In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck has praise for VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma and the Australian team, which tried its utmost but fell short in the nailbiting match in Mohali.

Laxman was the key figure on the final day. All things seem possible whilst he remains at the crease. Australians and tension bring out the best in him. Romps in the park make him appear humdrum. Here he produced an astonishing array of strokes, pulls played without footwork, caresses through cover, flicks off his hip and all the while he kept his head.

VVS Laxman has been a thorn for Australians for more than a decade now. Dileep Premachandran wonders in the Guardian whether they have taken to calling him Very Very Sickening after another Laxman masterclass denied them victory.

In crisis situations that paralyse others, Laxman manages to bat with a composure and elegance that must be soul-destroying for the opposition. Others cramp up with nervous excitement. He strokes the ball into the gaps. As Zaheer Khan, an odd choice as man of the match following India's single-wicket win over Australia, said afterwards Laxman brings calm to the dressing room.

On his BBC blog, Soutik Biswas calls Laxman "an elegant anachronism in an age of fast-food cricket".

Laxman belongs to what is popularly called the Fab Four of Indian cricket. If the genius of Sachin Tendulkar is its Paul McCartney, the iconoclasm and flamboyance of - the now retired - Saurav Ganguly its John Lennon. If the maestro of the backbeat, Rahul Dravid, is its Ringo Starr, then VVS must be its George Harrison, weaving some wondrous and beautiful innings that have held together some of India's best performances and his own.

While lauding Laxman for yet another match-winning innings, Ravi Shastri also has words of praise in the Deccan Herald for Ricky Ponting, since the Australian captain allowed Laxman a runner in both innings.

And all this due to the generosity of a man who isn’t viewed as fair by most Indian fans. Ricky Ponting was judged as inflammatory in Sydney. He wasn’t seen as courteous in getting the then BCCI chief down the podium after the Champions Trophy triumph in 2006.

In Mohali, though, he allowed Laxman with a runner in both the innings. He had made a public pledge to restore game’s dignity after the unsavoury episodes of recent times. The Australian skipper was as good as his word.