A Clinical Massacre

India registered a spectacular win over the visiting Australians in the 2nd test of the Border Gavaskar trophy at Mohali this morning. Chasing a mammoth 516 runs for victory the Australian batting crumbled and closed down at 195. This is one of the biggest defeats of the Australian Cricket history. On the fourth day the Indian batsmen began exactly where they had left on the third. Gautam Gambhir was merciless and scored his second test century scoring 104 before he fell to the bowling of White. Sehwag was a little less fortunate and missed his century by a mere 10 runs. India declared on 314/3 and the Ozzies were neck deep in troubled waters.

MATCH MOMENTS

Things couldn’t get any worse in the Fourth innings when Harbhajan and Ishant decided that it was high time the Australians were taught who the boss is. Ishant Sharma bowled a beauty of a delivery to dismiss Ponting who had no clue how the ball had rattled the wood work. A little earlier during the day Ponting fell to the ground and was lying down holding his head in despair as he had missed a chance to run out Gambhir in only the third over of the day. This pretty much summed up what the Ozzies were to witness during the rest of the day.

Australia’s biggest defeat ever in terms of runs is a humongous 675 runs way back in 1928-29 against England at Brisbane. They had an unbelieving target of 742 runs. Australia has only once successfully chased a 400+ target in a match. That was in 1948-49 again against England who had set them a target of 404 and the Ozzies coasted to victory losing only three wickets. This test match has been quite eventful in terms of records. It is only befitting that the Little Master broke Brian Lara’s world record of the maximum runs in test cricket in this same match and scored a classy 88 in the process. Even Ganguly who is officially retiring after this series scored a patient century (102) in the first innings and started nailing the coffin for the Aussies. It is fitting that the ‘Prince of Calcutta’ goes down with his head high. Amit Mishra’s 5 wicket haul in the 1st innings showcased what the promising youngster is capable of.

A 1-0 lead in the series will give a significant boost to the morale of the Indian team which has been going through a rough patch for quite a while a now. It was great to see the entire team contributing towards the win. Now it is to be seen whether the Aussies bounce back as they have always done or whether the Indians capitalise on this victory in the third test slated for the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi from Oct 29th to 2nd Nov.