As cricket undergoes a little lull in India, worthwhile to look at arguably India’s greatest victory of 2008. A four part special, not to be missed!

A golden chapter in India’s cricketing history has now been etched. It is one where victory was hard fought, captaincy changed hands at the right time and a couple of the old guards of the game inked their final flings of valour. This then becomes a series that has captured the most range of emotions imaginable but one, that of defeat and indescribable loss, something Australia will be feeling as they drag their feet back home.
The journey was long. The task, tedious. The opposition, the daunting world champions. But the Border Gavaskar Trophy was well deserved for India as Australia found themselves unprepared, and ill equipped for the battle to retain the title and the crown. The Australians should have known what they were getting into. After all, India has perhaps posed the biggest threat to the world champions over the last decade and it was only in 2005 that they lost a series to a team other than India. On that occasion, it was an inspired, well balanced England side that tore into the heart of the Australian stronghold.
The Ashes victory of 2005 was a high point in cricketing history. It was because the game had become sedate between the world’s most traditional rivals, Australia and England, and it was a reflection really of the dominance of Australia in cricket for over a decade. That it presented an unusually strong opponent at the most unexpected moment in cricketing history, (well, only Australia appeared not to pay heed when it was stated in advance that one felt England really had the team to challenge Australia) was what was most riveting. But the euphoria was short lived as England’s well culminated unit fell by the way side as did the hopes that this would be the beginning of a revived rivalry.
But there was nothing mysterious about the rivalry brewing between India and Australia. Many would put it down to the 2001 series where V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid began India’s golden path of teasing, testing and sometimes see the Australians found wanting as was the case here.

Chappell Jaffes Not Amusing
The jibes started rather early. Greg Chappell’s presence within the Australian squad evoked unpleasant sentiments and the war games had begun early. The distressing factor of Chappell’s unhappy stay as coach of the Indian team that also saw Sourav Ganguly’s drop from the Indian team was aggravated from the fact that the Australians were unofficially accorded facilities in Rajasthan that were on par with the best whereas the same hospitality was not accorded to the Indians touring abroad.
While Chappell had hogged the limelight, there was a feeling that it was hard to understand who was running the show and if Tim Nielsen was even being given his due as the coach of the Australian team. But Chappell’s presence was to soon wither into the background as Australia failed to even capitalize on at least any psychological advantage that they had hoped to inflict on the Indians with the dour ex-coach’s presence.

Cardinal Sin in Indian Conditions
When Ricky Ponting comes in for criticism for his captaincy, perhaps he would have liked to openly admit that he had indeed committed a critical error in the context of the series and the opposition. When Beau Casson who toured with the Australian team to the Caribbean against the West Indies in their previous Test series was left out for the Indian tour, it was stated that the move was an attempt to “protect” the young bowler from the scars of the onslaught inflicted by Indian batsmen on spinners, Shane Warne’s example being cited.
But it showed the wariness of the Australian think tank even before the series was underway. It then came as a surprise but about their defensive thinking that they chose to go with Cameron White as their premier spinner even when a genuine spinner like Jazon Krezja was widely touted to make his debut. That Ponting delayed bringing in Krezja into the Australian plans showed not a mild case of the Australian skipper making amends after the horse had already bolted. Krezja’s performance to pick twelve wickets in the final match in Nagpur and eight of those in the first innings alone was not only a laudable performance but also, one that was rubbing salt into the wounds of the clueless skipper.

More captaincy bloopers
There was a joke doing the rounds that Ricky Ponting was contemplating toss practice as opposed to bat practice because of the number of tosses he has lost and gone on to concede advantage to the hosts. Whether he actually managed to get in perfect practice was not evident from the fact that Australia lost all three tosses after Bengaluru, the only place they looked with anything of a semblance of winning. Thereafter, Australia were always playing catch up, letting India get the initiative by way of big first innings total.

End of Part One

To Catch Parts Two, Three and Four,

Border Gavaskar Trophy 2: Where Australia Lost It

Border Gavaskar Trophy - 3 : Indian Positives

Border Gavaskar Trophy - 4 : Did India Win or Australia Lose? 375389