It hardly matters

Australia got through the Essex barrier without much problems. But with hardly any gains either. They learned that their bowlers, minus Warne and McGrath, are not as effective on flat tracks (read: they are not miracle workers) and that Hayden can still flay poor attacks. But so can one of his prospective usurper Hodge (he also scored run-a-ball 150+ today). Gilchrist can't though. He's gone down way too much in confidence it seems, and his prospective replacement Haddin scored a quick 50+.

Not that all this matters, Hayden and Gilchrist are too precious to be handed over, just yet. Even if this is a crucial ashes test. Aus management, and selectors, feel that the chances of these two coming good are still better than a newcomer coming in and firing right away.

Eng, meanwhile, have recalled Anderson into the side. Tremlett misses out because he's short of match practice in recent times. And he's short of match practice because he was mostly with Eng squad as num 12! Talk of 'justifications', the Eng selectors are trying to outdo our desi version (remember Balaji, after getting just one ODI in SL, being dropped from Zim ODIs because they want to give chance to newcomers!)

Anyways, our Indian selectors, as we already know, have proven themselves to be equally patient while holding their judgment on our star performer of past, Saurav. Whether its for same reasons or not shouldn't matter. And Saurav would one day learn that when one is going through a lean patch, it doesn't matter at the end of the day whether he got out playing from the middle of the bat, a full blooded shot, or a lame attempt to fending. People Just Want Runs On The Board. Or so it seems. It also doesn't matter whether today he was looking to leave the short ball instead of falling for the hook/pull bait.

But, in case of some others like Rao, its not the runs that matter, its the speed at which he got those, and the manner in which he got those. (And it doesn't matter whether he was grafting as per team instructions or personal will or even the fact that Saurav Ganguly specially praised him along with Yuv and Dhoni at the post match interview, obviously for some unfathomable reasons).

While in some other cases, as Yuv is finding out, it also doesn't matter how many runs and in what manner he gets it. Because he is already seen as inconsistent performer, playing for his place, performing only when under the axe. As Sunil Gavaskar was also heard commenting, to him it seems that the main batting lineup is the 'untouchables' of the team i.e. they won't go anywhere, however they perform, while the bowlers can be shuffled around.

So what did we get from this match. That not everyone will get the runs on all the days, and its ok as long as we get to see the right application. And that was there for the Indians, as much as there can be in such a low consequential match. The batsmen were all 'looking' to play well, the fielding was still good. The bowling was as good as it can be given that some of them were getting their first game of the season. Rahul and Veeru would need to sort out things in their mind, because not much looks wrong out in the middle(Veeru can move his feet a bit more, but in his case that's hardly consequential)

And also that its a pleasant problem of plenty for the team management as a choice between Yuv and Kaif for that all important middle order slot in the test lineup.