Australia v India, 2014-15

	The Australian team with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after the draw at the SCG © Getty Images Enlarge
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Test matches (4): Australia 2, India 0

Australia needed only three Tests to win back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but the bigger domination was achieved by bat over ball - and by both sides. There were 40 centuries in the four games: 15 scored by batsmen, 25 conceded by bowlers, a series-record-equalling six by Nathan Lyon. Australia passed 500, and India 400, in all four first innings. The pitches started well, and got better. At Sydney, cricket could almost have been played for another week.

The death of Phillip Hughes, who had been in line for a Test comeback, hung over a series in which, otherwise, the dominant figures were the captains - though not those who were expected to lead. Steven Smith, who became locum when Michael Clarke was incapacitated by a hamstring in Adelaide, and Virat Kohli, who first filled in for M. S. Dhoni, then succeeded him on his Test retirement, formed batting barricades that proved all but impassable. Both in their mid-twenties and the form of their lives, they made four centuries each, and broke run-scoring records for this fixture. Smith's 769 runs at 128 improved on Bradman's 715 (1947-48); Kohli's 692 at 86 displaced Dravid's 619 (2003-04).

Arguably, a batting beanfeast suited both sides, what with a World Cup in the offing, and tensions having been aggravated in recent years by reciprocal insinuations of pitch doctoring. Now, of course, the nations are Big Three partners at the ICC, and shareholders in the Champions League. It will be interesting to see on what sort of surfaces Australia are required to defend the Trophy in India in early 2017.

Apart from the captains, the most effective batsmen were David Warner, who started with twin hundreds in Adelaide, and Chris Rogers, who reeled off half a dozen half-centuries; for India, Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane were positive and acquisitive. Yet it was not the batting which proved decisive. The chief difference between the teams was the ability of Australia's bowlers to maintain discipline during the long periods where the bat inevitably held sway. Their attack had one genuinely bad day - the first at Brisbane, which was like running a marathon on the Nullarbor Plain. They bounced back admirably: new cap Josh Hazlewood survived a stern initiation to polish off the first innings, and Mitchell Johnson was suddenly irresistible in the second.

Lyon bowled nearly twice as many overs in the series as any of his teammates, and had 23 wickets at 34 to show for it. At Melbourne, Ryan Harris reinforced a Test-best 74 with match figures of six for 100. India's young pace attack was at least as fast as Australia's, but bedevilled by inaccuracy: only seven of their 2,857 deliveries hit the stumps, and only Ishant Sharma conceded fewer than four an over. Ravichandran Ashwin, excluded to India's cost in the First Test at Adelaide, did an effective holding job but, on pitches that deteriorated slowly, seldom looked too troublesome.

Though he had an indifferent time with the bat, Shane Watson collected seven catches, in a series where slips dropped more than they caught, and bowled 21 solid overs per Test, providing useful respite for the four specialists. His five handy wickets were obtained while conceding less than three an over, while India's fifth and sixth bowlers took a single wicket in 58 overs for 186 - a slight edge, perhaps, but a clear one. The beginning of the series had been overshadowed by the death of Hughes, whose funeral in Macksville on December 3 led to reordering of the Test dates.

Adelaide and Brisbane essentially swapped over, Sydney was delayed. The public adapted: 470,219 spectators attended - 61,692 more than the corresponding series three years earlier. But the programme was relentless, especially given that three of the Tests went right to the end. Johnson and Ishant Sharma were left out at Sydney, and probably none too sorry to miss it. Clarke, for his part, had diced with danger by effectively daring the selectors not to pick him for the original opening Test at the Gabba, after he was deemed Clarke's grade side, Western Suburbs, even declared their first innings on 17 without loss against Parramatta, in an attempt to give him a bat in the second the following Saturday. In the end, Hughes's death rendered these questions irrelevant.

Nor did the air of Christmas truce in Adelaide last long: Warner, Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan were all fined after an argument precipitated by Varun Aaron bowling Warner with a no-ball on the fourth day. The umpires and referees were under ICC orders to nip "unacceptable aggression" in the bud, but struggled to distinguish the provocateurs from the provocateured. In Brisbane, Rohit Sharma needled Johnson, which seemed to have the effect of stirring him to his best; in Melbourne, the Australians snarled about Kohli, Kohli about the Australians, and the debate became like bald men fighting over a comb; in Sydney, all of a sudden, for whatever reason, quiet descended. Perhaps it was the influence of Hughes, the match unfolding on a pitch next to the one on which he fell: Warner knelt to kiss the spot when his score matched Hughes's sempiternal 63.

In one respect, too, the players were exemplary. There was, of course, no DRS, due to India's objections. But none of the testiness arose from umpiring decisions, despite a few gaffes, and the appealing remained well within acceptable bounds. Given out, players walked off; denied justice, they got on with it. It was a small mercy, perhaps - but then, seven years earlier, umpiring frustrations had overwhelmed India, and residual antagonisms still lurk.

Australia blooded two newbies: Hazlewood succeeded the weary Peter Siddle and hit a testing length, suggesting good prospects in England; and Joe Burns from Queensland looked purposeful under minimal pressure in Sydney, having made minimal impression in Melbourne. The Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell, took steps both forward and back. India's selectors deserved kudos for persevering with Lokesh Rahul, who surmounted his stage fright in the Third Test to make a convincing understudy in the Fourth, although they partly undid their good work with a pointless recall for Suresh Raina, who contributed a four-ball pair. Australia ended the series ranked second on the ICC table. India slipped to seventh - bound to improve, partly because the only way was up.

Match reports for

Tour Match: Cricket Australia Invitational XI v Indians at Adelaide, Nov 24-25, 2014
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Tour Match: Cricket Australia XI v Indians at Adelaide, Dec 4-5, 2014
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1st Test: Australia v India at Adelaide, Dec 9-13, 2014
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2nd Test: Australia v India at Brisbane, Dec 17-20, 2014
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3rd Test: Australia v India at Melbourne, Dec 26-30, 2014
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4th Test: Australia v India at Sydney, Jan 6-10, 2015
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2nd Match: Australia v India at Melbourne, Jan 18, 2015
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3rd Match: England v India at Brisbane, Jan 20, 2015
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5th Match: Australia v India at Sydney, Jan 26, 2015
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6th Match: England v India at Perth, Jan 30, 2015
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Australia v India at Adelaide, Feb 8, 2015
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Afghanistan v India at Adelaide, Feb 10, 2015
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4th Match, Pool B: India v Pakistan at Adelaide, Feb 15, 2015
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13th Match, Pool B: India v South Africa at Melbourne, Feb 22, 2015
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21st Match, Pool B: India v United Arab Emirates at Perth, Feb 28, 2015
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28th Match, Pool B: India v West Indies at Perth, Mar 6, 2015
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34th Match, Pool B: India v Ireland at Hamilton, Mar 10, 2015
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39th Match, Pool B: India v Zimbabwe at Auckland, Mar 14, 2015
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2nd Quarter-Final: Bangladesh v India at Melbourne, Mar 19, 2015
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2nd Semi-Final: Australia v India at Sydney, Mar 26, 2015
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