Sachin & Laxman heroies of famous series win.
India thrashed Australia by 7 wickets on the final day of the second test to win the two match series 2-0. By winning the series India reiterated their status as the number one team in the world while skipper M S Dhoni and master blaster Sachin Tendulkar reconfirmed their status as the best skipper and best batsman in the world.
While M S Dhoni committed a lot of tactical blunders in the two match series he came out shining on the final day of the series and his promotion of Cheteshwar Pujara to No.3 slot was a master stroke. The idea behind sending Pujara at No.3 was to give the debutant the opportunity to bat in a pressure free environment. Dhoni's calculation was that if India found themselves in a situation at 80 for 5 then somebody like Dravid who has years of international experience would be better equipped to wear out the bowers considering the fact that he can handle pressure much better than the debutant Pujara. Another reason behind elevating Pujara was to get closer to the target as quickly as possible so that Indians can finish of the game before the ball starts to reverse as Indians were done by the reverse swing in the first innings in both the tests. In the end India won too comfortably which meant hardly anybody noticed M S Dhoni's tactical brilliance in elevating Puraja and demoting Rahul Dravid.
While everybody is celebrating India's famous clean sweep one must forget the heroics of V V S Laxman who fashioned a miraclous victory in the company of Ishant Sharma who gave more than adequate support and one must say that the latter would have played the best supporting innings ever in the history of the game because he hardly had any credentials as a bastman. If you leave out the heroics of V V S Laxman in the second innings of the first test one must say that the entire series belonged to Sachin Tendulkar who was the automatic choice for Man of the Match and Man of the Series.
Sachin Tendulkar aggregated 403 runs in the series with scores of 98, 38, 214 and 53 and the fact that his lowest score in the series was 38 scored in testing conditions speaks of his extraordinary consistency. If one were to look at the 400 plus totals India posted in first innings in both the tests it may look that India batted well but the fact that is those totals have come only because of Sachin if one were to look at the averages of other Indian premier batsman in this series. For the record India's trump card Sehwag averaged 28.25 a rare failure by the very high standards he has set for himself while Rahul Dravids horror run in the recent past continued with him averaging just 37.33. Skipper Dhoni averaged a mere 15.33, Raina 39.33 and Gambhir 12.50
Many talk about Rahul Dravid as the Great Wall of Cricket but when it comes to playing against Aussies there are two Indian walls which the Auusies have failed to breach over the years. While everybody knows Laxman has proved a difficult wall to breach for the Aussies, Laxman actually is the inner wall and if Aussies managed to breach it they know that there is yet another wall and that is the Great Wall in Sachin Tendulkar and that is exactly what happened in the series. Once Aussies managed to get rid of V V S Laxman courtesy through a injury, Sachin single handedly took away the match from Australia with that monumental 214 in testing conditions. Sachin Tendulkar boasts of a excellent track record against Australia having scored 3151 runs at an astonishing average of 60.59 with 11 centuries and 13 halfcenturies. Many cricketers would consider themselves extremely fortunate to have finished their entire test career 3151 test runs and 11 centuries in their career what Sachin has managed to do against the best team in the world.
Many are not aware of a fact that Australia have never won a series in India whenever Sachin Tendulkar has played a full series. Sachin has played six series against Australia in India aggregating 1629 runs at an imposing average of 62.65 with 5 centuries and India has won in every series except in 2004 when Sachin Tendulkar could not play in the first two tests of the four match series which Aussies won 2-1. The highlight of Sachin's performances in those six series are given below excluding one played in 2004:-
One off series 10th October 1996:- Sachin in his debut match as captain in a one of test match at Delhi thrashed Mark Taylor's Aussies by 7 wickets. Though Sachin scored only 10 runs in the match he captained brilliantly.
3 test series from 6th March 1998 to 25th March 1998:- In a series billed by millions as the battle between the best bowler and best batsman in the world, Shane Warne Tendulkar came out trumps demolishing Shane Warne in the series. So clinical was Sachin in demolition of Warne hitting him for fours and sixes that Shane Warne admitted that Sachin Tendulkar tormented him in dreams for years giving him nightmares hitting fours and sixes. Shane Warne is known to one of the toughest cricketers in the world mentally and this comment from him speaks highly of Sachin. Shane Warne castled Sachin Tendulkar cheaply in the first innings as India folded for 257 and found themselves on the defensive after conceding a 71run lead to the Aussies who batted second. In the third innings of the match Sachin Tendulkar blasted Shane Warne out of the attack hammering 155 runs in a mere deliveries with 14 fours and 4 huge sixes. Such was Sachin's mastery of Warne and Aussies bowlers that India thrashed Aussies 2-1 with Sachin reeling out scores of 4 & 79 in first test at Chennai, a brisk 79 in Kolkata and 177 and 31 in Bangalore which set up the match for India but was undone by a batting collapse in the second innings.
3 match series from 27th February 2001 to 18th March 2001:- India won the 3 match series 2-1 riding on the exploits of Laxman's 281 at Eden Gardens Kolkata but many would have forgotten Sachin Tendulkar's contribution in that particular test and the series. Sachin started the series top scoring in both the innings of the first test at Mumbai with 76 and 65 which India lost. In the second test Aussies were set 383 to win in 75 overs post that monumental innings form Laxman. Aussies were comfortably cruising towards a draw with the score at 3 for 166 after 45 overs by tea time on the last day. When the match was heading towards a expected draw, Sachin triggered a middle order collapse which saw 5 wickets falling in just 5 overs of which Sachin took 3 of them. Sachin trapped Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne leg before wicket and India secured a win from a match which looked drawn for most part of the time. The wickets of Hayden and Gilchrist were crucial because they had belted centuries in the previous test which Aussies won comfortably. The wicket of Gilchrist was even more crucial because it was the first ever time in his test career that he had a double failure in a test match.
In the final match of the series played at Chennai one of his favourite grounds, Sachin Tendulkar scored 126 to lead India to 501 in response to Aussies first score of 391 and that effectively sealed the test match and series for India.
4 match series from 9th October 2008 to 6thNovember 2008:- India comfortably won the four match series 2-0 withSachin reeling score of 13 and 49 in first test at Bangalore, 88 & 10 not out in second test at Mohali, 68 and 47 in third test at Delhi and 109 and 12 in fourthtest and Nagpur. Sachin Tendulkar series wise performance against Aussies in India excluding in 2004 is given below:-
Years Runs Average
1996 10 5.00
1998 446 111.50
2001 304 50.66
2008 396 56.57
2010 403 134.33
Indians can now proudly say that India has never lost a series in India in which Sachin Tendulkar played all the matches while Aussie problems are compounded by the fact that Ricky Ponting has never ever won a test match in India.
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