Another 'ill judged' outburst?

[Wicked Lester]

At the beginning of the Summer several of us queried Matthew Haydens assertions that India would wilt against the 'chin music' we would fire at them suggesting that we may be better off letting our performances do the talking, than to engage in bravado before a ball is bowled.

Hayden at the time questioned the technique of India's top order even suggesting Tendulkar just 'flays away and sometimes gets away with it.'

As it turned out the chin music was handled with relative ease.

But on the eve of the final Gillespie has come out with the following (Today's Australian):

"FAST bowler Jason Gillespie yesterday challenged India's top order to continue throwing the bat during the limited-overs finals series which begins in Melbourne tomorrow.

Gillespie, who will lead Australia's attack in the best-of-three series, said the in-form Indians had chanced their luck for much of the summer, particularly in the preliminary rounds of the one-day competition.

The high-risk stroke play of Indian openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag as well as middle-order specialists VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh has underpinned some huge totals.

But Gillespie believes the fortune which has so far favoured their bold batting began to turn Australia's way during their emphatic win on a bouncy Perth pitch last Sunday.

"They've run the gauntlet pretty well all summer and got away with a lot," Gillespie said.

So there you have it. India's batsmen have been 'throwing the bat' all Summer and geting away with it. Clearly this is in stark contrast to our One Day batsman who carefully build innings with orthodox strokeplay.

I thought by now the team may have learnt to treat the Indians with a little respect.

Alas no.

[Zeke]

It's got nothing to do with respect, and everything to do with publicity and ticket sales.

I thought you would have learnt that by now.

[Wicked Lester]

There are many ways to build publicity and hype up a finals series without putting down your opponents.

Implying your opposition has been lucky all summer when a test series many predicted we'd win 4-0 but ended up barely drawing suggests they are a little better they deserve a little more respect.

[ross gibbs]

clutching at straws wl.

[Milenko]

The only Indian i can think of that "throws the bat and gets away with a lot" is Sehwag. The rest are just bloody good bastmen.

[EagleBlue]

To be fair to Hayden though, his version of chin music as opposed to the "half trackers" (and very few at that) that were served up on the Indian style of wickets this summer could not have be more different. As for Sehwag, he is easily the arsiest batsman I have ever seen playing International Cricket

[RogerC]

The only risk Gillespie runs with those comments is that of looking like a goose. I don't for the life of me see what Gillespie can mean by challenging " India's top order to continue throwing the bat during the limited-overs finals series." Isn't that what you're supposed to do in one day cricket?

I think the Australians are better at throwing the bat than the Indians, which means that they're a better one day side on balance. (In fact, the decision to keep throwing the bat even after early wickets fell in Perth is probably what won the game for us. I think we reasoned that with a small total to chase, only one or two batsmen need to come off for the target to be within reach. Which is what happened in the end) But in test matches, the Indian bats showed us up fairly consistently. And that's something we can't take away from them now.

So far the Australian team has proven India's superior on one pitch this summer - Perth. And considering Zimbabwe made them look ordinary on the same pitch, I don't think it's much to crow about.

You can see what Gillespie's trying to do - get under their skin and put them off their game plan - and good luck to him. But as with the pre-test talk, they're probably not even listening.

[Mog]

Clearly "mental disintergration" didn't die off when Steve Waugh left the scene. It's all just mind games, and it was Gillespie's turn to say it.

[pazza]

Sehwag showed in Perth that he is the riskiest of all of them, and was found out trying to hit 6's over 3rd man, only to be caught on the boundary in both games.

Tendulkar is having difficulties with his footwork at the moment, but the others are going well.

[Wicked Lester]

It will be interesting to see how we execute mental disintegration a few years down the track.

"Bracken, Watson, Noffke and Hauritz have been working on a few new tricks. They reckon they've found a few holes in the batsmens' techniques", a pumped up Katich said before the third test in Adelaide.

Hmmmm, should put the fear of god into them.

:D :D :D :D