Australia wrap up 15th straight win

MELBOURNE—India needed a record score to win but instead Australia edged closer to a milestone of their own, posting their 15th consecutive Test victory as they wrapped up the Boxing Day Test within four days. Australia will now head into the Sydney Test that starts on Wednesday aiming to equal their own record of 16 straight Test wins and they will no doubt fancy their chances after India folded for 161 and crashed to a 337-run defeat at the MCG.
An extra day’s rest will also be much appreciated by Australia’s fast bowlers, who toiled hard in searing heat against a stonewalling India. Not only did India forget how to fight, they were outplayed in subcontinent-like conditions as Melbourne’s temperature nudged 40 degrees. Ricky Ponting rotated his attack and they showed few signs of exhaustion with Mitchell Johnson picking up 3 for 21 and Brett Lee and Brad Hogg each grabbing two.
India, on the other hand, struggled in the conditions. Sourav Ganguly, who was the second-last man out when he departed for 40, had been at the crease for just over an hour when he slumped on the ground after running a two. He needed attention from the team physio and batted on in the sweltering conditions, but his team-mates kept falling around him.
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 a lavish 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 wicketkeeping record of 395 victims but also earned $144,000 for Glenn McGrath’s cancer charity - he wore pink gloves and his sponsors offered $18,000 per dismissal.
Once the established batsmen were gone and Australia could sniff a day off it all 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. By that stage the result was no longer in doubt and perhaps India were not upset to also enjoy a free Sunday, as Johnson finished the carnage by bowling RP Singh for 2.
The finale was flatter than last season’s new-year champagne after India promised so much fizz with their bowling efforts on the first day. Back then it looked like Australia might be seriously challenged for the first time in a home Test since India last visited, in 2003-04. But that spark was gradually extinguished over the next three days and India’s batsmen must find some way to reverse their fortunes before the Sydney Test. Theirs is a batting line-up full of stars but none of them shone as they chased a whopping 499 for victory. Ganguly 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 might not be certain after India rejigged their batting order to retain him at No. 6. He departed for 5 shortly before tea, missing a straighter ball from Hogg that would have crashed into his stumps. Yuvraj was cleared of showing dissent at an umpire’s decision in the first innings and again he waited a few moments before trudging off after Mark Benson’s lbw decision.
He did not score in the first innings and should India ditch him for Sydney it might allow Virender Sehwag to open and Rahul Draid to drop down from the unfamiliar opening position. Dravid was painfully slow in the first innings and in the second he had 16 from 114 balls when he fell lbw just before lunch, playing back to Andrew Symonds, who had just reverted from medium pace to offspin.
That defensive mindset was also present in his partner Wasim Jaffer, who was on 15 when he edged behind off Lee to give Gilchrist his record-breaking 396th dismissal. The breakthrough was a relief for Lee, who three balls earlier had experienced the same sinking feeling that Johnson and Zaheer Khan had suffered earlier in the match when he thought he had a wicket only to see Billy Bowden’s no-ball signal. Lee dug in a short one that Jaffer appeared to glove through to Gilchrist but Bowden’s decision, which again was correct, stifled the appeal.
After Jaffer and Dravid departed India were ticking along nicely as VVS Laxman, Tendulkar and Ganguly played some impressive strokes but none could build a match-saving partnership.—Agencies