Nagpur sure is a lucky ground for the Australians. It was at Nagpur that the Australians managed to cross ‘the final frontier’ winning the third Test in the 2004 Test series and thereby winning a Test series in India after 35 years. With the one-day series still in the balance when the teams came to Nagpur, it was an opportunity for the Indians to come back in the series and take it to the final game in Mumbai to decide who the winner was going to be. The Indian team manger did not help by putting the ‘nazar’ on his own team by claiming that under his charge no team had ever lost a series. Well, as the old saying goes, there’s always a first time and unfortunately that means that the last game in Mumbai is only of statistical interest.
The Indians have nobody to blame but themselves, for the fielding was below par and the running between the wickets also was not a patch on the Australians. It’s never fair to compare any team with the Australians, for they have been the champions for so long now and have become almost machine like in the way they execute the victories, but there’s also so much to learn from them.
Sadly, only the avoidable part of verbals is being taken on board and to be fair to the Australians, they have hardly said a word after the first two games. What about some of the fielding or the throwing ? What about getting the clothes dirty and torn in the whole-hearted effort to stop the ball from going past the fielder? With 6 pieces of laundry free every day, getting the clothes dirty should be the least of the concerns and the unlimited amount of clothing from the team sponsor should allay any fears about torn clothing.
India conceded extra runs in the field and in the final analysis it was that which cost them the game. The batting rose splendidly to the task with two players, whose position in the team is being queried by the ignoramuses, giving a solid platform from where the assault could have been carried on. Instead the mucking about with the batting order did not help. Sure Pathan did not play a bad innings, but what the team needed was not a quick 30 but a 70 plus. Yuvraj has suddenly gone off the boil. He got a century batting at number three in a previous game and when chasing 319, a century plus was what was the need of the hour and not a 30. Another in-form batsman Uthappa was sent too low down in the order and he tried his best but was under tremendous pressure with the asking rate having climbed up to virtually unmanageable proportion.
The skipper too gave it everything but in the end the Australians despite Brett Lee dropping the simplest of chances, just raised the level of their bowling with some top full-length bowling that denied the batsmen a golf swing for the sixes which was the only way the rate could have been caught up.
Andrew Symonds got plenty of golf swings to get to a century that he had missed in earlier games and his running between the wickets with Hopes was outstanding. Once again on a pitch that helped spin, the Indians were unable to contain the Australians and must have a rethink about the composition of their team even though the series is lost. There is still plenty of cricket ahead and the earlier the balance of the team is sorted out, the better it will be for Indian cricket.
