The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : India, a frontier unconquered

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Sunday, Oct 03, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

India, a frontier unconquered

By S. Dinakar

DREAMS SHATTERED: Riding on the crest of 16 consecutive wins, Steve Waugh's visions of a series win in India lay in tatters and he had to return home a disappointed man.

The ferocity of the climax ripped through the grass-laden outfield of the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium before storming into the stands and seizing the minds of an enthralled audience.

It had also sliced through the Great Australian Dream, much like a sharp-edged knife cutting into half one man's quest. For Steve Waugh, the `Final Frontier' remained unconquered.

The images in the aftermath of that humdinger - the Indians breaking into a celebratory waltz, the Australians unable to mask the agony of defeat, Steve Waugh searching for the right words in a crowded press conference, and a beaming Sourav Ganguly holding aloft the Trophy - still dance before the mind's eye.

The three-Test India-Australia clash in 2001 was a sweeping epic, where emotions were never at a premium, fortunes changed dramatically, and the hunter eventually became the hunted; some took flight in the field of dreams, and some others riding a crest woke up to harsh reality.

Different setting

Yet, it was in a setting far different from the `melting pot' that Chepauk certainly was on March 22, a day when the host would squeeze home by two wickets in the decider, that the story of series actually began.

Under a radiant February afternoon sun, and a brightly coloured canopy at the quaint IIT-Chemplast ground in Chennai commenced the duel that would eventually decide the outcome of the series - the battle of the mind.

It was a routine post practice session media briefing that often has uninterested captains mouthing tired answers.

This one was different; Ganguly was razor sharp and breathing fire.

Asked about Waugh's comments from Down Under on preparation of the pitches for the series, Ganguly shot back - "How does he know what's going on here from Australia. Enough talking has been going on. Let's wait for the matches to begin."

Waugh could be ruthless if he spotted a chink in his adversary's mental make-up, but Ganguly was in no mood to get intimidated.

The men in the baggy green, victorious in 15 successive Tests, were on a roll arriving in India. But then, Australia had never triumphed in a Test series in India since 1969-70, often undone by the heat and the spinner friendly pitches.

For Waugh, India represented the last hurdle; the one feather missing in the Aussie cap. And when Australia after outplaying the host by 10 wickets in Mumbai, piled 445 and shot India out for 212, at the Eden Gardens, the Final Frontier seemed no more than one final step away.

The series had also reached the decisive point - the Australian captain had to choose between enforcing the follow-on and risk being caught out on a wearing wicket or bat a second time. He picked the first option and the move boomeranged, with V.V.S. Laxman, smartly promoted to the No. 3 slot, and Rahul Dravid adding a monumental 376 runs for the fifth wicket and then Harbhajan Singh running through the visitors on a surface where the ball gripped.

From the brink, the Indians had now conjured a 171-run victory, and there had been a major momentum shift in the series. The excitement was at its cusp, and the Indians would go on to stop a late Aussie surge in Chennai to clinch a dramatic series 2-1.

Importantly, Ganguly, right through, looked Steve Waugh in the eye, and indulged in psychological warfare himself such as making Waugh wait before the toss. In the mind game, Ganguly turned the aggressor, and it worked.

For the Aussies, the series ended in a crushing disappointment. Some dreams do die - even for someone like Steve Waugh.

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