India Australia Series: A Magical Lifelife for Test Cricket

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Sreelata YellamrazuOct 15 2010

by Sumit Srivastava

In the times of recurring talks about the future of test cricket, India and Australia are the two sides that have produced some of the most riveting test matches.

indian cricket team with border gavaskar trophy

In the recent past, almost all theTtest matches played between these two sides have gone down to the wire and have made the heart beat faster for the players on the field and the spectators off the field. Mohali Test was no different either.

This match was a great showcase for all who question the existence and life of Test match cricket and it made a very strong statement that Test cricket is the ultimate cricket. Right from the session one of day one, till the last ball of day five, the pendulum swung from one side to another. It was hard to predict the match from one session to another. In short, this match had all the lubricants of making it a joyous ride for the spectators.

Some spirited batting display by both the sides made the first innings look great and made everyone think that it was going to be one of those 'another boring Test' matches which will not give any result. But here came the twist as another script was waiting to be written and the bowlers, from both the sides, had a very important role to play in this script.

Michell Johnson and Zaheer Khan, in the first part of the innings, bowled with great zeal and venom but it was Ishant Sharma who was the game changer in the second innings. The lanky fast bowler had done almost nothing till he picked up three key Australian wickets in eight balls and turned the match completely. And by removing the Australian tail quickly, Zaheer once again showcased his ability to reverse the ball in both the directions and proved that in contemporary cricket, there are not many who could make the old ball talk like him.

The target of 216 was never easy on a fifth day Mohali track and the Australians, as always, came hard at the Indians and tried to make lives difficult for them. But the intent of the Indian batsmen, especially Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman on day five, paid the dividends. They were positive from the outset and knew that they had to score at a decent pace if they were to win the match.

Tendulkar looked great right from the first ball and started his innings from where he had left it in the first innings. He played off the first half hour with caution and solidity, before upping the ante with some ferocious cuts and vintage drives. The very very special Laxman, put his pain aside, took the painkillers and played some shots which only he could play.

At 124 for 8, even the most die hard of Indian cricket lovers would have lost all hope of an Indian win but the determination and temperament of Ishant proved that it was still not a very bad day five track to bat. It also showed the importance of self confidence in an individual and his performance. A fiery spell in the second innings would certainly have given him a lot of confidence and his batting would have doubled that confidence. One could see a completely new, or rather old, Ishant in the next Test. This may well be a turning point for Ishant’s career that everyone has been waiting for a long time.

Australia played really hard cricket and get full marks for the efforts they put in. The absence of Doug Bollinger and the below par show by Nathan Hauritz made the problems bigger for Ricky Ponting. The ground fielding and catching was as always quitesharp.

The umpires had a fairly decent game too but both Billy Bowdon and Ian Gould made some critical mistakes and that too at very crucial junctures of the game. Just think about the decisions of Michael Hussey, Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha. Especially those of Ishant and Pragyan were potentially bigger ones as they could have changed the fate of the game. But with no Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), these things are bound to happen. India is the only team which is not convinced about it. They were lucky enough to win this time but at times it has gone against them. If technology is there then it should be used rather than questioning umpires’ decisions.

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