Queensland coast to ten wicket victory

As expected, Queensland applied the finishing touches to a comfortable ten wicket win over India in the tour match between the teams at the 'Gabba in Brisbane on Monday. Play on the fourth and final day of the match spanned a period of just 95 minutes as Stuart Law (60*) and Jimmy Maher (20*) took easy toll of an attack understandably lacking in inspiration.

Whilst neither batsmen was necessarily all that impressive, there were no real alarms at any stage for the Queenslanders and their pursuit of the meagre 81 runs required for victory was relatively effortless in its nature. Indeed, the only hint of a threat came in the form of a heavy shower which forced the players from the field for 25 minutes when the home team was placed at 0/58. Even though he was not especially impressive and was repeatedly beaten by Venkatesh Prasad in the course of one over in the middle of the innings, Law's decision to promote himself to the unfamiliar opening role afforded him the sort of valuable time in the middle that he has rarely enjoyed this season and he set about polishing off the target without ever encountering too much discomfort.

Together with a very sedate Maher, his work this morning capped off just over three days of excellent cricket from the Bulls, a fine all round batting and bowling exhibition allowing them to dictate the terms of this match from early on Friday.

For as impressive as the Queenslanders proved, however, this was also a decidedly mediocre beginning to India's tour. Whilst it should be mentioned in their defence that this Queensland team is possibly the strongest of all the State sides in Australia at present, there is precious little about which to be positive for the tourists at the end of this game.

Over the course of the match, only four of their batsmen were able to exceed a score of 20 in either of their two innings. Aside from the impressive double of VVS Laxman (113 & 73) and the masterful first innings of captain Sachin Tendulkar (83), there was little application evident in any of their players' displays at the batting crease. More worryingly, perhaps, their performance with the bat on a pitch offering a healthy quantity of pace and bounce was eerily reminiscent of Pakistan's effort against the same opposition at the start of their own tour of Australia less than a month ago.

Similarly, their bowling lacked penetration. Thirunavukarasu Kumaran strove hard, finding a good measure of pace and moving the ball both ways to press his claims for Test selection but he barely received any support.

Fellow pacemen Debashish Mohanty and Prasad laboured for the most part, although it should be said in mitigation that it is never easy for a touring team's bowlers to find the correct line and length immediately upon their arrival in Australia. Leg spinner Anil Kumble, from whom big things are expected on this tour, was also disappointing and any repetitions of his concession of 131 runs from 29 wicketless overs through the remainder of the visit could well prove disastrous.