The Australian captain Mark Taylor had the dual satisfaction of scoring a century and leading his team to an amazing comeback win after Michael Kasprowicz had earlier destroyed the Indian batting. In the Garden City of Bangalore everything was rosy for the Australians as they cruised to victory only a week after receiving a shellacking from the Indian side.At the start of the fourth day India were slightly ahead in the contest on the basis that Australia had to bat last. However, Kasprowicz quickly put the match on level terms when he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar. With Tendulkar gone India's last hopes of dominating the bowling disappeared. Even a batsman as talented as Mohammad Azharuddin was going to have to graft for every run on a pitch that was assisting the bowlers a little more each day. This meant the Australians could be on the attack at all times rather than having to defend occasionally if Tendulkar had still been at the crease.
Having got the vital breakthrough, Kasprowicz continued to troublethe batsmen as he swung the old ball quite sharply. He troubled both Saurav Ganguly and Azharuddin, highlighting one distinct advantage Australia had over India the possession of a quality pace bowler to add variety to the attack. This point was driven home by Kasprowicz shortly afterwards when he softened up Azharuddin with a short one and then followed it with the perfect in-swinging yorker. Taylor had spoken during the match about his players learning from this tour of India. On this showing, Kasprowicz must be near the top of Taylor's class.
The value of taking Tendulkar's wicket early was shown in the period after drinks where India scored only six in half an hour. A frustrated Ganguly played a lazy sweep shot and lost his leg-stump to Gavis Robertson, another Australian player who seemed to be coming to terms with conditions in India. From there on every run for India was a battle as the Australians tightened the screws. They may have lost the first two Tests in this series, but in that period theAustralians hadn't forgotten how to win a match.
Kasprowicz returned at the opposite end to wrap up the innings and leave Australia with a comfortable target of 194 for victory. The well-built Queenslander had bowled in inspired fashion swinging the ball back into the right-hander's and using the bouncer as a surprise weapon. This spell matched his seven wickets at the Oval, the genial fast bowler's best effort in a Test which unfortunately was in a losing cause as Australia collapsed chasing a meagre 124 for victory.
Taylor and Michael Slater ensured that there would be no repeat of that disaster by getting off to a confident and aggressive start. The captain was in fine form taking advantage of some wayward bowling from Harvinder Singh and then a disappointing spell from Venkatapathy Raju. As if Azharuddin didn't have enough headaches, a first game player added to them by deciding he couldn't bowl from the BEML end. Taylor used his feet to the spinners driving fluently and pulling ferociously as heturned the clock back five years. He received assistance from the calm and elegant Mark Waugh. Like the Australians when they folded in Calcutta, the Indians would have been disappointed at this last day capitulation. However, eight of the 13 days of play had been highly competitive, with man of the series Tendulkar being the dominant factor. The hard part for the Australians to swallow will be the fact that they only subdued the Indian champion on the first and last day of the series and their best came too late to effect the destiny of the trophy.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
