Played at Melbourne Cricket Ground on 26,27,28,29,30 December 2007 (5-day match)

Result - Australia Won by 337 Runs

Achievements - Ganguly's 100 test match, Gilcrist past Ian Healy record, Australia won 15th test on a row.

Peoples who have seen this matches have all the reasons to be disappointed with the performance of Indian. Even before they landed in Australia their were rumors going around that they are the only team who can make Australia sweat as far as test matches are concern, and they had their reasons behind that. Past tour of India gave headache to Australians where they just missed out from loosing the test series, records of Indian batsmen in recent past and most important record on Indian team in tours in recent past.
When India dismissed Australia on 343 in 1st inning of test match everyone praise the performance of Indian bowlers. Its quite rear that Australia not reached the 400 mark forget about the deceleration. Bowlers responded beautifully to help India achieve this on second day of the test match but the strongest looking batting like just managed to get 192 in their first inning which turned the table in Australia's favor.
There were so many talks and statements from Indian player regards to the performance of cricket team in Australia, all were sure about the better formance by all of star players but now they must be hiding under tables from media on same questions.
Lone performer of the match from Indian side was skipper Anil Kumble who took 5 wickets in first inning and was well supported by the Zaheer Khan. RP Singh was not bowling like we have seen him in earlier test matches against England what amazed me is that he was not even achieving the speed of 135 kmph? is that because he rushed to the team after injury? not sure about that but it looked like that only and if that is true Indian cricket team have paid the cost of selecting not so fit bowler against a toughest side in world cricket.
Dravid have to learn how to say "no" to certain situation and have to understand its hot him always who have to show his love the cricket team. He should have easily said no to the opening option and let Dinesh Karthik or Virender Sehwag to do the job. Everybody knows he belongs to the No.3 for test match cricket. The way he played as a opener is just forgettable where he played almost 217 balls for his 21 runs in whole test.
I can understand this all happened only because team management want Yuvraj to play in test team but now Yuvraj too have understood that playing on subcontinent tracks against average team and playing against quality team on bouncier tracks is two side of a coin. The way he got out in second inning made me jump from my sofa!! Indians surely are the best players of spin bowling but only when they start playing international cricket in their early days. After that most of them forget to play spin bowling reason being no domestic cricket.
Tendulkar and Ganguly in their so called last tour to Australia failed to perform in critical situation when team expected so much from these two pro's. The way they got out was really shocking and they need to think again about their strategy for coming test cricket.
In bowling department India need some changes for the next match. Harbhajan is not bowling like he used to do in past. He bowled flat in the first inning and struggled to beat the batsmen or take wickets his frustration can be seen when he got run out in the second inning. His behaviour was not acceptable and team management should look at this.
Indians are not known for their fielding skills though they have a fielding coach in place now I still feel that will not work with the current team. Reason being saying that is all the player who are bad fielders are the one playing from long time now and they will definitely not improve (Sachin,Laxman,Ganguly,Kumble,Harbhajan,Zaheer Khan). They struggled to chase the ball in a big ground like Melbourne and their running between was pathetic.
As my heart with the Indian team and I wanted them to chase the big one and my mind flown too high on imagination to see them winning the match they just didn't do anything what I was wishing and praying. Anyway just waiting for the next test to start so that they can provide a little joy to us (fans).
Match Scorecard
Match Highlights