All hail Team India!

I'm late on this but a week back team India did the improbable-beat the saffies in a test match in their own backyard.Going into the test series after being blown away 4-0 in the recently concluded ODI series,even the word 'underdogs' seemed charitable to the men in blue.But displaying an inspirational self belief the team rallied against all odds to beat SA inside four days.It was as good as it can get.

It's quite surprising to fathom why such a cricket crazy country like ours with its demi-God cricket stars wins so less test matches overseas.There are various theories the chief being the inability of our batsmen to counter the pace and bounce on foreign tracks.With the odd exception of Dravid and Sachin in the current team,there is hardly any batsman who can claim to have a sound teachnique to play on any kind of surface.However,this is an anamoly which afflicts most teams with the possible exception of the Aussies.Another theory which makes absolute sense to me is that we never have had bowlers who could bowl out the opposition twice to win test matches.So inflicted with this twin anamoly its not too hard to understand why our overseas record is so poor.

This test match however was a shocker for the saffies.They would have gone into this game assured of a one sided contest.What they were in for was nothing less than a miracle for an Indian fan.Chosing to take first strike on what looked like a dicey wicket to bat on,the Indian innings began badly with Sehwag and Jaffar out cheaply.Dravid playing the test match inspite of a broken finger led from the front and he found more than able support in Sachin at the other end.The pair saw off a very crucial passage of play where another wicket would have spelt doomsday for India.Ganguly returning to the team admist intense media scrutiny and public pressure produced a remarkable innings of 51 and some lusty hitting by VRV Singh at the end put the Indian score to 249.

When SA batted,Sreesanth struck havoc getting the ball to swing and seam prodigiously from a full length and literally running thru the SA side like hot knife thru butter.It was an incredible spell of seam bowling.The seam position was upright in almost every other delivery and the length was immaculate.Zaheer and the ever dependable Kumble bowled brilliantly too and before you knew it SA was bowled out for a mere 84 inside 25 overs.

Realizing that they had the upper hand in the contest India played well in the second innings with Laxman leading the pack with a brillaint 72 and Ganguly chipping in with 25.Zaheer showed enormous patience for a tail ender to stick around and add an invaluable 37 runs swelling the overall lead beyond 400.

When the saffies came out to bat in the second innings the pressure was squarely on them.The Indian bowlers fresh from their exploits in the first innings produced another sterling display to wrap up the game for India.They were backed up by agressive field placings from Dravid and impressive catching and ground fielding.

As they say cricket is a game of uncertainities.India the underdogs won this test by 123 runs and go up 1-0 in the test series.

Here's to the game and team India on a fantastic win!.