But as an Indian supporter, my question is: What exactly went wrong? Which was that one thing that cost us the match? Many people would say that Rahul Dravid dropped the match when he dropped Hussey off Ashwin. Hussey eventually got out on 89. But I am not in favour of that view. I believe, one missed catch cannot lead to a Test match loss. It matters in ODIs and T20s but not in Tests.
Let us look at how the teams fared and who really deserved to win:
Australia
For the Aussies, Ed Cowan made a perfect start to his Test career by top scoring for his team with 68 in the first innings. He stitched on a 113 runs partnership with Ricky Ponting (62) who silenced his critics with an aggregate of 122 runs in this match. The grit of Peter Siddle (41) rendered Australia a respectable score. In the second innings, Mike Hussey displayed his class with a solid 89 after being dismissed controversially in the first innings. Ponting went on to score another half-century that saw Australia put up a target of 292 runs in front of India.
The bowlers also did their job well, with Ben Hilfenhaus picking up his maiden five-for in the first innings while in the second innings, Pattinson emerged as the wrecker-in-chief with 4/53. They were ably supported by Peter Siddle who impressed with 3 wickets in each innings.
India
It was not all so gloomy for India. Yes, the batsmen were totally lackluster with 7 wickets crumbling for only 68 runs in the first innings. The top order looked extremely jittery with the likes of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni and VVS Laxman not living up to their names. Rahul Dravid rode on his luck scoring 68 in the first innings but got out cheaply in the second innings. But one positive for India is Sachin Tendulkar who top scored in both the innings with 73 and 32.
The bowling has been pretty good with all four front-line bowlers contributing. Umesh Yadav once again caught the eye with 7 wickets in the match. But ample questions have been raised about India’s inability to finish off the tail. This has been a problem for many years and it showed once again as Australia went on to score 240 from 27/4 at one stage.
But the major drawback for India has been their sloppy fielding. They dropped a number of catches and some lazy fielding by the likes of Sehwag and Dravid gave away too many runs. Indians watched with horror as the ball slipped between Dravid’s fingers. The Australians also understood this and started pushing for that extra run thus creating pressure on the fielding side.
Having said all this, I still can’t pinpoint at one thing that cost us the match. Poor batting, not getting through the tail quickly and some terrible fielding ensured that we lose the match. The Australians should also be given due credit for some immaculate bowling and brilliant running between the wickets. They were indeed the deserving winners……
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