Mission Accomplished

Notwithstanding the dramatic 13-run defeat suffered inthe fourth and final Test at Mumbai, Australia held a distinctive edge overIndia right through the high-profile series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The Aussies, smarting under the unexpected 1-2 defeatsuffered against India in the 2000-01 series here, learned their lessons wellfrom that failure by planning meticulously to beard the lion in its own lairthis time around.

The 2-1 victory achieved by Australia was well-deservedas they looked far better prepared than India whose form had slumped severelysince nearly conquering the Kangaroos in their backyard and then recording ahistoric Test series win in Pakistan.

As was revealed later by stand-in captain AdamGilchrist, who led the Aussies to the series-clinching triumph in the third Testat Nagpur in the absence of regular captain Ricky Ponting, the planning hadstarted soon after the defeat in the deciding Test at Chennai in the previousseries.

Gilchrist said when the team played and won the TVS Cupone-day tournament last season, he and the others were preparing themselves totake on the twin threat of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh for their next visitto this country.

The result of this advance planning was evident inBangalore in the first Test itself when the Aussies, despite being confronted bya pitch from which all the grass was removed by the groundsmen by using steelbrushes, bested the hosts with consummate ease and conviction.

The Bangalore pitch sported cracks resembling a dried bed of rivers, but theAustralians made light of this and batted resolutely to clinch the huge 217-runwin. The spark for their upswing of fortunes so early in the series was providedby the immensely talented youngster Michael Clarke whose century on debut, thefirst by an Australian batsman overseas in more than a century, had class andcharacter written all over it.

Significantly had Ponting been available from the firstTest, Clarke would have been cooling his heels in the dressing room. On suchstrange quirks of fortune are the fates of some rubbers decided!

Clarke and left-handed Simon Katich showed the rest ofthe Australian frontline batsmen how to tackle the Indian spinners on theBangalore pitch and none learned lessons from their example better than DamienMartyn, later declared the man of the series.

Martyn shouldered the burden of carrying the Australianbatting on his shoulders from the drawn Chennai Test onwards.

The West Australian, who hit two centuries on the tourand amassed 444 runs, looked well in control in every subsequent innings, savethe last one at Mumbai when Murali Kartik deceived him with a faster one andtrapped him leg before to pave the way for the pulsating home team win.

Martyn used his feet well to tackle the spinners butwith wisdom coming with age and experience, was also choosy in stepping out, inmarked contrast to Clarke whose twinkle-toed approach to combat the spinningball was an absolute treat to watch.

Clarke too scored 400 runs in the series, the second biggest tally in the seriesafter Martyn's, and these two batsmen -- with good support from Katich,Gilchrist and opener Matthew Hayden (who failed to take full advantage of thestarts) -- formed the backbone of the Australian batting.

In total contrast was the batting performance of thehome team which was also handicapped by the elbow injury of Sachin Tendulkar,which forced him to skip the first two Tests, and the thigh strain of SauravGanguly which made him miss the last two matches of the series.

Barring the occasional sparks provided by VirenderSehwag, the lone Indian centurion in the series, the others failed to do justiceto their top billing.

There was no steady partnership at the top of theorder, with Aakash Chopra and Yuvraj Singh playing musical chairs in the firstthree Tests before both were dumped in favour of newcomer Gautam Gambhir in thelast Test.

The result was evident with the middle order comingunder severe pressure from the relentless accuracy of Glenn McGrath and thefiery spells of Jason Gillespie, well supported by the nagging line of attack ofMichael Kasprowicz.

The Indian middle order went into a shell from whichthey could not recover till the series had been lost in Nagpur.

With the pressure of expectations off Laxman, heproduced his best form of the rubber in scoring 69 in Mumbai.

The wristy Hyderabadi also strung together amatch-winning 91-run stand with Tendulkar who finally showed welcome signs ofhaving fully recovered from his injury during the course of his second inningsknock of 55 on a very difficult pitch.

PTI