Australia takes lead in Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Under the captaincy of wicket keeper Adam Gilchrist, Australia scored a convincing victory against India in the first of the 4 test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy against India.Australia's batting proved the difference as debutante Michael Clarke and captain Adam Gilchrist both scored centuries. Clarke grafted an impressive 151 off 248 balls, while Gilchrist scored with his usual speed with his 104 coming off just 109 balls. Katich's 81 came at a time when Australia needed a batsmen to steady the innings.
Although Pathan bowled well, he was unable to penetrate the early batting order. Kumble finally started to make in-roads to the Australian batsmen, including his 400th test wicket, and had Australia concerned at 4 for 149. Katich, Clarke and Gilchrist then batted well to establish a handy first innings score. The turbanator, Harbhajan, then managed to clean up the tail in short order to end with the impressive figures of 5 for 146, with Kumble chipping in with 3 for 157. By that time, the Aussies had amassed 474 runs.
Despite talk of a spin friendly wicket, it was the quick bowlers who took the match away from the Indians. With 2 wickets off his first 2 overs, Glen McGrath returned from injury to show why he is regarded as one of the best bowlers in the world today, ending with 4 wickets. Gillespie, Kasprowicz and Warne each captured 2 wickets.
The Indian batsmen struggled with Sehwag (39), Ganguly (45) and Laxman (31) all making starts but failing to build on their scores. The tail showed the way with Patel (46), Pathan (31) and Kumble (26) holding off the Australian attack to extend their score to 246.
Australia decided not to enforce the follow-on and added another 228 to leave India with the task of scoring 457 to win. Most of the Australians struggles against an in form Harbhajan, who captured another 6 wickets for just 78 runs. Martyn made up for his first innings disappointment with the high score of 45.
India's attempt at the massive target was skittled as early wickets fell, leaving India with 4 wickets down with just 19 runs on the board. Dravid (60) batted through the carnage and again the tail batted well, to delay the Australian victory with a very slow run rate, before finally falling 217 runs short. The wickets were spread among the Australian bowlers with Gillespie taking 3 for 33.
After the 2001 tour, the Australians have used a more conservative approach to their Indian adventure. One that has showed success so far, but there are still 3 tests left to play. The resilience of the Indian lower order is a danger signal for the Australians. If the Indian top order manage to put some runs on he board, they could set some big targets. On a wicket where the Indian spinners took 16 wickets, Warne only managed to take 4 wickets. This is another danger signal for the Australian team.
Much has been written about the errors made by the two umpires. It's time the ICC started allowing more technology to help the umpires make the right decisions. More on this issue later.
Thursday sees the players move to Chennai for the next test. Reports from the match will (health permitting) be more regular.
posted by Kevin Paine @ 10:02 pm
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