Boy Oh Boy..!! It was even worst than a scary nightmare !! Australia had to face a clean sweep, going down 0-2 in the Border Gavaskar Trophy- 2010. Ponting & Co. would not even dare to recall the harsh memories of what can be referred as, one of the greatest test series wins for Indian team. Kangaroos, although performed well in bits & pieces quite a time but the Indian hot storm totally blazed them away along with their dreams.
After going down 0-1 in the first test, Aussies entered the 2nd test at Bengaluru with a confident and positive approach to level the series. They showed this intention with a flashy and solid start in the first innings, with Shane Watson once again chipping in with another patient knock of 57 along with Katich (43). Both of them set the stage for a big score for Ponting, who came & started improvising the stage. Ponting looked in a good nick till the time he was caught plumb in-front of stumps of Raina, for 77. Although reluctantly, but Ponting had to succumb in-front of Billy's finger decision & walked back to pavilion. But, it was the partnership of Marcus North (128 of 240) and Tim Paine (59 of 133) that made Indian bowlers toil really hard. Both the batsmen maneuvered the ball quite well and increased the score patiently. Their innings along with short quick fire from tail enders, helped Australia to reach a mammoth total of 478 in first innings, setting up a tough task in-front of Dhoni & Co.
Chasing a mammoth total of 478, India saw the fall of wickets of Sehwag & Dravid cheaply who made, 30 & 1 respectively. Kangaroos were on a roll, but "THE GOD" of cricket had something else at the back of his mind. Tendulkar, along with Murali Vijay kept knocking off balls and made runs at a fairly good pace. Both of them added over 300 runs as a part of their splendid partnership. Murali Vijay got his maiden Test Century against, one of the best test teams of the world. He made 139 of 310 balls, before he got out to Johnson who made him caught by keeper Tim Paine. But "THE MASTER" was in his full swing. He kept going & kept punishing aussie bowlers. Nathan Hauritz really got a taste of what it feels, when you've got to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar. He can surely now empathize with the likes of Shane Warne, Ashley Gills, Muttiah Muralitharan & similar spinners, who faced the same song composed by "THE LEGEND" himself at some point of the time. Sachin was batting as if he is still 26 & as hungry for runs as he was then. He went past 100 runs mark in style by hitting consecutive sixes to Nathan Hauritz over Long on, both shots being exact replica of each other resulting the same runs. He went of crushing records after records, as he went past 100 runs mark 6th time this calender year, breaking records of Sir Don Bradman (5 centuries in a year). As soon as he crossed 150 runs mark, he left behind his one time competitor & legendary batsman, Brian Lara in the most number of 150 run hauls in test cricket. But Tendulkar was not in a mood to relax even after this. After stumps were declared the 3rd day, he was batting on 191 & looking anxiously for a double ton.
The next day when Tendulkar walked past the crowd, every Indian wherever they were were praying for him to reach double ton. Tendulkar didn't disappoint them at all and went past 200 runs mark 6th time in his entire career. By that time, Aussies were mere spectators of Master's splendid batting display. Tendulkar finally ended the "DABANGG Batting" Show, after his bat dragged the ball back to the stumps. Before walking back to the pavilion in the midst of roar of applause & standing ovations, he already did the damage to Aussie team by scoring 214 runs with 22 classy boundaries and 2 high sixes. Although, as soon as Tendulkar left the stage the rest 5 wickets fell for next 9 runs only and India ended up on 495, taking a lead of 17 runs.
Trying to come out of Tendulkar Tornado, Aussies begun their second innings but started stumbling after loosing both the openers cheaply. Ponting, once again tried to stabilize the innings but couldn't get a helping hand from the other end and finally succumbed to a blazing delivery, by Zaheer Khan who caught him plumb in-front of stumps. Once again Ponting couldn't score more than 70s. Once he was gone, the other batsmen just fulfilled a mere formality of coming and going. The duo of Zaheer and Ojha blew the Aussie batsmen and ended their innings on 223, thus setting a target of 207 runs for their batsmen in the second innings.
With a history of only 185 runs chase as the maximum run chase ever on Bengaluru ground, Indian team entered the ground to do something out of the blue. In an attempt to quick fire & close the game soon, Sehwag lost his wicket once again cheaply & went for just 7 runs leaving India bleeding at the start itself, thus giving a hope to Aussie team. But, this time it was a youngster who hit Ponting & Co. to the utter core. Cheteshwar Pujara, the newcomer held his nerves and got his eye in for a few overs. Once he was set, he started playing with the Aussie bowlers as if they were club bowlers. The ball was keeping up, low & at times pujara had to shift his stances or shots to hit the balls across the boundaries. On the other side Murali Vijay was carrying on his patient knock before he got out on 37 of 73 balls. Tendulkar join the game of crushing Kangaroos along with Pujara, then. Pujara kept going good before he got out of spinner Hauritz. He played a promising knock of 72 of 89 balls that included 7 classy boundaries. But, Tendulkar was in no mood to forgive the yellow brigade & once again played a blistering knock of 53 (not out) of 77 balls that included 5 speedy boundaries and 2 high skyscrapers of Nathan Hauritz once again. His knock saw the Indians home safely by 7 wickets & India clinched the series 2-0 from Kangaroos, whose nightmare of loosing in India continued for one more year.
The kind of excitement that Sachin displayed after winning the match, clearly depicted that this LEGEND is still younger than any of his fellow cricket mates around the world & fit than anyone in the business. Just as the first test match witnesses the master class innings of V.V.S. Laxman. This match saw a class act composed by "THE MASTER BLASTER" himself in both the innings, for which he was also conferred upon by "The Man of the Match" & "The Man of The Series" as well. I feel myself to be lucky, to be born in an era in which Sachin is born & played so many blistering knocks to make us feel proud of the same. Kudos to THE GOD of cricket..!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment