Stumps day 1

India 5-309 .....Tendulkar 124no Dhoni 6no

Lee & Johnson 2 wickets each

India won the day easilly

Tendulkar pulled Hogg apart.

Big talking point down here down under is Adam Gilchrist's performance behind the stumps. Dropped an absolute sitter off a Dravid nick from Lee this morning. Unfortunately for Gilly there have been a few of these dropped catches lately and their is a very good batting keeper Haddin waiting for his opportunity and another good one creeping up on him Ronchi.

I think end might be near for Gilly, possibly at the end of the ODI's.

Well what a good days play that was with India slightly the happier i would guess.

Massive morning session for India,if they are still batting at lunch then they will be in a great position to put the pressure on the Aussies while with a new ball to use the Aussies will fancy their chances of bowling them out for less than 370.

As for Gilchrist,oh dear.Even Geraint Jones would have caught them. What made me laugh most was the way that Healy and co were refusing to be critical and were trying to make excuses for him,had that been a keeper from any other country they would have slaughtered him.

As Acker says the time may be up for Gilchrist but he has been a wonderful player.

Oh yes,and i see Hogg was a success again.

I fear so. I think eyesight is a factor that is influenced by age and I think many players in the 35+ age group who are otherwise perfectly fit might struggle to keep the eyes dead on the ball. Look at the catch that Hayden dropped off Dhoni this evening....it might just turn out to be expensive. The commentators blamed his dark glasses, but I am not so sure.

The thing is when the reactions go they go quickly so it makes a dramatic difference in ability to what it was say 6 months before.

If you think back Gilchrist hasn't really done that well since 2005 in England when he got found out by reverse swing,yes he has had the odd decent score but since that summer of 2005 he only averages around 30 which by his high standards is poor.

In other news, Hogg continued his series-wide domination of Ganguly, and Ponting gave another display of his tactical genius by not bowling Andrew Symonds at all on the first day.

Well, it's not quite as bad as that. The batting average is 38 for the combined years of 2006, '07 and '08, and he has taken 77 dismissals in 16 tests in the same period. But agreed, he hasn't looked his best this series- I think there's been talk of him retiring from the ODIs, whcih might not be a bad move.

I just hope the Aussie selectors are ruthless as usual with him and drop him before we start forgetting all the good stuff.I don't want to see a great player being picked for ages after his peak on his past reputation alone like England did for so long with Botham.

My thoughts exactly. Unfortunately for Gilchrist, he came a bit late into international cricket - especially at Test level.

And how unlucky was he against Tendulkar. That nick to Clarke in the gully early in Tendulkar's innings - had Clarke been in position, had he dived forward rather than fell back.............

Add a couple damn good shouts for LBW, and mis-hits going wide of the fieldsman. Yep, he was unlucky.

Still, he can be pleased with his efforts on a day 1 Adelaide oval.

I don't want to see him ruthlessly sacked in some crazy kneejerk situation like England did for so long with some great players.
Gilchrist has been keeping well, and has been batting better than most other keepers going around. He makes one mistake and you want to do a Bucknor on him?

Gilchrist has the most dismissals for an Australian keeper, and is less than ten behind Boucher for the all time mark. How can that be considered late?

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Interesting going through the stats for the Adelaide oval for the last 5 years

Cricinfo Statsguru - Adelaide Oval - Test matches - Ground analysis

There seems a pattern of big first innings for both teams, and small totals in the second. I suspect Les Burnett
has prepared this pitch no differently

India look likely to make par (500 - 550) for their innings. It will be interesting to see if Australia can match them.

Interesting to note that the team batting second has won 3 out of 4 of those tests. This is strange. Small relative second innings totals, indicating the pitch plays worse as the game progresses, yet the team batting second has won 3 out of 4

Can't work that out.

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