Border Gavaskar Trophy: First Test Day Five Preview

It is as clear as the Tasmanian sky on a crisp spring morning what will happen in the first session of the fifth day’s play. Australia will bat aggressively for around a half hour pushing their lead as close to 300 as possible and then attack India with a fury in the expectation of snaring the ten wickets required for a series leading win.

Ponting would probably enjoy the luxury of a few overs late in the day with a second new ball so Australia’s window this morning will be tight if that is to eventuate.

To achieve this the visitors probably only have six overs to play with before declaring so expect some exciting shots and a clatter of wickets to start what promises to be an exciting and jittery final day’s play.

India’s hopes of saving the match will fall squarely on their much vaunted top six and they will need to be in better fettle, physically and mentally, than they were in the first innings.

There is little doubt that Australia will attack from go to woe and with the pitch bound to play a few tricks and the ball expected to swing, it will be a tough day at the crease for all of them. There will be some easy runs on offer but with the Australian fielding dangerous and committed even the slightest mistake could bring about their downfall.

Australia could conceivably be lamenting their lack of spin options at stumps but there is little point crying over what you do not have. They will make the best use of the resources on offer and it should be apparent to everybody by now that for the rest of this tour at least, Australia will use a four pronged pace attack with some part time spin from Clarke and White.

Big Stu Clark has a reported elbow injury and that further erodes the visitors’ chance of victory. On the bright side, Clark’s reduced capacity will probably force Ponting to bowl his vice captain more than planned and that eventuality may be to Australia’s advantage.

Michael Clarke has shown in his Test career that he is a very capable left-arm orthodox spinner and his 17 overs in the first innings were thoughtful, tight and profitable.

It may not please Pup but with Australia’s lack of slow bowlers he may well have to forgo working solely on his batting for a time and concentrate on his bowling. I’d like to see him working with Ashley Mallet for a period and if so, I believe he could blossom into a bowler that could trouble many a team on the fifth day.

All the pressure is on India and after failing to bat out the fifth day twice this year, Ponting and his men will be confident of knocking them over before stumps. India have looked shaky, in the field and with the bat, for the majority of this match and Australia will be hoping that trend continues.