THE PARTNERSHIP

 

Image Credit- Hindustan Times.

Venue- Adelaide Oval, Adelaide [December, 2003].

In the Australian Summer of 2003/04, Indian Cricket Team toured Australia to play 4 test matches. The first match at Gabba ended in a draw and now all eyes were set in the Adelaide Oval. On a batting friendly wicket, Steve Waugh won the toss and elected to bat first. The Aussie openers gave hosts a quick start before debutant Irfan Pathan picked up the wicket of Hayden. The Australian scorecard read 22/1 and this is when Ponting steeped into the ground. 

And Boy! What happened next was truly incredible. Ricky Ponting scored a majestic 242 of 352 deliveries. In this innings of his, he hit a total of 31 boundaries. No Indian bowler was spared. Furthermore, Justin Langer and Simon Katich too scored valuable half-centuries and helped Australia reach the total of 556 in their first innings, Anil Kumble was the leading wicket taker for the Indians as he picked up 5 wickets in the first innings. 

In response Indians started slowly and steadily. However, Andy Bichel picked up 3 quick wickets and pushed Indians to backfoot. To make matter worse, Sourav Ganguly lost his wicket in form of a run-out. The Indian scorecard read 85/4 and this is when VVS Laxman joined Dravid at the crease. One more wicket and the game would have been over for the visitors. It was a precarious situation. 

 However, this is when Dravid and Laxman showed their persistence and patience as they avoided taking any chances by leaving all the good deliveries. David played some incredible shots of both pace and spin. Laxman, on the other hand, tirelessly used his wrists to flick balls to legside boundaries. In the evening of the second day, Laxman reached 50. The Dravid-Laxman partnership scored 95 runs for the fifth wicket from 29.3 overs as India finished the day at 180/4 from 51 overs. Without giving the Australians too many opportunities, the duo batted very well.

On the morning of the third day, the duo started from where they left yesterday. Both the batsmen were avoiding all sort of risky shots and were playing along the ground. Barring a few occasions, it was all drives. The Australian pace attack were struggling in front of Indian wall.  It was indeed a delight to watch them bat. 

By the time VVS Laxman was dismissed for 148, the Indian scorecard read 388/5. However even after Laxman was dismissed, Dravid continued his merry run and brought up another double hundred. It is worth mentioning that not only Rahul Dravid was the highest run-getter for the Indians in the first innings but was also the last batsmen to be dismissed. By the time Dravid got dismissed for 233, the Indian scorecard read 523- Just 33 behind the Aussie total. The Indians were back in the game because of the huge partnership between Dravid and Laxman. 

[Postscript- In the second innings, Agarkar broke the spine of the Australian batting order as he picked up 6/41 in his 17 overs spell. The Aussies were bowled out for 196 in their second innings with Indians needing just 230 runs to win the test. The Visitors chased it down comfortably with Rahul Dravid scoring another brilliant 72*. For his extraordinary batting, Dravid was awarded the player of the match award as Indians took a 1-0 lead in the 4 match series.]

To watch the highlights of the partnership, Click Here.