A dramatic final day's play at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday, in front of a disappointingly small crowd of 10,000, saw India — led from the front by their indefatigable, admirable captain — bravely battle the odds for the longest of periods. Eventually, their nerves frayed and their spirits broken, they were bowled out with seven deliveries left of the mandatory overs for 210 after Ricky Ponting's delayed declaration at 401 for seven had placed before them a target of 333 in a minimum of 72 overs.
Tempting as it might be to point out that India's famous line-up couldn't last that length of time on an admittedly wearing surface, it must be kept in mind that the events of the past four days came to a boil with two decisions that dealt the final, telling blow to Indian hopes. The first was another in Steve Bucknor's long list of shockers as he adjudged Rahul Dravid caught behind when the ball missed bat and glove by a mile before lodging in Adam Gilchrist's gloves off the batsman's front pad.
The second, more painful, dismissal was that of Sourav Ganguly's as Michael Clarke claimed a catch that wasn't, Ponting nodded to Mark Benson that his touted successor had caught the ball cleanly and, under the pre-series agreement between the captains to go by the word of the player, the Kolkatan was adjudged out without a referral to the TV umpire. The two men that had looked India's most composed batsmen until the skipper's remarkable gumption in an outstanding show of character were victims more of circumstances than of bowlers. India fought on gamely after that before Clarke, ironically, hastened the end by picking up the last three wickets in five deliveries.
By virtue of this most pyrrhic of victories, Ponting's band equalled the world record of 16 straight Test wins achieved under the Steve Waugh regime. Whether they should still experience the same sweetness of success of their previous 15 victories is open to question.
Ponting appeared to have thrown India a lifeline when he put off the declaration inordinately, perhaps intimidated by the strength of the Indian batting or perhaps confident in the knowledge that incompetent umpiring might yet win the day for his team. By not applying the closure even well after Mike Hussey had brought up an eighth Test ton, he had set India a target they couldn't realistically chase, not at 4.63 an over on a final-day surface playing up and down, and where huge rough patches had opened up and begged to be exploited by the spinners.
India were let down again by the looseness of Wasim Jaffer, dismissed in the first over of the chase, and the prolonged diffidence, if not disinterest, of Yuvraj Singh, both of whom will be lucky to hold their places at Perth. VVS Laxman was undone by a Stuart Clark delivery that jagged back in and kept a shade low, while Sachin Tendulkar was bowled off the inside edge trying to bail out of a defensive prod to the same bowler.
Even so, with Dravid looking his most assured of the series and Ganguly batting with the same controlled positivity of the first three innings, India looked to have things under control. Dropped at first slip by man of the match Andrew Symonds off a Mitchell Johnson no-ball that was — predictably! — missed by Benson when 18, Dravid found ways to shed his scorelessness of the past, while Ganguly was in command from ball one, dominating the 61-run stand until the right-hander was adjudged caught behind.
Ganguly and Yuvraj fell in the same Symonds over, leaving the last five to negotiate 38.2 overs to the close. Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni got through 21 of them with obduracy and pluck, the captain awesome in a tremendous show of character and his deputy keen to follow suit.
The finish line — to safety — appeared in sight when Dhoni unwisely padded up to a wicked Symonds off-spinner way outside off stick. Harbhajan Singh gutsed it out for 29 minutes, but when Ponting threw the ball to Clarke in an almost desperate last throw of the dice, it was all over. Australia's unbeatable 2-0 lead extended their lease on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but what a way to score a Test win!


SCORE BOARD

AUSTRALIA (I Innings): 463 all out in 112.3 overs
INDIA (I Innings): 532 all out in 138.2 overs
AUSTRALIA (II Innings, O/n: 282/4):
Jaques c Yuvraj b Kumble 42
(110m, 82b, 5x4)
Hayden c Jaffer b Kumble 123
(291m, 196b, 12x4)
Ponting c Laxman b Harbhajan 1
(7m, 4b)
Hussey (not out) 145
(355m, 259b, 16x4)
Clarke c Dravid b Kumble 0
(1m, 1b)
Symonds c Dhoni b RP Singh 61
(159m, 100b, 7x4)
Gilchrist c Yuvraj b Kumble 1
(8m, 4b)
Hogg c Dravid b Harbhajan 1
(5m, 2b)
Lee (not out) 4
(11m, 3b)
Extras (B-3, LB-8, W-3, NB-9) 23
Total (7 wkts decl, 107 ovrs) 401
Fall of wickets: 1-85 (Jaques), 2-90 (Ponting), 3-250 (Hayden), 4-250 (Clarke), 5-378 (Symonds), 6-393 (Gilchrist), 7-395 (Hogg).
Bowling: RP Singh 16-2-74-1 (w-2), Ishant 14-2-59-0 (w-1, nb-2), Harbhajan 33-6-92-2, Kumble 40-3-148-4 (nb-7), Tendulkar 2-0-6-0, Yuvraj 2-0-11-0.
INDIA (II Innings):
Dravid c Gilchrist b Symonds 38
(149m, 103b, 6x4)
Jaffer c Clarke b Lee 0
(3m, 4b)
Laxman lbw Clark 20
(50m, 34b, 3x4)
Tendulkar b Clark 12
(33m, 16b, 3x4)
Ganguly c Clarke b Lee 51
(91m, 56b, 9x4)
Yuvraj c Gilchrist b Symonds 0
(3m, 3b)
Dhoni lbw Symonds 35
(117m, 82b, 6x4)
Kumble (not out) 45
(127m, 111b, 7x4)
Harbhajan c Hussey b Clarke 7
(29m, 14b, 1x4)
RP Singh lbw Clarke 0
(2m, 1b)
Ishant c Hussey b Clarke 0
(3m, 3b)
Extras (NB-2) 2
Total (all out, 70.5 overs) 210
Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Jaffer), 2-34 (Laxman), 3-54 (Tendulkar), 4-115 (Dravid), 5-115 (Yuvraj), 6-137 (Ganguly), 7-185 (Dhoni), 8-210 (Harbhajan), 9-210 (RP Singh).
Bowling: Lee 13-3-34-2 (nb-1), Johnson 11-4-33-0 (nb-1), Clark 12-4-32-2, Hogg 14-2-55-0, Symonds 19-5-51-3, Clarke 1.5-0-5-3.