Australia c Kumble b India 16(5)

NO17 is LION if turned upside down. It seems Australia can not strike it and turn it upside down and be the King in the jungle of cricket. Invincible, as they were called twice in the last decade for their spectacular streak of 16 test wins has now become a thing of the past. It is the Indian cricket team again which halted the Aussie juggernaut yet again in 2008, first being in Kolkota, 2001.

India Wins [Picture Courtesy : http://www.cricinfo.com/]

The unsung hero of Indian cricket, Anil Kumble proved his mettle yet again now on a different pitch with his captaincy. Engineer from Bangalore deserves appreciation and applause for lifting up the team from Sydney turmoil a week ago and making the right moves by bringing in Sehwag and Pathan. This combination of a batsman who can bowl and bowler who can bat turned into a pair of all-rounders and swung the match in India’s favour.

Interesting Highlights of the 3rd test at Perth

• Batsmen dismissed by same bowler in both innings – Australian openers Rogers and Jaques by Irfan Pathan, Australian skipper(and Harbhajan’s bunny) Ricky Ponting by Ishanth Sharma, Andrew Symonds by Anil Kumble, Mike Hussey by RP Singh.
• Wickets to all from India - All bowlers from India in both innings got wickets – Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Ishanth Sharma, Anil Kumble and Virender Sehwag(bowled only in the second innings)
• Test over in 4 days - A team beating Australia in a test within 4 days, which usually happens other way round.
• Indian Tail wagging 30% – both innings put together last 4 wickets producing 180 out of 624 total runs scored, making it close to 30%.
• Dhoni factor – Dhoni was involved 8 dismissals out of 20 to win the test (5 catches in Ist innings and 2 catches, 1 stumping in 2nd innings)
• Relatively Safe Hands – India held 14 catches in total to affect as many number of dismissals, with less dropped catches,one famous being off Symonds by Sachin.

Kumble on Top:
I have been a big fan of present Indian skipper, Anil Kumble, right from the days of Hero Cup in 1993 where he displayed magnificent spell of bowling on the final of Hero Cup on 27 November 1993 to record a famous win against the West Indies. Till this day, 6/12 remains Kumble’s best figure in ODIs. His figures on that day read : 6.1-2-12-6 with 5 victims getting bowled!!!

Kumble leading from the front[Picture Courtesy: http://www.cricinfo.com/]

In the dusk of his 17 year old cricketing career he has achieved another feat by becoming only the 3rd bowler in the history of cricket to take 600 wickets in tests. But he has been far away from controversies the other two had been involved with, whether on or off field. I always wondered why he was not given captaincy after Azharuddin left the spot. In fact he was the vice captain when Azhar was skipper. For the true ambassadors of the game like Kumble these issues really don’t matter. He was always a captain in the waiting. This has been proven yet again after this victory. His dedication, temparent, accuracy, team spirit should serve as good examples for many generations to come.