India mauled !

Indian cricket at the crossroads again. The Holy Trinity and Co fell like nine pins. Gone are the days of formidable Indian batting displays.

The Kangaroo quickies bowled with fire and India were skittled out for 169.

Dhoni, meanwhile, defended Indian batsmen and lauded the Aussie demon fast bowlers.

He said he is not worried by the lacklustre performance.

Said he "Not really. They are very experienced batsmen. You have to give credit to Australia bowlers for the way they bowled. They kept a nagging line outside the off-stump and that's why they got us."

He also praised the lower order Kangaroo batsmen for making contributions with the bat in Australia's first innings.

"Bowlers brought us back in to the game. We were short by 50-odd runs in the first innings. Their lower-order scored some runs, if we had got them earlier, we would have had 50-60 runs less to chase" he said.

He said India has resilience.

"We are known to be tentative starters, I think in the next game we will be slightly better."

Clarke hailed his pace trio and the experience of Hussey and Ponting.

"Our tail were outstanding with their batting, and we have to give full credit to the bowlers. You always want to have plans against whatever team you play and we were able to execute the plans.

"Credit has to go to Ponting and Hussey as well. India are a fantastic team. It is great to have them here in Australia. We know they'll come hard at us in Sydney" Clarke said.

We have said in our columns that astrologically this is not a good phase for India, with Jupiter in the 10th and Saturn in the 4th. Now it is a real problem Down Under India is facing, despite the Holy Trinity ( Laxman, Dravid & Sachin ).