A great day for the series as such and finally India sticks it to the opposition to throw open the match to a great contest. It was important that Tendulkar and Sourav play well to ensure that the total comes close to the Aussies and they both stuck it out as well as they could.

It took a couple of failures on the part of Dinesh karthik that too up the order, which is typically not his bread and butter spot, for a witch-hunt to be ordered. I wonder now what there is to say on Yuvraj merely being a passenger in the playing XI. Will now his failures evoke the same reaction? I bet not. While Yuvraj is a good batsman and as much as I enjoy him play when he gets going, I am of the belief that if much of the turmoil in the opening area which is causing Rahul considerable trouble, is not paying off and then use the bench strength well. India for once had a happy problem on choosing the eleven due to its capable bench strength and therefore it needs to be used effectively. A Yuvraj singh is not better than a Rahul Dravid when it comes to test cricket at all. And therefore given a problem between these two, Rahul’s troubles need to be addressed as a priority over the other.

Conflicting as it seems, my views are we should stick to this combination for the series, unless Rahul has clearly expressed his comfort level problems on opening which we may not know. My thoughts out here are based on the facts that acid tests seem to be readily given to the likes of Laxman, Dravid and Karthik, who have performed well in the greater half of the season. And in all the euphoric madness of one-day and T20 cricket, the likes of Yuvraj never seem to be given the stick. The stick needs to be raised to Yuvraj to measure up and I would hate to see someone like a Dravid or Laxman being put to constant tests on why they should be picked or to be the sacrificial goat. Rahul’s conviction during the Greg Chappell era about players being flexible to play at all positions have actually come back to haunt him. If he expresses his problems, then in all essence he will have to eat his own shoes. But for the better of Indian cricket, Rahul has to learn to throw tantrums and get what he wants. As for Yuvraj, he has now got to measure up and deliver, otherwise I see no point on treating him differently from what has been dished out to Dinesh karthik.

Coming back to the match, the hero of the day, Harbhajan battled to knock the stuffings out of the Aussie attack. Lee bowled superbly as usual. Tendulkar was as good as you can expect and batted brilliantly with the tail. The tail waged and hell… we got a lead! For the Indian fans, this series is like the world cup…. Yes, it as big as the world cup for us and it is the ultimate acid test for the Indians to stick it out. What I saw today was happiness to me in seeing this good old batting line-up sticking it out one last time and what was disappointing was the ones who in maybe a year’s time take over Indian test cricket are still found wanting to perform.

This match which in the first two days looked like another Aussie win, has now bounced back to become intriguing to go either way or end in a draw. Now it all comes to who has the balls to take the pressure and perform from here. Game on folks! And finally!

Zaheer Khan’s injury now rules him out for the series yet again. I watched an Indian news channel and a few people’s comments on various popular cricket websites, to bring back Agarkar as a replacement, considering he did well the last time around.

WTF? Some things don’t change do they… but thankfully, the selectors sent in the right guy… VRV Singh but he won’t be playing anyway.