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Having the cake and eating it too

A blond demon has been unearthed at the MCG. Australia’s newest speedster, Brett Lee, exceeded the considerable hype surrounding his debut by bowling with ferocity to seize five wickets in a full day of gripping cricket in Melbourne.

Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too, as the second Test finally delivered what everyone has been waiting for – a Tendulkar century to go with a stunning Lee performance.

It was hard to believe that Lee could live up to his pre-match publicity, but he soon showed that Australia has produced a new bowling star. Bowling for the first time in the demanding Test arena, Lee was outwardly as nerveless as a seasoned veteran in bowling with sustained pace and accuracy. Lee consistently pushed the 150kmp/h mark in a dream start to what appears to be a long future at this level.

Lee took a wicket with only his fourth ball in Test cricket, bowling Ramesh off an inside edge and coming back later with three wickets when he generated reverse swing. India had appeared set to follow on, but in what can only be described as a masterful captain’s knock, Sachin Tendulkar saved his team from disaster with a superb century.

Tendulkar delighted the Indian contingent in the crowd with an innings of great determination and focus that none of his team-mates could come close to matching. Tendulkar, who came in with India at 2/11 and departed after avoiding the follow-on at 9/212, fully realised his responsibility and played a chanceless innings of calm assurance. Circumspect for his first 50 runs, Tendulkar showed what an immovable defensive player he can be when he chooses to bat that way and never gave the Australians a chance.

Batting with more flair as his innings unfolded, Tendulkar took charge as he accepted the responsibility of guiding India past the follow-on mark of 205 and eventually the Australians were conceding him singles. Tendulkar picked off the runs where available without looking to dominate the bowling but did play several memorable shots on the large ground, including a beautiful lofted 6 off Warne that sailed into the group of Indian supporters at long off.

The contest between Tendulkar and Warne saw two masters of their craft challenging each other without making a decisive move. Although Warne beat Tendulkar a few times, the champion batsman exhibited an immaculate defence and his nimble footwork to come down the pitch and loft or drive the ones Warne flighted was a delight to see.

Warne did what he could but most of the time Tendulkar had the answers. Warne’s forays around the wicket were notably unsuccessful, as Tendulkar was more comfortable in advancing to him and quickly went on to the back foot to pull anything short. Against the fast bowlers, though, Tendulkar eschewed the pull shot, limiting himself to driving what was too full and cutting the wider ones, in between solidly defending.

The critical partnership for India involved Tendulkar and Ganguly, who came together at 3/31 after the top order had all-too-predictably succumbed to Lee and McGrath. They blunted the Australian attack and compiled 77 for the fourth wicket in a quintessential Test battle, before McGrath’s persistence paid off with the wicket of Ganguly, who was India’s second highest scorer with 31, a sad reflection of how the rest of the batsmen could not rise to the level of their captain.

Unlike the Indian bowling, the Australian attack remained disciplined with the knowledge that if they remained patient a wicket would surely come. Once that happened, more of the same had to result in further success. India were made to work hard for their runs as McGrath maintained a testing line and length, Warne probed away without claiming the figures, and Lee, the best of them, excited with his raw but controlled pace. Fleming, a trundler in comparison, was the exception to the rule as he bowled too many loose balls. Dangerous with the new ball or old when it is swinging but unproductive in the middle overs, Fleming suffered by only receiving two overs with the new ball before it was handed to Lee.

Brought on for the 6th over just before the lunch break, Lee struck with his fourth delivery in a magical moment for Australian cricket. He was too quick for Ramesh, who failed to get his bat into line in time and was bowled from a thick inside edge as the fielders all rushed to congratulate the new pace hero.

Overall, day three was exactly the kind of contest anticipated for this Test with the featured protagonists all living up to their billing. India began positively as its inconsistent bowling hit an upward curve, with Agarkar and Srinath dismissing Gilchrist and Ponting respectively with sharp seam bowling within the first half an hour. That prevented a potentially damaging union but the Australian tail wagged productively, with Lee making 27 in a precursor to what was to be a day he will long remember.

Lee snared Dravid, who thus far has not been the run machine many thought he might be, nicking an attempted cut shot to give him a second wicket. Tendulkar and Ganguly then settled in, gradually making a recovery that needed to progress longer than it did. Ganguly, who along with Tendulkar has looked a class above the other Indian batsmen in this series, tried to force McGrath off the back foot and edged to second slip. With that key pairing separated, Australia felt much better about its hold on the match with Kanitkar at the crease and the tail to follow. Warne took his 350th Test wicket when Kanitkar played no shot to a standard delivery, hit high on the front pad in front of the stumps. A fatal mistake, but a forgivable one for a debutant.

Lee, already mightily impressive, really set the crowd alight with a crippling three-wicket over that left India reeling. He bowled Mannava Prasad with an attempted yorker that became a fast full toss which went through his defences and crashed into off stump. Agarkar then departed first ball, hit on the toe by a yorker to put Lee on a hat-trick. Srinath, who should have given Fleming a hat-trick in Adelaide, had to face another one here and you had to wonder what was going through Warne’s mind at slip. Srinath survived by blocking the full ball outside off, but then became Lee’s fifth wicket when he gloved a searing short-pitched delivery to second slip to cap the most memorable debut by an Australian bowler in recent history.

Aside from his speed – Lee reached 154.1kmp/h, a shade under Shoaib Akhtar’s earlier mark of 154.4, which was registered with a waist-high full toss – Lee gives Australian attack something Kasprowicz doesn’t. Lee is in the mould of his New South Wales team-mate Glenn McGrath, whereas Kasprowicz resembles Fleming’s style. A faster version of McGrath is certainly an exciting prospect, and when Gillespie comes back the Aussie attack will be positively menacing.

At 8/169, India looked certain to follow on and could have virtually conceded the Test had they batted a second time by the end of play. But Kumble, batting two positions too low at No. 10, made a vitally important 26 not out to provide Tendulkar with admirable support and add 66 runs for the last two wickets. India is batting for time as much as runs and in that sense Tendulkar threw his hand away when he hooked Fleming to deep backward square, but he seemed to have a problem with his left forearm and had already done more than his share of the work.

Daniel Laidlaw