Australia in India 2008

[tsb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP2iZYwyTe8

Dada!

[Jayesh87]

The Prince of Kolkata

[Sarb]

Dada is a ****ing legend. Turned the Indian team from a bunch of pussies to a team which stands up to rough house tactics

[Harv]

Yes, yes he has. One of the better county captains for Hampshire. Good cricketing brain.

Did not know that....as you can imagine, English County cricket is not on down here

He's is boring though, i don't doubt he knows his cricket, he wouldn't be there otherwise....but he can be incredibly dull.

[Jayesh87]

Dhoni, 2 games and 2 wins against the aussies

[Parm]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP2iZYwyTe8

Dada!

what a ****ing match that was, really thought we'd ****ed it but the boys came good in the end.

Much respect to Ganguly, is he not the most successful Indian Captain (in terms of test victories) of all time?
he led a very talented team through some classic and tough series.

[Jayesh87]

India reverse roles with Test win over Australia

Mihir Bose - BBC sports editor
10 Nov 08, 03:13 PM

A Test series win, even one as emphatic as India's over Australia, does not change the cricket world.

Yet this series has exploded so many cricketing myths that it has resonance beyond the actual results on the field of play.

The first question to be asked is does this result mean that the near 20-year dominance of cricket by Australia is coming to an end?

I am aware similar predictions were made after England's Ashes victory of 2005, and we all know how absurd they were soon made to look.

However, the case in recent decades has been, if you want to know where Australia is going look to India not England. This has often been quite a pointer to the future direction of Australian cricket.

Back in 1987 when Australia went to the subcontinent for the first World Cup to be held outside England its cricket was at a very low ebb, not only far behind the West Indies, then the masters of cricket, but repeatedly thrashed by England.

Then having surprised everyone by beating Pakistan in Pakistan and getting to the final - England had also done equally well beating India in India - they probably surprised themselves by beating England and taking home the World Cup for the first time.

In 1989 they won back the Ashes and, though beating the West Indies took time, they were on their way to constructing the dynasty that has dominated cricket under captains Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting.

This is not only Australia's first series defeat since 2005 but the first by a 2-0 Test margin since Vivian Richards led the mighty West Indians.

What made this series remarkable is how often Australia played like India and India played like Australia.

Australia specialised in letting India off the hook. The script when playing Australia is not meant to be like this.

However, right from the first Test in Bangalore, the only one Australia looked like winning, there were several occasions when Australia had India on the ropes but seemed reluctant to finish them off.

This was again demonstrated after tea on the Sunday of the fourth and final Test. And it was India who displayed an almost Australian-style resilience.
This will please the Indians mightily.

Ever since I can remember the agonising debate in India has been, why don't Indians have a sporting killer instinct?

India may be an underperforming sporting nation, but there is no dearth of fine individual sportsmen and women produced by the country.

However for Indians the angst has been that these fine players never had the sort of killer instinct that would make them champions. The most potent example of this was the wonderfully gifted Vijay Amritraj, compared to the less talented but more gutsy Jimmy Connors. While Connors was a great winner, Vijay made the Indians sigh and wonder and think of what might have been.

Indian cricket under Mahendra Singh Dhoni seems to at be at last acquiring a 'they shall not pass' attitude that has more often been the hallmark of the truly great sportsmen and sports teams.

Indians have always admired the Australians and their winning spirit and this series suggests Dhoni has something of the Australian in him.

Dhoni, of course, is part of that modern era of Indians, born long after India secured her freedom and with virtually no colonial hangover.
This sprit was also evident in Sourav Ganguly.

I was surprised when Ganguly was described as Lord Snooty. I must say I always found him a very pleasant, charming man.
Yes he did not take prisoners, his clashes with Steve Waugh were epic, but he was the first generation of Indian cricketers who did not feel Indians had to apologise for being Indians.

It is worth recalling that when he made his Test debut in 1996 Indian cricket seemed to be revisiting its own dreadful past. His roommate Navjot Singh Sidhu had walked out of the Indian tour of England claiming his honour had been sullied. It has never been made clear how this was done.

As for Ganguly's century at Lord's I well recall that on that Saturday afternoon, Lord's like the rest of England, was more preoccupied by events at Wembley where England were playing Spain in Euro 96.

Many in the Long Room that day had their eyes on the pictures from Wembley not what was going on in the middle.

Ganguly not only went on to become India's most successful captain but nurtured a whole generation of cricketers. It is not without significance that as Ganguly left the field after this Test for the last time Harbhajan Singh was the first to lift him up.

It was under Ganguly that India, so often lions at home, lambs abroad, started winning Tests on their travels on a regular basis.

However for all his spirit Ganguly's India did display a certain lack of ambition, for instance during the 2002 series in the West Indies and the 2004 in Australia, when having taking a lead, they squandered it.

Dhoni gives the impression he is ready to take Indian cricket to a new, higher, gear.

And while India remains the land of spin it is quite remarkable that the man of the series was the opening bowler Ishant Sharma.

Unlike Pakistan, where conditions are similar, India has not often produced many fast bowlers, but this seems to be changing and this series showed a more balanced attack than India has fielded for many a season: two pacers, two spinners.

Wickets in India show no signs of changing yet that pace now not only complements spin but even leads the attack.
Another lesson India could be said to have learnt from Australia. And just when Australia's attack has lost bite and balance.

But then that is the magic of sport. It changes when you least expect change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereport...with_test.html

[Jayesh87]

India deserved victory - Ponting

Australia captain Ricky Ponting has admitted his side were outplayed as India clinched a 2-0 series win with victory in the final Test in Nagpur.

The tourists were bowled for 209 on the final day as they slipped to a 172-run loss, condemning them to their first series defeat since the 2005 Ashes.

And Ponting, who was docked 20% of his match fee for a slow over rate, conceded India deserved their win.

"We weren't good enough in this game - it was a fair result," he said.

"We were happy with the way we started the series but from Mohali onwards we were chasing our tails. India thoroughly deserved their 2-0 result."

Match referee Chris Broad ruled Australia were two overs short of their target in the second innings and International Cricket Council rules state each player is fined 5% of their match fee per over not bowled, while the skipper receives a double penalty.

The tourists' pace attack carved through the Indian middle order to leave them at 166-6 at tea on day four, but, concerned by the slow over rate, Ponting was forced to turn to slow bowlers Cameron White, Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke to reach their overs target.

The ICC has the power to ban captains for slow over rates and Ponting ran the risk of receiving a one-Test suspension had he stuck with his pace bowlers, given the slow rate they were managing.

The drastic tactic change worked in India's favour as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh put on a match-winning 108-run seventh-wicket partnership, helping the home side to a 382-run lead.

Despite a powerful performance from Matthew Hayden at the top of the order, the Australian batting line-up wilted as they lost their last six wickets for only 59 runs.

Ponting said: "It would have been an unbelievable run chase if we had got there today.

"I said to the guys this morning that if we played perfect cricket it might be achievable but with the wearing pitch, quality spin bowling and good work from their fast bowlers it made it too tough.

"India's tactics slowed us down on the third day and that was one of the big turning points in the game. Harbhajan and Mahendra (Dhoni) played very well last night and we probably missed an opportunity there.

"Those sort of opportunities don't present themselves very often on the subcontinent and it's important you take them."

India captain Dhoni paid tribute to his fast bowlers Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan after the win.

Sharma took 15 wickets in the series and Zaheer 11.

Dhoni, who claimed that his country's cricketing rivalry with Australia now overshadows that with Pakistan, said: "The fast bowlers did the trick for us in this series.

"They bowled their hearts out, shared the responsibility and bowled consistently well, even with the old ball.

"It was an outstanding effort. We didn't start off well this morning - they were scoring at five an over but they were losing wickets.

"We had motivation, we had plans and we executed those plans well."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7719399.stm

[Jayesh87]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rism67Avbt0&feature=related

[Parm]

fair play to Ponting to man up and admit his side were beaten by the better team.