A time to celebrate

The Indian win over Australia in the fourth and final cricket match played at Nagpur, now playing under the dashing Mahendra Singh Dhoni, helped the home team win the 2008 India – Australia Test Cricket series and retrieve the Gavaskar – Border Trophy. More than the trophy this win helped India emerge from the shadows and regain its rightful place in the International cricketing arena.

A well-deserved win for India saw the entire team chip-in with their contributions. The match saw our batsman score runs aplenty. The highlight was the innings of Sachin Tendulkar (109 - his 40th century in tests and 12), Virender Sehwag (66 & 92), V. V. S Laxman (64 & 4), M. S. Dhoni (56 & 55), Saurav Ganguly (85 & 0) and Harbhajan Singh (18 & 52). All lead bowlers like Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma were amongst the wickets.

This match also saw Gautam Gambhir sitting out because of a one-match ban and Murali Vijay of Chennai making a well-deserved last-minute appearance and he debuted well with 33 in the first innings and 41 in the second innings. He also affected the run out of Mathew Hayden and Michael Hussey in the Aussie first innings. His ground fielding was a treat to watch.

It was also the last test match for Saurav Ganguly the former India captain who had previously announced his intention to retire from cricket after this series and he did so in some style – scoring 85 in the first innings and a first ball duck in the second – joining the ranks of six former greats who started their careers with a century on debut and a duck in their last matches.

At one stage it appeared as if Ricky Ponting had the match under his belt. India in their second innings was 166 for 6 in the last over of the post-lunch session on the fourth day. For some odd reason, after tea he discontinued using his strike bowlers and brought in the part-time bowlers. That allowed Dhoni & Harbhajan to score 108 runs for the seventh wicket in under two hours. The hosts saw a chance to consolidate their score and the Aussies failed to press home the early advantage. Critics point out that this was to catch up with the over rate since inability to bowl the requisite number of overs would have meant a penalty for the Aussie captain.

History would judge whether a desire to avoid a one-match ban clouded Ricky Ponting’s judgment to such a level that he not only sacrificed the Nagpur test but also any hope of leveling the series and retaining the Gavaskar – Border Trophy.

Some cynics say this is the weakest test team ever to visit India but I feel that is a meaningless pursuit. A win is a win. The series win is celebration time for Dhoni and the team. So guys go out, get drunk and paint the town red. The whole country celebrates with you and waits for an opportune time to fete you.