The last time they went down under

– I was in 12th. And slogging for all the entrances. But I guess I never missed a match. I changed my late night study schedule to an early morning affair. With that Physics text on my lap, all I did was watch cricket every morning.

– A rain marred 1st test at Brisbane was by no means boring. After Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar triggered a rare Aussie batting collapse on a moist wicket and Saurav Ganguly’s unflinching Dadagiri, Indians surely had the Aussies on the mat. In fact, the Brisbane test set up the series- giving a hint of what was to follow. Matty Hayden saved the test for Aus, but they had felt the heat. Here was an Indian team which came to Australia with newpapers and media pondering over their margin of loss, but they had stung back. And how!

– Which Indian cricket fan would forget the second test? The Adeleide test. Dravid’s test. I remember that day- I was in tuition and in the lunch break we ran down to the TV shop in the basement and saw the screen in awe. We asked each other- “Dude, are you sure its not a replay of an old match?”. It was almost the end of the day and Dravid and laxman were still batting. They had batted the entire day! And then it was Ajit Agarkar who stole the limelight rocking the Aussies in their second innings and reducing them to a paltry score. India needing somewhere just over 200, finished off the match with ease- Dravid coming to the party yet again. And India were leading a series in Australia!

– They all went to Melbourne for Christmas. And locked horns again on Boxing day. And India’s party continued. Sehwag scored a blistering 195. Chopra and Dravid chipped in- India in a great position. And then Sehwag lost his mind- and wicket. When he went, the Aussies knew they had the match. And they knew it right. The famous Indian batting order collapsed the next morning. And Ponting and Hayden were in the form of their lives. India lost the test. The Aussie juggernaut was back and in demolishing form.

– At Sydney, India needed a victory to win their first ever series in Australia. But there were many- including me- who didnt want a result in the match. And thats the way it turned out to be. It was a big match for an entirely different reason. It was a stalwart’s last test. It was the last time the world would ever get to see Steve Waugh on the playing field. And there was another stalwart who decided to make the test special for the spectators. Sachin Tendulkar, going on to score his highest test score ensured that India also created a record for their highest score in an innings. I remember the match for a reason- I walked all the way from Malleswaram to Shivajinagar that day as there was a protest march going on. As I was walking, I stopped at almost every TV shop on the way. The protesters were hooked onto cricket too. There were more protesters screaming ‘Sachin Sachin’ in front of TV shops than those shouting ‘We want justice‘ on the road!

– In a way, the series ended the way it had to. Both teams played equally competitive and aggressive cricket. A tied series for India was more than what media back home were predicting. A cricket expert on a news channel thought India would end up losing 0-3!

– The ensuing ODI series was a disappointment for India leaving aside a couple of hundreds off Laxman’s blade. There was a Yuvraj hundred which I loved watching too.

– It was a coming-of-age moment for Dada. Sharda Ugra wrote in India Today after the series- “For the first time in India’s cricket history, an Indian skipper told the media that we are going to Australia to win. And his boys believed him.”

– A few weeks later, India carried the momentum into the Dosti series against Pakistan. And results showed.