By IANS
Perth : Former Australian captain Steve Waugh says India’s performance in the ongoing third Test here is one of the most impressive by an overseas team to this country.
Reviewing the second day’s play in his syndicated column, Waugh stated that it was a sort of day when the people at home sit back and wait for an Australian comeback but, for once, it never came.
India took their overall lead to 170 runs by close of the second day Thursday. India had made 330 in their first innings and shut Australia out for 212 to take a lead of 118. In their second innings, India were 52 for one at stumps.
Waugh still feels there is much cricket to be played in the match and sees fast bowler Brett Lee as the catalyst through whom the Australians could provide a twist in the tale.
“Brett has become the world’s No. 1 fast bowler this summer and Friday is the day he will have to prove it. It will need some special Lee magic to hoist Australia back into this Test after India’s day of triumph yesterday,” he wrote.
Waugh recollected how people whispered at every street corner after the Indians had drawn the Test series he had played in four years ago, that they didn’t play in Perth and that next time the Indians would not be so lucky and a WACA Test would be non-negotiable.
“All summer people have been pencilling it in as an Australian win.”
The Indians’ exceptional swing bowling, Waugh has said, will take a lot of fans back to the early 1980s when Kapil Dev proved a real handful for the Australians with his masterful late swing. “You have to admire the high-class work of the Indian bowlers,” he said.
“Irfan Pathan’s success Thursday has many people asking why we have not seen him until so late in the series,” Waugh wrote.
“It is a fair question. Though his recent form is not great, he is the type of player who rises to the challenge.”
The former Australia captain has said when the Indians batted on day one, all the talk was that it was a batsman’s deck and suddenly on Day Two it seemed to grow claws when the Indian pacers were let loose. Then late in the day, when the Australians were bowling, the threat was not as great.
“If this series has proved anything, it is that the Indians are made of stern stuff,” he said.
“I have spoken to Rahul Dravid several times on the phone and my admiration for him as a man and a player continues to grow. He is just so determined.”
Waugh also mentioned Anil Kumble’s 600th wicket.
“Any fair-minded fan would have enjoyed Anil Kumble’s 600th Test wicket, even though it was Australia’s potential saviour Andrew Symonds.
“Kumble has taken his wickets with a fraction of the publicity afforded to Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralidaran but he has been a much admired performer among his rivals. He is not the type of player who gives you restless nights as you ponder his threat, but he is a specialist at ploughing through your guard if you relax it for the briefest moment.”
Paying a handsome compliment to the Indian captain, Waugh has said that Indian players are generally not renowned for their fitness but Kumble is. The Australian side admire the way his last over of a marathon day is bowled with as much energy as his first.
As for Lee’s growing strength as fast bowler, Waugh hopes, for Australia’s sake, he has one last big surge in him in this Test.
“He deserves to be rated the No. 1 quick, with South African Dale Steyn the only man I can put close to him, given the reasonably shallow state of world pace stocks. This was always going to be the season that would either lift Lee to the next level or find him struggling under pressure. He has matured in the past couple of years.”
Waugh has no doubt that the birth of his first child, Preston, has given him a different perspective. “When you become a father, all of a sudden you realise cricket is not the be all and end all.”