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Convincing yet close

For the best part of four days, this was a tight, intriguing, enthralling and entertaining Test match, in which no quarter was asked or given.

Played on a wicket that offered something to all the fine players on both sides, it was also often one of the mentally toughest I've played in. The Adelaide pitch was quick to penalise any player who lost their concentration or intensity, and asked us all to be at our very best if we were to succeed. In the end, the scoreboard suggested that we had won comfortably, but we knew that while our victory was decisive, there had been many times when we had been far from comfortable.

Fortunately, our great bowlers, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, coped outstandingly well with the challenge the Adelaide pitch set them. I wrote of our great bowlers' superb effort on the second afternoon in my previous report. Two days later, they were at it again, smashing through the top of the Indian batting order as we reduced India to 5-76 by stumps. From that point, we knew only the weather could prevent us going one-up in the series, and extending our Test-match winning streak to five.

On the third morning, Sachin Tendulkar had been magnificent until Warne dismissed him for 61. This was a reminder of just how dangerous an opponent the Indian captain is, but after he and Ganguly were dismissed either side of lunch, our bowlers toiled hard to break down the bottom half of their batting order. Then, after Justin Langer batted superbly on the third afternoon, we headed into day four with hopes of some quick scoring, followed by a declaration that gave us plenty of time to bowl India out once more. But led by Anil Kumble, our opponents fought back magnificently, forcing us to bat into the final session and in the process confusing us as to just when was the right time to declare.

This was the first important declaration of my Test captaincy career, so I wanted to get it right. The pitch was slow, keeping a bit low, and getting slower and lower. In Dravid, Ganguly and especially the great Tendulkar, India have three batsmen capable of rising to any challenge. In Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, we have two of the game's finest bowlers, plus Damien Fleming, our form bowler of the summer. We remembered our victory in Hobart against Pakistan, when we managed to reach 369 on the fifth day, despite losing 5 for 126. The last thing we wanted to do was lose the match, after working so hard to get an advantage. The other last thing we wanted to do was be too cautious, wait too long, and waste the advantage we'd worked so hard to get.

Eventually, we opted for a target of 396, leaving ourselves a little less than four full sessions to force a victory. I was ready for a long battle of attrition over the game's last four sessions, but I hadn't counted on just how well our guys would come out and bowl. Glenn McGrath started the procession in the very first over by having Gandhi caught behind, Damien Fleming followed up by getting a beauty through the defence of Laxman and then Shane Warne came on to get the key scalp of Dravid.

Enter Tendulkar. But on this occasion McGrath was his master, getting the little master lbw in slightly bizarre circumstances, ducking a ball that pitched short but didn't bounce. At 4-27, many critics, I imagine, were pondering why I'd delayed my declaration. To me, though, it showed just how well some of our batsmen, especially Greg Blewett, had battled in our second innings.

On the fifth morning the consistent Damien Fleming ripped through the rest of the Indian order, to give us victory by 285 runs.

This Test, then, became something of a mirror of the first Test of our recent series against Pakistan. That match we won by 10 wickets, a margin that failed to reflect the closeness of the game. Here, too, I think the sides were closer than the final winning margin suggests. In the end, I think we prevailed because our great players were simply magnificent, and every Australian player was patient and persistent, and stuck rigidly to the game plan.

There is still a lot of cricket to be played before this series is decided. The Tests in Melbourne and Sydney are both eagerly awaited. Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly all showed their great skill, without playing the big innings their side needed. And Kumble was superb throughout our second innings. We know we have to keep playing at our best to keep winning, and are determined to do just that.

Gameplan

Steve Waugh