Backyard bullies finally meet their match

The double centurion of the first innings Rahul Dravid (72 not out) provided the finishing touches to a great come-from-behind triumph.

Dravid hit the winning shot with a square drive to the point region off Stuart MacGill.

Dravid and V V S Laxman (32) once again proved to be the thorn in Aussies’ flesh as their 51-run partnership for the fifth wicket proved to be decisive.

The tourists were at once stage 170 for four and feeling edgy having lost Sachin Tendulkar and captain Saurav Ganguly.

But first innings centurion Laxman took the match away from the hosts with his domineering 34-ball 32 which decimated the Aussie slow bowling attack.

Laxman hit three fours of the very first over he faced against Stuart MacGill and then struck two more boundaries off the same bowler and Simon Katich to put India on the road to victory.

When the stylish Hyderabadi fell pulling Katich to Andy Bichel at midwicket, India were comfortably placed at 221.

Resuming at 37/0, India lost Aakash Chopra in the sixth over of the day, Jason Gillespie having him leg before wicket for 20.

Dravid, with a career-best 233 from the first innings behind him, looked weary from the marathon innings and was regularly beaten outside the off stump against the seamers.

Sehwag (47) at the other end was striking the ball fluently. He clouted MacGill for a boundary to long-off. But, two balls later, the right-hander stepped out to loft the leg-spinner and was stumped. Tendulkar (37) adopted the paddle sweep to thwart MacGill exploiting the rough from round the wicket. He first slapped him to fine-leg fence and then cut him on the back foot to cover. He then ran a four to long-off to bring up India’s 100 in the 34th over. But the maestro was plumb in front when he offered no shot to the leg-spinner bowling over the wicket.

Ganguly did not last long and perished when he made a tentative push at Andy Bichel and was caught at short gully by Simon Katich. Meanwhile, Dravid had dug in his heels and was gradually getting into his groove. On the way to his half century, Dravid also became the fourth highest run-getter for India in Tests.

Man-of-the-match Dravid played the match of his life, being on the field all five days except for two hours, scoring 302 runs in both the innings and picking two outstanding catches in the slips.