Australia started Day 5 needing well over 350 runs to win the game – something that they were never going to do. Even the odds of Australia saving the Test by batting out the 3 sessions were very very low. India on the other hand needed 5 wickets to win and it was not a question of if, but a question of when India would wrap up the game – as it turned out it was well and truly over before lunch.
Morning (and the only) session
The wicket at Mohali had held out quite well for the first four days of the test and the fifth day was no exception. Except for balls pitching on the rough created by footmarks, the bounce was quite even and there weren’t too many cracks on the pitch. It was still a pretty good batting track – after all 355 runs were added on day 4.
Clarke and Haddin had added 88 runs together the previous day, in what was the best Aussie partnership of the game and they strode in confidently to the wicket. Their game plan would have been to see through the day one hour at a time.
But Zaheer Khan had other plans. He was earlier charged by the match referee for giving a send-off to Hayden on Day 4 of the test and that must have had him fired up. He predictably opened the bowling for India.
In the last ball of the very first over, Zaheer pitched one up, which cut in sharply into the right handed Haddin and crashed into the stumps. Haddin had offered a defensive prod without much foot work and the ball managed to avoid both bat and pad. Only one run had been added to the overnight score, one wicket already lost and the Indians moved one step closer to victory.
In the second ball of Zaheer Khan’s second over, White edged a fuller delivery over to Dhoni, leaving the Aussies reeling at 144/7. Brett Lee walked in, and was bowled out the very next ball – this time, the ball pitched on leg and moved further away clipping the off stump.
In just 4 ball, 3 wickets had fallen and any semblance of an Australian resistance disappeared – that too in just the 3rd over of the day. Johnson did his best to hit his way out (he did play some handsome strokes) and Clarke went on to complete his 50 – but these were just academic. They managed to put on the second biggest partnership of the innings, though - adding 50 runs before Mishra had Johnson caught and bowled. The score at that time was 194. Siddle came in at No. 11, but couldn’t manage a single run on his debut – Clarke at the other end tried to hit Mishra out, only to find Tendulkar at mid-wicket. They were all out for 195 and even with their first and second innings totals put together, couldn’t cross India’s first innings score.
Dhoni (after collecting his Man-of-the-match award said that this was almost like a perfect match and that every thing went their way. This was a great team effort and India will take a lot of confidence into the Delhi test and are now one test win away from regaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
-Mahesh-