Mohali's great closing ceremony

Published>Wed, Oct 06 10 11:46 AM

Laxman, Ishant pull off one of the most exciting Test wins

It just had to be V V S Laxman. Against Australia. Under pressure. On a difficult fifth day wicket. If there was one Indian batsman that Ricky Ponting & Co would have been wary of going into the final day's play, it had to be the man who has sullied their plans on a number of occasions in the past. And Laxman's sore back held up well enough on Tuesday as he led India to one of its greatest and most dramatic Test victories of all time.

Not surprisingly, his unbeaten 73 at the PCA Stadium did evoke comparisons with the epic 281 with which he dragged India out of a deep mire nine years ago at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata against the same opposition. But till the final two leg-byes with which India posted their win, there was more drama and certainly many more emotions this time around in Mohali.

And the first Test had reached such a

pitch on Tuesday afternoon that even Laxman managed to lose his customary cool, lashing out at non-striker, No. 11 Pragyan Ojha, for missing out on a single. Seeing the generally laidback Hyderabadi, who batted with a runner throughout his innings, gesticulate wildly at his teammates to finish a risky two was indeed a rare sight; the umpires too seemed to be soaked in by the pressure. Englishman Ian Gould pulled off a howler by giving Ishant Sharma LBW, when the ball was clearly missing the stumps and New Zealander Billy Bowden lost count of the deliveries bowled in a particular over.

Though India had only one wicket left, Australia's final throw of the dice actually came about two deliveries before the eventual finish, when Steven Smith's shy at the stumps missed by a whisker and the ball tragically rolled towards the boundary for four overthrows. No wonder then that Australian skipper Ricky Ponting was a gutted man at the end of the day. And Ponting seemed to express the sentiments of everyone in his team, and even a couple of ex-skippers back home, when he spoke about the Laxman-phobia that his team has developed over the years.

"This loss is more disappointing than the Eden Test, more because I wasn't the skipper then. I was telling my guys last night that Laxman will make a big contribution and that's exactly what happened. I just hope that his back remains stiff till next week and he won't play in Bangalore. We have tried to analyze him in and out but he's really been a thorn in our flesh," said a visibly agitated Ponting after the match. In 25 matches now, Laxman has scored 2,279 runs at 55.58 against the Australians.

Great victories on sporting fields more often than not involve the protagonists making sacrifices and displaying extreme valour in utter adversity. And what added more fervour to the Indian win was the fact that the victory was actually built by two men, Laxman and Ishant Sharma, who had popped in a lot of painkillers in order to bat despite their respective back and knee injuries.

Source: Web Search