Aussies very down under in Mohali, India’s perfect end to perfect Test

The fact that Dhoni walked out for the toss in an oversized jacket, after Anil Kumble had to pull out on the morning of the match, was the only blip over five days in Mohali where everything else fit just right. Needing five wickets to wrap up the game on the last day, Dhoni threw the ball to Zaheer Khan first thing in the morning. He could well have been throwing the left-arm pacer a pair of boxing gloves.

Brad Haddin saw the first five deliveries of the day pitch on middle and leave him, but he quite clearly didn’t see the one that pitched on middle and hit middle. His bat hung limp in his hands, searching for contact at least six inches off target. Next over, Zaheer threw one right up outside off-stump, cutting away, the old sucker punch. Drawn into the drive, White turned back to see Dhoni dive to his right and pick up a low catch.

This was the perfect start as far as India were concerned. Apt, considering this was pretty much the perfect Test as far as India were concerned.

“We weren’t good enough in any aspect of this game — fast bowling, spin bowling, batting and, at times, our fielding was a bit sloppy, so we’ve been out-played,” Ricky Ponting said. “Sometimes as a captain and player you have to accept that they were better than us.” This 320-run margin — apart from being India’s biggest outside of innings victories — was also their biggest over Australia, beating the 222-run win in Melbourne back in December 1977.

Dhoni rubbed it in. “When the Australians batted in the first innings, they were 22 in 13 overs. I pointed that out to Rahul (Dravid) — you don’t see that very often.” Dhoni won the Man of the Match award for his two aggressive half-centuries, but this was a team effort if ever there was one. Virender Sehwag made up for throwing away his wicket in the first innings by blasting 92 in the second. Gautam Gambhir failed to convert a start on Day One, but got to three figures in the next time around.

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