The writing was on the cards all along. After all chasing 499 to win is by no means an easy task. And yet somehow one felt that it wouldn’t be as meek a surrender as it turned out to be.

Starting at 6 for no loss overnight, Indian openers were in for a surprise early. They were greeted by Brad Hogg opening the attack. But that was just for changing the ends for the quickies to operate. First real action of the morning was witnessed in the 16th over as Jaffer was out off a no-ball. He failed to take the advantage of the ‘life’ and edged out to Lee three balls later.

Laxman came in as a replacement and he along with Dravid tried to steady the things. The scoring was at a tremendously slow rate and Dravid managed a mere 16 runs of 114 deliveries before he was trapped LBW by Symonds just before lunch. Sachin was unable to play a long innings and he too edged out to Gilchrist off the bowling of Lee. The little master departed for 15 runs.

In came Ganguly and played some fine strokes. He and Laxman put up a brief partnership before the latter was caught at covers off Stuart Clark for 42. Yuvraj did manage to avoid a pair but was trapped by Hogg with a flipper. There on in it was just a matter of time. And Dhoni didn’t disappoint, after edging in an over after tea, he was caught fishing outside off-stump once again off Johnson. He departed for a paltry 11. The kind of shot that he played was typical of the pathetic display that the Indians put out on the fourth day.

Kumble came in and got out for four, Harbhajan managed a duck before Ganguly ran him out. The latter was himself caught plum in front for a saving grace 40. The last pair managed mere a 3 runs and India folded out neatly for 161 in the 74th over itself.

Final word

Aussies triumphed in style winning by 337 runs, and for India its back to the drawing board. The hype, which accompanied the first test, has been washed out clearly and none of the team members is any position to hold head high after the embarrassing defeat, more so the batsmen who didn’t manage to cross the 200-run mark in either of the innings. Anil Kumble summarized things aptly in the post-match conference:

It could have been more intense. If you try to be on top of Australia, it’s important to be on top. We handed it back to them on day two.

For Australia a win with a day to spare is just another assertion of the dominance that they hold in the world cricket. As a matter of fact, the win marked their 15th consecutive in tests and they’ll chase their own world record of 16 wins in succession in next week’s test at Sydney.

India, already look a dismal shadow of themselves and the lack of grit and application is a cause of concern. There’s little time to gear up for next week’s challenge and we’ll know soon enough if there’s guts in the team India, as many would like to believe. Border-Gavaskar trophy already looks a lost cause.

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