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Australia in India 2004: The Eventual Fall of
the Final Frontier |
- A Review of the Test
Series between Australia and India by Venkat
Before it all began, the Test series between
India and Australia found itself strongly
competing against the Ashes in terms of its
importance and competition, but as the
victorious Aussie skipper played it down by
saying "Lets not compare this series with the
Ashes, as the India v Australia series has
developed its own charm", and indeed it does.
After a nervy wrangle in 2001, where one might
say India were lucky winners, the "Operation
India" has finally been accomplished by the
Aussies, who won the series 2 games to 1. It
will go down in the records as a historic win,
considering the fact that the Aussies were
winless on Indian soil for an unbelievable
period of 35 years. Cricketfundas.com presents
its readers with an exclusive analytical review
of the recently concluded Test series between
India and Australia.
Pitches :- It was the pitches that the Indian
grounds had to offer that attracted more
attention than the game itself. The entire Test
match was revolving around the Pitch factor. One
may have to concede that barring the Chennai and
Mumbai wicket, the pitches were tailor-made for
the Aussies. It was indeed frustrating for
Sourav Ganguly, when in a crucial test match, a
wicket with an Australian nature to it was made,
and one cant blame the Indian skipper for making
his voices heard. The toss always is a factor in
India and it wasn't any different this time. It
played into the hands of the Aussies, as they
won crucial tosses, and well for the Indians,
the Jamaican $5 coin just needs to be sent back
where it belongs.
India:
If I was asked to rate India's performance in
this entire series out of a scale of 10, I'd
give them 4. It was not the best performance
ever by the Indians and the reasons responsible
were many. No luck with the rain gods, poor
fitness levels (as compared to the Aussies), bad
form in the case of the batting unit, lack of
stability within the team, too many changes are
some of the reasons, where one can instantly
point his fingers to that led to this debacle.
The batsmen were still suffering from the
hangovers of the one-dayers played earlier in
the season and it was shocking to see that the
team crossed only 300 runs once, for a batting
order as famed as the Indians. There are some
consolations the Indians can take from this
series. Virender Sehwag's blitzkrieg effort of
155 at Chennai, the emergence of Mohammad Kaif
as a Test player, the return to temporary form
for Laxman and Tendulkar are something the
Indian fans can feel good about. Wicket keeping
and opening batsmen still remain an area of
concern and it would be interesting to see if
the future hope Dinesh Karthik carries on with
his impressive debut at Mumbai, where he showed
great technique and temperament as a keeper.
For once, the bowling overshadowed the batting
for India. The bowlers really for once, bowled
their heart out and were instrumental in
restricting the Aussies for scores that were
reachable, but for the hapless and hopeless
Indian batting. The real positives to emerge out
of the series would for sure be Murali Kartik
and Zaheer Khan's return to top international
bowling form. Murali Kartik has been one of
India's top left arm spinners, and he was the
one who was the nemesis of the Aussies at both
Nagpur and Mumbai. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan
were expected to perform well and so they did.
Kumble ended the series with 27 wickets and
Harbhajan with nearly 20 wickets. The only
blackspot in the Indian bowling was Irfan Pathan
not playing the last two tests because of an
injury. One hopes that he would be back for the
Indians in the series against South Africa and
take it on from there.
Australia:
The winner always takes it all, and this time
the series belonged to the Australians. They
came here with a considerable success against
the likes of Muralitharan and co in Sri Lanka
earlier this year and this could one of the
contributing factors of the Aussie win in India
after 35 years. One of the major reasons for
their success this time around was the batting.
Damien Martyn's dream sub-continental run
continued from where he left in Sri Lanka as he
amassed 444 runs in 4 Test matches, and showed
the rest of the batting how to play the
spinners. Michael Clarke, was however the spark
that the Aussies needed. His debut knock of 151
really spurred on the Aussie bandwagon in India
and yes, India was fortunate to see the
emergence of a future great into the
International arena. Simon Katich played the
sheet anchor's role after the great starts given
by Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden. The others
also chipped in with useful knocks, but there
was an unlikely batting hero who emerged out of
this tour - Jason Gillespie, who knows every
letter of the word 'patience'. He was a real
pest in the Indian face as he accounted for so
much time, when India could have wrapped the 2nd
Test at Chennai. Full marks to him for not
ignoring his batting, as he could've easily done
just as many pacemen do.
If ever one wanted to witness synchronization at
its best, it was to see the bowling effort of
the Australians. Every bowler in this attack
bowled for each other, there by putting a team
effort. This tour was practically the last tour
of India for most of the Aussie bowlers, and
they have indeed left their mark on Indian
shores. Shane Warne's world record came in India
and he did prove his critics wrong by justifying
his potency on Indian soil. People often talked
about Glenn McGrath being the only pacemen the
Indians had to worry about, but Jason Gillespie
certainly opened their eyes. He defined the art
of fast bowling in this trip. And one cannot
rule out the contribution of
Michael Kasprowicz who did nothing wrong to
justify his title of a "Sub-continental
Specialist". Michael Clarke turned his arm over,
and
his haul of 6-9 will be one he would'nt like to
forget. It was a clinical bowling performance by
the Australian bowlers and in a way
they were the ideal weapons to support the run
machines.
On paper, this series may be looked upon as a
one sided affair. But India did finally manage
to salvage some pride by beating the Aussies at
Mumbai. It will be interesting to see if and how
this win motivates the Indians. The Aussies on
the other hand, must be really
disappointed to have lost the Mumbai test,
thereby ending their tour in a not-so-happy
fashion. The Aussies have a long summer ahead of
them, and a historic series win in India is just
what they might have been looking for to prove
to the world that the gap isn't closening, its
infact widening ! An end of a great series of
both tough and meek cricket, it'll be great to
see these two teams be back in action 2 years
from now hopefully!
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