Analysis of the 2001 india - aus tour - some insights

[scorpio]

I know every one must have watched the aus tour of india in 01. But it would be good to discuss our insights..so here we go

Pre tour:
Aussies started their customary crap of "mental disintegration". almost the whole team starred in that. For india couple of players gave decent reaction and cautius enthusiasm. But the real surprise was ganguly dishing out as good as he got. which surprised everyone.

But the oh so faithful indian media once again played out a soap opera linking him to a starlet. and to everys surprise..lol..aussie media played it up.heh

1st test :

day1: Mcgrath tried unsuccessfully to bully india with sheer pace but once he went back to line and length he was the star again. Warne seemed to so good first day with a 4 wicket haul. And sachin once again showing everyone that on skills he is the best by a distance and his temperament still needs some work.

day2: india on top. familiar story. spinners rule. enter gilchrist. His century in my opinion was his least best, topedges,skiers but luck was on his side. he blasted his way thro. Revelation was matt the bat. he was in a zone of his own. Ganguly and the bowlers dont handle the pressure well. poor field placement, rushing thro the overs when they should have slowed down etc.

day3 : red ball. fast bowlers. indian batsmen. (well home pitch) and they did what they do best. beat a path to the pavilion.
enter the wall and sachin. aussies cut in full flight. india threatens to make a match of it. again sachin shows skills but no favored by lady luck. (meanwhile slater shows what domestic pressure can make a man do ...it eventually ended his career..a real pity ..but he deserved it)

day4 : game over. india crumbles. waugh and mcgrath walk the talk. but amazingly ganguly keeps his chin up and gives some sane reasons and is optimistic.

2nd Test:

day1: matt the bat and slater carry on. langer is his usual scratchy and gritty and plods on. aus walk all over a one man bowling attack. lucks turns harb runs thro the "batting order".

day2: waugh gives the lesson on how to bat and turn pressure to ur advantage. india and ganguly show what not to do.
batting - india scales new heights. 8 down in less than 2 sessions.

day3 : it is almost over. laxman shows why he made all those centuries in domestic cricket. aus on the way to win no 17.
indian second innings. new spine . the batting stands on the pitch for some time. laxman rages on. ganguly puts up a fight once again showing he should be perserved with. a feeling of dejavu for indian fans

day4 : 3 sessions. 300 plus runs. no wicket. nuff said. waugh faces real pressure and opposition in a long time. nothing new can be said abt the two batsmen. oh and lady luck did favor them on the morn session.
a word of praise of gillespie man !what a spirit.

day5 : india carry on. negative attitude. but playin safe. then despite good opening partnership australia falls like 9 pins. sachin showing that he could easily be the best spinner from both sides. harb makes his mark. grt come back by india.

waugh beaten and stunned. ganguly ecstatic and aware ofthe grt escape.

Pre decider: some insights
warne treated worser than a net bowler.despite his good show in the first test. he is on the verge of being dropped..wow..what a turnaround.
mcgrath - yeah i am that good -says his bowling
gillespie- need some luck mate.!
waugh - same grim face but stunned at being stretched. nevertheless confident.
gilchirst - my back hurts after that big fall back to earth mate.
matt the bat - somebody steal this mans bat . total control with the best yet to come.

ganguly - grt escape. but very good attitude
sachin - flop show under pressure. but determined to prove it otherwise. no question abt skills though. shows he could make another career as a spinner
dravid - grt comeback.shows steel.
harb - fairy tale.
indian bowling "attack" - hahahaha
batting - we see light at the end of the tunnel. not sure if it is the train.
laxman - well folks , i made a century every match i played in domestic cricket. 281 - 38 fours. highest score for india..need i say more ? heh

I will write the second part of this post laterwhen i find time now got to go for my job. the 3rd test had events which changed the courses of two country's cricket.

cheers

[Edited on 7/17/02 by scorpio]

 

[MrPerko]

This was the series that re-invigorated my interest in Test match cricket. After 16 on the trot - while it was usually entertaining cricket - Australia was just TOO dominant. And to tell you the truth, the fact that this series turned from being 3-0 to Australia into possibly the greatest series ever was due to one man - V.V.S. Laxman.

I thought Tendulkar was the only man on the planet of producing an innings like that after India was 1-0 down and then following on... but 281 runs later I was proved to be a fool...



The Indian subcontinent seems to bring out the best and the worst in people... Matty Hayden was a duck or two away from being replaced, Slater and Langer were suspect and were dropped the following series (not to mention Slater's outburst), Warnie stuggled to find any form and my grandma could've scored more runs than Ponting did. On the other side, Harbhajan was sensational - where the hell did he spring from???, as were the likes of Dravid and Laxman - they played two of the innings of their careers.


In hindsight, it probably was a series that the Aussies should've won, but thanks to one great partnership and some spirited bowling, India pulled off what many thought was impossible..... I just wish I was Indian so I could've really enjoyed it!!!

 

[scorpio]

strange that this topic seemed to evoke no interest. well anyway i will write part two tonite.
cheers

 

[MrPerko]

Yeah - 'tis a bit strange, Scorpio....


Come on people.... I want to know what you thought about the series to.

Was it really the best series ever?? How would you rate Laxman's innings - as good as Inzi's?? As good as Mark Taylors??? Apart from the Laxman and Dravid partnership, what were the other factors in the series turn-around? Were the Aussies getting too ****y after 16 in a row and basically being handed the 17th on a silver platter (after enforcing the follow-on)???

Talk people!!!! :P

 

[Anoop]

Yep it was indeed one among the best test series I have ever seen!! Laxman was quite amazing and so was Harbhajan..

The Indian subcontinent seems to bring out the best and the worst in people...

Absolutely true.. Almost all batsman and bowler in the world seems to have thier highest scores and best bowling against India!! .. See, hospitality seems to be running and gushing and flowing in our bloods! India should have the record of having the most records against them.

 

[scorpio]

Ok here is part two .

Test 3:

Day 1 : Matt the bat goes on and on and on....
with some help from langer,and the waugh bros. Indian bowling ---> hahah

Day 2 : day of reckoning for steve waugh. cracks under relentless pressure. Unbelievable gaffe from a man who has nerves of ice..
Matt the bat goes on and on and on....and finally he is out...phew. sachin is amazing but harbhajan walks all over the aussies.

Determined opening stand. suddenly mcgrath and gillespie look ordinary. as far the spinners..hehe
laxman just continues from the prev test

day3 : just when u think mcgrath is just another aussie who knows to sledge and act like a prick he goes on to show just why he is rated so high. First ball - no looseners not for a pro like him.
bang on target and das is gone. laxman scratches around before big mac gets him too.
Ganguly hangs on for some time but pigeon gets him too..
sachin proves a point by performing in this big match and dravid plays his part too.
India on top

Day 4: india work up a huge lead.
Slater and matt carry on like they are playin in england. Against the run of the play hayden fails for the first time (well 35 is a failure for the form he was in). Waugh bros stand up, but as soon as mark goes they submit to harb. jeez

day 5: what a cracker of a day.
waugh showed that he is human too. flop show against harb.
then the grt indian dumb act. despite early wicket ramesh and laxman knock of half the runs. then suicide. one by one the batsmen fail.sachin gets a true cracker from gillespie (the umpire missed a noball here)
But harb and dighe take them home. Amazingly the man who bowled aussie to grt victoires -- warne - was the major culprit going for 7 runs a over reducing aussie to a two man attack and strangely waugh underbowls mcgrath.
kudos to aussie fielding and spirit.

Ok lets evaluate some myths tht were blasted and some reputations which were made and destroyed and some long standing effects on both teams.


Aussies:

steve - he showed that he was very much a grt batsmen. gritty and cunning. Also missed a couple of tricks as a captain. lost the mental battle twice in the last test. (May be for normal mortals not bad but for steve who has no nerves , or supposedly it was a no go)
This defeat forced him to eat his own words, acknowledge ganguly outtalked him and did not let him physche his team out. Despite all the hard work and good performance a big failure considering his teams firepower and the pre match big talk

Mcgrath - this guy is good. he walks the talk. Ultimate professional.

gillespie - grt heart. SHould have got a bucketful of wickets

warne - no u are not all that and a bag of potato chips. U are to india what cullinan is to u. To his credit no whining. Hats off warne to that. But this series has had a lasting effect on his career and destroyed his aura to most players.

matt the bat - century, two fifties,double century. was dismissed at his own sweet will. total domination

slater - didnt bat badly i think. but his temper tantrum totally damaged his reputation. this and another tantrum back at home eventually ender the career of this superb cricketer.

langer - as usual. scractchy and gritty. not upto mark

mark - very low by his standards. failed to do the stuff when it mattered.

gilchrist - got away with murder on the first test. he literally made the series with that knock. sorted out easily thereafter

ponting - Now this guy is a joke. what a pathetic performance. I alwys thought ponting is one of the most complete batsmen in the world. But i alwys seen perform well against poms and indead matches. Didnt do much to change that opinion.

India :

ganguly - flop show as a player. though showed grit and despite being inwardly scared projected a brave front. way to go. THis win showed that he was the future of india cricket.

laxman - 281. cant add anthing new

dravid - showed tht he has steel

harb - still cant figure out how he bagged 32!!!. bowled well. but aussie self destructed

das and ramesh - temperament yes skills...along way to go.

indian bowling attack - can be called indian pea shooters

tendulkar - in terms of ability certainly the top most of his generation. temperament - wont make anyones top ten


Finally captaincy - waugh - clever
ganguly - autopilot
But to ganguly's credit he did a lot of the field. he added a new spine to the indian team, supported players. result was there for every one to see.
Waugh's front cracked a couple of times. First when he whined abt ganguly not respecting toss ceremony. well..tht could be a ploy. but since when did sledging , pre tour "mental disintegration" become part of cricketing etiquette ?? lol

he could have really stamped his name in history books if he had stopped slaters childish behavior. Instead he choose the keep quiet and proving his hypocrisy.
Rigid and inflexible. Should have dropped warne and ponting for third test.

Still all said he was a better captain then ganguly and incredible fighint skills.

Hope this generates some good discussion
cheers



[Edited on 7/21/02 by scorpio]

 

[Anil]

It was a great test series with spectacular batting, even more spectacular collapses and some quality spin bowling from Harb. To call it the greatest test series however, I feel that it needed to have been played on more sporting wickets. True, these wickets were not the heart breaking minefields one usually finds in India, but still they didn't have much for the pacers. A big reason for the fact that McGrath and Gillespie were not as effective as usual. If these wickets had been hard and bouncy and also offered some spin(McGrath and Gillespie would have been doubly effective and Harb might have achieved half of what he eventually did), I think the story would have been different and Australia might have run away with the series. The fact is that India needed the pitch advantage and the home advantage to make it closely contested and eventually edge out Australia.

Don't think I am taking away anything from Laxman, Harb, Dravid and Tendulkar, India's heroes. Their performance was splendid, but it underlined the fact that the Aussies are the toughest side in world cricket and India with its magnificent home record still had to huff and puff to beat them.

The argument here is that everyone uses their home advantage, so why not India? Sure, they have every right to use it, but if this series had been played say, in SA or even SL(neutral ground), India would not have stood the ghost of a chance. I think that puts the result of that series in its(atleast my) perspective.

 

[scorpio]

Obviously the home team plays to its strengths.

Oh how abt this....why not the aussies prepare dustbowls ? then any crap spinned from india would win right?

Playin in hostile conditions is part of the challenge. Aussies despite all the bluster were found wanting. Though i agree that the aussies had a better team..they lost the mental battle (with the indian team almost choking in chennai)

 

[MrPerko]

they lost the mental battle

Do you think it was a case of the Aussies being too ****y about winning 16 in a row, Scorpio??


I disagree that the Indians had the edge mentally... I put the series down to three brilliant individual performances from India and the in-ability of the Aussies to dig deep enough in the last test.

 

[scorpio]

Originally posted by Mr Perko

Do you think it was a case of the Aussies being too ****y about winning 16 in a row, Scorpio??


I disagree that the Indians had the edge mentally... I put the series down to three brilliant individual performances from India and the in-ability of the Aussies to dig deep enough in the last test.

I guess indians crumbled first. Then when everything seemed lost we just went for broke and guess what all the tough talk from the aussies was just posturing.

Guess they did not expect a fightback from that position.
I have to give ganguly a lot of credit for keeping his head.

To be fair to the aussies steve waugh ,hayden , gillispie and mcgrath walked away with thier reputation enhanced.

And i still beleive if waugh wasnt dumb to think that ponting would come good and warne woudl turn it around theywould have actually won it.

Ponting was the biggest disappointment...i mean for one of the biggest sledgers, tough talkers i was amazed at his nervousness and shockin ineptitude against just a quality ( not a great ) spinner.

And waugh losing his composure and handling the ball didnt help.

And a lot of credit has to go to laxman and dravid they just batted oz out of the match ...