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Authority was the key to Laxman's batting

Laxman may have restored a little pride to the Indian batting, but it still doesn't alter the fact that India have been totally outplayed this series. The Indian batting has been crying out for someone to show some authority and Laxman did just that. His scintillating batting was the highlight of a brilliant batting day at the SCG.

He also demonstrated that fortune favours the brave and bowlers do not like to have to change their game plan and have the attack taken to them. Only McGrath, among the Australian bowlers, kept his cool and Brett Lee, who the Indian batsmen never looked like hitting off the square, in his three innings so far, went for six an over and Shane Warne for nearly five. What a pity some of the big guns in the Indian batting line-up didn't show more initiative and lead the attack from day one.

This was always going to be the only way they were going to break even or even do a little better against this great Aussie attack. I have said earlier that I feel that the Indian team finds it difficult to change tactics and dwells too much on things they perceive are going against them. This series they have thought far too much about the extra bounce in Australian wickets and paralysed their natural attacking flair. With very few exceptions the Indian batsmen have been out to tentative, negative strokes when the state of the game called for authority.

Authority was the key to Laxman's batting, and it almost appeared as though the stunning blow on the head he took from a Glenn McGrath bouncer was what he needed to snap out of his trance. After this hit, he decided to allow his reflexes and natural talent to take over and I saw one of the finest exhibitions of stroke making I have ever seen. No shot was beyond his talents and his thundering hooks and drives against the pace of Lee were played with time to spare. It was pure magic to watch and undoubtedly the finest batting of the season.

Scoring runs against this magnificent Australian attack is not easy, for inevitably the line and length is almost perfect. These bowlers are a captain's dream and it appears that all the skipper has to do is throw the ball into the air and whoever grabs it bowls Australia to victory.

One of the interesting aspects of the last two Tests has been the lack of wickets for Shane Warne. It is almost as if the quest to secure the extra five or six wickets to become the highest wicket-taker for Australia is stifling his greatest talent and that is bowling superbly under pressure.

Warne is normally the most patient of bowlers, but in this match, he seemed to grow a little desperate. This was particularly so in Sydney, and it appeared as though he was trying to bowl a different delivery every ball. As a result, he bowled more loose balls than you would normally see from him in a month. Warne's great skill has always been not only his natural brilliance, but also the ability to be patient and lure his victims into error with the accuracy, pressure, and intensity of his well thought out plans. Very little of this was seen in Sydney.

Throughout the series, two things were most obvious to me. First, the Indian bowlers could never apply total pressure on the Australian batsmen as they were too skillful in taking singles and thus getting away from the strike and second, India only concentrated on stopping the ball and seldom pushed the good balls for singles to allay the pressure.

All said and done, Australia were worthy victors in this series and as Sachin Tendulkar graciously conceded, they were just too good and outplayed India in every department of the game.

Gameplan

Bobby Simpson