India learns to win the Australian way – sledging and all

Given that Australia produced the template for success in modern cricket: make a power of runs, take a poultice of wickets and sledge the bejesus out of your opponents for five days, the Boys in Baggy Green cannot feel too aggrieved that those very same methods have brought them undone in this latest Test.

In beating Australia convincingly in Mohali, India used the Test champions’ time-honoured modus operandi to get the job done. The Indian opening batsmen, and middle order, were bold and attacking. Their opening bowlers made early inroads into the Australian line-up, they were loud and aggressive in the field, and then their spinners took key wickets. In short, Australia were out-Australianed, beaten at their own game by an Indian team displaying uncharacteristic grit and ruthlessness.

And the way the side has reacted when put under this pressure has been revealing: Hayden virtually runless, Lee virtually wicketless and, in frustration, the fast bowler then exchanging terse words with his captain. Australian teams have rarely disintegrated like this.

But, in the interests of fairness, and because this column or many years has lambasted the Australian cricket team for its poor on-field behaviour, it’s time to call the Indians to account. Their emphatic victory was tarnished by the sort of boorishness and childish conduct which Australia invented and proudly claimed the patent to.

What was Zaheer Khan thinking, running well out his way from fine leg to get in Matthew Hayden’s face, and give him a send-off? He can be thankful he was only docked 80% of his match fee. Then there was the constant chatter of Harbhajan and, at the drinks break, Gautam Gambhir chirping away like a demented cockatoo. 

It is probably no coinidence the troubles have occurred in the absence of injured captain Anil Kumble, a respected figure in the home camp. Kumble’s stand-in, wicketkeeper MS Dhoni, did himself a disservice by appealing for a catch against Mitchell Johnson after it had bounced, and then fuelling the tension between the teams by promising more of the same aggro in the Third Test.

It ill-behoves Australian cricketers to ever complain about their opponents’ conduct – it was they, after all, who drew up the rules of engagement. But, at a time when they are working hard to redeem their reputation, they will be feeling bemused - and maybe a little jacked off – that India has picked up the baton of bad behaviour and is now whacking them over the head with it.

Hindhus and Buddhists will surely be smiling knowingly at this turn of events, as the Australians now reap what they have sowed. For the cosmic principle of karma – where people are rewarded or punished in one life according to their deeds in a previous incarnation - applies to everything in the human universe, including the behaviour of cricket teams.