Border-Gavaskar Trophy Reclaimed!!!

The much awaited Border–Gavasker trophy has come to end. And India managed to win it comfortably. India managed to climb to the second spot in the ICC test ranking after the series win. The series has set new benchmarks and some stereotype notions were proved wrong. The aura of invincibility around the Aussies has faded.

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My last post on cricket was (What a week its been!!!) after the second test in Mohali that India won by a comfortable margin to take a lead in the test series. Now that Ganguly had announced his retirement from all forms of the game, I expected Dravid to be the next person from the “Fab Five” to announce his retirement. On the final day Delhi test, Jumbo had announced his retirement due to the finger injury he had suffered. India had to part with its most successful bowler and the game was deprived of a great sportsmen.

India was coming to Nagpur, with a new (and permanent) captain for tests, Dhoni. Murali Vijay was in place of banned Gambhir. Gambhir was the highest scorer of India in the three tests and was in the form of his lifetime. The manner in which the BCCI wanted to revoke the one match ban of the ICC referee was widely criticized and rightly so. M. Vijay batted sensibly with Sehwag in both the sessions and ensured good foundation for the batsmen coming down the order. His stroke play proved that he playing in the national XI because of his good technique and sustained performance in the domestic circuit and not because of Kris Shrikanth, the chief selector! (K.Shrikanth and M.Vijay are from Tamil Nadu).

There was another player who has a crazy debut was Jason Krejza. He did manage to pick up 12 Indian wickets. He was picked for the practice match and conceded 199 runs without claiming any wicket. He was subsequently dropped for White for the initial three tests. The Aussies had to pick him up for the final test because unimpressive performance by White with the ball. His match summary stood at 12/358. Without his performance, a convincing victory for Indians would have turned into a crushing defeat for Aussies. Punter would have to answer Cricket Australia for not picking him for the first three tests.

Dravid’s misery with the bat continued. He had really bad series in spite of the four tracks being placid and easy for batting. He has been the main stray for Indian batting coming at No 3 postion. A fragile Dravid would spell doom for the batsmen in the middle order in times ahead. He might be the next person from the “Fab Five” to be axed or to announce his retirement.
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Ishant and Zaheer ensured that Indians are no more spin reliant. The last time an Indian fast bowler got the man of the series, before Ishant in the Indian soil was Kapil Dev in 1983. They ensured that the Aussie top order does not get a good start. The spinner completed the task of wrapping up the lower order.

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Finally one can not conclude this post about Indian victory without talking about Dhoni’s captaincy. Dhoni led India in both their victories in this series. He infused that spark and energy into the Indian dressing room and Indian on field. With creative field placement and choking of run-flow was able to stop the Aussie Juggernaut. He managed to stay calm even when Hayden was threatening India’s plans. He has matured as a player with the bat, even more so after becoming the skipper. His gesture of inviting Ganguly to captain in the final stages of the test and calling Kumble to the podium to receive the trophy portrays the kind of person he is. India might have a few good winning streaks under his leadership.

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The next cricketing action will be from the India-England tour in Nov and the Champions league in Dec. The Champions league promises to be an exiting tournament. It is turned even more exciting with most of the matches being held in Madras, the home ground for CSK. Finally, Hayden and Hussey struck some good form towards the end of the tour, which sounds great for ardent CSK fan. Let’s see how the rivalry unfolds in the Champions league…