A fiery 122-run partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds saw Australia crush India by five wickets with 18 overs to spare, in the eleventh match of the VB Series at the WACA ground in Perth.
The fourth-wicket partnership between Gilchrist (75) and Symonds (73) pulled Australia out of jail, after the hosts had lost three early wickets to be 37/3 inside six overs.
The result of the match will have no impact on the series, since India and Australia have already qualified for the finals; yet, the win gives the home side a psychological edge going in to the best of three showdown. The single biggest positive Australia will take from the game is the performance of Brett Lee.
The Aussie quick, savaged by the Indian batsmen thus far in the series, hit back with a spell of searing pace, consistently bowling over the 152k mark and often hitting 155k. Significantly, his rhythm was good, his no-ball epidemic seemed a thing of the past, and he turned in figures of 3/22 from 10 overs, his scalps including Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Rohan Gavaskar. At that, he was unlucky not to have got at least one other wicket, thanks to Steve Bucknor apparently not noticing that Ajit Agarkar's pads stood between a Lee express delivery and the stumps.
In a series dominated by batsmen, the bowlers for once got conditions that gave them an edge -- some green on the pitch, a swing-assisting breeze, and lots of bounce. A measure of the Indian innings lies in the fact that the highest partnership -- 31 -- came for the tenth wicket, between L Balaji and Murali Kartik.Perth has traditionally helped bowlers. India had played here on two occasions in the past. In the 1991-'92 series, India batted first, making 208/7 before Ravi Shastri with 5/15 helped bowl Australia out for just 101. More recently, on January 30, 2000, India made 226/6 again batting first (VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar, opening the innings, were dismissed for three runs apiece); Australia struggled to chase, and managed to overhaul the modest score off the third ball of the 49th over.
It does raise a question about Saurav Ganguly's confident, almost eager, decision to bat on winning the toss -- but the Indians have throughout the series banked on its batting to give enough for the bowlers to defend, and that mindset perhaps prompted the decision to take first strike.
Another factor Ganguly could have had in mind when opting to bat is that chasing is not easy at Perth -- in the last five years, the average score for chasing sides is 200, against an average for teams batting first of 260.
Indian innings:
The Indian side was boosted by the return of opening batsman Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, and middle order star Yuvraj Singh.
Jason Gillespie got the ball to swing, but Virender Sehwag spoilt the right arm quick's line and length with the sort of adventurous strokes he is known for -- a smacking short square to point in the bowler's second over was followed by an effortless flick to the long on fence.
At the other end, however, Brett Lee produced a blistering spell. In his second over, the fast bowler struck, taking Tendulkar out with a beauty. Pitching on length, the 154k delivery swung away a touch, taking the maker's label through to Mathew Hayden at first slip, who took an overhead catch to a ball travelling at speed (Tendulkar 5, India 20/1). In a sense, the batsman contributed to his downfall -- in the previous over, he had gone a long way across to pull to fine leg, in an attempt to defeat the Australian plan of setting 7 fielders on the off and bowl in that corridor. This time, he moved to off early, found himself cramped and squared up, and in no position to keep the defensive push down.
VVS Laxman was beaten for speed, and seam -- a good length delivery had him pushing, the late moving ball took the edge through to Gilchrist, and India was in some strife.
Saurav Ganguly dropped down a slot, sending Rahul Dravid out to stem the rot. At the other end, Sehwag batted as though on another wicket, playing and missing a few but hitting shots of power and timing, to help India past the 50-run mark in the 11th over. One delivery after cracking a four off Gillespie, however, the dashing opener went for one of his pet shots -- an upper cut to a lifting delivery outside off. It has fetched him fours and sixes in the past -- this time, however, the extra pace and bounce on the track saw the shot land up in the hands of Brett Lee at third man, on the line.
Ganguly was greeted with a Gillespie bouncer that crashed into his helmet and flew to the fine leg fence for four byes. The bounce, and the bouncer, apparently rattled the Indian skipper. In the next over, Andy Bichel, taking over from Lee, angled one across the left hander; Ganguly played it from inside the crease without getting behind the line, the ball took the edge, and went through to the keeper. Ganguly had recorded his third straight score of 1, and India had lost four for 57.
Dravid appeared to be countering the pace and bounce well, using all his skill to avoid the lifting deliveries, and getting behind the ones he had to play at. His innings was, as the circumstances warranted, slow -- but Dravid, normally the epitome of patience, appeared to lose it a bit here, cutting a short and wide delivery from Brad Williams straight to Mike Hussey at point. Dravid had played out the danger of Brett Lee, only to lose it to an ordinary delivery.
Rohan Gavaskar faced his first real test of nerve, and failed. Gilchrist brought back Lee and the fast bowler's first ball, a loosener, saw Gavaskar aim a flick drive that missed, for the ball to take his pad en route to the stumps.
All along, Yuvraj Singh batted with a fluency that mocked the pitch, and the bowling, but he was fast running out of partners. Ajit Agarkar played and missed and played again, enduring a torrid time against Lee, and managed a nudged single to get off the duck after half an hour at the crease.
He was lucky to be there -- Umpire Steve Bucknor, who has in this series erred on the side of the bowler, this time gave it to the batsman when he turned down a plumb LBW appeal off the bowler of Lee. The quick, who has been treated harshly by the Indians throughout this tour, finally made amends with figures of 3/22; he had reduced India to 114/6 at the end of 28 overs, when he finished his spell.
The promise of a fighting 28-run stand between Agarkar and Yuvraj, however, was belied when the former was sent back going for a non-existent second run. On the plus side, Agarkar -- who faced 20 deliveries of Lee for just the one run -- had helped see off Lee's overs, keeping the quick from making further inroads into the tail. On the minus side, Yuvraj by then was batting fluently, and needed someone to stand out there with him -- the wicket, thus, came at a bad time for the Indian recovery.
Yuvraj was easily the batsman of the day for India, driving and cutting with an ease that made you wonder what his mates had been fussing about. 19 singles testified to the way Yuvraj kept things moving; five superbly struck fours testified to his class and confidence. Three short of what would have been a well-deserved half century, however, the left hander suffered a lapse in concentration, flinging his bat at a harmless seamer from Symonds and nicking it to Gilchrist.
Irfan Pathan has been improving with every game, and developing into a good number eight. Here, he continued his promising tour, batting with good sense and not a little ability. A straight six off Symonds was a class shot; he seemed likely to produce a threatening knock when Andy Bichel, ineffective with the ball today, ran around the boundary at third man, then dived, to pull off a great catch and end Pathan's little cameo of 20 off 24.
A facet of the Indian team's performance these days is that they display grit. In an earlier age, losing the top half of the batting for under 100 would have signalled a complete collapse. Here, however, even the last wicket pair -- of Murli Karthik and L Balaji -- were prepared to dig in, and defy the bowlers in a partnership of 31. Karthik with some calculated nudges and educated edges scored an unbeaten 33, and India seemed likely to pull off the feating of batting through its overs when Balaji went for a needless run, was sent back, and caught short of his ground to end the Indian innings on 203.
It's the lowest score India has recorded in this series; on balance, it seems the kind of target Australia can cakewalk to, more so with the devastating opening pair of Hayden and Gilchrist back in business. But the pitch has bounce, there is swing in the air -- and in Perth, the only thing that is certain is there are no easy chases.
Australian innings:
If the way they batted led you to suspect the Indians had switched off for this game, the way they caught confirmed that suspicion.
Throughout the Tests, and the one day series that followed, the Indian catching has been greeted with surprise and applause by Aussie commentators. Today, when the team needed to be at its sharpest on the field in defense of a small total, however, two catches went to hand, and then to grass one, off Adam Gilchrist, before he had scored; the other, off Andrew Symonds. The culprits were VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh two fielders who, in this series, have pulled off blinders.
Gilchrist's let off a slashing square cut at a ball seaming away, which flew off the edge for a hard, sharp, overhead to Laxman -- was possibly the most significant moment of the game. For India, defending 204, it was imperative to get the two Australian openers out cheap more so, given that Ricky Ponting was sitting out this game. Given that, dropping Gilchrist before the captain for the day had scored proved to be the key and the stats of the Australian innings indicates just how crucial it was.
At the end of 5.1 overs, Australia were 37/3. Of these 37 runs, just four had been scored by Mathew Hayden, Damien Martyn and Michael Clarke, who between them managed to last just 16 deliveries.
Those looking for ironies might want to consider that four years ago almost to the day (January 30, 2000) was when these two teams last met at this venue. On that occasion too, India batted first on winning the toss, and managed just 226/6 (Tendulkar and Laxman, opening in that game, both failed). In reply, Australia managed 230/6 the winning run coming in the 50th over, with just three balls to spare and on that occasion, it was Agarkar who took Gilchrist out cheap, slashing an uppish cut to point.
In Agarkar's second over, the fireworks began. Mathew Hayden drove at a delivery without allowing for swing, and Rohan Gavaskar in the covers dived to take a sharp chance. Two deliveries later, the hapless Damien Martyn was walking back, Agarkar producing a delivery on length seaming away to find the batsman's edge through to slip, where Laxman at second stretched full length to take another sharp chance.
Retribution wasn't long in coming Gilchrist opened out in a blaze of strokeplay, first knocking Irfan Pathan out of the attack after the youngster had sent down just one over, then smashing 17 off Agarkar's third over. Balaji, however, swung the pendulum the other way, when off the first ball of the 6th over, he pitched a ball on length to bring Michael Clarke into the drive, beat him with seam, and got the edge to Sehwag at first slip.
At 3/37 in the sixth over, a contest seemed on. But the illusion was momentary, as Andrew Symonds joined Gilchrist in a breathtaking, neck or nothing assault on the Indian bowling. The two played it like an exhibition game, each attempting to outdo the other in stroke production.
It was exhilarating stuff two powerful, murderously minded batsmen giving full rein to their strokeplay. But it needs mentioning that the Indians contributed to their misery apart from the dropped catches, none barring Balaji were shrewd enough to suss out the fact that on this track, with the bounce and lateral movement it afforded, all they had to do was pitch the ball up and make the batsman play off the front foot.
Agarkar and Pathan, time and again, pitched short and Symonds and Gilchrist drew back, repeatedly, to cut and pull with savage power. Balaji alone consistently kept the ball right up, and the results showed. Against Gilchrist, he bowled 20 deliveries, off which 18 were taken including three fours, and as many as 12 dot balls. Balaji bowled 20 to Symonds and gave just nine, while forcing the destructive Aussie to play 14 deliveries defensively.
Gilchrist made most of the early running, racing to his half century off just 33 balls while piloting Australia to 114/3 at the end of 15 overs. Symonds, after getting a sighter of the track, then joined in the fun, smashing Pathan for four boundaries, then blasting Karthik for three fours in the left arm spinner's first over, en route to his own half century off just 41 deliveries.
What India needed, around this point, was a spell of tight, containing bowling which indicated Ganguly and Kartik. Ganguly, however, did not bowl. And Kartik's first over was a demonstration of what under-confidence can do to a bowler. Of six deliveries, the left arm spinner tossed two up, using flight and loop to get Symonds in a tangle. Against that, he bowled three short deliveries, and was smashed for three fours.
The hundred run partnership came up off just 86 deliveries, and by then, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. It seemed as if the only interest left in the game was to see which of the two batsmen would get to a century first.
With the score on 145/3, Symonds smashed Pathan to Yuvraj at point and the most reliable of Indian fielders dropped a ball hit straight at him. 14 runs later, the batsman moved to leg, Pathan followed him with a bouncer, and Symonds' attempt to hook was taken well by Laxman at deep midwicket, ending a 122-run partnership that smashed Australia out of jail and into the box seat.
Gilchrist followed soon after for 75 off just 65 balls, slashing Pathan down to Balaji at deep and wide third man. The Australian skipper (in Ponting's absence) walked off to a standing ovation from the sell-out 18,858-strong crowd, an appreciation of the fact that his belligerent counter attack had ensured a win for the home side.
India was given one last reminder of what could have been, as Simon Katich and debutant Michael Hussey, with just 38 runs to get off 26.3 overs, struggled and scratched their way to the target.
Only two of the seven Australian batsmen on show had fired but faced with a small target, that in the final analysis proved to be enough.
