Gilchrist's day at Wankhede Stadium

Yet another enthralling day of cricket at the Wankhede Stadium in Bombay, ending with Australia in a comfortable postion once again. And yet there were moments in the day when it was all so different.

Starting from a very comfortable 49/1, Australia slid into desperate trouble in just over an hour. They collapsed to 99/5, still 77 behind on the first innings. For the first time in 16 months, for the first time, indeed, since Pakistan at Hobart, Australia were in a true test match contest with their backs to the wall. The batsmen looked tentative and uncomfortable, the ball was turning viciously for young Harbajan Singh who seemed to be coming of age before our very eyes, the fielders were on their toes, and the crowd was in good humour and great voice.

But there is a reason the Australians are the best team in the world, and have won a mind-boggling 15 Test matches consecutively. The self belief and fighting spirit in this team are as good as any we've seen in at least the past two decades, and the attitude is positive to the extreme. The old adage of attack being the best form of defense is something this side consistently brings to their cricket.

The other reason Australia has won 15 Test matches in a row, one might suggest, is the arrival of Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist made his Test debut only 18 months ago, but Australia has won all 14 Tests he has appeared in. Maybe it is time for all of us to acknowledge that it may not be entirely coincidental! He replaced a legend in Ian Healy and he is clearly not as adept as his predecessor with the gloves - but what he offers with the bat more than makes up for that. He adds to an already formidable batting line-up the knock-out punch - an ability to rip an attack to shreds, and a temperament to be able to do so with even greater conviction when his side is in trouble.

The last time Australia were in trouble in a Test match, it was Gilchrist who came to their rescue, forging a partnership with Langer that will live in Aussie legend - and he was only playing in his Second Test.

On Wednesday Gilchrist was playing his 15th, came in with his side reeling at 99/5, and played what might yet come to be regarded as one of the great Test knocks of modern times. In the space of a scant two-and-a-half hours, he turned a Test match on its head.

It bears repeating that, when Gilchrist made his appearance, the conditions were very difficult for batting - the 99/5 had not just been brought about by a combination of ill-luck and bad shots by the batsmen. The pitch was difficult, the ball was turning square. And every so often the ball would leap off the track akin to nothing so much as a spitting cobra - a leaping keeper Mongia often collected deliveries from off-spinner Harbajan Singh over his shoulder, with both feet off the ground.

With the fielders ringing the bat and the ball turning sharply, Gilchrist made the remarkably audacious decision to attack - and to attack by hitting into the open spaces to mid-wicket, against the biting turn. It requires remarkable self-belief and courage to decide on that strategy - and an even greater degree of skill to actually execute it. To which must be allied remarkable judgement, to pick the correct balls on which to play those strokes.

Up to that point, Gilchrist had struggled to come to terms with Indian condtions - he had failed in his previous four innings on tour, with scores of 5, 21, 22 and 4. And even in this innings, he started with just a solitary single off the first 15 deliveries he faced. He was facing a bowler who had claimed 3 for 30 in his first 15 overs. Yet his self-belief never wavered, his confidence was never shaken.

Once the decision was mentally made to take on the bowlers, the treatment was brutal. Harbajan Singh was charged and smashed over long-on for six, and then swept consecutively for two, four and two as he conceded 14 off the over.

Sanghvi was easier - he spun the ball into the left-hander, and so could be struck with the spin. He was hit down to long-on for four. Tendulkar was hit for 2 boundaries as well, and Australia went into lunch at 170/5 with the game beginning to run away from India, less than an hour after it had seemed in their grasp.

For the second day in succession, the hour after lunch produced the most glorious cricket imaginable. Yesterday it had been Tendulkar in prime touch, today it was Gilchrist in rampant form with Hayden playing a wonderful supporting role.

Harbhajan, getting big turn and still being swept off the off-stump with authority, decided to pitch outside off and spin it away - and Gilchrist promptly gave himself room and smacked him twice through point for fours.

Agarkar was crunched through midwicket for four, and swatted through cover for four more the next over.

Harbhajan went back to his old line, and was swept yet again through midwicket for four. The Indian team was so shell-shocked with the strokeplay that they still hadn't thought to plug that immensely profitable gap. And Gilchrist was in no mood to give quarter - so he promptly swept Harbajan again, this time for six.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, said the Bard. And Ganguly, who had not dared trust Rahul Sanghvi with any more than the 6 overs he had bowled all day, summoned the debutant to try his hand once more against Gilchrist. Sanghvi was lucky enough to be given a man on the deep mid-wicket fence, but his brand of bowling was meat-and-drink to the rampant Gilchrist - he was swept for six over the head of the man on the fence, and then swept for four more wide off him.

The hapless Sanghvi was persisted with for yet another over, and by now Gilchrist was toying with the bowlers - he was swept for four again, and then lofted over long-on for yet another six. Exit Sanghvi, stage left, after a spell of 2 overs for 27 runs - Desperate Remedies dont always cure Desperate Diseases.

Now Harbhajan was brought back from the other end - Hope had clearly triumphed over Belief. He was greeted with a powerful cut past point for a boundary off his very first ball. The next was swept yet again for four. Two more sweeps for singles followed in the same over, the second taking Gilchrist to his hundred - which he had reached before Hayden, having given the latter a start of two-and-a-half fours and exactly 50 runs. And Hayden had scored what most would consider a relatively quick Test match hundred himself!

Statistics give some indication of the carnage at the Wankhede - Gilchrist's second fifty had come off precisely 29 deliveries. There were 15 balls crunched to the fence, and 4 hit a long way over it. A jaw-dropping 96 runs were scored in one glorious hour after lunch.

When Gilchrist came in, his side was 77 behind, facing a deficit on a deteriorating pitch, and in serious trouble. When he left, a scant two-and-ahalf hours later, his side was 150 ahead, in the catbird seat, with with an opposition in disarray and the opposing captain visibly shell-shocked.

It was a brutal yet magnificent - incandescent strokeplay on a gloriously sunny afternoon before a delirious crowd. It was a bludgeoning, what the locals called a "pitai", of the kind that the Wankhede has probably never witnessed in its storied history.

And it has left India facing a mountain they look increasingly unlikely to climb.