Series Down Under: Agarkar's dizzy spell at Adelaide.

In the early summer of 2003, India, who had gone Down Under in what was hyped as Steve Waugh’s last test series, suffered a huge loss when Zaheer Khan was injured in the first match against the hosts at Brisbane. Sourav Ganguly‘s return to form with a brilliant 144 at Brisbane oozed in some confidence to the team and made the critics eat up their words, who predicted India would go down 0-4 in the 4 match series. While the batting looked solid with a seasoned middle order and a new found success in the opening department with Aakash Chopra and Virender Sehwag giving good starts to the team, the bowling remained a worry for the visitors. With Zaheer injured and no established name to take over, Irfan Pathan, who then recently had got a 9-wicket haul in an under-19 competition against Bangladesh, was called overnight to Australia to play the 2nd test match of the series at Adelaide. This meant that Ajit Agarkar was now the spearhead of the Indian bowling attack.

As expected, Australia won the toss and batted first on what looked to be a batting paradise and when the day finished, the scoreboard showed an impressive 400/5. Not surprisingly, Australia had piled up runs easily against a tyro Indian attack. The next day, Aussies continued their attack and reached a massive 556 runs, with Ponting leading their charge with a brilliant double century. Anil Kumble, the most experienced Indian bowler took a 5-for, while the debutant Irfan got two scalps, including a prize wicket of Hayden pretty early in the innings.

In reply, Chopra and Sehwag gave India a brisk start, compiling 60 runs in 10 overs before losing their way completely. Rash shots, run outs and lack of luck resulted in reducing India to 83/4. That’s the time when VVS Laxman joined Rahul Dravid in the middle. The Indian fans would have wanted another Kolkata like innings from them but not everyday does history repeat itself. However, that was not the case to be and both batsmen recreated the Eden affair for the most of the third day and not only saved India from following-on, but took them much closer to the Australian total when they bundled out for 523 with Dravid top scoring with 233. The Indians handed over a tiny lead of 33 runs.

The second innings was underway and it looked as though this test too, like the previous one, was heading for a draw. Only for one man who thought otherwse – Ajit Agarkar. A decent one day bowler, but yet to prove himself at the test level, Agarkar, whose only claims to fame in the longer version of the game were a century at Lords and a series of 5 ducks in the earlier tour Down Under, took the matter into his own ends and presented a tractable target to his team-mates.

He took a brilliant 6-for against a side that were called ‘The Invincibles’, but were looking clueless every time Ajit asked questions off them. First to become his victim was Justin Langer, who couldn’t read his inswinger and was trapped in front of the wicket trying to play across the line. This gave India the perfect start they needed early in the innings.

The next to go was the double centurian from the first innings, Ricky Ponting, when he knicked an out-swinger from Agarkar to Chopra at gully. Agarkar was delighted to bag the prize wicket and it became all the more special as he got him for ‘naught’. A double century in the first innings and a duck in the second. That was a confidence booster for India, who started to look much more sharp and began bowling with much required intent on the field.

With a couple of blows from Tendulkar and Kumble each and a couple of brilliant catches by Dravid, India thought they have an outside chance of winning when they limited Australia to 183/6. Katich was the only recognized player batting. Thus, India needed to ensure that the tail didn’t wag or else the chance of winning would be out of the reckoning as they were the ones who were to bat on the fifth day against a quality Australian attack. Ganguly turned again towards the most successful bowler of the day.

Agarkar struck soon after when he disturbed the timber and sent Andy Bichel back to the pavilion. A big wicket followed in the form of a well set Katich, a mere four runs after, when he uncomfortably hooked a surprising bouncer off Agarkar to fine leg only to be gathered there safely by Ashish Nehra, leaving them struggling at 188/8.

He soon removed the remaining two wickets within a total of 8-runs and took a 6-for, when Stuart Macgill was undone with a reverse swinging delivery that disturbed the furniture and their innings collapsed to 196, leaving the Indians with an achievable target of 230 runs with more than 90 overs to spare.

Agarkar, after wrapping all his wickets was quick to grab the ball that concurred with his tactics and laid down the platform to win a match even after a forgetful bowling performance in the first innings.

India did win the match the match by 4 wickets, thanks to a gritty unbeaten 72 by Rahul Dravid but the performance of Ajit Agarkar could not be undermined under any circumstances, re-echoing the famous words, “Test matches are won by bowlers”. And for the poor critics who predicted a 0-4 whitewash for India and Steve Waugh who was eager to thrash India to vindicate the 2001 Indian tour, India had gone 1-0 up in the test series, against all predictions.