It is perhaps in the fitness of the things that the one-day series has also gone to the wire. I am surprised that nobody is anymore surprised with it, given the fact that Australia was supposed to stream roll us 3-0 in the Tests and 5-0 in the one day series. Weren't they the unofficial World Champions in one and the official champions in the other? How quickly perceptions change!

This series will go down in the history as one of the most talked about ones in recent times. Oh yes it was a high profile tour with myths like 15-0 and the final frontier forming an essential baggage wherever the Aussies went. Happily enough it has lived up to the expectations rather than the damp squib it promised to be after the Mumbai fiasco. The Test series was indeed great and I wonder if there was any series as entertaining and engrossing as this one in the past 5-10 years. In an era when every one had given up Test cricket fore dead, the original thing has a sweet revenge. None of the four one-dayers have come anywhere near to the suspense and climax of Kolkata or Chennai. 

Tomorrow it will be curtains to this wonderful tour. Contrary to the turn around in the Tests, in the one-dayers fortunes have fluctuated with every game. India had a lead twice and the Kangaroos leapt back to contention each time. It is going to be test of nerves more than anything else. We have seen the resources of both the teams in the past two months. It is more than just another game tomorrow. The result of a series hang precariously on it. Australia will be desperate to salvage some pride and leave the shores after doing justice to its World Champion status. On the other hand, India will be equally eager to give a final stamp of superiority by wrapping up the one-day series as well.

India’s batting so far has revolved around Tendulkar. That is no news to people following Indian cricket. But what is new is the fact the he has been getting adequate support from someone in every match. His brilliance apart, he is not playing a lone hand anymore. And the person responsible for the radical change in the equation is VVS Laxman. He is the surprise package of the series and with every passing day he has taken giant strides and rushed in to fill in the gap created by seasoned campaigners like Azhar and Jadeja. And it is not Laxman alone. A new breed of youngsters are looking promising and we already have a nucleus around which the team of this decade will revolve. Sehwag, Badani. Dahiya have all proven their worth and have been able to complement Ganguly, Sachin and Dravid beautifully. 

The bowling department does look a bit untidy. But that is the nature of one-day cricket further aggravated by the slaughter houses that the Indian pitches are. Actually Indian bowling was never good in the Tests either. It was Harbhajan and Harbhajan alone who carried the day for India. Since he has been unable to repeat his performance in the one dayers, our bowling has started looking plebian all over again. 

The Australian scenario does not look much menacing either. Had it not been for the extraordinary consistency of Hayden, it would have been difficult for them to put up decent totals on the board. Their mainstay Mark Waugh is unavailable and he left with very moderate success by his standards. The Aussies are very hard hit by the ‘failure’ of Gilchrist. It was his slam-bang variety that had laid the foundations of many a Aussie victory. Gilchrist had a very demoralizing effect on the bowlers and now that he himself has been demoralized by his lack of success, is a strong advantage for India. Bevan on the other complements him so completely. He has not been in any great form either. Ponting somehow managed to cling to a place in the side. He will be the man to watch tomorrow now that he is back in touch. 

Curiously enough, McGrath has not been able to do any justice to his image as the number one bowler in business. At the most, he has been economical at times and certainly not threatening. That is not what he is known for. It will be useless to talk of any other bowler. Gillespie has been sent back to recharge his batteries for the Ashes while his colleagues are being carted all over the ground. This is ridiculous logic. He was one fast bowler who had managed to leave some impression in the Test series with spells of sustained hostility. About the rotation system, the less talked the better. May be because the system has not yet delivered. Otherwise everyone worth his salt would have been talking about it. Were not the Aussies first to come up with the idea of separate teams for both the versions of the game? Now everybody is following it. As in batting, so in bowling, the danger man Warne is back in rhythm. He displayed his abilities in a wonderful spell of spin bowling at Vizag. Warne’s and Ponting’s comeback are two very important factors and it makes them the favourites for tomorrow. 

For India, Ganguly needs to fire tomorrow. For his sake as well as the team’s sake. People have been putting up with all the adverse reporting that he has been getting. Primarily because he is the winning captain. That equation could change tomorrow. And anyways he is too good a batsman to remain dormant for a long time. If and only if Ganguly is in his elements at Goa, then we are romping home 3-2 otherwise it is advantage Australia.

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