At Sydney, January 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2008. Australia won by 122 runs. Toss: Australia.
On a melodramatic final day in front of a smallish crowd of just under 11,000,
Australia won with just nine minutes of the last hour remaining, when occasional slow
left-armer Clarke took three wickets in five balls, helping his side equal the world record
of 16 consecutive Test victories which they themselves set in 2001. However, they would
never have done so but for a series of umpiring blunders. Most of these went against
India, who were so incensed that their board successfully asked the ICC to remove
Steve Bucknor from the Perth Test (Mark Benson was not rostered to stand there).
Australia's victory was overshadowed by the row that erupted over the allegation
that Harbhajan Singh had racially abused Andrew Symonds, the only non-white player
in the Australian side. The original decision of referee Mike Procter to suspend
Harbhajan for three Tests incensed the Indians, and there was talk of the tour being
called off if his appeal was unsuccessful. In the end, wiser counsel prevailed, although
the decision to delay the appeal until after the Tests - which left Harbhajan available
for selection - smacked of expediency.
India's sense of injustice was compounded by three aspects of Australia's overall
conduct at Sydney. First, what appeared at the very least to be gamesmanship with
their appealing on the final day. Secondly, two incidents concerning Clarke, who refused
to walk when caught at slip in the second innings, and then claimed a disputed low
slip catch himself on the final day. Ganguly, the batsman, felt the ball did not carry
but, after Benson gave him out without consulting Bucknor at square leg, he honoured
the pre-series agreement between the captains that the fielder's word would be taken
(this was jettisoned after Sydney). India's final gripe concerned Australia's gracelessness
and triumphalism in victory, when they celebrated at length after taking the last Indian
wicket. And the tourists' rancour deepened when the Australians' word was taken ahead of theirs in Harbhajan's four-and-a-half-hour disciplinary meeting for alleged racial
abuse.
The match had begun so well for India: they reduced Australia to 134 for six in good
conditions for batting. There was some first-day life in the pitch, which gave the Indian
pace attack, weakened by the loss of Zaheer Khan with an injured heel, some early
encouragement. Jaques was the victim of extra bounce, cutting injudiciously in the third
over, and then R. P. Singh swung the ball away from the left-handers from an ideal line
to give Tendulkar three sharp catches at first slip. Harbhajan chipped in with a brace
of lbws - Ponting was given out by Benson despite getting an inside edge, while Clarke
padded up to a straight one. Benson's error was his second involving Ponting: when
17, he should have been given out caught behind down the leg side off Ganguly.
A much worse decision - a howler that had a major influence on the match's outcome
- came from Bucknor after Australia had rallied to 193 for six. Symonds, then 30, got
what he later admitted was a thick outside edge when he tried to force Sharma off the
back foot. Bucknor failed to spot it. By the time the excellent partnership between
Symonds and Hogg was finally broken, they had put on 173 in 36 overs, a record for
the seventh wicket in any Test at Sydney (previously 160, by Richie Benaud and
Graham McKenzie against South Africa in 1963-64). Hogg launched the counter-attack
with some fine cuts and drives, while Symonds held up an end; then, after Hogg
reached a maiden Test fifty 11 years after his debut, Symonds turned aggressor, with
some thumping drives as well as two short-arm jabs that brought him leg-side sixes
off Harbhajan. Another incorrect decision provided Symonds with another life, on 48,
when a stumping off Kumble was referred to the TV umpire. Bruce Oxenford, a former
Queensland spinner, failed to spot that one camera angle showed Symonds's back foot
behind the crease but in the air when the wicket was broken.
Capitalising on his good fortune, Symonds cantered to his second Test hundred.
Importantly, Lee stayed with him, using his feet well to the spinners and forcing the
pace bowlers off the back foot to complete what was his own fourth Test half-century.
Another 114 were added for the eighth wicket and, with Johnson swinging the bat
usefully, in all 329 runs were burgled by the last four wickets. Symonds, given a third
reprieve on 148 by Bucknor, who inexplicably failed to refer a very close stumping,
finished with a Test-best 162 not out, which included 18 fours as well as those two
sixes.
On a pitch that had flattened out, India batted outstandingly. Dravid, with another
painstaking innings, and Laxman laid an ideal platform, putting on 175 for the second
wicket. Laxman, driving elegantly through extra cover and on-driving wristily, raced
to fifty in 43 balls before consolidating to complete his third hundred in successive Tests at the SCG. Dravid, badly dropped when 18 by Gilchrist off Clark, crept to a
rather more sedate fifty from 158 balls.
For all Laxman's brilliance, though, Tendulkar's 38th Test century - also his third
at the SCG, where he averages 221.33 - was a masterclass, virtually without flaw.
Unlike Laxman, he gave no chances in 429 minutes at the crease. Wary of big offside
shots, he preferred the leg. That he hit as few as 14 fours (and a six off Hogg)
and as many as 66 singles was largely because Ponting stationed permanent boundary
sweepers square on both sides of the wicket in an attempt to restrict him.
Content to let Ganguly outscore him at first, Tendulkar was left with the tail after
Lee filleted the lower middle order during a top-class spell with the second new ball.
Harbhajan came in, and Tendulkar - who had 69 at the time - had no qualms in
allowing him the strike, which brought out the best in the tailender. Harbhajan responded
with his first Test fifty against Australia, which included some pedigree shots. They
put on 129, a record for India's eighth wicket against Australia, beating the 127 of
Syed Kirmani and Karsan Ghavri at Bombay in 1979-80, then the last two wickets
collected another 58 valuable runs.
All this ought to have made the game safe for India, who appeared the only possible
winners at the start of the fourth day. More bad umpiring decisions, however, allowed
Australia to prosper in their second innings. Hussey appeared to have been trapped in
front by Kumble when 22, and he should also have been given out caught behind off
Singh when 45. He went on to his eighth Test century, before accelerating to allow
Ponting to declare 332 ahead, with a minimum of 72 overs to bowl India out.
Until Dravid was fourth out, to the first ball of the 34th over, it did not look as if
Ponting had left himself enough time. A concerted appeal for a caught-behind, led
theatrically by Gilchrist, was upheld by Bucknor despite the fact that Symonds's offbreak
had only brushed the front pad, with the bat hidden behind it. India still had a
good chance of saving the match, for even though the pitch was offering turn and
bounce, Hogg was ineffective and Ponting was obliged to employ his part-time spinners
Symonds and Clarke. To lose six wickets to them was carelessness, at best. Ponting
admitted that the introduction of Clarke - who once took six for nine in a Test against
India, but had managed only two other wickets - was "a last roll of the dice". Clarke
responded with three wickets in his second over, two of them caught at slip, to complete
the victory that gave Australia a 2-0 lead in the series and maintained their hold on
the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Man of the Match: A. Symonds.