Hyderabad, March 5
The Australian team has proved to be an embarrassment to captain Michael Clarke. He’s flown high with the likes of McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist and Ponting; now he’s forced to crawl with the likes Phil Hughes, Glenn Maxwell and Xavier Doherty. Even during days of talent deficit, it’s no dishonour to fall with dignity; but the Australians today crumbled like a bunch of novices. Clarke, left-ashen faced, was left surveying the wreckage in anger and disgust.

Australia crashed shockingly to 131 all out in their second innings in the first session today. India won by an innings and 135 runs with five sessions to spare. Australia became the first team to lose by an innings after declaring their first innings. Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay aggregated 371 runs in India’s first innings; all of Australia put together failed to match that figure — in two innings. India lead Australia 2-0 for the Border Gavaskar Trophy. It would take a tremendous effort for the crushed and dispirited Australians to draw the next two games. A win seems beyond them.

Australia didn’t display their famed doggedness today, they displayed the fragility we’ve become accustomed to seeing from, say, Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. Australian defeat was certain when the day began; no one thought that it would arrive with such embarrassing rapidity — the last eight wickets fell in just over two hours today, in 35 overs, for the addition of just 57 runs.

Captain Clarke raged and raged among the crumbling ruins, but it was his wicket that ensured that India’s day in the sun would be rather brief. Shane Watson had fallen in the third over of the innings, caught down the leg-side off Ishant Sharma, but Clarke is the team’s talisman. It was his wicket that suggested that the end was nigh.

Ravindra Jadeja has been derided by everyone — a regular triple-centurion in Ranji Trophy who has to be shielded by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Test cricket! — but as a bowler, he’s proved invaluable. His delivery that took off Clarke’s off stump was beautifully bowled, beautifully planned. It was the 46th over of the innings, 14th of the day. Bowling from around the stumps, Jadeja began with a ball on the off stump which Clarke could leave easily; the next three balls were pitched incrementally further in, forcing Clarke to play. The last one of these was the a left-arm spinner’s perfect ball — it drifted in, landed in line with the middle stump, beat the outside edge of Clarke’s bat, and smashed into the off stump. Clarke was shocked. He held his forward defensive pose for a few seconds, wondering how the ball had got through. He thought he had the wicket perfectly covered; but he’d probably misread the ball and played for a straighter one, but Jadeja had managed to put quite a rip on the ball.

Jadeja, thus, had Clarke, counted among the world’s best against spin, bowled out twice in two innings.

Clarke’s fall sounded the death knell for Australia — it was a steady procession after that. From 108/3, they lost their last seven wickets for 23 runs. The longest partnership after that lasted just 8.5 overs, when James Pattinson and Xavier Doherty played six maidens in a row and added one run for the 10th wicket.

Ed Cowan was the fifth batsman to fall. He’d fought it out, playing 150 balls, defying the Indians for close to three hours. Yet, he never seemed completely at ease. His method of playing the spinners, on the back foot on a turning pitch, was fraught with danger. Jadeja finally got him, with a much lesser ball, when Cowan tried to cut a short one; the ball travelled off the bat and Dhoni’s pad to Virender Sehwag at slip. Five balls later, Jadeja turned on the sensational again, this time as a fielder. Matthew Wade called Moises Henriques for a run after nudging the ball to covers. Jadeja sprinted in, swooped down at the ball, fumbled and picked it up on second attempt; yet, he blasted in an explosive throw that broke the stumps.

Ravichandran Ashwin trapped Glenn Maxwell LBW with his sparingly-used carrom ball. Peter Siddle was caught by Virat Kohli at silly point after the ball had gone off bat, Dhoni’s glove and pad and popped up -- Sehwag was going for the catch too but Kohli plucked it out of thin air. That was Jadeja’s third wicket of the innings. Ashwin got Wade next ball when the batsman edged one to Sehwag at slip. Then ensued the second-biggest Australian partnership of the day. Pattinson and Doherty dead-batted everything for 53 deliveries and one run before Ashwin got Pattinson LBW. An iffy decision, but there was nothing iffy about the defeat. It was a rout.

Australia get eight days before the third Test, beginning in Mohali on March 14, to get something right on this disaster of a tour.

India are all right for now. This is home, and Australia are no England. Yet, two men in the Indian XI would be a bit uneasy about their future -- Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh. Sehwag, who’s averaged 28 over his last 11 Tests, would be more concerned. He would be wondering if India’s massive win would ensure his inclusion in the team when it’s picked up for the last two Tests tomorrow.

Australia 1st Inngs: 237/9 d

India 1st inngs 503

Australia 2nd Inngs: (Overnight 74/2)

Cowan c Sehwag b Jadeja 44

Warner b Ashwin 26

Hughes b Ashwin 0

Watson c Dhoni b Sharma 9

Clarke b Jadeja 16

Wade c Sehwag b Ashwin 10

Henriques run out 0

Maxwell lbw b Ashwin 8

Siddle c Kohli b Jadeja 4

Pattinson lbw b Ashwin 0

Doherty not out 1

Extras: 13

Total: (all out; 67 ov) 131

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-56, 3-75, 4-108, 5-111, 6-111, 7-123, 8-130, 9-130, 10-131

Bowling

Bhuvneshwar 6-4-7-0

Ashwin 28-12-63-5

Harbhajan 10-7-10-0

Jadeja 18-8-33-3

Ishant 5-2-5-1

Hyderabad, March 5
India’s win today made Mahendra Singh Dhoni the most successful captain in Indian cricket — he has now led India in 22 Test match wins. He, of course, also captained India to victories in the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and the 50-over World Cup in 2011. Yet, he’s quick to spurn the crown that was sought to be put on his head today by the media.

MS Dhoni

When he walked down casually to discuss the day’s play with the media when the match got over, Dhoni was coolly drinking a brownish beverage from an unlabelled bottle. Exactly what does Indian cricket’s superman — well, superman in home conditions, at least — drink? The answer would gladden every mother’s heart. “Oh, it’s nothing but flavoured milk,” Dhoni said.

Perhaps flavoured milk also acts as coolant for Captain Cool. He casually shrugged off the plaudits that are coming his way for his record as captain — it’s almost like Dhoni goes out of his way to disregard trifles such as these. He said all talk of records and numbers is mere hype, that it doesn’t really matter.

That’s almost saint-like indifference from a man deeply entrenched in the fortunes of Indian cricket. "If you see our dressing room right now, we are not bothered about who has won how many matches,” Dhoni said. “What's important is to win Test matches. The more consistent we become the better it is for the side. I don't think this number really matters for us. What's important is that the last two matches we have done really well.”

Dhoni is inherently a cool man, deeply involved in the game but quite indifferent to everything it entails when he’s off the field. Then again, perhaps it’s the mauling that India suffered in England and Australia, in 2011-12, that sobers him. Perhaps he’s gained the sage’s awareness into the transitory nature of the world’s business, apart from the more prosaic business of putting bat to ball on foreign conditions.

“The best question that often get asked when we go to England or Australia is, ‘Why we don’t play on sporting wickets back home in India?’ It’s the same for everyone, you have to realise 80 or 70 per cent of the matches you play in your home conditions,” he said. “You have to be good there. As I always say, once you go abroad the conditions are totally different and that’s a challenge. That’s what improves our Test cricket over a period of time.”

“I think the sides that have players who have toured the subcontinent or we who have played in other countries, they have been able to perform quite consistently,” he added. “I feel it’s still a challenge, I think that’s what is special about Test cricket. You go abroad, you have different conditions. You come to the subcontinent, the wicket becomes slow and low. If everything becomes the same, Test cricket won’t be challenging.”

England had done that —risen up to the challenge of playing in India. They did it brilliantly, too, consigning India to a rare defeat at home. That had shaken India’s fans to the core —after routs abroad, was the comfort of home also going to be snatched?

Dhoni said the team had lifted itself with all-round effort. "Against England we were not at our best. We were not scoring enough runs, we were not putting huge totals on the board for our bowlers to be aggressive,” he said.

“All these things play a crucial part. You can't just rely on your batting or bowling, as a unit you have to do well. Once you score runs, automatically you will see bowlers doing well. It works the other way as well, if the bowlers are bowling well it creeps into your batting also.” Dhoni said that the defeats like the ones in England and Australia can make “make you question yourself”.

“It becomes tough. You start questioning yourself, which happens to each and every individual,” he said. “All of us are human beings and the only ones who say they don’t get bothered are the ones who lie really well!”

Micahel Clarke

"Beyond that, I won't poke my nose as you need to respect your opponents in whatever situation they are. You won't like to give advice to the Australians as they are very competitive. They can come back strongly." Clarke said that the pitches on offer in the first two matches were good Test wickets. "I don't think pitches were bad. I think both the wickets have been good Test cricket wickets and we just haven't performed well enough, it's as simple as that."

Phil Hughes in line to get dropped

Phil Hughes is facing the prospect of getting sacked for the third time in his Test career after failing to perform in the first two Test matches against India. Hughes` renaissance in Test seems to be perishing fast, as in his third incarnation as a Test batsman is struggling in India. He has scores of 6, 0, 19 and 0 at an average of 6.25 His Ashes campaign is too diminishing with every failure, a daily said. — Agencies

Hyderabad, March 5
Michael Clarke has, reluctantly, decided to move up the batting order, from his No. 5 position. He decided this after the second defeat of the series, and the fifth Test defeat in a row in India.

Clarke, in his 152 innings for Australia so far, has batted at No. 5 98 times in 63 Tests; he’s made 5692 runs in that position, at a stunning average of 63.95, which is significantly higher than his career average of 52.97. At No. 4, he averages 22.20 in 30 innings, and 25 in one innings at No. 3. Thus, his reluctance to bat higher was quite understandable. But he’s had to put aside his own interest for the higher cause. The top four in the XI have been disastrous.

David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phil Hughes and Shane Watson have made a total of 325 runs in four Test innings. Clarke himself is the highest run-scorer in the series with 268, along with MS Dhoni. The next best aggregate for Australia is 154 by Moises Henriques, the allrounder who comes in at No. 7.

Among the rest of the top six in the Australian line-up, no one has scored even half the runs Clarke has scored. "I think I have no choice," Clarke said when asked if he’d bat up the order. "Again, it hasn't been about me, it's about trying to do what's best for the team, and I think now, especially in these conditions, I have to bat higher."

Would it be No. 3 or No. 4 for him? Clarke didn’t reveal this. “I've got nine days to work it out. Wherever I can go and put some runs on the board to help the team,” he said.

In this series so far, Watson has made 28, 17, 23 and 9; Hughes has put up 6, 0, 19 and 0; Cowan has scored 29, 32, 4 and 44; and Warner has made 59, 23, 6 and 26. "I don't think picking your batting order can revolve around one person, the team needs the team to play well," Clarke said. "We need our top six batters to be scoring runs, we need our four, five or six bowlers to be taking wickets. It can't be about one person. I've never played cricket that way and I don't want this team to go to that.”

“We have enough talent, but we have to get better, every single one of us. I would have liked more runs in the first innings and more runs in the second innings, so I have work to do as well. I don't want it to be about the individuals, I want it to be about the whole team,” he added.

Hyderabad, March 5
Whenever Arvind Pujara watches his son Cheteshwar bat in a Test match, the doting father in him turns into a coach who is more keen on dissecting his favourite student's game.

“A double hundred in a Test match against Australia is always a special achievement. But I tell Cheteshwar to avoid playing the hook shot. He will tell me that it's a scoring shot but I believe it's a risky one. He got out playing the hook shot," Pujara senior said. So what are the shots that he likes his son to play, pat comes the reply, "He is such a good looking player when he is playing within the 'V'." "He doesn't need to play unorthodox shots as he can score loads of runs playing the straight drive, cover drive or on-drive. He can play in that arc throughout the day and he should stick to doing that," he said.

“What makes Cheteshwar special is his appetite for big hundreds. If he is not out on a century plus score, he will make sure to carry on the good work on the next day. "That's why he has scored so many double and triple hundreds at the first-class level. Now he is translating that form into Test matches. I am hopeful that he will be able to maintain that consistency level," the former wicketkeeper batsman said. Lot of people believe that Cheteshwar's real test will be in South Africa at the end of the year and his father is confident about his son doing well. "He played in the last Test series in South Africa. He has an idea about bouncy tracks," he said. — PTI

Mumbai, March 5
The Vijay Hazare Trophy one day matches could be played in similar format as the Ranji Trophy, consisting of three divisions, from next season if the BCCI accepts the proposal it received on Tuesday at the one-day conclave of captains and coaches held in Mumbai.

"They (Ranji captains and coaches) were keen for the one day matches to be played in the Ranji Trophy format. But its tough. Right now it is zonal and they want how the Ranji Trophy is played...like crisscrossing (the country). It's tough logistically," said BCCI's technical committee chairman Anil Kumble after the annual one-day meeting.

The technical committee did an overhaul of the Ranji Trophy format at the end of last season by abolishing elite and plate divisions and bringing in a three-tier system, featuring all teams from this season. But the one-day matches are being held under the elite and plate division format.

Kumble said the general consensus was that the newly introduced format for Ranji Trophy is good but most of the teams wanted a longer gap in between the matches. "They want a longer break in between two games, which will extend the season. They want a four-day gap (instead of the three-day one at present). It is the preferred option. But then we will have to look at a combination where some matches have three-day gaps and some have four days," said Kumble.

Some teams also requested for a neutral venue during the knockout stages, said the former India captain, adding that the technical committee would discuss it. — PTI

Sydney, March 5
Australian media has blasted Michael Clarke's men after their humiliating defeat, branding the rout as death of Australian Test cricket. According to the Herald Sun, even wet Sao biscuits have provided greater resistance than the Australian batsmen.

Tuesday's loss is confirmation of the death of Australian Test cricket, that once great and mighty force which dominated the world for much of the 20th century but which is now so lifeless not even the cast of Weekend at Bernie's could revive it, the paper added. The paper further said there was some conjecture after the match on the sandy strip at Chennai last week that the surface had contributed to Australia's demise, but now everyone knows the truth.

The entire team, captain Clarke excused, is just hopeless. The loss is Australia's fifth successive loss in a Test in India, and the first time India has beaten Australia by an innings or more since 2000, it reported.

Australia actually declared in the first innings. In further food for thought, none of the Indian batsmen have sleeve tattoos. Just sayin', the paper concluded. — Agencies

New Delhi, March 5
National Rifle Association of India president Raninder Singh today made an appeal to not politicise the federation's upcoming elections and said its constitution is not in conflict with the government's sports code and the IOC.

In the wake of accusations against Raninder of having rigged the process of nominating the four life and four annual members at the general assembly yesterday, the NRAI sought to clear the confusion a month ahead of the April 6 election. "It is unbecoming to bring politics into sports, especially in a measurable sport like shooting. We will not allow NRAI to turn into a political akhara," Raninder said.

Asked about the contentious sports code, he said, “We are not in conflict with either the IOC or government of India. We have already accepted almost all the provisions of the sports code. You can check the sports code and our by laws on our website,” he said. “In fact, NRAI is only body that has changed its age and tenure bar, even before the London Olympics," Raninder added.

He, however, added that sports code is only an "advisory" to all the national federations and not a “legal law” or an “ordinance”. Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Rathore demanded that the four life and annual members, all of whom are handed voting rights, be elected rather than nominated by Raninder.

The NRAI president agreed to put Rathore's proposal to vote. — PTI

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