PERHAPS it was the only fair result possible in the second Test between Australia and India. The hunger for victory was evident in equal measures on both sides, and since the burden was squarely on India after the loss in the first Test, it was India which made that much more effort and when the rain came pouring down, it was India which had its nose slightly in front.
But still it could have been anyone’s game, with India needing 210 on the last day. On the first four days of the Test, some one thousand runs were scored in three completed innings, which means an average daily score of 250 runs for the loss of 7.5 wickets. With ten wickets in the bag, and 210 to get in 90 overs, India was well within its rights to sense a victory.
But, then, what about the many intangibles in cricket? I mean, the crumbling nature of the last-day wicket, the bowling form shown by Shane Warne in the series thus far, the lack of form on the part of Indian batsmen, the pressure of a last-innings chase and such other things. Add to it the simple fact that the Australians play their cricket hard and aggressive, the pros and cons all but cancelled each other out.
Regardless of the result, it goes to the credit of the Indian team management and, indeed, the players that they lifted themselves from up from that demoralizing defeat in the first Test. Anyone who has played competitive sports at some level would know that it takes some doing. Pep-talk alone can’t make it happen; the spirit has to come from within the player himself.
As for the Australians, they are never short on self-belief. The way they clawed their way back into the game after making a mess of it in the first innings was worth watching and enjoying. The partnership between Damien Martyn and Jason Gellispie, the night-watchman, was a real treat, and it was after a long time that we saw an Australian batsman scoring a century by way of accumulating, and not scoring, runs. The partnership was commitment personified. It was professionalism of the highest order.
The debilitating dehydration suffered by Mohammad Kaif also brought up the issue of physical fitness. It was hot and humid, but it was an Indian who suffered the cramps, and not an Australian for whom it was more of an alien condition. The word coming out of the Australian camp on the weather condition was even more amazing. It was, they said, what they had come expecting in India. Supremely fit and totally committed, this is the wonderful world of Australian cricket.
The Test series is set to live up to its billing, and the credit must be shared by the two teams even though they both happen to be playing at less than their full strength. So absorbing the proceedings were that I found it of much better worth to follow than the triangular contest at home that was also under way at the same time.
In any case, there is hardly a point in repeating myself on what I think of the net worth of this team and its coach. As could only be expected, the PCB Chairman has already seen signs of improvement in the team despite the defeat, and has reiterated his complete confidence in the performance of the high-profile coach. Interestingly, he has been praising in the last few months the training methods and physical fitness routines set in place by the coach and his team of foreign consultants. In his recent remarks, however, the PCB boss has found fault with the players’ fitness levels. That being so, what had he been praising previously?
PERHAPS it was the only fair result possible in the second Test between Australia and India. The hunger for victory was evident in equal measures on both sides, and since the burden was squarely on India after the loss in the first Test, it was India which made that much more effort and when the rain came pouring down, it was India which had its nose slightly in front.
