Dec 29: Formidable Aussies once again rule the roost giving India a thrashing by a whopping margin of 377 runs to stay invincible in Tests as of now, posting their 15th consecutive Test victory. India was chasing a record score to post a win and defying the inevitable in the Boxing Day Test didn’t resist an inch, after their batsmen meekly surrendered, with the match concluded within four days.
Australia leads 1-0 in the four match Test series and will now head into the Sydney Test to start afresh in New Year, to equal their previous mark of 16 straight Test wins, which starts on Wednesday. There is no doubt as Aussies fancies their chances after bowling India out twice under the score of 200. India folded for 196 and 161 in their both innings and crashed to a 337-run defeat at the MCG.
India received one of their heaviest defeats after chasing down historic 499 runs to win. The Indian paper tigers batting line-up once gain opened up as they fell away late in the day to go down to mighty Australians.
On previous occasions they got a 342-run loss to Australia in Nagpur in 2004-05 and 341-run defeat to Pakistan in Karachi a year later.
The wrecker in chief for the Australians was Mitchell Johnson who picked up 3 for 21 with Brett Lee and Brad Hogg each grabbing two.
Indian batting totally struggled in the conditions. Sourav Ganguly was the penultimate man to get out when he departed for 40. The end came quickly for India, who had five wickets in hand at tea but survived barely an hour after the break.
MS Dhoni attempted an ambitious cover-drive against Johnson and edged behind to Adam Gilchrist, who finished with eight dismissals for the match and not only passed Ian Healy's Australian Test wicket-keeping record of 395 victims, but also fetched $144,000 for Glenn McGrath's cancer charity as he wore pink gloves and his sponsors offered $18,000 per dismissal.
Once the top-five batsmen were gone and Australia could smell a day off as after that the tail didn’t wag at all and it just became rather a procession. Anil Kumble edged a Johnson leg-cutter behind to Gilchrist, Harbhajan Singh was run out without facing a ball and Ganguly prodded Hogg to silly mid-off, while Johnson finished the carnage by bowling RP Singh for 2.
Theirs is a batting line-up full of stars but none of them shone except Ganguly as he was at least willing to attack, as was Sachin Tendulkar, but no batsman reached a half-century in their second innings.
Yuvraj Singh's place, who got the nod ahead of Sehwag, might not be certain after India adjusted their batting order to retain him at No. 6. He departed for 5 shortly before tea, missing a straighter one from Hogg that would have rattled his stumps.
Yuvraj got a reprieve for showing dissent at an umpire's decision in the first innings but here again he waited for few moments before marching off after Mark Benson's lbw decision. Makeshift opener Dravid was clearly slow in the first innings and in the second he scored only 16 from 114 balls before getting lbw out to Symonds just before lunch.
Wasim Jaffer’s defensive mindset and casual approach in playing shot had to pay the price as he edged one, on 15, behind off Lee to give Gilchrist his record-breaking 396th dismissal.
After Jaffer and Dravid’s departure India were ticking along nicely as VVS Laxman, Tendulkar and Ganguly played some impressive strokes but they couldn't build a match-saving partnership.
Tendulkar was again in a good nick as he went down on one knee to square-drive Lee through point for four. But Lee followed a quick bouncer with a good ball outside off stump, luring Tendulkar into the shot, which he edged through to Gilchrist.
Laxman had been watchful in his 112-ball innings and nicely worked his way to 42 when he made a lapse in concentration. Clark had 0 for 15 in his 12th over when Laxman drove uppishly straight to Michael Clarke at cover and Laxman was clearly irritated by his shot selection.
"We played excellent cricket all the way through with the discipline we showed with the bat to grind out the runs and with the ball to stick to our plans and do things differently on this type of pitch," skipper Ponting said after winning the match.
"It was a pleasing win because this wicket was probably more suited to the sub-continental style of play and we adapted well," Ponting added.
"It was important that we batted through sessions but our batting didn't stand up, it was pretty disappointing," Indian skipper Anil Kumble said.
"The first innings was crucial and if we had come close to their score, if not take a lead, then things could have been different.
"But it was very disappointing after having a good first day as we couldn't back it up with our batting on the second day," Kumble added.
Overall it was the Indian batting that let them down, after the first day, the match was one of disappointment. Both the teams have three days off before the second Test starts at Sydney and what India needs at the moment is a major determination in their batting application to stop intimidating Australia, which will come more harder to record their 16th consecutive win.
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