Performance of the Day - The Australian late order

Great cricket teams are created by a kind of alchemy that allows their gold to glisten in a pan full of iron and sand. There were times when the 80s West Indies bowling attack was blunted - so you had to deal with Gordon and Dessie and Big Clive and King Viv smearing you all round the paddock.

This great Australian team have that alchemy too. They were wobbling today in the Second Test vs India at 134-6 with just the one recognised batsmen and four bowlers left. Moreover, four of these five players have just 40 Tests between them. And none of them is called Adam Gilchrist. Any England fan would have taken 200 as a decent score, so, in the deathless phrase, what happened next?

As Cricinfo baldly states, "The 173-run partnership between Andrew Symonds and Brad Hogg is the highest seventh-wicket stand for Australia versus India, and the fourth-highest against all teams. Symonds and Hogg scored their runs at lightening-quick speed too, consuming just 36.2 overs - that's a rate of 4.76 per over. Of the 218 deliveries bowled at them, the pair played just 135 dot balls, stole 45 singles, and struck 22 boundaries - 20 fours and two sixes. Both batsmen scored at an almost equal scoring rate: Symonds contributed 94 from 116 balls (run-rate of 4.86) while Hogg made 79 from 102 (4.64)." Australia are 376-7 and the Trumpet is awed again by the sheer bloody-minded class that these incredible cricketers bring to the game. Bastards!

[The Tooting Trumpet] [Image: Getty] with thanks to S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna at Cricinfo.