Everything is fast and furious when it’s the Australian cricket team. Everything they do, they do with a degree of great swiftness. They score at a brisk pace in Test matches and their bowlers are always in a hurry to take wickets. They think on their feet till the match isn’t over and done with. These guys are always mentally and physically in shape to cease the day, and with little time to spare at that.
In the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, which was the third match of the series, this home team delayed their second innings declaration to ensure a series win. This was dubbed as a waste of time for Australian cricket. But in Sydney, they got back to what they are known for. With an overnight score of 251 for 6, the hosts declared their innings and yet against threw the Indians a challenge. The chase-it-if-you-can kind of challenge wasn’t easy on the last day, on the Sydney pitch, but the Indians fought back and managed to draw the Test match.
Now that was one mean feat achieved. The odds are stacked against you when you’re batting on the Sydney pitch, in the fourth innings of a Test series that’s gone totally against you. As per the stats, and the history of this pitch, it’s perhaps next to impossible. The ball spun, jumped and even assisted reverse-swing to the Australian pace attack. It added to the miseries of the Indians when the odd deliveries also kept low and came fast on to the Indian bat. Given their previous performances, the Indians had nowhere to run – literally and figuratively. They had to stay at the crease, stand tall and keep the Aussie predators, who at this point in the game had picked-up the scent of blood, at bay.
And who, among the Indians, could stand up to the task? With an obvious disappointment after having missed a place in the World Cup team, Vijay reminded everyone, in the second innings, why he deserved a place in the ODI team. He doused the Australian fire with a steady 80 at the top of the order. After the first innings hero, KL Rahul, was dismissed early, both Vijay and Rohit Sharma tried to build a partnership and were partially successful. Indian captain Virat Kohli, and Vijay, too shared some crucial runs. But it was Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who stayed till the end to ensure India don’t lose the plot against the Aussies.
Finally, the Australians may have won the series with a 2-0 score line, but the Indians did well to attempt keeping up with the pacy style of their hosts. From start of the Test series, the Aussies were always ahead of India, but the Indian team showed keenness to learn from this series, which could augur well in days to come. Batting wise, India were really close to the Aussies, it was the indisciplined Indian bowling that kept the Australians in the lead.
The first Test match in Adelaide was a good opportunity for India to draw level with the opponents. The second Test was lost solely because of Australia’s fury with bat and ball. The last two Test matches, were drawn encounters, thanks to Australian persistence and India’s reluctance to go down without a fight. This new Indian team certainly has a good future and could emulate the efficient and aggressive Aussie way of playing, even when they’re at the longest version of the game.
