Playing against 14 opponents

The Sydney Test during this India's tour of Australia will go down as one of the most memorable test matches mostly for all the wrong reasons. Here is a detailed analysis of what happened over the past five days in this (in)famous test match.

The Four-day match (The 1st test at MCG)

Expectations were high on the Indian batsmen even before the 1st ball was bowled at the MCG on the Boxing Day. Indians boasted about their famous batting order with the 'BIG4' (Sachin Saurav Rahul and Laxman) and the in-form batsmen Jaffer, Dhoni and Yuvi. But the Indians did not even reach a total of 200 in an innings in the first test. They suffered a major defeat and then world champions needed just four days to get the Indians out twice and register their 15th test win in a row.

India’s Team Selection for the second match

After losing the 1st test by a huge margin, Captain Kumble and the team management had a lot to think about before deciding the playing eleven for the 2nd test match. The 19 year old pacer Ishanth Shrama, who was dropped after his five wicket haul against the Paki's, got a chance to play in place of the injured Zaheer Khan. I was expecting to see Sehwag open the batting for India to take the attack on to the Aussies, but Sehwag was not picked for the 2nd test either. If ICC decides on giving an award for Mr. Flexible, it has to go to Rahul Dravid. If the selectors can't find a decent wicket-keeper batsman Dravid has to keep wickets, if they can't find a quality opener he has to open and we'll sit at home and complain about his inability to improve his scoring rate. You can't do the same mistake again and again and expect a different result.

RP's Double strike and the collapse of the Oz Top order

R.P.Singh who lead the Indian pace attack responded brilliantly by sending both the openers back cheaply. Bhajji got his bunny 'The Punter' out as usual, but not before he scored 55 in a partnership with Hussey. Nobody expected the Aussies to go past even 250 runs when the Indian bowlers had them 6 wickets down with 160 odd runs on the board. But Symonds with the help of Brad Hogg and the two umpires took the Aussies out of danger.

Umpiring Blunders on Day1

It all started with Ponting edging one to the keeper and the umpire turned down the confident appeal. Ponting was later given LBW when he was actually not out. I really doubt if Andrew Symonds promised the umpires a Mercedes each for giving decisions in favour of him. He was given not out on three occasions when he was actually out. He first edged an Ishanth Sharma delivery to the keeper and the umpire turned down the appeal. Then the third umpire declared him not out in an appeal for stumping when the television replays cleared showed that his foot was in the air when the stump was broken. Bruce Oxenford, the TV umpire seriously needs to consider changing his contact lens. Another stumping appeal was not even referred to the third umpire and that was clearly out too. Umpire Bucknor wanted to save some time I guess because he probably knew that the 3rd umpire is anyway going to declare him not out. Australia finally scored 463 for the loss of 14 wickets, YES the regular 10, plus the four free wickets that the Aussies got from the umpires. Credit should definitely be given to the Australian tail for more than wagging, specially Brad Hogg and Bret Lee for their 79 and 59 respectively.

India's positive approach and the Australian reply

Indians batted positively when they finally got an opportunity to bat. Jaffer got out cheaply again but Dravid and Laxman batted really well together and they looked all set to repeat their magical 376 run partnership in Calcutta against the same opponents 6 years ago. Dravid got out for 53 and Laxman scored a very well made century. It was indeed a Very Very Special knock of 109 by VVS, which included 18 boundaries. The 'Bombay Bomber' and Dada didn't miss out either. Sachin scored a brilliant century and Saurav, who is on a dream run scored a brisk 67. The 20-20 super duo of Yuvi and Mahi failed once again to prove themselves in the longer version of the game. But the 'Turbanator' played brilliantly and scored a responsible 63. His innings was a surprise package. RP threw his bat around and Ishanth played some proper cricketing shots towards the end. India finally managed a score of 532 and took a 69 run lead over the Aussies. Australians batted brilliantly in the second innings with Hayden and Hussey scoring a century each. They gave a target of 333 to the Indians.

India's miserable second innings

Batting was not easy anymore on the 5th day Sydney wicket. Jaffer disappointed again when he got out for a duck. Rahul dravid 'The Wall' played a watchful innings before he became the victim no.1 to some sub-standard umpiring by Mark Benson and Steve Buckner. Dravid's bat was clearly behind his pads and the ball went off his pads, he was given out caught. This was a major set back for India as Rahul was playing really well. Laxman and Tendulkar didn't last long as they got out to some top quality seam bowling by Stuart Clark. Yuvraj disappointed once again and he perished for a duck. Mahi looked like he is finally going to score some runs but he was living dangerously before he got out to Symonds for not offering a shot to a delivery that went straight to the wicket. Ganguly played a fighting knock of 51 before umpire Mark Benson gave him out. Saurav didn't leave the crease even after the Aussies started celebrating but the umpire consulted the 5th umpire, Ricky Ponting (I'm serious) and declared Saurav out. Anil Kumble, according to me was the real HERO of the match. He never looked like getting out and he never got out in fact. Mahi, Yuvi and Jaffer should take lessons from Anil on how to apply themselves to win matches for their country.

Gentleman Ponting

Ricky Ponting during India's 1st innings didn't take a catch cleanly and immediately signaled that to the umpire. The commentators were all praise for his sportsmanship. I don't know what happened to that quality of his during India's 2nd innings. He caught a ball that came off Dhoni's pads and didn't catch it cleanly. He didn't just let the ball touch the ground but almost rubbed it against the grass while taking the catch and still appealed for a catch. When Saurav was waiting for the umpire to tell him if his catch was taken cleanly, Ponting pointed his finger up and told the umpire "I saw Mike take the catch cleanly and Saurav is out". You must see it to believe me that the stupid umpire Mark Benson actually went by what Ponting said and declared Ganguly out.

Lack of Application or Poor Umpiring?

You can definitely call it lack of application because if a tail ender like Kumble can bat well to save the match, why not the top order batsmen. However considering the we lost the match with only 7 more deliveries to go, one good umpiring decision could have actually saved the match for India. ICC should definitely take action against these umpires.