Yet another enthralling day of cricket at the Wankhede Stadium in Bombay,
ending with Australia in a comfortable postion once again. And yet there were
moments in the day when it was all so different.
Starting from a very comfortable 49/1, Australia slid into desperate trouble
in just over an hour. They collapsed to 99/5, still 77 behind on the first
innings. For the first time in 16 months, for the first time, indeed, since
Pakistan at Hobart, Australia were in a true test match contest with their
backs to the wall. The batsmen looked tentative and uncomfortable, the ball
was turning viciously for young Harbajan Singh who seemed to be coming of age
before our very eyes, the fielders were on their toes, and the crowd was in
good humour and great voice.
But there is a reason the Australians are the best team in the world, and
have won a mind-boggling 15 Test matches consecutively. The self belief and
fighting spirit in this team are as good as any we've seen in at least the
past two decades, and the attitude is positive to the extreme. The old adage
of attack being the best form of defense is something this side consistently
brings to their cricket.

Gilchrist
- 84 ball hundred Photo CricInfo
|
The other reason Australia has won 15 Test matches in a row, one might
suggest, is the arrival of Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist made his Test debut only
18 months ago, but Australia has won all 14 Tests he has appeared in. Maybe
it is time for all of us to acknowledge that it may not be entirely
coincidental! He replaced a legend in Ian Healy and he is clearly not as
adept as his predecessor with the gloves - but what he offers with the bat
more than makes up for that. He adds to an already formidable batting line-up
the knock-out punch - an ability to rip an attack to shreds, and a
temperament to be able to do so with even greater conviction when his side
is in trouble.
The last time Australia were in trouble in a Test match, it was Gilchrist who
came to their rescue, forging a partnership with Langer that will live in
Aussie legend - and he was only playing in his Second Test.
On Wednesday Gilchrist was playing his 15th, came in with his side reeling at
99/5, and played what might yet come to be regarded as one of the great Test
knocks of modern times. In the space of a scant two-and-a-half hours, he
turned a Test match on its head.
It bears repeating that, when Gilchrist made his appearance, the conditions
were very difficult for batting - the 99/5 had not just been brought about by
a combination of ill-luck and bad shots by the batsmen. The pitch was
difficult, the ball was turning square. And every so often the ball would
leap off the track akin to nothing so much as a spitting cobra - a leaping
keeper Mongia often collected deliveries from off-spinner Harbajan Singh over
his shoulder, with both feet off the ground.

Harbajan
Singh - 4 wickets Photo AFP
|
With the fielders ringing the bat and the ball turning sharply, Gilchrist
made the remarkably audacious decision to attack - and to attack by hitting
into the open spaces to mid-wicket, against the biting turn. It requires
remarkable self-belief and courage to decide on that strategy - and an even
greater degree of skill to actually execute it. To which must be allied
remarkable judgement, to pick the correct balls on which to play those
strokes.
Up to that point, Gilchrist had struggled to come to terms with Indian
condtions - he had failed in his previous four innings on tour, with scores
of 5, 21, 22 and 4. And even in this innings, he started with just a solitary
single off the first 15 deliveries he faced. He was facing a bowler who had
claimed 3 for 30 in his first 15 overs. Yet his self-belief never wavered,
his confidence was never shaken.
Once the decision was mentally made to take on the bowlers, the treatment was
brutal. Harbajan Singh was charged and smashed over long-on for six, and then
swept consecutively for two, four and two as he conceded 14 off the over.
Sanghvi was easier - he spun the ball into the left-hander, and so could be
struck with the spin. He was hit down to long-on for four. Tendulkar was hit
for 2 boundaries as well, and Australia went into lunch at 170/5 with the
game beginning to run away from India, less than an hour after it had seemed
in their grasp.
For the second day in succession, the hour after lunch produced the most
glorious cricket imaginable. Yesterday it had been Tendulkar in prime touch,
today it was Gilchrist in rampant form with Hayden playing a wonderful
supporting role.
Harbhajan, getting big turn and still being swept off the off-stump with
authority, decided to pitch outside off and spin it away - and Gilchrist
promptly gave himself room and smacked him twice through point for fours.
Agarkar was crunched through midwicket for four, and swatted through cover
for four more the next over.
Harbhajan went back to his old line, and was swept yet again through midwicket for four. The Indian team was so shell-shocked with the strokeplay
that they still hadn't thought to plug that immensely profitable gap. And
Gilchrist was in no mood to give quarter - so he promptly swept Harbajan
again, this time for six.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, said the Bard. And Ganguly, who
had not dared trust Rahul Sanghvi with any more than the 6 overs he had
bowled all day, summoned the debutant to try his hand once more against
Gilchrist. Sanghvi was lucky enough to be given a man on the deep mid-wicket
fence, but his brand of bowling was meat-and-drink to the rampant Gilchrist -
he was swept for six over the head of the man on the fence, and then swept
for four more wide off him.
The hapless Sanghvi was persisted with for yet another over, and by now
Gilchrist was toying with the bowlers - he was swept for four again, and then
lofted over long-on for yet another six. Exit Sanghvi, stage left, after a
spell of 2 overs for 27 runs - Desperate Remedies dont always cure Desperate
Diseases.
Now Harbhajan was brought back from the other end - Hope had clearly
triumphed over Belief. He was greeted with a powerful cut past point for a
boundary off his very first ball. The next was swept yet again for four. Two
more sweeps for singles followed in the same over, the second taking
Gilchrist to his hundred - which he had reached before Hayden, having given
the latter a start of two-and-a-half fours and exactly 50 runs. And Hayden
had scored what most would consider a relatively quick Test match hundred
himself!
Statistics give some indication of the carnage at the Wankhede - Gilchrist's
second fifty had come off precisely 29 deliveries. There were 15 balls
crunched to the fence, and 4 hit a long way over it. A jaw-dropping 96 runs
were scored in one glorious hour after lunch.
When Gilchrist came in, his side was 77 behind, facing a deficit on a
deteriorating pitch, and in serious trouble. When he left, a scant two-and-ahalf hours later, his side was 150 ahead, in the catbird seat, with with an
opposition in disarray and the opposing captain visibly shell-shocked.
It was a brutal yet magnificent - incandescent strokeplay on a gloriously
sunny afternoon before a delirious crowd. It was a bludgeoning, what the
locals called a "pitai", of the kind that the Wankhede has probably never
witnessed in its storied history.
And it has left India facing a mountain they look increasingly unlikely to
climb.