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If there was any shred of doubt that the aura is dead, that doubt has now gone the way of Australian Test teams past. India’s surge to the top of world cricket, despite the reverence so often paid to the wise old heads of the national team, was personified the other day by a couple of brash young upstarts.
Where so many before them have been intimidated into submission by Australian teams before even reaching the crease, these two played with quick hands, clear minds, and a joyous spirit.
The baggage of yesteryear had been left unclaimed at the carousel.
V.V.S. Laxman got the plaudits for sealing the previous match in this series; his fellow veteran Tendulkar got them earlier this match for his sixth double-ton. But just as important was the debut century from young opener Murali Vijay, who put on over 300 runs with Tendulkar in a partnership that exhausted the Australians and ensured a narrow lead over their impressive first-innings total.
It was the second innings, though, when youth emphatically came to the fore. The Aussie lead of 206 might sound modest, but was more than enough to create doubt.
After all, Indian teams have chased only nine larger totals in Test history This was a fifth-day pitch, and the ball had reverse-swung viciously in the hands of the Indian bowlers. Skipper M.S. Dhoni freely admitted after the game that the dressing room was nervous.
Virender Sehwag was always the potential destroyer, but his dismal fourth-innings record was in the back of many observers’ minds. When Mike Hussey grassed a cut shot at gully in just the second over, we wondered if Sehwag would make him pay. But the very next over the danger-man was gone, snapped up by Tim Paine off Ben Hilfenhaus.
Thus bringing the two young replacements together.
Two overs in, the senior batsman gone, the target ahead of them, the weight of pressure and expectation. Not to mention the looming reputations of the injured men for whom they were filling in.
Vijay, in the side for Gautam Gambhir, was playing in just his seventh Test. Cheteshwar Pujara, at 22 years old, was replacing Laxman and had been elevated to Rahul Dravid’s No. 3 position. Pressure? He was also on debut, and had been out third ball in the first dig.
This was the kind of point where Australian teams have tended to will themselves back into matches. A couple of quick wickets here and the seeds of panic would be well and truly sown.
Nothing doing. Vijay, after all, had smacked the first ball of the innings for four, then repeated the dose two balls after Sehwag was dropped. Pujara then found the rope with a sweet extra-cover drive from his third ball. So much for early fourth-innings nerves.
One sensed a key moment when Nathan Hauritz got his hands on the ball. The Aussie spinner had laboured through a 40-over spell in the first dig, fruitlessly bar two late scalps. Tendulkar very nearly scored a hundred off Hauritz’s bowling alone.
The question was, could he bounce back? A steady spinning hand would be key to applying Aussie pressure.
Again, nothing doing. Hauritz’s first over went for 12, his next for 10. The Indian youngsters knew no fear. They skipped, danced, and took him for three boundaries. The pick of the lot was an outrageous cover drive by Vijay. Down the track, due to be stumped by a yard if he missed, he realised the ball was drifting wide of his shot.
No problem.
Just take the bottom hand away to stretch a little wider, then caress it between the two fielders in the deep to the fence. Did I mention it was one-handed?
By lunch both batsmen were on 29, and the target whittled down by the small matter of 73 runs. Pujara’s knock had come in one-day style, from just 25 balls, Vijay’s in a Test-brisk 35.
The young men had been told to rack up the runs before the ball could start reversing, and they had done so with confidence and vigour.
By the time play resumed it was the Aussies who didn’t look they believed they could win. Ricky Ponting unfathomably left the slip cordon vacant, and saw two chances in the first three overs fly through for boundaries. So much for taking catchers out to keep down the runs.
By the time Shane Watson pinged Vijay lbw, India had put on 88, with the young partnership adding 71 of them. The target had been reeled back in to 119, and the hardest part of the job had been done.
Pujara stuck around with Tendulkar to score 72, before Hauritz finally got a ball to dip as he would have liked. The chance of a century gone, but the debutant had taken his side to within 60 runs of victory.
Tendulkar made sure there were no slip-ups, adding 53 not out to his 214 from the first innings, to cue jubilant Indian celebrations. He’d delivered India’s first clean sweep against a major nation since 1994. And with five more Tests to come this year, the Little Master could shatter yet more batting records.
And what a contest.
Yet again, Test cricket between these two nations has been shown at its highest level. All this talk of pink balls and floodlights is bunk. Both Tests, played in the traditional manner, were filled with intrigue deep into the fifth day. Even the BCCI must be cursing the fact they only scheduled two matches.
Despite the scoreline, squad limitations, and dubious captaincy decisions, the Australians scrapped from start to finish. The Ashes have recently been compelling, as have England’s contests with South Africa, but the India-Australia rivalry is the finest of the modern era.
And for the majestic work done by India’s senior batsmen – how fitting that Dravid was there with his old mate Tendulkar to seal the win – youth was the story of the final day.
With all we’ve heard about how India will handle the transition once its veterans move on, it was of the greatest significance that the next generation delivered their team to the doorstep of victory. They stamped out any hint of shakiness like an errant cigarette butt.
If Australia are to trouble England in the Ashes, they could learn a few lessons from their most recent opponents. Clear heads, self-confidence, and an unfettered approach took India home. Now let’s see if the Aussies can bring anything home from this.