactics, there appears to be a great tendency to blame the umpires for making poor decisions and the administrators for their scheduling. It is well known that umpiring consistency is something of a chimera at present. Today, Symonds got one life from a caught behind, a second from a borderline lbw and was a split second from being stumped. However, India also failed to run him out from short extra cover, an opportunity Symonds may easily have taken himself. Ponting got a fairly ordinary lbw decision which triggered a collapse. He was batting imperiously at the time, having earlier got a caught behind go his way. Umpiring clearly needs to be improved either by better personnel or better use of technology.

On the administrators' front. Witness Stuart Clark's complaints that Cricket Australia held Perth back as the venue for the Fourth Test. Clark, not enamoured by the MCG pitch proceeded to wreck the Indian batting line-up on it. Despite being handed a low, bouncing and turning MCG pitch, India complained about inadequate acclimatisation. Possibly jetlag, but not bounce. The MCG pitch was exactly the kind of surface McGrath, Gillespie and even Kasprowicz plagued Indian batsmen on. Similarly, the Second and Third Tests are at Sydney (India have had the better of their last two tests there) and Adelaide where Dravid and Laxman carried India into a match-winning position.

Australia's attitude is quite simply to back their ability and work hard for their teammates. That is why it is almost impossible for most teams to put them away. On paper, Australia have a team of cast-offs and suspect performers, yet as an outfit they are extremely hard to beat. Only when England put the blowtorch on Ponting, losing bowlers left right and centre, did the team start to fray.

India must ensure they use attacking fields and maintain their spirit throughout the full day, not just when the wickets fall. They must bat with conviction and keep scoring runs. Australia rely on exhausting the opposition's patience as much as anything else, and failure to score runs keeps the bowling side on top.