343

It’s funny how 343 isn’t a good score anymore.

Sime was devastated that Australia had failed, people were talking about how Kumble had destroyed them, even Soulberry said that after yesterday Australia had fought back.

I think everyone got a bit ahead of themselves. Any score over 300 is good on this pitch this year.

I have repeated this fact so many times, Victoria has only managed to scrape their way to 400 twice this year.

Western Australia won a match outright here when they made 270. It just isn’t a friendly track to bat on.

Everyone is so used to benign tracks and Australia scoring over 500 that anything less is horrible.

For the first time in history I agreed with Tony Greig when after day one he said, I think I’ll wait to see how the Indians go before assessing Australias score.

Now 343 looks good enough to win a whole test, which is a nice change from 5 dec for 553.

Other quick points, Symonds and Hayden looked injured to me yesterday.www.cricketwithballs.com "the hooking & pulling specialists"