Needing 433 runs for a victory on an overcast last day, the world champions were in a spot of bother after losing their top four batsmen before the tea break but Waugh shattered Indian hopes with a typical salvage job to take his team to safety.

First innings centurion Simon Katich (77 not out) proved to be the perfect ally for the retiring captain as the duo stitched a vital 142-run partnership to take Australia to 357 for six at close on an exciting last day’s play.

The drawn series means Indian will retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a creditable achievement for Sourav Ganguly and his men who posed a serious challenge to Australia’s cricketing might in their own backyard and spoil Waugh’s farewell party.

Although the Indians managed to remove Matthew Hayden (30), Justin Langer (47), Damien Martyn (40) and Ricky Ponting (47) on a fifth-day track which saw the odd ball lifting sharply, Waugh and Katich dropped anchor to stave off the threat of a rare home series defeat.

The visitors then raised a flicker of hope by dismissing Waugh and Gilchrist in quick succession in the fag end but it came a little too late in the day as Katich and Jason Gillespie fended off the remaining four overs.

It was a disappointing result for the Indians who enjoyed an upper hand right throughout the absorbing series-deciding Test but lacked the sting to tilt the balance in their favour in the last two sessions.

Waugh smashed 80 in 175 nerve-wracking minutes before his mighty heave off Anil Kumble fell in the hands of Sachin Tendulkar in the squareleg boundary.

With little left in the game, Waugh pursued a record 33rd Test hundred but it was not to be.

He ended his career with 10,927 runs at an average of 51.06 from 168 Tests in which he hit 32 centuries and 50 half-centuries. He had also taken 92 wickets and 112 catches.

In one-day internationals, from which he was sacked as captain in 2002, Waugh had scored 7,569 runs at 32.91 from 325 matches.

When 38-year old veteran left the arena for the final time, the entire stadium rose as one and all the Indian team members shook his hands and continued clapping till he disappeared from the ground.

Anil Kumble bowled as well as he could and his four wickets in the second innings raised him 12 for the match. But it was not enough to shed the baggage of decades of unsuccessful campaigns abroad.

Little Parthiv Patel, for one brief moment, had the fate of India in his cusp but he failed to stump Ricky Ponting off Murali Kartik in the first over after lunch and Australia seized on the moment gratefully.

Ponting batted for two and a half hours more to repel the Indian advance and his 47 was twice its worth at a critical moment of Australian innings.

Australia had lost two their openers in the first session and Indians were baying for blood when Ponting was joined by Damien Martyn 25 minutes before the lunch break.

India had removed Matthew Hayden (30) and Justin Langer (47) within four overs of each other and Australians appeared headed for a probable defeat.

Hayden had once again failed to pick up the wrong ‘un of Kumble and drove an edge to slips where Rahul Dravid picked up an outstanding one-handed catch stretching to his left.

A little later Kartik had Langer who tried to smash him down the ground but lofted the ball to Virender Sehwag at mid-off.

The openers had put on 75 for the first wicket and the third wicket could have come quickly as well had Patel been up to the task.

India, encouraged by the turn extracted by Kartik, kept the two spinners on attack in tandem for 35 overs in the afternoon.

Ponting and Damien Martyn (40) stayed put for 78 runs for the third wicket before Martyn’s slog-sweep lobbed up a catch at short fine leg, giving Kumble his second wicket.

Ponting left in Irfan Pathan’s second over when he returned a simple catch to the 18-year old for his third wicket of the match.

Waugh walked in to a rousing reception and his first scoring shot was an on-driven boundary off Kartik. He fought hard against the spinning and bouncing deliveries of a deteriorating fifth day’s pitch and was not too perturbed by left-arm seamer Pathan who was brought on to test his reflexes.

Waugh’s gritty knock saved the day for Australia as India pressed hard for victory in the final session of the final day reducing the hosts to 204 for four at tea.

“When I started my career, I scored a few runs in the first Test. But today when I see I have played 168 matches, it is a huge bonus. Thanks selectors for selecting me and having faith in my abilities,” Waugh said to a thundering cheer from the capacity crowd which included his family, brother Mark Waugh and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Top three Indian players — Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly — chose the occasion to make public their adulation for the most capped Test cricketer ever.

“For all the youngsters, Steve Waugh is an inspiration. He is an example for all the players,” Tendulkar said after receiving the Man of the Match award for his unbeaten knocks of 241 and 60 not out in the match.

Vice-captain Dravid, who was named the Man of the series for his exceptional tally of 619 runs, said his performance in the series would remain a highlight of his career.

“This was Steve Waugh’s last series and I played my part to make it memorable. Steve, all the best for the future.”

Ganguly was more forthcoming in his tribute to Waugh saying that he had looked upon the gutsy player ever since he was a youngster.

“All the young cricketers, including me, have looked upto you (for inspiration). Steve, hope you have a wonderful life after cricket,” Ganguly said after receiving $ 34,000 (Australian) for his team’s performance in the series.

Ganguly also hailed his players for coming up with a fine performance during the series.

“It was indeed a good experience leading the team. My special thanks to all the players, (coach) John Wright, phyiso Andrew Leipus and Bruce Reid (bowling coach) for the effort they put in during the series,” he said. — PTI

It is difficult to imagine any cricketer, past or present, being accorded a reception as overwhelming as Waugh’s.

Over 27,000 spectators wildly cheered him and left only after the great man had disappeared in the sanctity of the dressing room, a good hour later after the fourth and final match and the series had ended in a draw.

“At the moment it has not sunk in yet that it is over. May be tomorrow morning I would realise it all. It has been an amazing support, a very special occasion for me. In a way I have been very lucky and the reaction today just confirms cricket remains people’s game,” Waugh said.

“It is amazing the way it has panned out. I am proud of the support of my family and friends and those in the stands. Today was as good as it gets.”

Waugh, who announced his retirement a couple of months ago, believed he had made the right choice about his career.

“One has to leave at some stage. It does not get better than this. I am not sad, rather lucky to have received so much affection and people’s warmth,” said the captain whose gritty 80-run knock today helped Australia salvage a draw.

Waugh was mildly critical of Indians’ declaration on the fourth evening and felt that they had stretched their innings a little too far.

“I thought it was a bit late and 440 was too huge a target. I would say they gave us only 2 per cent chance of winning.”

The skipper also looked back at the day’s proceedings, including his innings, his side’s aggression in the final hour and the message he sent for the batsmen in the last overs to close the shop.

“I was extremely nervous but strangely when I walked up to the crase, I felt tranquility. I was very relaxed and wanted to do my stuff.”

“It was a dangerous situation and some special innings was needed and I was happy I could bat long. In some ways, I owed it to the crowd.

“It was a brave effort when we stepped up the scoring in the final hour since we were facing a massive score. It was a pretty brave effort.

“But when I fell and Adam too departed, I sent a word for Gilly (Gillespie). It would have been pretty damning to lose the Test from that position.”

Waugh praised the Indians for their spirit and quality in the series but did not think that they dominated the four-match series.

“The series was played in extremely good spirit. To be sure, when I walked in there was some bantering but it was all friendly.

“I don’t think it is right to say India dominated us in the series. I would say it was an even series.

“Indian batting was sensational and their line-up is the best I have ever seen in my career. The way they batted was a good lesson for us as well.”

Waugh said India-Australia contests had the makings of a great rivalry between two great cricketing nations.

“The way the last six-seven Tests have been played between the two teams, it is fair to say there have been some amazing contests.”

“It is certainly a very prestigious series now. The Ashes is important and the Frank Worrell Trophy, too, but there is no reason why the Border-Gavaskar Trophy cannot be put alongside it.”

Waugh did not think Australian cricket was on the decline and reaffirmed faith in the system to produce quality cricketers.

“It is difficult to maintain top standards. But there is depth in Australian cricket. Other teams are coming up and our job will only get harder but there are quality young players emerging and they would do well.” — PTI

Waugh’s singular contribution was to blend both ancient and modern in an Australian team who at their peak could plausibly claim to be the best in history.

Ancient was one appropriate word for a cap threatening to fall apart when the Australian captain finally retired.

The battered, baggy green represented a conscious effort to connect the modern generation with their predecessors who had built and nurtured their nation’s summer game.

Typically Waugh went even further in his efforts to instil a sense of tradition into team mates who were still small children when he made his international debut in 1986.

For the first Test of the new millennium — against India in Sydney on January 2, 2000 — the Australians donned replicas of the skull caps worn by Joe Darling’s 1901-02 side.

Again, typically, Waugh was not content with mere symbolism. En route to yet another successful Ashes defence in England a year later, Waugh took his team to the Gallipoli peninsula.

There they re-enacted a 1915 photograph showing Australian soldiers playing cricket towards the end of their tragic eight-month campaign in which nearly 9,000 Australians perished. “Even this morning I was in the shower and it started trickling,’’ commented Waugh at the time.

“I was standing there thinking the damm shower is no good and then I thought these guys were freezing in the trenches and fighting for eight months so what have I got to complain about?’’

Back in the modern world, Waugh also successfully challenged the cultural barriers which prevent so many teams from performing at their best on the Indian sub-continent.

Instead of retreating to their air-conditioned hotel rooms or seeking refuge by the pool, Waugh urged his team mates to embrace the local culture and welcome rather than reject diversity.

Again there was substance behind the rhetoric. Waugh helps support an orphanage in India. He has also raised money for leper sufferers.

But well before Waugh had finally disappeared from sight today, cricket fans around the world realised they had been privileged to live in an extraordinary era for Test cricket, possibly the most exciting ever.

Pushing back the boundaries in his sport as he had in his life, Waugh persuaded the Australian team to embrace a policy of all-out attack with astonishing results.

Three hundred runs a day was once thought an impossible dream. Waugh’s Australians made it a norm.

In the series against India, Waugh’s last, both teams often averaged four runs an over. An extraordinary 1,747 runs were scored in the final drawn Test and with 90 overs a day now guaranteed, 400 runs is the new target. Brisk scoring rates are not new.

Attack was the watchword of the Edwardian age and Don Bradman scored fast as well as prolifically in the 1930s.

In the 1960s, largely a drab decade for cricket in contrast to the prevailing social and musical ferment, West Indies extended the boundaries of the possible with some exhilarating stroke play.

At the 1996 World Cup, Sri Lanka redefined one-day cricket by attacking from the start to take full advantage of fielding restrictions and batsman friendly pitches. But it is the present Australia side who have changed the game irrevocably. — Reuters

Cape Town, January 6
Dwayne Smith struck a century on debut to help West Indies draw the third test against South Africa at Newlands on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Smith reached his hundred off just 93 balls as West Indies, requiring 441 to win, batted right through the day, reaching 354 for five by the close.

Despite Smith’s heroics, the draw means South Africa have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

South Africa (first innings): 532 (M.Boucher 122 not out, J.Rudolph 101, N.McKenzie 76, J.Kallis 73; A.Sanford 4-132)

West Indies (first innings ) : 427 (C.Gayle 116, B.Lara 115; A.Nel 5-87)

South Africa (second innings overnight 335-3)

Smith b Edwards 24

Gibbs c Gayle b Sarwan 142

Rudolph c Jacobs b Drakes 0

Kallis not out 130

Kirsten not out 10

Extras (b-3 lb-7 w-8 nb-11) 29

Total (for three wickets, declared, 76 overs) 335

Fall of wickets: 1-48 2-50 3-301

Bowling: Edwards 14-0-86-1 , Sanford 8-1-38-0, Gayle 9-3-34-0 , Drakes 20-0-68-1 , Mohammed 6-0-30-0, Sarwan 19-1-69-1.

West Indies (second innings):

Gayle c Gibbs b Ntini 32

Ganga c Boucher b Ntini 10

Sarwan c Gibbs b Ntini 69

Lara c Boucher b Nel 86

Hinds b Pollock 25

Smith not out 105

Jacobs not out 9

Extras (b-2 lb-7 w-2 nb-7) 18

Total (5 wickets, 100 overs) 354

Fall of wickets: 1-28 2-47 3-203 4-224 5-296

Bowling: Pollock 17-3-64-1 (nb-4), Ntini 21-4-82-3, Nel 21-5-57-1 (nb-1, w-1), Kallis 16-3-38-0 (nb-2, w-1), Adams 22-3-103-0, Rudolph 1-1-0-0, Kirsten 2-1-1-0. — Reuters

After today’s matches, Punjab lead the points table with 15 points, which include three bonus points, while Delhi have 14 points from as many outings. With the matches curtalied to 30 overs a side due to dense fog, Delhi scored 145 all out in 29.5 overs and then folded up the visitors for just 80 runs.

Sjen Schalken, who defeated qualifier Danai Udomchoke from Thailand in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, was tested only in the second set. — UNI

Churchill hung on to their injury minute first half goal which came through Francis Afonso.

With this win Churchill Brothers jumped on to the second spot with 14 points from the present 5th place from eight outings with four wins, two draws and two defeats below table toppers Dempo with 17 points and having played one match less.

Bagan are at fourth place with 11 points behind Mahindra United who have 12 points. This was Bagan’s third defeat.

In a closely contested first half, both the teams had equal share of exchanges but play was restricted to midfield for the major part. Bagan made the first good move in the 17th minute but Ashim Biswas missed the target by inches of a pass from Jose Barreto. Two minutes later Churchill’s Somatai Saiza passed to Francis Afonso whose shot went wide. Only 10 minutes before the first half Churchill accelerated the pace of their game and could have moved ahead in the 40th minute when Francis Afonso gave a pass to Harinder Singh whose pile driver was smartly saved by substitute goalkeeper Harindem Ghose, who came in place of injured Prashant Dora. — UNI