India lost a Test match that they didn’t deserve to lose and with that they have lost the chance to beat Australia in a Test series in Australia. Not that it was ever going to be easy, for the Australians are a terrific side that seems to have that little bit extra when it is needed. Look at the way Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke bowled and they aren’t even regular bowlers, how many Indian part timers can win a game for their country? That’s why one has to admire the Australians for the manner in which they find the players to give that extra to their team.
Michael Clarke had a poor match with the bat having scored just one run in two innings but he came good with the ball picking up three wickets to send India’s hopes of saving the match crashing. Anil Kumble must be a bitterly disappointed skipper for if only some of his teammates had shown the same determination and application that he himself showed then they could well have still been alive in the series. They can of course still draw the series by winning the next two Tests but as we all know the one pitch that suits the Australian attack is the one at Perth and that’s where India will have to bat at their best and not in patches as they did here at Sydney.
Ponting’s declaration seemed a little too late and more in the defensive mould rather than the attacking one that is the Australian way but in the end it all worked out as the last India wicket fell with only seven deliveries left. Harbhajan Singh had shown that the finger spinner rather than the wrist spinner was going to be the one to watch out for. The bounce that a finger spinner can get is far more dangerous than a wrist spinner because the latter’s bounce is going to be of the slower variety than the finger spinners. That’s why Brad Hogg wasn’t able to cause any problems to the Indian batsmen. However, Andrew Symonds with his flatter trajectory but good wrist use was able to get turn and bounce and he picked up wickets with that.
Then when Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark ran out of gas Ponting played his last card by throwing the ball to the left handed Clarke. He again is a wrist spinner who just put the ball in the right place and let the pitch do the work for him like he did at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium in 2004. His figures were no less impressive than then and though he was on the losing side then his bowling did the trick for his team here. Ponting’s men have now equaled the record of Steve Waugh’s team of 16 consecutive wins and bid fair to raise the bar in Perth. Will the Indian team rise to the challenge or will the happenings in the Sydney Test demoralize them is what we will see in Perth.
