India v Australia-2008-09, Test-1 (Bangalore)-Day-5

Score line: -

Australia 430-10 (149.5 overs, Mike Hussey 146 (276 Balls), Zaheer Khan 5-91)

India 360-10 (119.0 overs, Zaheer Khan 57 (121 Balls), Mitchell Johnson 4-70)

Australia 228-6 (73.0 overs, Shane Watson 41(72 Balls), Ishant Sharma 3-40)

Report Sheet of the Day: - Australia 40 % - India 60 %

Match-Report:-

When the day began, everybody was drawing parallels of this game with that (in) famous encounter between the same opponents this January-at Sydney. Everybody was asking: Would India crumble again? Would Ponting declare as conservatively as he did at Sydney?

All questions were answered with “No.” As Watson & Haddin came onto bat, there intent seemed to be of having a 10-over slog-out at the Indians. Haddin looped the first ball he played back to Kumble; Kumble missed another half-chance. And looking at it, you can’t help but feel that we have watched the swansong of Kumble-the gladiator of Indian cricket.

Watson & Haddin slogged a few, ran hard between the wickets. But Watson apparently went a bit too far-straight drove Ishant Sharma for a beautiful shot. But the bowler got his revenge the very next ball-a prodigious in-swinger pitched on a good-length, Watson shaped to slog, got an inside-edge & the leg-stump was pegged back. (6-203)

Haddin & White then waved their bats for another quick-fire 25 runs and Australia finally declared at 228-6. A lead of 298, which meant India, had to score 299 runs off a possible 83 overs.

The Indian openers then came out, looking visibly tense. Australians on the other hand, were looking fired up & quite chirpy. However, it was clear that Lee was running in with better rhythm than he had done in the whole game. He was running in hard-hitting the deck with that beautiful shape away from the right-hander. He drove Virender Sehwag early in to a half-drive, got the edge-and Brad Haddin made a meal of it. Sehwag though, wasn’t gonna hurt Australia badly with this life-line. The next ball he faced was from the ever-accurate Stuart Clarke-angling on to leg-middle & straightening at the last moment. Sehwag shaped for a flick, got a very fine edge-which was safely pouched by Hayden at first slip-a good, low catch. (1-16)

Rahul Dravid came in, and continued with where he had left in the first innings. He was batting confidently, coming full forward or right back & smothering every tiny little movement or variation in bounce. His wicket came against the run of play-but was a result of smart bowling from Lee & even smarter captaincy & catching from Ponting. The ball was angling in-Dravid played a flick which was travelling fast, and Ponting at short mid-wicket caught it like a hawk. (2-24)

Now, hearts were pumping fast, & everybody (including me) thought the Sydney fiasco was at it again. Tendulkar & Laxman were the biggest culprits that afternoon-falling to a brilliant spell from Stuart Clark. But this time, a different Tendulkar came out. Confident, quiet and accumulating, sometimes even bull-headed in defending everything. Gautam Gambhir on the other hand-was trying his hardest to negotiate everything. And a very very slow but equally important partnership commenced.

After lunch, it was Johnson who assumed his battle with Gambhir & finally snared him with a well disguised Slower-Yorker-Gambhir played all around it-and was bowled. (3-77)

VVS Laxman came out; both he & Sachin Tendulkar are named as Australia’s nemesis, turning their best performance when faced with the Baggy green. They, in fact, played so defensively & without risk, that there isn’t much to write about it. Both completed a dogged half-century stand, and almost sealed a draw before sachin-distracted by light, played a tame & lazy off-drive off Cameron White, the ball looping up straight to Michael Clarke at short-mid-off. He was frustrated to a great deal, missing a well-earned half-century by just one-run. (4-138)

Sourav Ganguly came & started positively. He survived some initial scars. And finally sealed a draw along side VVS Laxman.

In the end…A closely fought draw. From the moment Australia won the toss, they were ahead for the most part of the game. But India fought all the way; never allowing Australia to run away with the game. I’ll post a review of this whole game tomorrow & SWOT analysis of both the sides carrying to the next game at Mohali. Bye for now.

Pitch: - Was an old-fashioned slow turner. There was jump-turn & bounce, but the pitch was considerably slow. Wasn’t too much help to the faster bowlers from the surface. The fast bowlers only relied on reverse-swing & variable bounce.