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India v Australia, 1st Test, Chennai, 5th day
India take 1-0 lead with eight-wicket win
February 26, 2013
India 572 (Dhoni 224, Pattinson 5-96) and 50 for 2 beat Australia 380 (Clarke 130, Ashwin 7-103) and 241 (Henriques 81*, Ashwin 5-95, Jadeja 3-72) by eight wickets
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India v Australia at Chennai
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An Indian victory that seemed imminent minutes after tea on day four was eventually completed by Sachin Tendulkar, 40 minutes before lunch on day five. Australia's resistance over that period arrived too late to change the result, but in it may be found the clues to a tighter contest when the second match begins in Hyderabad on Saturday.
MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Tendulkar were the pivotal contributors to India's 1-0 series lead, showing greater discipline and awareness of the sort of cricket best played on the MA Chidambaram Stadium's clay court. Save for Michael Clarke's first-day century and James Pattinson's fiery pace, it was not until Moises Henriques stood up with the bat in the second innings that the tourists showed evidence of catching up.
A target of only 50 to win was reached with the help of some Tendulkar fireworks - towering sixes from his first two deliveries against Nathan Lyon - but Pattinson again bowled well to the openers and Lyon showed far greater consistency of line and control of length than he had managed while being taken for 3 for 215 in the first innings.
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India were left with some questions about their opening pair, M Vijay and Virender Sehwag doing little in either innings, and they may also wonder about subtracting another seam bowler from their XI should the Hyderabad surface be anything like this one. Australia have found a steady batting hand in Henriques, but much of their display in this match will be the cause of serious introspection.
Henriques and Lyon had put on 66 for Australia's last wicket, a defiant gesture after the earlier batsmen had failed to stand their ground. Henriques' unbeaten innings completed a fine double for the debutant, who has surely made his place safe for the second Test.
Ultimately it was Ravindra Jadeja who ended the stand after 25 minutes on the final morning, switching from over to around the wicket against Lyon and coaxing an inside edge onto pad that was snapped up by short leg.
Pattinson's first ball of the innings was a snorter, pitched short and seaming back sharply at Vijay, though it angled away from Matthew Wade and flew away for four byes. The ball kept Vijay thinking, and after depositing Lyon for one straight six, he fell when an indecisive drive was well taken by Henriques at a shortish mid-off.
In the next over Cheteshwar Pujara offered a sharp chance when padding up to Lyon, the ball striking pad and glove but eluding Wade, who was unable to adjust to the ball's shifting trajectory. Sehwag sliced a brace of boundaries over the slips cordon from Pattinson, and when Peter Siddle replaced him he drove sweetly down the ground.
Lyon, meanwhile, showed some evidence of improvement in his bowling. He twirled down far fewer deliveries that could be tucked around the corner behind square leg, and the better line forced some impatient premeditated strokes from Pujara. It also undid Sehwag when he snicked to Clarke at slip. This little joust was ultimately immaterial to the result, sealed as it was by Tendulkar's sixes, but demonstrated that Lyon was learning.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
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Daniel Brettig
Assistant editor Daniel Brettig had been a journalist for eight years when he joined ESPNcricinfo, but his fascination with cricket dates back to the early 1990s, when his dad helped him sneak into the family lounge room to watch the end of day-night World Series matches well past bedtime. Unapologetically passionate about indie music and the South Australian Redbacks, Daniel's chief cricketing achievement was to dismiss Wisden Almanack editor Lawrence Booth in the 2010 Ashes press match in Perth - a rare Australian victory that summer.
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I'm making this point about the spectacle of cricket and not on a perceived advantage that India received with this wicket. I watched the test with intrigue mostly around being excited to see how the Australian team go about this challenge on a foreign surface in conditions along way from what they are used to. Congratulations to India the pitch did provide a surface for a contest, but this is my opinion seeing 77 overs of spin in India second innings without a paceman bowling detracts from the spectacle of cricket. I believe there should be a place for both spinners and paceman to ply there trade and usually at opposite ends but this was not a pitch for that. Generally it was about spinners putting balls in areas waiting for the pitch to explode and take a wicket. If you put enough balls in this area it would eventually happen. I feel sorry for Ishant Sharma an absolute talent 4 years ago now broken by his inability to ply his trade on tracks unresponsive to his bowling.
For Australia, lots to think about. It's great that Henriques was a hit with the bat but the fact that he was top scorer in the second innings and would have been in the first too but for Clarke's lucky break should be a major concern. He looked far more at ease than the rest of the batsman so they need improvement right the way up the order. The next pitch may not be so conducive to spin so they had best make hay while the sun shines. Pattinson looked good with the ball but even he didn't exactly looked like a match-winner after those two short spells on day 2. Lyon wasn't as bad as some are saying as Dhoni did most of the damage but he certainly didn't exceed expectations. Siddle and Starc tried hard but will need to do better. Wade will need to do better when up to the stumps if Australia are to get back into this series, especially if Australia do go with two spinners at some point. Tough job keeping in India but if he wants it then he's got to do it.
I have to say I agree with some of what the Indian fans are saying here. This was by no means a terrible test pitch. It produced a lot of runs, 32 wickets and a result on the 5th day with no need for any declarations. Moreover, whilst it was definitely a spinning wicket, 8 wickets were taken by pace bowling and Pattinson showed that quality is quality. The pitch deteriorated, showed variable bounce and took more spin as the game progressed which is what you want. One criticism of some Australian pitches is that they do not deteriorate enough. The other thing is that the Aussies knew full well that this was the sort of pitch they could expect and yet still picked 4 pace bowlers and only 1 front line spin bowler. Even so if Cowan had held the catch off Dohni the Aussies could have been well in the match.
Well played India and, in particular, Dhoni. One magnificent innings took the match away from Australia at a crucial stage. Had Dhoni misfired, Australia may well have won this match. Henriques played well. I had some doubts about his selection, but he was solid with the ball and terrific with the bat, it would be sheer folly to drop him now. I still have doubts about the 3 specialist pacemen. One of Siddle, Pattinson and Starc have to step aside for the next test and allow Doherty, Maxwell or Smith to come in. Also, Lyons performances need to improve. He is too expensive to play the holding role, and doesn't take enough wickets to be an attacking spinner. I also think that he has been misused, tactically. It is all very well to have confidence in your players, but I believe Clarke's confidence borders at times on over-confidence for Australia's no.1 spinner.
Congrats to India ! It is a great to watch India win in a test match after long time.Pressure made Indian team perform well in this match. Especially,Dhoni played very calm and arrogant for his 224 which made a turning point of this match.Spinners played really well. Ashwin was really impressive but he has to control runs.Ojha should make comeback rest of the series.Indian futures like kohli,pujara doing well.Main disappointment is Opening batsmen.Jadeja bowled well but he need to show some performances from his bat to place in the team.Bhuvi gave good partnership with Dhoni that made him good start in his career eventhough he didn't take wickets in 1st Innings.I don't know why Henriques played aggressively like Dhoni and he is giving strike to Lyon.If he plays like Dhoni there is a chance for him to hit maiden ton of his debut test.Anyway congrats to both the team for 2nd test.
India deserved to win, given Oz's apparent vulnerability and the nature of the pitch. That said, such manufactured wins won't be leading you anywhere. And, unmistakably, the umpiring was disastrous. (One must say however, of the two, Dharmasena was, at least, generally unbiased.) Clarke's arrival itself followed bad decision; so his reprieve is not as much a sin as it's made out to be. While Clarke personally capitalized on his let off, it's the team that did on Sachin's. Don't say Sachin's was less obvious; even less was Henriques'. And all the 7 bowled were even more obvious than most the lbw's. When you get 7-0 lbw's in your favor while your 7 batters get bowled, and as this happens with too much regularity, your reluctance to use DRS becomes understandable. Anyway it's the concerned bodies' impotence that's landing their sides in trouble; so one feels no sympathy except worry for the game's future.
Posted by Harmony111 on (February 27, 2013, 14:02 GMT)@Meety: I had asked this a long time back but it seems even the Oz fans have now forgotten Krejza. What happened to him? He did a hell lot better than any other Oz spinner I have seen in the last 2-3 yrs. One major reason why Eng were successful were that Panesar, with all due respect to what he did, got unexpected success. No one saw it coming. And the secret of his success was that he was able to give the ball more revolutions at a faster pace. He has big big hands. His natural angle to the RHB helped him too. The ball was coming in at 90-95 kms and then turning away sharply. The Indian spinners were either too slow with same revolutions, giving Eng batsmen time to re-check or fast with no revolutions. I mention Krejza here cos IMO he is just like Panesar. He does give the ball lots of revolutions and he does get lots of spin. Even in the WC QF he did get plenty of spin. For India, Jadeja is a bit like Panesar but can't get that much spin. Surely none can do as bad as Lyon's 200.
Posted by Front-Foot-Lunge on (February 27, 2013, 12:20 GMT)@Shaggy: Indeed, Minnow victories are all Australia have these days, I understand that. It seems to me that the 'Rebuilding Phase' needs to start right here. It will take quite a few years for new youngsters to come through, but Australia should without question make a start at rebuilding a new team from scratch.
Posted by aplomb on (February 27, 2013, 11:38 GMT)A splendid knock by Dhoni by all measures. Any team who is not performing well would look at his captain for inspiration e.g. After Sourav Ganguly 144 knock Indian came within whisker to win series down under only denied by magnificent resilience by Waugh. And at the beginning of any series you would like to attach opposition weakest link which they are praying to be successful. Dhoni did just that and now even Australian fan were not sure about their spinner success. Indian bowling were never good but at least we could boast our batting. That also was waning since last 12 test. I would hope that this inning by Dhoni could instill some confidence in other batsman and they could provide their bowlers above par score to succeed. In a team sport like cricket, as an audience we still search for show man for any match whether it could be Ambrose spell at WACA or warne bowling against SA in memorable WC SF or Sehwag or KP dictating terms at their day. Hope that test outlook would be changed.
Posted by sachin_vvsfan on (February 27, 2013, 11:34 GMT)@Michael Whyte Some other pivotal points you should have considered for a balanced view here 1)clarke not walking of when on 39 2)sehwag dropping warner in first innings 3)Cowan surviving 2 close calls in second innings 4)kholi dropping clarke on 0 in second innings. And only you dont seem to believe in dhonis edge when every one else has seen. If these pivotal points were also taken into consideration the game would have become one sided.