Will India turn it around on the MCG?

Although Australia is leading the four-Test series with India 2-0, the results have been so close in Adelaide and Brisbane that the opposition can turn it around at the MCG on Boxing Day.

The current series takes me back to 1977-78.

Australia had defeated India by 16 runs in the first Test in Brisbane and by two wickets in the second Test in Perth.

India then went on to win the third Test in Melbourne by 222 runs and the fourth in Sydney by an innings to level the series 2-2. I described the topsy-turvy fifth and final Test at Adelaide in 1978 in detail on The Roar last month

The Brisbane cliffhanger was also detailed on The Roar last week.

So let us revisit the Perth and Melbourne Tests contested by Australia and India in December 1977.

The second Test in Perth was just as engrossing as the first in Brisbane. India dominated on the first four days but were thwarted by night-watchman Tony Mann on the final day. Chetan Chauhan and Mohinder Amarnath put on 149 runs for the second wicket and despite Jeff Thomson bowling with fire, India amassed 402.

Australia started poorly at 3/65 but were rescued by captain Bob Simpson. Despite the excessive heat, the 41-year-old hit a grand 176 with 17 fours and Australia trailed by eight runs. India’s turbaned left-arm spinner and skipper Bishan Bedi took 5/89.

India seemed on their way to win a first Test on Australian soil when they were 1/240, Sunil Gavaskar (127) and Mohinder Amarnath (100) adding 193 for the second wicket as India made 330.

Australia needed 339 to win with more than a day in hand. They lost John Dyson a few minutes before stumps and in walked tail-ender Tony Mann at number three. Surely the Indian spin trio of Bedi, BS Chandrasekhar and Srini Venkataraghavan would send him packing?

It did not happen that way. Left-handed ‘Rocket’ Mann hit a hundred, becoming the second night-watchman after Pakistan’s Nasim-ul-Ghani (versus England at Lord’s in 1962) to score a Test century. Mann upset the renowned Indian spinners by smashing courageous lofted drives. Bedi took another five-wicket haul and eventually dismissed Mann for 105 and Peter Toohey for 83.

Australia lost 8/330 and still needed nine runs for a win with only tail-enders remaining. But Wayne Clark and Thomson reached the target and won by two wickets. It was frustrating for India to come so close to virginal victory in Australia.

Simpson scored 176 and 39, took wickets when most needed and held his 100th catch in his 54th Test. He was the fifth fielder to achieve it – in the least number of Tests too.

A second-string Australian team was leading the series 2-0 against India’s best but the following Tests in Melbourne and Sydney turned the tide.

India started the Melbourne Test disastrously, losing openers Gavaskar and Chauhan for zeros. From two down for 0, India advanced to 2/105 with gritty fifties by Mohinder Amarnath and Gundappa Viswanath. All out for 256, Chandrasekhar confounded the home team with his mystery spin. He took 6/52 and India gained a 43-run lead despite a valuable 67 by Gary Cozier and 85 by Craig Serjeant.

Gavaskar (118) scored his third century in his third Test in Australia, each of them in the second innings, and added 98 runs for the fourth wicket with brother-in-law Viswanath (54).

A win target of 387 proved too much for Simpson’s men as Chandrasekhar (6/52) and Bedi (4/58) dismissed them for 164 and India won by 222 runs. It was India’s first Test victory over Australia in Australia. Chandrasekhar had symmetrical figures of 6/52 and 6/52 as a bowler and 0 and 0 as a batsman.

Back to the present, however. Australia, led by the boyish-looking but mature Steven Smith and inspired by the deadly Mitchell Johnson, will do their utmost to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Melbourne.

But in Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli India have batsmen in form to neutralise the Johnson-Josh Hazlewood menace. Then there is the dynamic Shikhar Dhawan and the classy Cheteshwar Pujara. Skipper MS Dhoni can bat sensibly shielding India’s fragile tail.

I look forward to the Test debut of Queensland batsman Joe Burns. So will 70,000 spectators who will turn up to watch the Boxing Day Test.