'One Of The Best Ever'

In the end, it was the Australian captain Ricky Ponting who succinctly summedup the series. He said India deserved to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy because histeam "weren't good enough". "It's been a fair result, to tell you the truth," Ponting said after Australia lost the fourth and final Test by 172 runs to India.

Significantly, it was on this very ground, four years ago that the Australianteam had crossed the final frontier -- defeating India in India -- by 2-1 in the 2004-05 series.

"It would have been an unbelievable run-chase if we could have got there today. With wearing wickets and good spinners, and fast bowlers doing their job, we were out of the game after lunch. We weren't good enough here or inMohali. From the start of the second test in Mohali, we've been chasing our tails and India deserve the 2-0 result," he added.

Saurav Ganguly, playing in his last Test, could not have asked for a bettergoing-away present: "We've beaten the best team in the world 2-0. I'veplayed well, the team's played outstandingly well. To win the series 2-0 wasvery satisfying. We had dominated (the proceedings) after the first Test (atBangalore)... The way this Test match has finished was one of the best ever.it's probably one of the best finishes I've seen in terms of a team performance.I want to cherish this for a long period. I could easily sacrifice 10 to 12Tests for this. Everyone has chipped in throughout the series. Somehow wemanage to pick up when we play against Australia."

Ponting said Australia needed a flawless display to chase down the 382 runs it needed to win the Test and level the series."I told the guys this morning that a win is possible only if we play perfect cricket throughout the day. But Indian pacers and spinners put lot of pressure on us and I guess we were out of the match right at lunch," he said.

For his counterpart, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Midas touch continued. Inaddition to his successes as the Twenty20 and ODI captain, he continued his golden run at the helm to lead the team to a third straight win in as many matches.He had led India to wins over South Africa, earlier this year, and at Mohali as stand-in captain forKumble.

Unlike Ponting -- who seemed to have lost the plot on the fourth day of theTest and allowed the game to drift away from under Aussie control -- Dhoni neverlost sight of the big picture. "They were scoring at five-and-half this morning. But once they lost three wickets, I knew two more wickets and they would be in real trouble," he said.

Only Matthew Hayden stood bravely amidst the ruins with a 93-ball 77 while the Indian bowlers ripped through the batting line up to bring an end to the Australian innings rather quickly. Leg spinner Amit Mishra (4/64) and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (3/27) were the main destructors.

Dhoni heaped praise on man of the series Ishant and Zaheer and said the new ball bowlers did an excellent job in the series."I must say that the pacers did the trick, not only in this match but in the series. On these tracks, it was not easy because there was not much in the wicket but they still bowled their heart out."It's not only the new ball, they bowled well with the old ball as well. Even when the ball was 60-over old, they were giving their best and bowling in the right areas," Dhoni said.

Asked how much the series meant to him, Dhoni said, "It was very important to win the series, for everyone was looking at it. This is bigger than say an India-Pakistan series. We were quite motivated and planned well and the execution was perfect."

Dhoni, however, admitted that the retirement of the likes of Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly would leave a void in Indian cricket and the challenge is for the youngster to step in."Both of them are marvelous cricketers who have proved themselves over the 16-17 years. Cricket has been a passion for both and we always looked upto them.Their absence would leave a big gap and it would be tough for youngsters t o fill in the void," Dhoni said.

Earlier, in the day, however, he also came up with two excellent gestures --one on the field, and the other one at the presentation ceremony.

The ninth Australian wicket had fallen and the fielders were hovering around Cameron White and Mitchell Johnson with Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra having scripted a dramatic post-lunch collapse.

It was on a November 10 eight years back, in 2000, thatSaurav Ganguly had begun his tenure as India's Test captain--against Bangladesh in Dhaka. During the final passage of his last Test match, when the ninth Australianwicket had fallen, Dhoni walked up to Ganguly and asked him to lead theside for five overs.

"I didn't expect MS to ask me to captain the side forfive overs," Ganguly was later to say. "I was already switched off, sohe woke me up. I didn't know what was happening the first six-seven balls.Luckily they were nine down so I managed to do it for three and then said it'shis job, not mine any more."

He showed the same spirit when it came to receiving theBorder-Gavaskar trophy. He invited Anil Kumble -- captain of the side till thelast Test match -- to join him in receiving the trophy. Clearly, the Indian teamseems to have transitioned well.

The question of over-rates had dogged both the teams through out theseries. Ponting, who had been falling behind the required average through the match was warned at tea on the 4th day that he faced a possible suspension of a match if he did not speed things up. Rather than taking his chances and bowling out India, Ponting fell back on part-time bowlers. The move saved Ponting from a possible suspension for next week's first Test against New Zealand, but eased the pressure for the batsmen after India had slipped to 166 for 6. India,thanks to some smart batting by Dhoni and Harbhajan, quickly increased their lead from 252 and eventually set the visitors a victory target of 382.

Dhoni, who shared a 108-run stand with Harbhajan Singh, was later torub it in: "That was a time when we really took on the spinners and we were quite happy to get a few runs on theboard."

"If you don't have the over rate in mind then at 4.30 when the guys are really tired and you're supposed to bowl too many overs, your opponent can really capitalise on that," he said.

And he showed no such concerns the previous or the next day. He counted on the fact that the over-rate would not come into the picture because he would have bowled Aussies out. He was proved right.

"Look at the eye of the fish. For us, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is the eye of the fish.There is a famous saying in Hindi that I will tell later but it is about winning the game. There have been strategies which have notbeen liked by the opposition captains and all those things but the one thing you want to do is to go out there and look to win games. What strategies there are, it doesn't really matter," Dhonihad said about his field placings on the third day.

Dhoni said even though he went for a packed off-side with bowlers keeping a tight off-line, Australian batsmen should have endeavoured to negotiate that in a better way. "They could have done something different. I think there was not a real effort from them. We may have been bowling a bit wide but we still got a few edges and they scored most of their runs behind the wicket so it was good for us.Once there was pressure we could put more pressure with the spinners coming on and bowling in therough."

As Saurav Ganguly put it, "Captaincy is a spark, it's not just preparation or the homework, it's about the spark on the field, which MS[Dhoni] has. He has done fantastically well. It's not just about being a good player.He's got that extra bit of luck which you require in captaincy. I have never believed too much in the drawing board. I see a lot of that in MS[Dhoni]. He doesn't believe much in team meetings and all. He just does what he sees on the field."

And as Ganguly added, "He will be tested when India goes overseas and I'm sure he will live up toit. And if the boys do well under him, it will be great. I am sure he will take Indian cricketforward."

Series Highlights:

• Most Runs
• Most Wickets
• High Scores
• Best Bowling