To Be Continued In October

Written by Jaideep Varma

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

It was set up to be a pulsating finale but it quickly turned into a staggering anti-climax. In what was without competition the most boring India-Australia test match in over two decades, Australia showed they were human by actually choosing to go defensive and preserve their 2-1 lead in the series. And India, disappointingly (and somewhat shockingly) chose to quietly embrace a 2-1 defeat rather than boldly chase a 2-2 climax, all because the possibility of 3-1 made them shudder.

The dubious outcome of Sydney notwithstanding, 2-1 is probably a fair reflection of the two sides in this series. Perth is the only match where India showed consistent intensity and steel to keep Australia down. In all the other matches, Australia won more sessions of play and it is fair to say that Australia won this series on points if not a knockout (unlike 2004, where Australia had knocked India out even before the 4th test began).

So, now where would the Perth victory rank amongst India’s greatest victories? For this writer - among the top 5 or 6 maybe, but definitely not the top 3. It was not a series-defining performance, and the fire didn’t even seem to carry on to the next match (unlike 2001 and even 2003). It was a hit single, a very catchy one, but not a classic album, as it should have at least tried to be.

Maybe the pitch was to blame – as lifeless as those that have taken the life out of India-Pakistan encounters lately. It wasn’t worthy of a series deciding match, definitely not in Australia, and one wonders how much of it was by design. Australia showed a very uncharacteristically defensive mindset on the third day – a giveaway that they wanted to hold on to their lead and not seek newer paths. They blinked, and if India had more balls, they could have done an Australia on them and attacked boldly, even at the risk of a 3-1 result. You cannot blame the pitch for a lack of intent. Yes, India was very unlucky with the injury to R P Singh reducing them to four bowlers, but given Sehwag’s form with the ball, they could have still given it a shot.

Meanwhile, Australia did an India by embracing their Holy Cow. It was a bizarre decision to give Sachin Tendulkar the man-of-the-match award for a century that, however spectacular, was made with batting conditions at their best in an innings where Harbhajan and Kumble got merry fifties. Hayden, Ponting and Clarke continued the batting dominance on a batsman’s pitch. The best innings of the match however came from Sehwag, who gave another demonstration why despite his opening flash, he has been India’s most important batsman after Dravid in the last 5 years. Sehwag gave India a good start in the first innings with a 63, and in the second innings made 151 out of a team total of 269 for 7, where the next highest score was 20! He very emphatically saved India from a 3-1 defeat, and if you top this up with an unexpected performance with the ball where unbelievably he looked like India’s best spinner, the man-of-the-match award could not be a simpler choice. But no, Australia chose to be uncharacteristically sentimental with their “Champion Batsman” playing his last test in Australia. I’m sure they are not aware that Tendulkar has not won a single man-of-the-match award in a test match that India has won, since 2000. But then, how many in India are aware of it, or will bother about it?

For India to win this series, they needed one batsman to be in form, and tragically he wasn’t. Rahul Dravid was nowhere near his best, and has not been for a while (he even gave up the captaincy to get his form back). Despite this, he opened in 4 innings, manfully fighting hard, just not willing to give up his wicket, which a lot of people seem to have forgotten is a pretty important quality in test cricket. He consumed more balls than any Indian batsman during this time, and at least fulfilled the most important job of an opener – to take the shine off the new ball. The amount of character this showed is lost on a lot of people who chose to criticize him day after day. The moment he went back to no.3, he played an innings that set up an Indian win at Perth, despite still not being anywhere near his best.

But this said, Dravid’s “over-thinking” demons have consumed him here. The heat of his own intensity is cooking him now, and if he does not find a cool breeze to blow on him, this could be his last year in international cricket. In a very short time, his average has slid back 3 points to allow Tendulkar to overtake him on that count. Significantly, Dravid’s average had to come down to Tendulkar’s, the latter’s did not move up by that much.

Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly, after a good start to the series, fizzled out completely, making a pretty poor case for his inclusion in the one-day side. Laxman stood tall, as he does when in touch, combining aesthetic magic with critical timing (not just his shots, but his innings too) with just about adequate consistency.

Harbhajan was obstinately ineffective and Kumble still not entirely convincing about his caliber as a match-winner on overseas pitches. It is the faster men who saved the day – none more than Ishant Sharma. The most exciting thing about him is his age, but let’s keep our fingers crossed about him. In the 1990s, we’d seen quite a few fast bowlers of his pedigree in neighboring Pakistan fizzle out in a couple of years. Let us hope his guidance is measured and his fitness monitored, and more importantly, he can retain the joy of playing test cricket for long periods of time. Somehow, the vibes seem very positive from him, making him the biggest gain of this series by some distance. Irfan Pathan’s comeback is very heartening, and as important as Sehwag’s return to form.

With Gilchrist’s departure, Australia has opened up one more front where they can be attacked. His retirement is sad; he looked good enough to play at least a couple of years more. But Australia’s finest (and nicest) cricketer after the Don chose to do the very Australian thing of leaving at the top.

On the whole, the story of this India-Australia series somehow feels incomplete. October will bring the next installment and perhaps the concluding chapter of this generation of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy magic. It will be a very important series.

(Click here to know more about Jaideep Varma)

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