This Border–Gavaskar Trophy was composed of seven first-class matches, including four Tests.India tour of Australia, 2003–04 – Fixtures India also participated in an ODI tri-series with Australia and Zimbabwe. The Test series was drawn 1–1, and India retained the Border–Gavaskar Trophy because of their victory in the Trophy's previous contest. In the 2003–04 series' Adelaide Test, Rahul Dravid scored a double century, securing a famous win for India. Sachin Tendulkar scored 241* in Sydney, which up until that point in his career was his highest score in a Test match. Captain Sourav Ganguly made his first test century against Australia, a 144 in Brisbane that gave his team a lead of 86 after they were in trouble. VVS Laxman played consistently well throughout this series, most notably his contribution in the Adelaide test is well remembered. This series was also the last for Steve Waugh, who had captained Australia to a record equalling 16 consecutive test match victories and had 41 victories in 57 Tests.Wikipedia article on Steve Waugh
Tour matches Victoria v Indians
Queensland Academy of Sport v Indians
Australia A v Indians
Test series 1st Test
Match report
Debuts: Nathan Bracken (Australia)
First day:
The pitch at the Gabba had a green top, which was acknowledged as being greener than the Gabba ever was. There was heavy cloud cover all day too."Right Decision, Wrong Execution", by Sambit Bal, CricInfo originally written on 4 December 2003, Retrieved 19 September 2011. These conditions were accepted as being the Indian bowlers' only chance to quell the Australian bowlers as their bowling relied more on swing rather than pure pace. Sourav Ganguly, the Indian Captain won the toss and chose to field, but Zaheer Khan, India's opening bowler bowled a wayward first spell and then he and Ashish Nehra bowled consistently on a full-length basis, which resulted in the accumulation of runs for the Australian openers, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. While Hayden played aggressively, Langer played stylishly, in an almost "apologetic" manner.
The duo piled up the runs before the Indians luck changed when Akash Chopra caught Langer off Ashish Nehra's no-ball at square leg. After this, the Indian bowlers made the batsmen play and miss more frequently and Zaheer Khan produced a good spell. But it was not until the score read 73 that India separated the two Australians. Zaheer Khan took Hayden's first wicket with a flashy delivery, which Hayden edged to VVS Laxman at slips for 37 made from 52 balls.
The new batsman Ricky Ponting walked in and was greeted by Ajit Agarkar's beautiful first over, but Agarkar was quickly removed from the attack after some poor bowling resulted in damage of his figures which read: 5–1–40–0. Then having no other options, Ganguly turned towards the only spinner in his team, Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan had dismissed Ponting five times in the 2000–01 series and had troubled the Australians with 32 wickets in three tests, but this time his first ball was savagely cut by Langer, and then Ponting dealt with him in the same manner.
During the course of their 89-run partnership, neither spin nor pace could unsettle the two batsmen. Then against the run of play, Zaheer Khan got the wicket of Ponting with a short delivery. Damien Martyn walked in at 162/2. He was unhurried and played his own game, which ESPNcricinfo writer Anand Vasu wrote, was "very pleasing to the eye". Finally, when no play was possible due to bad light, Australia had finished at 262/2 from 62 overs at an above-par run-rate of 4.22, with Langer finishing at 115 from 175 balls, and Martyn finishing at 42."Langer rides an Australian wave" by Anand Vasu At the end of the day, Langer hailed this century as one of his "best".'One of my best'-Langer by Dileep Premachandran
Second day
Play started at 11:30 am on the second day and Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, had been refreshed after a break after day one. The first batsman to be dismissed by the two Indian quicks was Justin Langer. He was dismissed by Agarkar's skiddy medium pace which was aided by late swing. Langer had just smashed Agarkar's previous ball to the fence, when he got dismissed off the next ball by a ball that pitched just in the line of the off-stump and would, as replays went on to show, have not gone past leg-stump. He was dismissed for 121. Australia's score read 268/3. Next man in was Steve Waugh playing his final test at Brisbane.
Waugh had walked in amidst loud ovation, and his arrival was widely anticipated. However, he immediately got into trouble, when, Martyn punched a ball through covers, and then ran two for it. Waugh then backed up for a third run, but Martyn pleaded to him emphatically enough to ignore the run. However, by the time Waugh did heed the call, it was too late for him to turn around. Martyn then sacrificed his wicket for his captain's. He was run out by Harbhajan Singh's throw from the deep, which Parthiv Patel took and whipped off the bails. However, the strangeness of the dismissal was accentuated by the fact that the ball was a no-ball. Waugh could not redeem himself as he got out shortly to a short ball by Zaheer Khan, and while trying to negotiate a ball from Zaheer, overbalanced and trod on his stumps. This dismissal gave him the dubious distinction of being the only man to be dismissed in every way possible in cricket, barring obstructing the field and timed out."Nostalgia Time" by Sambit Bal Referring to his failure and the unfortunate mix-up between him and Damien Martyn, Greg Chappell mentioned in an interview that Waugh's last mile was going to be uphill from then."From Hero to Villain", by Sambit Bal Waugh's dismissal brought the score down to 275/5.
During lunchtime, the rain-gods visited the Gabba and confined the players indoors till 4:20 pm. The next session of play after that was dominated by the Indians. Adam Gilchrist, the next batsman in, was usually known to reply with a furious fifty or hundred, but he too, did not hang around for too long, as he lasted for four balls and did not trouble the scorers at all and departed for a duck with the scoreline being 276/6. Again his manner of dismissal was familiar: caught Laxman, bowled Zaheer. Buoyant and hopeful of their prospects of cleaning up the tail after Gilchrist's wicket, the Indians scalped the wicket of Andy Bichel(11 runs) caught by Laxman again, off Agarkar's bowling, then Simon Katich, who had contributed 16 runs to the score, before his nervous stay at the wicket was ended by a tentative poke at a Zaheer delivery to wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel.
Jason Gillespie was distinctly uncomfortable during his stay at the crease as he was tested immediately by a few Ajit Agarkar deliveries before being run-out after attempting an over-ambitious fourth run to reduce Australia to 317/9. The Australian tailenders added further six runs before light worsened and play could not be continued anymore. The Indians had dominated a damp squib of a day, where only sixteen overs could be bowled. The Australian batsmen squandered a strong platform set by their top-order, to lose an incredible 7 wickets for 61 runs."India rock the Gabba on a rainy day", a Wisden bulletin by Anand Vasu written on 5 December 2003, Retrieved 20 September 2011 The second day of the match was notable for the sixteen overs of play during which only two bowlers were used: Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan. However, on a worrying note, the Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly was warned for his bowlers not completing nine fewer overs than the scheduled number of overs that was to be bowled. This constituted a level two offence in the ICC's Code of Conduct and Ganguly was liable to be penalised fifty percent of his match-fees."Ganguly warned for tardy over-rate" This risked Ganguly being the first captain in test cricket to be docked for slow over-rates after he became the first captain to be docked a couple of runs for running in the Danger Area in a test against New Zealand in Ahmedabad earlier that year."Ganguly in danger of being suspended for slow over-rates"
Praise was reserved for the Indian bowlers' extensively penetrative bowling and their ebullient comeback after a tolling day which saw them becoming increasingly despondent and lacklustre. Zaheer Khan bowled half of the sixteen overs possible on that day and his figures were: 8–0–42–3. These figures if expensive, belied the fact that Khan bowled according to the plans the Indians had set to different Australian batsmen. Zaheer hit an unplayable line and length mark right from his very first over and did not let any batsman settle. Agarkar kept Martyn quiet with some deliveries that the batsman played and missed. Greg Chappell and Sunil Gavaskar, two players who had played in the 1981 Melbourne test match between the two countries, when India defeated the Australians by 59 runs after setting them a target of 143, reckoned that the Indian bowlers' performances were quite close to the bowling heroics put up by the Indian team in that match. Overall, Zaheer's 5/95 was his third successive five-wicket haul in tests."A Stunning Contrast" Wisden verdict
Third day
The third day brought frustration for all players alike and the spectators too, as the weather proved to be extremely unkind, delaying the start of the day's play and hastening its end. The 9,136 spectators who had assembled to witness whether their home team could inspire a fightback of the sort the Indians produced the previous day, but it was treated to long hours of waiting, and when the play did begin it seemed like a farcical proceeding, for the day's play began only at 3:18 pm and ended just 37 minutes later, at 3:55 pm. The day's play however, was not shorn of its drama and excitement. In the 38 balls that were sent down on the third day, one was enough to clean up the Australian tail. Ajit Agarkar bowling the first over of the day, bowled the first delivery of the day short and wide of off-stump. Stuart MacGill, the batsman played an ugly shot, a clumsy sweep, which only succeeded in procuring an edge which ballooned to Akash Chopra at point. Perhaps MacGill felt embarrassed by his own shot selection as he was seen grinning sheepishly to Nathan Bracken, the non-striker after his dismissal.
Finally after Australia ended their innings on 323, the Indian openers Chopra and Virender Sehwag faced the uphill task of facing 35 balls of high-quality swing and seam bowling, which was aided by a track which had enough grass on it to suggest that it would assist seam movement. Further, the overcast and gloomy skies did not bode too well for the Indian openers. Taking advantage of these conditions and the fact that Chopra was playing in only his third test, Jason Gillespie produced an incisive spell of bowling. His very first ball indicated that there would be a touch of outswing for him. He stuck the right length time and again, and he beat Chopra's edge frequently, making him play and miss. However, if he was beaten, Chopra did not betray any sign of that fact and played out the two frontline bowlers with assurance. Sehwag was beaten time and again by Nathan bracken, who, despite playing only his first test, generated a lot of bounce with his natural high-arm action and dominated Sehwag throughout. Sehwag, though treated his sluggish start without the slightest care and played on with nonchalance. Both of the openers made five each and India had reached 11/0 from 6.1 overs when play was concluded at that stage."Rain dampens spirits at the Gabba"
Fourth day