We are a few days from the start of India's tour of Australia. The series kicks off with white ball cricket (ODIs and T20Is), followed by a pink-ball test match and then three red-ball test matches.
So, I thought a good opportunity for me to write my first blog post on cricket on this website, thinking through my favorite white ball moments of India in Australia since the time I started watching cricket. Sometimes the anticipation of a series can be more exciting than the series itself when it eventually plays out!
I was probably too young to remember every detail of this game. But, I have since watched it on YouTube. India were sitting ducks in Australia in the 90s. They lost pretty much every game. And at Perth, the pace and bounce was too much for our fragile batting line up to handle. As a kid, I remember waking up very early in the morning to watch the Australian cricket grounds with excitement. They just looked different. And the Aussie cricket team had this arrogance (or passion) about them, that was frustrating to watch and I could only wish that our Indian side would show some gumption.
The 1991-92 Benson & Hedges Series was Sachin Tendulkar's first in Australia. We played this particular game against the West Indies at Perth, with four fast bowlers - Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Suberoto Banerjee, Manoj Prabhakar. Srinath was easily our fastest bowler through the 90s. Lanky and tall dude looked so frail that it was quite shocking (and inspiring) to see him clocking 140kmph.
India batted first. Anderson, Ambrose, Marshall and Cummins were too hot to handle. India crawled its way to 126. Everyone thought - game over. Lara, Hooper, Atherton, Richie Richardson - the Windies had a solid batting line up. But, our fast bowling contintgent for once produced a spirtied performance, led by Javagal Srinath who bowled a perfect delivery that swung ever-so-slightly to clip Atherton's off stump. Indian pace bowlers in Perth were wreaking havoc. What-A-Sight. Before they could bowl West Indies out, all four fast bowlers had completed their quota of overs. With one wicket left and the Windies needing only 6 runs to win, the game was on the edge. In came Sachin Tendulkar to bowl the 41st over. He concedes 5 runs, but picks up Anderson Cummins (c) Azharuddin (b) Tendulkar and the game ends in a tie.
Even a tie felt special given India's abysmal run in Australia after the world series win in 1985. Sachin will go on to do couple more heroics with the ball through the rest of his long career - Hero Cup Semi Final, 5 wicket haul against Australia in Kochi, unforgettable leg spin that somehow goes between Moin Khan's legs to bowl him in the last over a Multan test match, and of course the wickets of Hayden, Gilchrist and Warne in the epic follow-on and win Kolkata test match.
Pakistan had just lost the 1999 world cup final to Australia. And as always, Pakistan lost to India in the 1999 world cup in England. But, Pakistan was a very very strong side. Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain, Inzamam, Anwar, Ijaz, Abdul Razaq, Moin Khan - They were one heck of a side. Awesome pace bowling. Great spin attack. Solid top 5 batsman.
India on the other hand had a strong batting unit, but fairly ordinary bowling unit. We could get may be 30 overs of solid bowling from Srinath, Kumble and Prasad. But, a few dodgy overs from the others could cost us games. It was this period when (very frustratingly) we were filling overs with the likes of Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh. No offence to either of them, but they weren't spectacular all rounders. They were both amazing fielders though!
So, this match felt like an uneven match, with Pakistan hot favorites to thrash India. But, Sourav Ganguly had different plans. He took the attack to the Pakistani bowlers. His off side batting, even against the mighties Wasim Akram, was unbelievable to watch. He almost single handedly drove India's innings, striking at nearly run a ball to finish at 141. Pakistan lost steam mid-way through their chase, but regained some momentum towards the end when Azhar Mahmood batted in T20 style even before T20 was a thing.
It is always awesome when India beats Pakistan in a cricket match. Leaving the political aspect aside, the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is just spectacular to watch. Pakistan got the beteter of India many many times through the 80s and the 90s. But, in world cup campaigns and since the turn of the century, India have emerged by far the better side. May the sporting rivalry (only sporting rivalry) last for a long time!
India had just completed their best ever test match series against Australia in Australia. It was Steve Waugh's final series before his retirement and India sort-of-spoilt-his-party. This was also Ganguly's first series as India captain while touring down under. After the test series, tri-lateral series with India, Zimbabwe and Australia was dubbed VB Series. Australia were clearly the hot favorites to win this tournament. India had an abysmal run in ODI cricket in Australia where they had not beaten the Aussie team in nearly 12 years in Australia. The abysmal run sort of lasted in the VB series as well, where India lost 5 times to Australia, 3 in the league stages and twice in the finals (which was a best of three) but India did win once! And that was this game in Brisbane!
VVS Laxman was left out of the 2003 India world cup squad. He was picked for this VB series after a stellar performance in the preceding test series. VVS went on to score three ODI centuries in 6 games against Australia in this series. And ironically - almost to prove a point - India lost only to Australia in the 2003 world cup! Who knows what might have happened had VVS been in the world cup team playing against Australia!
Even this game wasn't a one-sided affair. It got pretty close as Australia chased quite well. They still had Michael Bevan not out at the end and only lost by 19 runs.
To me this game is very special. I watched it at home after I had just broken my jaw bone in an accident. And I had all my friends over to watch in my living room. We watched all the other VB series games as well, but this was the only consequential game of some sorts where India beat Australia!
This is still my most favorite ODI moment of Indian cricket in Australia. India not only beat Australia in a match, they beat them in the first two matches of a best of three finals, without needing the third match to win the tournament. India starts to flourish and prosper under the new captain M.S.Dhoni and they will go on to win the 2011 world cup under his leadership.
After a controversial test series, where India had one of their most fabulous away wins at Perth but yet lost the series 2-1 to Australia due to a defeat at Sydney, feeling undone by some poor umpiring and dodgy desperate behaviour by the Australians, India really wanted to prove a point in this one day series which featured India, Sri Lanka and Australia. The Aussies pretty much smashed every visiting team in the CB series over the years/decades. For India to go on and win this series in Australian soil against a dominant Aussie side was a fantastic achievement.
The only main common link between India's past sides from the early 90s/00s and this side under M.S.Dhoni was the little master - S.R.Tendulkar. He had never scored a century in an ODI in Australia over the very many tours he had been part of. Also his ODI batting record while chasing or in finals were ordinary by his elevated standards. In the two finals games of the CB series, Sachin scored a hundred in the first final winning the game for India in a chase and followed it with a 91 in the second final setting up a match winning total for India.
This tournament win was no mean feat. Aussie bowling had Mitch Johnson and Brett Lee - crazy pace! And the Aussie batting top 6 were - Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting, Clarke, Symonds, Mike Hussey - and that's as good as it can get! Beating this Australian team in their home ground was an unbelievable performance.
Back to losing ways of the 90s. India had a poor test series, losing 4-0. And they continued to have an ordinary CB Series which also featured Sri Lanka and Australia. But, this match against Sri Lanka in Hobart - in my opinion - was the arrival of Virat Kohli.
India needed to score 320 in 40 overs to win the game against Sri Lanka and stand a chance to qualify for the finals. 320 in the full allotted 50 overs is not easy to chase. 320 in 40 overs, which is 8 runs per over - is near impossible. But, in came Virat Kohli - he took apart the Sri Lankan bowlers. In particular, he smashed Lasith Malinga - who was arguably the best ODI/T20 white ball bowler going around at the time. India end up chasing down the target in 36 overs. Kohli finishes at 133 (not out) of 86 balls. This match marked the start of King Kohli's dominance while chasing down large totals.
After this stellar performance, it was unfortunate that India did not qualify for the finals as Sri Lanka beat Australia in the next league game and they went through to the finals. But, they eventually lost to the mighty Australians. And Australia (once again!) emerged victorious in the tri-nation ODI series at their home soil.
Virat Kohli went back to Australia in 2015 as a player and in 2018 as captain of India. In 2018, India beat Australia 2-1 in a bilateral ODI series, and Kohli made a century in the second ODI game while chasing down a score close to 300.
So, that's my top moments of Indian white-ball cricket in Australia since I started watching cricket as a kid. It is quite heartening to see how the Indian team has changed over the years - from a relatively meek/shy outfit in the early 90s under Mohammed Azharuddin to methodic-agression under Sourav Ganguly to tactical/street-smart team under M.S.Dhoni to in-your-face-aggressive under Virat Kohli. The current Indian team is trying to play a brand of cricket that the Aussies were known for in the 90s and 00s. Good luck to both the teams - may the best team win! And we can be rest assured of some very entertaining cricket!
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