After winning an important toss and putting up a score of 478, Ricky Ponting must be thinking that he could not lose this test match. On the contrary he must have been thinking a win. The start of the Indian innings was according to his script too. Sehwag got out to a stupid shot, and a batsman of his caliber and seniority should know how not to get aggravated. Dravid perished fishing outside the off with his bat too far away from the body. Unusual dismissal for a person who has such an exquisite technique and temperament. The Australians had to wait for over 6 hours before claiming the third wicket. In that period Murali Vijay and Sachin demonstrated total control over the hapless Australian attack and both scored centuries. The Maestro went on to score a double and looked good to score his first triple, until he played a loose shot. Indian bowlers came into their own in the third innings of the match and ensured that India had a chance to win the test. Ricky Ponting yet again got out in the seventies and that means Sachin is 10 centuries ahead of him, with some easy test matches coming up. The final innings required Indians to score 206 to win and they got there quite easily. Dhoni played a master stroke after Sehwag departed early. He sent in Cheteshwar Pujara at 3 ahead of Rahul Dravid. Firstly, it upset the Australians thought process because they would have been expecting Dravid to walk in. Second, Pujara must have felt very positive with the confidence shown by his captain. And it also ensured that if things did not work out, Dravid was there to stop any collapse. Superb move, and it paid off.
Overall, the Australians performed very poorly in all the three departments. Their batting revolved around Watson and Ponting, no one else stepped up. Bowling was pedestrian except in small spells. At this rate, the English team must be licking their fingers at the prospect of winning the Ashes. They really do have a good chance to win. Ponting will be under tremendous pressure because he has now lost too many matches on the trot without a win. His strategy and field placing on the final day also attracted a lot of criticism. They need good fast bowlers, good spinners and batsmen who can play the reverse swing.
As far as Indians are concerned, batting is our mainstay and all of them delivered. But this series really belongs to the bowlers. They bowled well, batted well and showed character. Fielding can definitely improve; remember those dropped catches in the first innings of the series. We are not creating enough run out opportunities and thus putting the seed of a doubt in the batsman’s mind. Singles are available very easily. On the batting front, we have a good problem with too many people claiming too few spots. We now need a good bowling all rounder, someone like Kapil or even half of that. Pity that Irfan vanished from the scenes after showing so much potential. That person will also ease the burden on the main strike bowlers.
So we retain the No 1 ranking very convincingly. Well done India and look forward to the next series.
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