Well done, India

Although we lost to Australia at Sydney yesterday, in my mind, it was a good game of cricket. The better team won, but it was by no means a cake-walk- especially given the terrici start Australia had both with bat and ball.

If Sachin, Sehwag, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj had together scored 50 runs, we may well have won the match. I am sure Ponting and his team mates were not sure of a win till perhaps they saw the backs of Robin and Harbhajan in fairly quick succession.

Kudos to Lee for coming back at a difficult time and delivering. And kudos equally to Gambhir, Uthappa and Pathan, who, between them, very nearly caused what would have been a big dent in the Australian psyche.

After a terrific tour thus far, Sachin has started showing signs of being mortal and his immunity to the law of averages seems to be waning. The same is also true of Ponting, who has regained his touch and proved it with an aggressive ton.

In the final analysis, the diference between the two teams yesterday was the number of runs India gave away in the first 5 and the last 5 overs.

Ther’s something in the air at Sydney. Yet again, Symonds exchanged words with an Indian bowler- this time, it was Ishant Sharma and not Harbhajan Singh. Ishant was docked 15% of his match fees, but it does appear that he did not start the exchange. I hope the Match Referee also has a chat with the Australians.