THE freak manner in which the fourth Test of the series between India and Australia came to an end, must have created some sort of a bizarre record. I really struggle to remember the last time I had seen anything like this.
Two completed innings, which means no less than forty wickets, in a little over two days is not something you see often. For a Test match to last that little is not that rare, for there have been instances where a team scores heavily and quickly, before getting the opponent out twice. The last that comes to mind is Australia bulldozing Pakistan a few years back in a Test which, if I remember it right, was played at the neutral venue of Sharjah.
But in Mumbai, both the sides got out for peanuts, and more than any effort to excel, the match was about trying to prove which was the less mediocre of the two sides, and, as it turned out, the Australians were humbled by the hosts. It naturally had to do a lot with the nature of the wicket that was prepared, or rather under-prepared for the game. Ricky Ponting was technically right in his criticism of the track, but the fact cannot be denied that the playing conditions, as is always the case, remain the same for both the teams.
In the final analysis, the scoreline stood at 2-1, with a drawn game in which India appeared to have the upper hand going into the last day which was washed out due to heavy rains. Had it not rained on that fateful day, and had India gone on to snatch one back on the scoreline, it would have stood at 2-2 at the end of the series. The question is, was it that close a series? I doubt.
The two Australian victories on the tour had been huge, thumping and totally convincing. The Indian victory in Mumbai, on the other hand, was, at best, freak. Though the Indians have every right to feel elated about the whole affair, for nothing succeeds like success, the fact remains that not many would stand convinced of Indian supremacy over Australia. The track was of such a quality that even someone like Michael Clark ran away with the show, taking six wickets for nine runs. I have no doubt whatsoever that he has already recorded his best bowling figures in his overall career — Tests, One-Dayers, First Class, even club-level, all inclusive. I can’t see him improving on it, because I don’t see him coming across such a track again in his career.
One thing that did come out in the Mumbai Test was that the Australians are also mere mortals when it comes to chasing fourth-innings targets, specially small ones. We will sure be discussing the Australians a lot more in the days to come, as the national team is due to visit them in the near future, and, as described by coach Bob Woolmer, it will be a litmus test for the Pakistanis.
The Indians, on the other hand, will be playing host to the South Africans, the tour having already become controversial with the dropping out of Harshelle Gibbs and Nike Boje, whom the Indian police wants to interview in connection with certain match-fixing allegations.
On the cricket field, however, the series is expected to be much more evenly contested than what was the case with the India-Australia encounters, because the gap between the two teams is not that huge. Forget the official ICC ranking table which puts the South Africans at second place behind Australia, the fact is that given its performance in the last couple of years, South Africa is just another team on the international scene, there being nothing special about it.
But Pakistan’s tour of Australia and India’s itinerary against South Africa are distant assignments when compared to the one-off tie between the two South Asian rivals in Kolkata. I am already looking forward to it.
THE freak manner in which the fourth Test of the series between India and Australia came to an end, must have created some sort of a bizarre record. I really struggle to remember the last time I had seen anything like this.
