Memories Of India v. Australia

My first memories are of India v. Australia test cricket are of the 1991-92 tour down under. It was when I first realized that you could see cricket before going to school and actually talk about it in school. What captured my imagination then was the day/night matches in the Benson & Hedges Tri-series and the World Cup after that. The tests that preceded it were a bit of a disaster for India. We lost 4-0, but hey a young man scored two centuries– one at Sydney and the other more remarkably at Perth. The type you appreciate more and more as you grow older and watch the highlights. And as you watch the highlights, you realize that there is one man who is connecting several generations of Australian and Indian cricketers as the decades roll by.

The next time, India and Australia faced each other in a test match was in a one-off test match at the Kotla. It was the inauguration of the Border-Gavaskar trophy. I followed the match, largely through the radio and it was a fairly routine Indian home win if you look at the scorecard.

And then, the series, the contest, just exploded. Australia came to India in March 1998 for a 3 test series. It was Warne vs Tendulkar, the best spinner in the world facing the best batsman in the world. We knew Tendulkar was in fine form, he had smacked a 200 for Mumbai in a warm-up. We read about how he had got former India leg spinner L. Sivaramakrishnan to bowl to him around the stumps in the nets to prepare for Warne. And on Day 1 of the first test, just as I returned home from school, it was all right in front of me. Tendulkar was facing Warne, but the contest was over before it even began. Warne had got his man, caught by Taylor at first slip and it was such an anti-climax. But with the game on a knife-edge in the 2nd innings, Tendulkar did all right. To put it mildly, it was breathtaking stuff..

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(At 4:00 in the video, Warne comes round the wicket to Tendulkar for the first time. I remember holding my breath at that moment.  Do you? Then Tendulkar goes BOOM and it is settled. )

The next test at Kolkata saw some record breaking batting– the scorecard is a treat. One legend from Hyderabad played his usual classic at Eden, there was another one who gave us a little glimpse of the future. India won the series comfortably, before losing the last test at Bangalore, despite another SRT hundred. Mark Waugh, Kasporowicz and later Taylor playing really well. India and Australia continued to play each other in ODIs for some time that summer culminating in the twin desert storm and those few months were probably the finest that we ever saw Tendulkar play.

India toured Australia in the Aussie summer of 1999-2000 and India got drubbed 3-0. The ads from Star billed it as the Barood series and I was excited about seeing our “pace attack” of Srinath, Prasad and Agarkar bowling in tandem! But we didn’t play too well– a Sachin 100 at MCG and a VVS parting gift at the SCG remain the high points. But we really were down and out in all sorts of ways. Bombay Ducks and Shoulder Before the Wicket dismissals– it was all happening and it was not so nice.

And then, they came. 15 consecutive test wins and counting- looking to cross “The Final Frontier“. “All our 15 wins will count for nothing if we cannot beat India in India,” the Australian skipper said. And 15 soon became 16 as Australia thrashed a Kumble-less India in 3 days at the Wankhede with Gilchrist playing an incredible innings, coming in at 99/5. And before you knew it, another debacle was in progress at Kolkata. Despite a Harbhajan Singh hattrick, a Steve Waugh hundred had taken Australia to a good 1st innings total and by then, a familiar batting collapse saw India following on. But then,  Laxman and Dravid got together for the greatest partnership in the history of test cricket and changed Indian cricket forever. We all know that.

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With belief gone in Mumbai and hope gone in the first innings, I was left only with prayers, and yes my prayers had been answered as the great escape happened and India had stopped the 16 match win streak at Eden. And yet, at tea time on day 5, with Australia just 3 wickets down, I sat and contemplated the meaning of all this– and this did not feel right. A match made so memorable by the happenings of the last day deserved a better finish, rather than ending in an anti-climatic tame draw and Australia retaining the trophy. About 2 and a half hours later, the unthinkable had happened and life was never going to the same again. Long before Adidas made the tagline, a young Indian team had proved that Impossible is Nothing, as we were witness to what can only be described as a miracle. And as you watch the highlights again, is there anything else that gives you more goose-bumps than watching the Aussie batting collapse in the 2nd innings that afternoon?

Before Kolkata, we did not know if this Australian team could be beaten, but before Chennai we did. And so as the 3rd test match twisted and turned into yet another monumental epic, we knew we were caught up in something historic, something special. Hayden double-hundred v Harbhajan 15 wickets, Tendulkar clutch hundred, VVS clutch batting throughout, we could go on and on. In fact, it was unbelievable, like this Mark Waugh catch to dismiss VVS during the chase. And as I osclillated between agony and ecstasy, the last hour of the game was too much for me to watch, I locked myself in a room with an attempt to pray India to victory. And it seems, it worked. Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, all relived in these great highlights.

As India went to Australia in 2003-04, it was always going to be hard to match the epic last series, but by God it was good. I was a little more confident this time of doing well down under and the series got off to a cracking start at Brisbane. Zak bowled beautifully and Ganguly probably played his finest innings ever as India got a creditable draw to start things off. And then, Dravid and Laxman once again got together. This time at Adelaide as India chased a huge Aussie first total (courtesy Punter and co.) and then ambushed (Sir Aggie 6-fer FTW!) them to set up and then go on to a most memorable overseas test win. The win at Adelaide was right up there with our finest test wins, and on Day 1 at Melbourne, it just got better. Virender Sehwag was in stunning form scoring 195, but sadly from then it went downhill as the rest of the team could not capitalize on that performance and Australia came storming back to level the series led by Punter and Haydos. With the decider at the SCG also being Steve Waugh’s last match, I was hoping for yet another Indian victory and we came close. Tendulkar, out of form till then, played a most stubborn leg-side-ish innings of 241, Laxman a glorious 178 as India scored 705! Australia too scored big with Langer and Katich and the match was set up for a fifth day effort to bowl Australia out for a 2nd time. Kumble took 12 wickets in the match. But Waugh played like Waugh as Australia held on and forced the draw. And being the fan-boy that I was, I shed a few tears to see my favourite foreign cricketer depart. It was quite a memorable occasion.

The Aussies returned in about 8-9 months time back to India, and while they didn’t have Waugh, they were just as determined without him. They put up a clinical effort at Bangalore and won by 217 runs. India missed Tendulkar, out through injury, and the batting was struggling. However, India came storming back at Chennai with Sehwag and Kumble leading the charge and just when it was all set for a sensational final day run chase with India just needing over 200 to win and all 10 wickets intact, there was no play on Day 5. With that went India’s chances and Australia finished off their 3 decade long quest of a series win in India at Nagpur. One of the features of that series was how less attacking they were in the field, they remained patient, choked off the runs and very absolutely professional in their display. Damien Martyn was superb at Nagpur and Australia were well deserved winners. With the series gone, there was still time for a mad, low scoring thriller at Mumbai as India edged out winners to make the series 2-1. I didn’t get to watch too much of the series with some exams coming in the way, but the feeling at that moment was one of exhaustion as well as deflation. We had gone toe to toe with the best team in the world, we had been punching above our weight for quite some time and finally we had been knocked out. But boy, was it one hell of a ride, one hell of a fight.

Now the Aussies are back and it is time for some test cricket. If you have been patient enough to read through this long-winded post, it would be fairly apparent to you that the contests between 1998 to 2004 are far closer to my heart than some of the recent ones. After all, we are all part of the 281 generation and as Rahul Bhattacharya beautifully wrote a few months back, that 281 ERA is over. That epic feeling, that nerve-wrecking tension has gone out of the recent (mis)-matches. Perhaps, also has gone the belief that we can comeback from any situation. These are difficult times for an Indian cricket fan.