allan border clearly suggests in this article that india would have struggled if a test match had been played in perth at the WACA. the implication is that india might have lost the recent test series if only perth had been one of the venues. considering the awesome fight india put up in the recent test series and considering the fact that we would have actually won this series if not for steve bucknor's numerous errant not-out decisions when australia batted in the last innings of the last test, i took serious offence at this cavalier comment from allan border and looked up some statistics.
india have played australia in 2 tests and 2 ODIs (not counting the most recent ODI) at the WACA in Perth. India's first innings scores in the 2 tests played in 1977/78 and 1991/92 were 402 and 272, and in the 2 ODIs were 208 and 206. australia was actually dismissed by india once in an ODI for 101! so this terrific indian team might have scored over 300 in the first inning of a test at perth even if we had to bat first and may have been able to dismiss australia cheaply if australia batted first, considering that australia has been vulnerable at perth too, and india may have in fact won!
The WACA wicket is equivalent to a street wickets in India, where we use mud and dung to prepare pitches, they are as bouncy as WACA. If we have prepared same kind of wicket in India the Australian media could have cried foul. His comment about Lee coming back in to destructive form is meaning less. The pitch at WACA was prepared with a pre-plan of demoralizing Indian players. On a pitch where the ball is bouncing like a tennis ball lee claimed wickets. Yesterday our Irfan had taken four wickets, does it mean his bowling on a dry pitch is better than Lee on a fresh, bouncy and green pitch?. Can we claim that?. Based on the yesterday results can we claim Irfan is also on destructive form like Lee. Just with one 10 over spell he can not say Lee tail is up. Agreed he has sent back main batsmen below 79 but he has also been belter 80+ in his other spell. This can not be called form. Lee has become an un-predictable bowler.
Australia is most likely the team to win the finals simply because Indians can choke under the pressure of finals. This has been the case for so many times in the past and will be the same in the future. It is their batting which will collapse rather than the bowling. The faboulous five of the Indian batsmen will invariably make silly mistakes that will cost the match.
