Laxman's sublime knock brings Kangaroos back to earth

By Malcolm Conn

KOLKATA, MARCH 14. Australia's unparalleled run of history was overshadowed on Wednesday by the unbeaten 275 from V.V.S. Laxman, a 10-hour innings of such rare quality that it looks set to finally trump the all-conquering tourists.

Australia has won 16 Tests in a row and when India was forced to follow on 274 behind number 17 seemed a formality.

Enter Laxman who, with good support from Rahul Dravid, has made this series a contest.

Australia has been so rarely challenged during its dream run that such counter punching in such good batting conditions is foreign to it.

While it stuck at its task well there was nothing the bowlers could do again India's resolute pair on a wicket offering nothing.

In those circumstances more would have been expected from Shane Warne. His one for 134 from 34 overs was a the biggest disappointment. Whatever Warne may say and however good a bowler he may be, figures insist that he no longer the same force since a shoulder operation on his return from Australia's previous Indian tour three years ago.

This was the first time in two years that Australia has toiled without a wicket. The last was the second Test in Jamaica two years ago when Brian Lara and Jimmy Adams batted through the day to turn a match and a series.

It will take a remarkable performance even by the exceptional standards of this record-breaking Australian side to continue its winning sequence on Thursday.

Laxman passed the 236 Sunil Gavaskar scored against the West Indies in December 1983 at Madras with a flick forward of square leg from the bowling of Matthew Hayden.

That the opening batsman resumed with the ball after tea highlighted the state of the game and the dominance of the Indians on a wicket which began as a batsman's paradise and has only got better.

Steve Waugh had enforced the follow-on 274 ahead, the only logical decision given Australia leads the series 1-0 and was aiming for a moral-shattering kill at Eden Gardens Stadium, but conditions and circumstances have rarely made victory more difficult.

Despite his 167 in Sydney a little more than a year ago, when Steve Waugh set a field for wickets and ignored runs, Laxman, 26, came into his 21st Test with an average of just 27. He has been a bit-part player in Indian cricket these past few years but seems to have a particular love for Australian bowling.

He is also not satisfied with simply reaching three figures but steels himself to bat on and on. Promoted to No.3 after a spirited 59 batting at six during India's first innings of 171, the tall, flowing right-hander batted and batted as though he had been doing this all his life. He had not. It took 10 centuries in domestic cricket to regain a place in the side. Now Laxman has rewritten a major part of history.

In this self-perpetuating run of success and stardom Australia has been assessed as a team which triumphs with little toil. Steve Waugh's men run down opponents as whippets run down rabbits. They turn up to claim the prize. The chase is barely necessary, but on Wednesday that is all they did.

Shane Warne is still the world's best leg-spinner. Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie currently the world's best new ball attack. Together they are an awesome combination. This time they were just bowlers on the flattest of wickets under a cloudless sky. The game was in such a state by tea that Matthew Hayden and Michael Slater were bowling. Justin Langer took the number of bowlers to nine.

The great concern is that Laxman's brilliant innings will suddenly become the elixir for Indian cricket. That somehow a man who played every shot brilliantly over the past two days has somehow put everything right.

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