It was at 1.37 p.m. on Tuesday that this capricious first Test, which had swung wildly and often, sometimes with no determinable reason, finally rested.
It took all of V.V.S. Laxman's considerable powers to persuade the Test India's way as it settled. Just how this kind, gentle man continues to find under the most severe duress not merely the right response, but also the sensitive, artistic response is still not known and perhaps never will be.
But this much is certain: if a situation, given up for dead, needs resuscitation, particularly against Australia, you can be sure Laxman will breathe life into it.
Laxman's done it twice in two Tests now — he hand-crafted a match-winning century in the third Test against Sri Lanka in August, and while that was a remarkable innings, his unbeaten 73 here on Tuesday, made despite a stiff back, was a masterpiece in miniature, among the greatest non-century knocks of all time.
He arrived at the crease 25 minutes into the fifth morning, Suresh Raina in tow as runner, after Zaheer Khan, the night-watchman, had edged Nathan Hauritz to slip. India, pursuing 216 for victory, was on 76 for five.
Australia immediately tested Laxman with the short ball, forcing him to jerk his head away, doing his back no favours at all.
Stilted movements
Laxman appeared stilted in his movements. But he managed to use his reach — such an under-appreciated facet of his batsmanship — to cover-drive Hauritz against the break for his first four. He hung back next ball, which was shorter, and stroked it past short-cover off the back-foot for another four.
These two balls showed that while he was still in discomfort, it wasn't preventing him from using crease-space as he can against spin.
The introduction of Doug Bollinger made matters interesting. Sachin Tendulkar, who had made three handsome strokes for boundaries against Nathan Hauritz and reached 1000 runs in the calendar year for the sixth time in his career, was at once made aware of what Bollinger can do.
One ball jumped off a length and smote Tendulkar on the glove. Tendulkar brought out the upper-cut, but the delivery, of slightly shorter length, didn't rise as promised, and Michael Hussey held a blinder at gully.
When M.S. Dhoni departed 20 minutes later, a victim of the confusion a runner engenders, India had slipped to 122 for seven. It soon became 124 for eight, as Bollinger devoured Harbhajan Singh with a lifter.
Thus began the partnership that turned the Test. Bit by bit, for an hour and 46 minutes, Laxman and Ishant Sharma chipped away at the deficit. Laxman trusted Ishant, often taking the single on offer, first ball. Ishant repaid the trust, using his height and a surprising clarity of purpose to negotiate the seamers.
Strained abdomen
That Bollinger left the field with a strained abdomen not to bowl again helped the pair — he was the only Australian to trouble Laxman, nearly forcing a chop-on once, gaining an edge that went through the slips another time.
Somehow Laxman found the boundary when he needed it. His singular pull-stroke — wrists, not arms and body, doing the work — returned profits, as did the velvet-punched drive through cover off the back-foot.
Ishant managed runs himself, three fours off Mitchell Johnson in fact — a steer, a flail, and an edge. It wasn't until Johnson bothered Ishant, nearly having him caught at short-leg, did Laxman farm the strike, waiting until the fourth ball for the single.
The second ball after drinks in the middle session ended Ishant's defiant, heroic stay. Ben Hilfenhaus claimed his fourth wicket, winning an appeal for leg-before from umpire Ian Gould, but the ball would have missed leg-stump. India still needed 11.
Tension thickens
Pragyan Ojha walked in, the tension thickened, the game grew taut as a drawn bow. Disaster threatened every instant — even Laxman betrayed a rare moment of anxiety when he yelled at Ojha to run. But he swiftly regained his equipoise, and soon six were required for victory, as Ojha prepared to face Johnson.
The left-armer had a strong appeal for leg-before, Ojha wandered out of his crease, and Steve Smith, the substitute fielder, took aim from point. It was a moment that could have won Australia the game; it brought four overthrows instead.
Umpire Billy Bowden didn't signal leg-byes and therefore revealed that he had detected an inside-edge (which replays didn't confirm).
On such thin margins are Tests sometimes won. Ojha and Raina promptly scampered two leg-byes. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy was safe. Laxman had again mastered Australia.
