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It was a very….very special test match which included a very….very special innings in the 2nd innings when the chips were down and India battling with their backs to the wall! Very similar to the circumstances in the final test of the series between Sri Lanka and India when India came from behind to win! But they say “Cometh the hour Cometh the man” And it was once again the single handed brilliance of V.V.S. Laxman who made the impossible --possible. The end result India winning by the thinnest of margins of one wicket to go one up in the two test series against Australia.
For Laxman the test match didn’t present him the ideal start for the series with a back injury in the first innings and very little expected from him in the second innings too due to the injury.
V.V.S. Laxman |
But it was his usual efficient self that was on hand when the chips were down and India needed him most. Batting with a runner with a degree of difficulty and in the company of Ishant Sharma, Laxman guided India with a match winning partnership of 81 runs which finally tilted the balance in India’s favour.
What an epic innings it was from this Hyderabad right hander and that too in the crucial second innings! Being hardly known until he made his magnificent 281 against the Aussies in another match winning effort some time ago, and having lived in the shadows of the Tendulkars, Dravids, Shewags and even Ganguleys for most of the time in his career, Laxman is the quiet achiever for India. Wonder how many of us know of his near 7500 test runs in his one hundred and fourteen test matches and a first class average of fifty plus in his career so far, as the attention getters have always been Shewag, Tendulkar or Dravid with Laxman a mere follower of the bunch.
Back to the Test Match besides the high scores in the first innings of both teams, it was the bowling of left arm and now medium fast Zaheer Khan which was definitely the key to India’s success. I am not taking anything away from either Ishant Sharma or Harbhajan Singh, but Zaheer in his new style where he doesn’t attempt to bowl too fast with the odd effort ball only, has matured to be one of the top operators in the world.
Zaheer surely should be ranked as one of the best fast bowlers in the world today, and is it a surprise that another left armer this time from India has emerged at the top? First it was the Pakistan great Wasim Akram and then our own Chaminda Vaas. And now fittingly from India Zaheer Khan, who is bowling absolutely brilliantly using his vast experience. His break from the tour of Sri Lanka appears to have done himself a world of good as he looked so focused and hungry every time he ran in to bowl!
From the rest, the batting of Tendulkar and young Raina looked to be top class though Sehwag played in his usual aggressive style. The more one sees Raina it is clear that India has found somebody special. He did take his time to break in to the test team but in a matter of a few games he has made the no.5 spot his own. He is oozing with confidence and the Indians must be regretting their folly to have persisted with Yuvraj for so long in the Test Team, when all Suresh Raina needed was that first break!
But what about Ricky Ponting and the Aussies! It is a fact that India is one of the hardest frontiers to conquer, but surely Australia in the past would have never allowed any team to get out of jail from where they were, playing in India or else where. India was dead and buried at 124/8, with an Injured Laxman batting with a runner and just Sharma and Ojha to come. But Ponting’s men did precisely that. Not finishing India off when it mattered most. And for their second innings batting effort, which began on day three and ended on the same day, one couldn’t have described it in any other way than “pathetic” especially after a good second innings opening stand of eighty plus. And when India batted in the second innings and was tottering at 48/4, the sole Australian front line spinner Nathan Hauritz was sadly found wanting. Whilst the Indian duo of Harbhajan and Ojha got just four wickets amongst themselves, they did create plenty of pressure bowling as much as 40 overs and averaging nothing more than just over two runs per over. Hauritz, on the other hand may have been overawed by the expectations of his team on a fifth day pitch and conceded an average of five runs per over in just nine overs trying too hard. And when the defending total is just 216, one will agree that it is a performance the bowler would want to forget.
Naturally this was not what the Australians and Ponting wanted for the series opener with the Ashes battle commencing in November. Ponting who has never won a series in India will not be able to win this one either and his best hope will be a drawn series though it appears most unlikely with Bangalore being the next venue. Also Ponting may never tour India again and what's more the second test which is now in progress will be a make or break for the Aussies and could determine the outcome of the Ashes to a large extent as well. We may also witness the ending of some great cricketing careers for Australia unless and otherwise they come up with something extraordinary in the current test to salvage some pride from the series itself.
* Roshan Abeysinghe is a leading cricket promoter and an international cricket commentator |
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