The end is nigh

When Ricky Ponting announced his retirement yesterday he did so with refreshing candor and honesty.

Can you even imagine any Indian player ever saying the following things about the state of his game?

"It's a decision I thought long and hard about, put in long consideration about the decision, at the end of the day it was about my results and my output in this series so far," Ponting said. "It hasn't been to the level required for batsmen and players in the Australian team. My level of performance hasn't been good enough."

"I want to be a consistent performer, and if you look back over the last 12 or 18 months I haven't been able to perform consistently. I've had moments of really good stuff, and prolonged moments of cricket that's been below my expectations and below a par level for me, so there hasn't been one dismissal or one moment, it's just been in my own eyes reasonably consistent failure. That's why I believe the time is right now to be making this decision."

Wow.

I feel like crying when I read that, not because I will miss Ponting (more on that in a second) but because I have become too used to hearing our folks talk about the 15,000 runs they have scored, the 50+ they average as an opening pair with Sehwag, or hark back to the 400+ wickets they have taken.  The first step to dealing with a problem is to admit that there is one.  The reason the members of the Indian team continue to flounder is because they insist that all is well and keep repeating the same mistake even as the opposition players have wizened up to their bag of skills.

But I digress.  This is about Ponting.  For much of the last decade Ponting's was the wicket I most looked forward to being dismissed.  Even when he was playing someone other than India.  One of my happiest moments ever was when I saw Ponting getting out for 99.

In the prime of his prime, when he was making centuries at a rate bested only by Bradman, I hated the fellow.  In the evening of his prime, as he became more expansive with his time and interviews, I came to grudgingly admire him for his honesty and *shock* graciousness in defeat.

Yet, it did not stop me from exulting when Jacques Kallis cleaned him up in the first inning of the recent Adelaide Test.  Seeing Ponting on all fours by the time he finished his shuffle brought me joy.  Today, I am a little sad that I was so gleeful.

If Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall are the two bowlers I feared the most as an Indian fan, then Ponting is the batsman to match them in my mind.

However, when the Perth Test starts later today, for the first time in my life, I will be rooting for Ponting to score a century.  In fact, I hope he scores two of them.  Years ago, I exulted when he came one run short of being the first person to score twin centuries in a Test 4 times.  This time I hope he gets to three figures.  And beyond.

(Getty images, 2012, via CricInfo)

It took him 15 years to make me change my mind about him.  But in the end, he did.  Nostalgia does strange things to the best of minds, so what chance did I really have?

Casting stones

Harbhajan Singh is back in the Indian team after a spell on the sidelines.  Once his selection was confirmed he lashed out at his critics telling them that a player should not be judged more than just the number of wickets he takes.  (It's a different matter altogether that Economy Singh has done diddly-squat in the time that he was out of the squad and no sound reason exists for him returning to it).

By the way, about a year ago, the very-same Harbhajan Singh was not beyond throwing around the fact that taking 400-plus Test wickets was justification enough for keeping his place in the Indian team.

Like Gautam Gambhir a few days ago, Harbhajan Singh needs to figure out exactly what it is that he wants to peg his hat on.  Self-reflection of an honest kind is seriously lacking among the current Indian players, it seems.

Harbhajan, read Ricky Ponting's incredibly candid self-assessment and learn something.  Please.

Ponting was trapped lbw three times in four innings in the South African series, twice dismissed for a duck, as Steyn and Vernon Philander made him their batting bunny.
Only a fighting 62 in the second Test saved Ponting's career and the 37-year-old now concedes he had huge technical problems and was almost falling over at the crease, in what were some of the lowest moments of his career.
“There is no doubt it was a lowlight. At that stage we needed me to be getting runs if the team was going to win games,'' Ponting said.
“Whenever you fail it is not just about you, it is feeling like you've let your teammates down.
“It was technical - you don't go from playing the way I was playing to getting hit on the pad as often as I was without something being wrong.
“My pre-ball movements were just a little bit earlier than what they should have been. I was trying to move early to give myself more time but it was actually having a detrimental affect. I was moving too early and locking off and not being able to move again after that.
“It took a long time to break the habit I was in and the cycle I was in.”

Future rewards

Dear MS Dhoni,

Things are not as dire as they may seem. This Indian team reached the #1 ranking over a period of time. You may have lost consecutive Tests to start a series for the first time ever, but fret not, you are still India's best option as a captain. Just as you did not become a splendid captain overnight, you did not become a horrible one in the span of two Tests either.

The Bell run-out fiasco is done and dusted with. However, there is one unintended consequence that will play into your hands as the series progresses. By invoking the nebulous "Spirit of Cricket", the two Andys may have put you in a bind but in the long term it is going to come back to haunt them. Can you imagine the furore the next time they are in a position where they have to uphold the "Spirit of Cricket" and fail to do it? The media will be more than happy to pull them up for their double standards. In time, this decision will reap its rewards. For the rest of their career, Strauss and Flower will have this millstone hanging around their neck. After all, they instigated the whole thing by knocking on your door at tea time.

10 thoughts on the road to salvation

The cricket World Cup's schedule was ostensibly set up to ensure that, at the very least, India made it to the knockout stage. In reality, it was set up to ensure that all the teams that made it to the knock-out stage did so because of a proper body of work and not because of one or two fortuitous days of play (as was the case with Kenya in 2003). In the end it worked out well. Say what you will about England's tortured path to the quarter-finals, they had a chance to atone for losing to Ireland and Bangladesh. Similarly, Bangladesh needed a sustained performance and not just one good day (beating England, for example) to get it to move forward.

Also, the schedule was spaced out such that no team complained about not having enough time between matches, ensuring that all 8 teams came into the QF's with plenty of rest as well as match practice.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts about the quarter-final matches that have been played so far.

Hurtling ahead

At the end of a manic second day of the second India-South Africa Test match, a result is definitely on. Who will win is still in the balance.

The food in the pavilion must be really good or the wicket must stink a great deal. How else does one explain the haste with which batsman after batsman has left the crease? 18 wickets fell in the day and, in reality, the number should have been much less. In the first inning, India's last four wickets fell in no time at all. And South Africa scarcely batted long enough to register in the scorebooks.

Deflecting focus

Thank god for small mercies (and the lower case g is intentional).

When the #1 team in the world loses by an inning scant minutes into the fifth day of a Test match where most of the first day was lost to rain, the headlines should be about that fact. Instead, thanks to the emphasis the media places on personal milestones (and we are complicit in this, too, as you will see below), Sachin Tendulkar saved the Indian Test team's bacon to a great extent.

SRT crossed Brian Lara's aggregate tally of 11,953 runs in October 2008. Since then the fellow has added a scarcely believable 2560 runs with 11 centuries and 8 fifties to his tally. Phew! And the talk back then was when, and not if, Ricky Ponting would overtake the fellow.

Therefore I am

Some random observations that flit through my head when I think about these Test series:

West Indies - Sri Lanka
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The once mighty West Indies Test team is now relegated to celebrating drawn Test series, even calling it a "massive achievement". Even worse, the series was drawn because rain interrupted normal proceedings on an almost daily basis. Sri Lankan cricket is not helping itself by producing pitches where batsmen make merry and the bowlers suffer. Sri Lanka has the most varied bowling attack of all Test teams today (including Pakistan) but the team does not get to showcase that strength of theirs. Which is very sad. Test cricket should not be a batathon. Gah!

The price of power

Dear MS Dhoni,

You know I like you and have been a huge fan of your captaincy and am thoroughly impressed with your leadership skills and handling of personnel. But that does not mean that I am not perplexed by some of the things that have lately been creeping into your leadership style.

True grit

The true measure of a person's character and aptitude is when they are under duress. Earlier today, the Indian cricket team's chances of winning the first Test against Australia was slim and edging towards none. Eight wickets had gone down, 92 runs in the arrears and at the crease were VVS Laxman, playing with a dodgy back and Ishant Sharma, on an injured knee that would cause him to miss the next Test match. One man was left in the pavilion, Pragyan Ojha.

What followed was gripping theater of the kind that only Test cricket, with the abundance of time at hand, can provide. Rather than give you a blow-by-blow account of what happened, I'll put down the various thoughts that spring to mind after this epic.

The Force is strong in him

In my review of Day 1 of the India-South Africa Test at Eden Gardens, I had written:

Taking that last wicket quickly on the 2nd morning will be necessary. Though, as long as they don't allow too many more runs, it may not be a bad thing from India's point of view if South Africa bats long enough for the early morning dew and moisture to evaporate from the pitch! I'm not hoping it happens, though.

It was a little bit of both - the last wicket pair scored another 30 runs to take the score to 296 while playing out some of the juice in the track.

Juice in the track or ice in the veins, nothing seems to matter when Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag are together at the wicket. The first over by Dale Steyn was a disappointment. Six balls were pitched outside the off-stump, going further away, and left well alone by Gambhir. It was as unsatisfying a start as was possible for South Africa. Here you had Gambhir, fresh off his first failure in 12 Tests, nervous about the situation, and you let him just ease those nerves by watching 6 balls go by?! Ugh! In spite of that maiden, after 9 overs the score was 68 for no loss.

Hits and misses

Here are some of the statistical highlights (or lowlights if you are a hater) of 2009.

a) The two leading run-scoring batsmen in ODI's in 2009 were MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting. Their records for the last year are eerily similar. Yet, MSD meets with disdain from many sources for "picking and choosing" where he bats in the order. Sheesh!

b) VVS Laxman batted three times in the second innings of Tests in 2009. His scores - 124, 61, and 51*. Time to put to rest those tags about him not showing up when India needs him. Overall, for the year, in 9 innings he had 1 century and 5 fifties. Yay!

c) With just 26 wickets in 8 Tests, Muttaiah Muralitharan had a down year at a shockingly horrible strike rate of a wicket every 85 balls or so. It didn't help that he bowled almost exclusively on the concrete roads that the pitches in India and Pakistan have become. For all that, he is just 8 wickets away from 800 and the West Indies are coming for a 2 Test series later in 2010. Very few will wager money that he does not get to that number in the first Test itself.

d) Just look a the identity of the wicket-keeper with the highest dismissals per inning ratio in Tests in 2009 (ignoring Manou who played just one match).

As of now, India is scheduled to play even fewer Tests than the 6 it played in 2009. Deplorable.

Helping hand

Australia defeated an overmatched West Indies team by an innings and some runs. Adrian Barath helped himself to that inevitability - a blazing century in a lost cause. The fact that he did it on debut augers well for him. (However, his style of batting does not convince me yet that he can last long playing the way he does. I hope he proves me wrong but he will need to tighten his off-side play to have a long career).

Sachin Tendulkar's followers are anxious that Ricky Ponting has 10 Tests in the coming year, to just 3 for Tendulkar. Luckily for them, Ponting scored 55 and got out to the only weakness he really has - the good-length ball that just leaves him squared up during his forward thrust.

The innings defeat has shown one thing - the West Indian batting (or lack thereof it) may be the best defense that SRT has going for him in stopping Ponting from overtaking him!

Con job

On day 3 of the 4th Test match between India and Australia at Nagpur, the home team conceded a chance to put the Test away for good when they were all out for 441 in the first innings. Just enough to feel that they had an upper hand but not large enough to secure it for good. Not surprisingly, the Australians came out and took the challenge to the Indians. However, two pieces of good fortune - Matthew Hayden mistaking Murali Vijay for Sourav Ganguly (Hayden admitted as much later on) and Ricky Ponting not learning from Sehwag and Laxman's mistakes - ensured that the match was still in the balance.

The way the Aussies were batting (Michael Hussey and Simon Katich were motoring along at almost 4 runs per over) a full day of batting would put the ball firmly in the Australian court.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the Australian fielding playbook and refined it to another level. The Aussies have spread the field, restricting the Indian strokemakers to settling for singles instead of boundaries, and it has worked to an extent but these guys are too experienced to not find the boundaries when the Australians err in their line. Dhoni took the tactic to an extreme - employing an 8-1 field, with just a mid-on guarding the leg-side. Then he instructed the bowlers to bowl a foot or three outside the off-stump and Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma obliged. Over after over, they kept at it, seemingly indefatigable and immovable from their aim. The challenge to the Aussies was simple - if you want the prize, take the risk. Hussey and Katich played into Dhoni's hands, putting on just 42 runs in the 2 hours before lunch. Right after lunch, ZAK resumed his outside the stump line and took his time to lay the trap. Totally against the run of play, he bowled a yorker on middle-stump, Katich was late to react and even though the ball was tailing away he was adjudged LBW - a fair enough decision as he was hit on the full.

After that, slowly but surely, the Aussies began to wilt. Micheal Hussey was run-out by a brilliant piece of reflex fielding by Murali Vijay at silly point. (By the way, watching the way this lad batted and then fielded completely justified his inclusion in the squad. I hope he maintains or improves this energy level of his for years to come. I still have a grouse with the way he was selected but whether right or wrong, he is a find for Indian cricket).

At the end of the day, the Aussies lost 8 wickets, scoring just 166 runs in almost 86 overs. India secured a precious 86 run lead and will look to bat the Aussies out of the match.

Somewhere around tea time tomorrow, the commentators will start taking about declarations and the need to send a message and try to win the series 2-0. Why give the Aussies even a sniff of victory? I don't think Dhoni will give the Aussies even a sniff of a target. Unless India is all out I do not see a declaration happening, and definitely not on the 4th day if it does happen. The Aussies have to go and get 10 wickets. Can they do it?

P.S. Ian Chappell is getting his underwear into a bunch, losing his cool at MS Dhoni for the "negative" tactics and slow over rate. He was never this irate in the 3 Test matches that preceded this one while Ricky Ponting was employing the go-slow. Now he wants captains suspended and hung out to dry and what-not. Where was all of this outrage when the other shoe was dishing it out? What's good for the goose has to be good for the gander. Ricky Ponting began a tactic, and MS Dhoni and his players had the gumption to take it to it's ultimate expression and the ends justified the means. Read the comments at the end of the Ian Chappell article. The comments are spot on in their assessment.

P.P.S.S. I do not like the slow over-rate employed by captains these days at all and will write about it later with a suggestion on how it can be stopped. But, for now, while the administrators are willing to let captains employ it, I am heartily behind it's adoption by Dhoni. By the way, Ricky Ponting HAS to employ the very same tactic if he wants to win this Test. I'll be really looking forward to Chappell's comments after that happens.

First blood

Ricky Ponting called heads and lost the toss at the start of the 4th Test between India and Australia at Nagpur. MS Dhoni did not have a moment's hesitation in choosing to bat.

Virender Sehwag took strike to protect Murali Vijay at the start of the match. The second ball was thumped to the point boundary and it was business as usual for the manic marauder from Delhi. Pleasingly, Vijay did not lag behind and displayed a good temperament, coupled with a tight technique. He stays very still at the crease and has a slight step forward without committing too much. The wicket was as good a batting wicket as there can be in the first hour of a Test and he showed that he may have the tools to do well in the Test arena. He also handled the short-pitched ball with aplomb, dropping his wrists and swaying out of the way easily. By the time Shane Watson got him to prod at a sharply rising ball, 98 runs had been scored and the Aussies were on the defensive.

Jason Krejza has been shielded all series by Ponting, and his first three overs showed why. Sehwag waded into him with such reckless abandon that it was going to take a man with a big heart to absorb the damage. 32 runs in 3 overs and it looked like Jason would have a tough day at the office. Luckily for him, Rahul Dravid is having a tougher time than even Jason. A hesitant prod at a fairly timid delivery spelled the end of Dravid, hopefully not forever in the Test arena. After that Jason got a double bonus when Sehwag tried to cut a ball that came in sharply and played on. Sehwag has the instincts of a measured gambler and I will not berate him for "throwing" it away. This is how he plays and his record shows that, more often than not, he makes it count when set. Today was one of those rare failures that we should have to live with.

This brought Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman to the crease, easily the best looking middle order batsmen from either side in this series. They put together another serene century-plus partnership without appearing to be in any trouble. However, these days, Sachin's batting worries begin when his score reaches the 60's. For a guy who has more than 80 international centuries he seems to have forgotten how to score them. His progression to three digits was fairly torturous to watch and he tried to mix predetermined defense with predetermined slogging, escaping three times when in sight of his century. Along the way, Laxman tried to force Krejza to the vacant off-side one time too many and, as luck would have it, the ball lodged between Haddin's legs and the keeper was able to cover the ball and claim the catch on his second attempt. For the second time in the innings, Krejza dismissed a well-settled batsman in his 60's.

Sourav Ganguly then played serenely till the end of the day, not really tested in any way. At the other end, Sachin entered that increasingly annoying state of mind of his where he shuts down everything and defends every ball. To do this when he was in the 90's was understandable, considering the tension, but to do this after he reached his century was inexcusable. This negative frame of mind of his has caused his downfall too many times in the last 3 years. I keep hearing how Sachin analyzes all his dismissals and is always working to never repeat his mistakes. I don't see any signs of this malady of his being addressed in spite of repeated failures. Why he chooses to put away the most complete repertoire of strokes in the game today, and bring out only the defensive stroke when the conditions do not even warrant it, is beyond me. Not surprisingly, he got out to Mitchell Johnson and gave back some of the initiative to the Aussies. Earlier in the series, Michael Clarke had given back the initiative twice to the Indians by getting out late in the day. You'd think Mr. Little Master would have learned the importance of keeping his foot on the pedal by now. Grr-dom prevails.

Tomorrow, Ganguly will resume with MS Dhoni, who eschewed a night-watchman in a nice, positive move at the end of the day. The pitch is showing signs of wear and tear and Krejza was able to spin the ball from the good length region and not just the rough. This augers well for the Singh-Mishra-Sehwag troika. I believe that 450 runs on the board will be a good total to aim for. 140 runs to get, 5 wickets in hand.

This could turn out to be the most interesting of the 4 Tests and it is a shame that it is taking place in front of almost empty stands. Test cricket is not dead in India, but the BCCI is doing a great job of trying to kill it with some inane decisions on ticket distribution and sales. You don't suppose it is an intentional ploy, is it? Paging Mr. Lalit Modi.

Blessing in disguise

Australia scored 288 runs and lost 4 wickets in 90 overs. Remarkable, really, that at the end of the day, they are still looking down some serious gun barrels. Australia trail by 275 runs on a pitch that is getting better for bowling by the session.

The umpires appear more in tune with things other than adjudging batsmen out. Matthew Hayden was given out to one that would not have raised eyebrows if the opposite decision had been given, while Shane Watson was as plumb as a batsman can be in Amit Mishra's last over of the day, but that was denied.

The day's play was, however, defined by one glorious session just before the new ball was taken. With a ball about 70 overs old, conventional wisdom (i.e. talking heads on TV) suggested that the spinners continue for another 10 overs before relinquishing to the pace bowlers. But at that time, it was clear that Mishra and Sehwag needed a break. Anil Kumble had hurt himself earlier in the day and in his absence MS Dhoni took over reins. For a while Dhoni continued with Kumble's policies but as the shadows lengthened, the real Dhoni began to emerge. In Kumble's absence, Sehwag bowled 22 brilliant overs, and at the stage mentioned at the start of this paragraph Dhoni gave the ball to Isant Sharma and Zaheer Khan. Facing them were Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey. Every ball looked like it could get a wicket. Ponting will have nightmares about Ishant Sharma for a long time, and yesterday just added to the drama. Sharma hurried Ponting, beat his bat, cut him in half, and did everything excpet get the captain out. Zaheer Khan was no less impressive. This was Test cricket at its very best.

This breathtaking stuff went on for almost an hour and Ponting and Hussey survived undefeated, but definitely not unscathed. The two balls that Sehwag bowled to dismiss the duo a little later were ones that Harbhajan Singh would willingly wash his mouth with soap a 100 times in order to be able to duplicate.

The 4th day's play should be riveting. Can the Aussies whittle the lead to less than 100 or even surpass India's total? Based upon how the innings has been going, I think that a lead between 150 to 200 will be obtained by India and then the commentators can indulge in their second favorite exercise - trying to predict when the batting team captain will declare. And no matter when he declares, it is always "half an hour too late".

Coming back to the big event of the day - if Anil Kumble had not injured himself, Sehwag would not have bowled more than 5 or 6 overs and a trick would have been missed. I hope Kumble was watching the proceedings on a TV somewhere.

I do not believe in telling people to retire. It is not my place to do so. People can retire as and when they want. They have earned that privilege. However, I do reserve the right to demand that a player be dropped from a team if he is underachieving. Kumble does not remotely look like he will run through the batting order. It is time for him to rest his shoulder, let it heal completely, and then make a return to the side. However, I fear this will never be possible in the current climate of distrust between selectors, players, and the media.

Indeed, uneasy rests the head that wears the crown.

The long kiss goodbye

The critical moment of the day for the Australians came when Ricky Ponting called incorrectly to lose the toss. Batting first is such a big advantage in the subcontinent (especially if you make a big score first up) that you could feel a lot of the wind going out of the Aussie sails.

For a brief while the Indians gave them some hope. Brett Lee got Virender Sehwag with a peach of an in-cutter that would have thudded into middle stump had Sehwag's leg not been in the way.

Rahul Dravid is in the phase of his career where old methods are not producing the results they once used to. So, in trying to change slightly, he is overdoing it. He was out, once again, to a wide ball from Johnson that the Dravid of old, unmindful of the sharpening knives of the media, would have left well alone. Instead he found the bucket-like hands of Matthew Hayden at first slip.

After that we were treated to a glorious period of batting as Sachin Tendulkar turned back the clock. Unfurling his patented back-foot punches and flourishing flicks, Tendulkar looked good for a big, big one when the onset of tea put him into the negative mindset that has been his downfall in the 2000's. Playing out for a break is not something that Sehwag does and you'd think a seasoned campaigner like Sachin, who professes to play every ball on its merit, would not worry about such trifles, and take his cue from the opener. Anyway, a tentative prod found the edge through to the keeper and the end result was a splendid 68 that was at least 200 less than he could have made on this track.

By this time Gautam Gambhir was well-settled, motoring along splendidly in a type of innings unique to Test cricket - the sigmoidal curve-like pattern of accumulation. At the other end, VVS Laxman picked up from where Tendulkar left off. This was a typical Laxman innings - an initial flourish into the 30's where his tensile wrists found gaps frequently enough to disperse the field followed by a patient accumulation of singles. Sanjay Manjrekar once described Laxman as an aggressive batsman with the temperament of a defensive player. Which means that Laxman is capable of playing through long periods of defensive cricket without letting it affect his ability to pick up and hit the juicy offerings when they do come along. (Tendulkar will do well to learn a little more of this from Laxman). For a batsman who has scored almost 60% of his runs in boundaries over his career, hitting 53 with just 3 fours must have been a strange experience.

But his presence at the crease was enough for Gambhir to relax and continue through the 60's and 70's and the Delhi-ite raced through the double digits till he found himself on 99 and a defensive prod followed by a scything square-cut should have signaled a 100. Instead Michael Hussey, at point, cut off a sure boundary. As an aside, Hussey has to rank up there with the great point fielders in the game. Anyway, Gambhir turned to Plan B as Ricky Ponting brought everyone into the close-in circle. The bowler was Shane Watson, who bowls in the 140-145 kmph range. As Watson delivered the ball, Gambhir took the two-step forward step usually reserved for spinners and, with a clean swing of the bat, deposited the ball into the stands beyond long-on. Just like that was was on 105 and continued the trend of improving on his score with every inning in this Test series (21, 29, 67, 104, and now 149 not out).

Tomorrow, the key will be to reach lunch without losing any wickets. After that the afternoon and evening sessions will be there for the taking. If India manage that, then the Aussies will be fighting for survival, not something conducive to taking the Indians down in a home Test.

I am going to keep my fingers crossed that Laxman can pass Mohammad Azharuddin's Test tally of runs. To do that, he needs 161 runs in this innings. If he manages it, then India will definitely have found themselves in the drivers seat. Good luck, Laxman, I'll be rooting for you, crossed fingers and bitten nails at the ready!

Desperate times

For a man who has contributed diddly-squat, Matthew Hayden is talking up a pretty high game. His only innings of substance in this series so far has been a maniacal 29 that did not just hint at the desperation behind it, it reeked to high heavens. Since the game (which, by the way, the Aussies lost) Hayden is in full form, filled with bluster much like the thirsty wanderer in a desert who will drink the sand if need be.

Matthew Hayden has made runs all over the world and will make many more in the days to come. It is highly unlikely that he will not make significant runs in the remaining two Tests. But his interviews are quite unbecoming of the man who has fronted Ricky Ponting's assault on the captaincy record books. Patrick Smith hits the nail on the head perfectly.

It is almost that Australia is in denial. Hayden, who has made 0, 13, 0, and 29, has said that he believes he has Zaheer Khan on the back foot. For the record the Australian opener has made 17 fewer runs than Zaheer, who bats when no one else can. And who has batted half as many times. With the ball Zaheer has taken 10 wickets - more than any Australian and second only to Ishant Sharma - at the very good average of 26.

Hayden's diagnosis that Zaheer is on the point of a nervous breakdown is based on the bowler's abuse of him when the Australian was dismissed for 29 in the second innings of the second Test. Hayden apparently had brought Zaheer to this brink when he charged his first ball of the second innings. That the ball was mis-hit and looped dangerously close to mid-off was, it seems, a victory for Hayden and not the bowler.

Said Hayden: "Zaheer Khan has been put under pressure a lot by myself and Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) in all the tournaments we've played in one-dayers. I have also tried to emulate that when we've played Tests. I just feel he is vulnerable when he's like that."

Not only is it such graceless gibberish, it is also foolish. Unable to bully India as it has in the old days, the veterans of the team hanker for the good times when they could back up their words with significant deeds. Times change. Australia has no response to losing other than a childish attempt to bully its way back to the top. In victory it has learnt to gloat and nothing else.

Contrast Hayden's desperate tones with the measured ones of his captain. In an age where cricketers can reel of all kinds of statistics to show how good their form is, Ponting is honest enough to accept that three failures by him have put a lot of pressure on the rest of the team. Incredible really, since he scored 123 in the first innings of the series. If this was almost anyone else, they'd be throwing that century in everyone's face.

"I've got to stand up as much as the next bloke," Ponting said. "It's been three innings since I had an impact on the game with the bat." Ponting opened the series with his first century in India but followed with 17, 5 and 2.

Which is why Ponting should have a good game at the Kotla while Hayden suffers. Unfortunately, cricket does not dish out answers in such a prudent manner. Let's see what transpires over the next 5 days.

The cricket match is about to start and off I go!

The set up

Reports of the demise of the Australian juggernaut are premature. Extremely premature. Ricky Ponting has won 33 of the 46 Tests he has helmed. Think about that again. Only Steve Waugh with 41 wins (57 Tests) and Clive Lloyd with 36 wins (74 Tests) have been more successful in the entire history of Test cricket.

True, this Indian team does not seem to be as intimated by the Aussies as some of the other squads are, but it would be foolish to suggest that the Aussies are done. Peter Roebuck writes that the Indians have passed the Aussies, and there is some truth to his arguments.

India are better balanced and stronger at the top of the order and from seven to 11. The great players are the weak point. It is quite a thought.

The problem with historic wins (of the 320-run kind) is that they distort one's perspective. Let's not forget that just 6 Test-playing days ago, the question on everyone's lips was whether India could survive the last day of the Bengaluru Test without collapsing to another defeat. Five days of domination should not swing the balance in the other direction.

Here's a sobering thought. Dhoni felt that he needed more than 500 runs to feel safe that the Aussies would not chase it down. Targets in excess of 400 runs have been chased successfully only 3 times in almost 1900 Tests. Surely, 500 runs were an excessive luxury (I am repeating myself for emphasis). I suspect that the Indian team knows best how strong the Australian team, sans all those greats (McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist, Langer, Martyn, etc.) still is. As long as Hayden, Ponting, Hussey and Clarke put on their pads, the batting is still strong.

It is the bowling that is weaker. Brett Lee does not even seem like swinging the ball except for a ball or two to start the innings. What happened to that brilliant out-swinger that surprised everyone, including me, when he threw it down at such a blistering pace? Mitchell Johnson is consistently bowling faster than Lee. There is something wrong about that. They lack that brilliant spinner, but then so does every other team except Sri Lanka and India. (With due apologies, Vettori and Panesar are more restrictive, than incisive, spinners).

Yes, the Aussies are down, but they are certainly not out of it. The Indian team was in a similar predicament before it went to Perth earlier this year. Australia had just won it's 16th Test in a row, and all signs pointed to an annihilation of India on the bounciest wicket in the world. Cast your mind back to that Test. India went in with a bowling attack that read - RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma (playing in his 4th Test) and Kumble. The fast bowlers took 14 of the 20 wickets to fall, and out-bowled the Aussies on their turf (Shaun Tait was so demoralized he even left the game briefly). Unheralded players can produce results given the right set of circumstances. Remember Shaun Udal?

Underestimate the heart of a champion at your own peril. I am sure that Australia will lose the series - India is, pound for pound, a far superior side - but I don't think it is a done deal as some people believe it is. I just hope that the members of the Indian team (yes, Harbhajan, especially you) do not start believing tales of their own superiority.

Luckily, India has two captains - Kumble and Dhoni - who are pragmatic and sensible. That, in the end, will determine the course of this series.

(Harsha Bhogle chimes in with a similar thesis in his column).

Timber!

For the 7th time in the last 8 innings, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir put on a a 50+ partnership. This time they kept going and going to the tune of 182 runs before Sehwag's conscience got the better of him and he got out. At that point in time Sehwag had blazed away to 90 runs off just 121 balls, uncharacteristically with just 8 fours. Gambhir was no slouch with the bat either, reaching 86 off just 115 balls, with 6 fours and a thundering six (a marginally better strike rate than Sehwag's, actually).

The startling (and refreshing) thing about their partnership was the willingness to look for ones and twos. Of the 182 runs scored by them, off just 39.1 overs, only 62 runs came in boundaries. In other words, they ran 120 runs between them, often stealing singles from under the in-fielder's noses. Ponting lost his temper at one point when Sehwag clearly edged the ball to the keeper but did not walk. Ponting was seen having a very animated conversation with Sehwag, asking him to walk, I suppose. Strange that the very same Ponting stoutly defended Andrew Symonds when he did not walk in the Sydney Test match. What's good for the goose has to be good for the gander, too, don't you think?

When Sehwag got out, MS Dhoni filled the breach and played the rest of the innings as if it were the middle portion of an ODI. Perfect. Then when Gambhir got out after a wonderful and richly deserved century, Sourav Ganguly came in to continue the left-right theme. All 6 of India's partnerships in this Test that yielded more than 50 runs featured a left-right combination. Do you suppose Dhoni reads my blog?

The Aussie innings began with the tempo of a gunslinger firing away his last bullets. Matthew Hayden was in a hurry. He was batting in a rage, it seemed, intent on bullying every ball to the fence. But 516 runs is a huge target to get and merely swinging for the fences would not get them there. There was more than a touch of desperation about the batting but Dhoni did not flinch. It would have been easy to spread the field and hope for a mistake but this man was borne out of a different mould. He threw the ball to Harbhajan, who immediately came around the wicket. Hayden went to sweep, missed, and was out LBW. A couple of balls later, Simon Katich drove without getting to the pitch of the ball and perished to a wonderful diving catch by Sachin Tendulkar (his 99th in Tests). After the tea break Michael Hussey went to pull a short ball that kept low, missed and was trapped in front of the middle stump. Australia's last hope was Ricky Ponting.

The two bowlers who have tormented Ponting the most in the past few years, since his ascendancy to the upper echelons of world cricket, are Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma. Dhoni immediately brought Sharma back. What followed was a master class in bowling to Ponting, backed by imaginative captaincy. Ball after ball was pitched up, inviting the drive. Dhoni kept just one slip, but had a short cover and a short mid-wicket in Ponting's eyeline. Ponting likes to thrust his pad forward and bat around it, but the two fielders ensured that he did not bring his bat down with a full flourish. Having set him up, Sharma bowled an in-cutter from short of a good length. Ponting had thrust his pad forward, and the bat came down outside the line of the ball. The ball slipped through the gap, hitting middle and off, uprooting the off-stump, to trigger wild celebrations. I suspect the celebrations were just as wild at Mohali, too.

The score was 52 for 4, and Australia was effectively shut out of the Test match. A few overs later, Shane Watson departed to Harbhajan (3 for 3 at that point) and the Aussies had been reduced to thinking solely about survival. Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin pushed and prodded their way to the close of play, scratching around the crease, only occasionally able to stamp their authority with booming shots.

The pitch is still a good one to bat on, but the weight of the runs required and the overs still remaining will weigh heavily on the Australians. The Aussies know that it is possible to bat out a whole day against the Indians at Mohali - after all as recently as 2005 Pakistan got out of jail with a similar effort and the wicket-keeper was closely involved on that day, too. I saw that match, but the bowlers in this match are superior to the ones who bowled in that one (I am comparing their forms and skills, not overall career graphs) and I don't anticipate it happening again.

The Aussies will resist stoutly on day 5, but in the end will come up short. Way short.

The best form of defence

When Virender Sehwag had faced 30 balls in the second innings of the second Test match against Australia, an interesting graphic was flashed on the TV screen. At that point in time Sehwag had scored 22 runs, with only 3 balls having been left alone, and a further three that had been defended. The remaining 24 balls had been replied to with an attacking shot. A clear indicator of the fact that India was on the move, aggressive intent fully apparent. While the folks on TV were raving about Sehwag's attacking nature, the telling thing for me was this - at that point in time, Gautam Gambhir had played 36 balls, and was batting on 26. The Indian opening duo is not chalk and cheese when it comes to scoring. Gambhir is just as fast as Sehwag. However, their styles are enormously different. While Sehwag keeps his back foot anchored, preferring to stay beside the ball to give it a big thump, Gambhir walks across the stumps (reminiscent of Justin Langer) and shimmies to the pitch of the ball when needed.

Together the duo took the game further away from Australia, abetted by some curiously impotent captaincy by Ricky Ponting. When Brett Lee is charging in for the first ball of the innings and there is just one slip fielder with 4 men guarding the boundary it is obvious that damage control is foremost on the captain's mind. Ponting's thought was that if you dried up the boundaries, Sehwag would get impatient and get out. What he does not understand (or seems unwilling to believe) is that Sehwag gets antsy only if runs are not being scored by him. He is happy enough to milk single after single until he gets a chance to clear his shoulders and give the ball a fearsome thumping.

Australia began the day needing Michael Hussey to score big once again. Ishant Sharma made sure that did not happen. After multiple edges that fell short of the slip cordon, Sharma snared Hussey for 54, and the Indian's sensed a chance to wrap things up quickly. Into the cauldron stepped Shane Watson. He picked up four boundaries to an untenanted third man region early in his innings (I wish the Indians would keep a 3rd man for the entire innings without removing a slip fielder) and was very still at the crease, defending stoutly and putting away anything full or short of length. Playing in the IPL, where he was the Man of the Series, has given Watson immense confidence and he rode that to the tune of career-best 78 runs. Yet another batsman whose career-best is against India. He should have been out on 39 but for umpire Rudy Koertzen's largesse. The first ball of a new spell from Sharma thudded into Watson's pad just above the ankle in front of the stumps but Koertzen was unimpressed. On TV, Brendon Julian dryly remarked that Koertzen had gotten it right since the ball was clearly going to miss the leg and the off-stump! That's how plumb that was. Koertzen has made some egregious mistakes in the series and it is a matter of time before a howler will cause some furore. At least he has been an equal opportunity offender so far, unlike Steve Bucknor, impartially affecting both teams.

The day belonged, however, to another layer who has used the IPL as a launching pad to the Indian squad - Amit Mishra. He richly deserved the 5 wickets he picked up on debut - 2 LBW, 2 bowled, and 1 stumped indicating clearly that these were not wickets gifted to him by mistimed tailender slogs. When Kumble is fit, and that is the caveat I want to emphasize - that he is completely fit, he deserves to play ahead of Mishra, but until that is the case Mishra merits a spot in the playing 11. It is good to know that there is an able apprentice waiting in the wings. Mishra should not lose heart - I suspect that Kumble will not be around much longer - and at 25, Amit's best years are ahead of him.

But that is a question to ponder about after the match (or series) is over. I will not speculate on how many runs the Indians need before they declare or the timing of the declaration. Dhoni has played the fastest innings on the pitch and knows what target is attainable. The highest score ever made in the fourth-innings to win a Test match is 418. On that occasion, Steve Waugh gave the West Indies 200 overs to score those runs. They did it in 128. There are 180 possible overs left in this match (more realistically 165-170 going by the slow over-rates of the Aussies. On an aside, will they be censured by the Match Referee for this, I wonder?). India is 300 runs ahead right now. You can do the math and figure out what should be a good total to declare at.

I just hope that if one of the openers gets out on the 4th day, the incoming batsman is either Dhoni or Ganguly, depending upon whether the right-hander (Sehwag) or the left-hander (Ganbhir) gets out. Keeping the pedal to the floor and scoring quickly is imperative. So far in this match, India has had 3 century partnerships, and two over 70 runs. All 5 of them have featured a left-right combination. Coincidence? I think not!

The sooner the batsmen reach the target that Dhoni has in his mind, the more overs the Indians have to bowl out the Aussies. Once he reaches a big enough target, Dhoni can ensure that an Aussie victory is out of question, leaving him free to relentlessly attack without worrying about the runs being scored.

The Aussies are staggering. Can India deliver the knockout punch?