by Rupesh UK
The first test match of the much hyped, four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy was played at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore. Anil Kumble led the Indian squad with Sachin Tendulkar expected to become the highest test run scorer. For Australia, Cameron White made his debut. The Chinnaswamy stadium had never been a happy hunting ground for Team India, with their last success, one would recollect from a hazy memory, was in 1995.
Australia won the toss and decided to bat first. The match saw centuries from skipper Ricky Ponting (123), his first on Indian soil and one by Michael Hussey (146). Contributions from Simon Katich (66), Brad Haddin (33) and Brett Lee (27) saw the Australians post a healthy total of 430 runs in their first innings. For India, Zaheer Khan captured five wickets and Ishant Sharma took four wickets.
India started their innings steadily with openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag scoring a steady 70 runs for the first wicket. With the fall of the first wicket, India started to lose wickets at regular intervals and soon found itself at 195 for 6 and staring the tail. For a change, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer turned the tide against the Australians, who by then were bowling beautifully. Both the batsmen played with determination and took the score to a safe 360. Harbhajan scored 54 and Zaheer recorded 57, who incidentally became the top scorer in the first innings. From the top order, Rahul Dravid scored 51 in the Indian innings. For Australia, Mitchell Johnson captured four, all rounder Shane Watson took three and Michael Clarke snaring two wickets.
With a lead of 70 runs, Australia started its second innings by losing Mathew Hayden early, but, recuperated to score 228 for 6 with a sporting declaration giving India a chance to go for the victory target of 299. In their second innings, Watson top scored with 41 and Katich (34), Hussey (31), Haddin (35) were the other contributors. For India, Ishant Sharma took 3 wickets and Harbhajan Singh scalped two.
Chasing 299, India made a poor start again losing wickets at intervals. With the fall of each wicket, the target seemed to be drifting further away and it was left for Sachin and V.V.S.Laxman to steady the innings. Sachin played well for his 49, but was out, 15 short of becoming the highest scorer in test match history. Laxman and Saurav Ganguly saw the close of the second innings and the match ended in a draw with India scoring 177 for 4, with Laxman scoring 42 and Ganguly adding 26 to the Indian total. For Australia, Lee, Johnson, White and Stuart Clark took a wicket each. Zaheer Khan was awarded the Player of the match award for his brilliant performance in the match.
The entourage then moved to the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali for the second test. Indian skipper Anil Kumble opted out of the match with the shoulder injury and M.S Dhoni led the Indian squad. Amit Mishra made his debut for India and Peter Siddle for Australia.
India won the toss and chose to bat first, openers Gambhir and Sehwag made a brisk start but lost Sehwag who played aggressively for his 35 runs. Dravid (39) and Gambhir (67) looked good, but got out in quick successions. This brought Sachin to the crease, who needed 15 runs to surpass West Indian Brian Lara’s record. Soon after the tea break, Sachin scores the required runs to reach another milestone in his illustrious career. Sachin eventually got out at 88, missing an otherwise wonderful century. The runs continued to flow and Ganguly scored his 16th test century (102) with Dhoni scoring an attacking 92. In the end, India closed their first innings with the score card reading 469. For Australia, new comer Siddle and Johnson captured three wickets each and Cameron White grabbed two wickets.
Australia started badly losing early wickets, with Matthew Hayden continuing his poor run with the bat. Katich and Hussey tried to overcome the early loss of wickets, but, Katich lost his wicket for 33. Hussey (54), Clarke (23), Lee (35) and Watson all contributed, with Watson scoring 78, the highest in the Australian innings. Australia was all out scoring 268, giving India a heavy 201 runs lead. For India, debutant Mishra took his first five wicket haul with Harbhajan and Sharma taking two wickets each.
With a monstrous lead, India started to play an attacking game and by the 23rd over they reached 100 runs, ending day three with an overall lead of 301 runs with all their wickets intact. Day 4 started on an aggressive note with India looking for a sizeable lead. Gambhir (104) scored a century, Sehwag (90) missed a well deserved century, Dhoni promoted himself higher the order, hammered his way to score 68. India declared at 314 for 3, with a lead that had swelled to 515 runs. For Australia, Lee, Siddle and White captured a wicket each.
Australia started their innings cautiously, attacking the bad deliveries. Hayden (29) seemed to have slowly gained his ground, but, lost his wicket. Soon Katich (20) was also gone and suddenly there was a major collapse with Australia struggling at 58 for five. Clarke and Haddin (37) tried to avert the disaster only to see Zaheer Khan waking up the next day to capture three wickets in his first two overs including that of Haddin’s. Clarke (69) and Johnson (26) decided to spend some more time in the middle, but, spinner Mishra, keen to end the match, took them both. Australia ended their innings at 195 giving India a victory by 320 runs, their biggest in test matches.
For India, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan took three wickets with Sharma and Mishra grabbing two each. Skipper M.S.Dhoni takes the Player of the match award.
Two down and two left to be played. India has been the dominating side so far, although Australia is a side that can be dangerous to contain once rejuvenated. Their opening wicket woes have been their major problem, although there were good signs in the second innings of the second test match when the opening pair had a reasonably better start. Among bowlers, Mitchell Johnson was exceptional, as were rookies Peter Siddle and Cameron White to a reasonable extent.
India had many reasons to feel happy with their top order in hip form. All their batsmen were comfortable playing the Australian bowlers. Among bowlers, the new bowl bowlers and the spin department were exceptional, especially Amit Sharma, who looks promising. Yet, everyone hope that Anil Kumble makes a come back as his experience will always be vital for a series win.With a lead of 1-0, we can expect India to play for a win in the Feroz Shah Kotla match, to be played on 29th October and wrap up the series.
