It’s nice to end the tour on a winning note

Steve Waugh

April 7, 2001

The way I see it, the One-Day win does not make up for our defeat in the Test series. The team that won the One-Day series is different and the two forms of the game are also pretty dissimilar. It was a great achievement on the part of the players who joined us for the One-Dayers to get acclimatized in such a short time, and it took character on the part of the rest of us to put a disappointing Test series behind us. At one point in the series we were 1-2 down, and it was quite creditable that we came back to take the series. While the Test series disappointment remains, it certainly is a nice feeling to end the tour on a winning note.

After the Indore One-Dayer all the players made a commitment to give the next two games their best shot. We decided to try hard, remain upbeat ­ which was pretty tough after the amount of travelling and playing we had done -- and improve on our batting which let us down in Indore and Bangalore. We did not throw the rotation policy out of the window, it was very much in use. The all-rounders were rotated, exactly the way they have been all year. I don't know if anyone has the blueprint of the rotation system to decide whether we are applying it or discontinuing it. Perhaps the fact that Glenn McGrath did not get a break prompted such conjecture, but he played the Indore game only because Nathan Bracken was unfit, and would definitely have been rotated out of the side if it were a longer series.

In Vizag we decided to build partnerships and put pressure on the bowling ­ two things we had failed to do during the earlier matches. The confidence we gained from our batting performance in that game stood us in good stead during the decider in Goa. Matthew Hayden played magnificently in Vizag, and his performance in the last two months will go down as one of the great tours by an Australian cricketer. Hayden had always had visions of being a One-Day player and had even made it to the squad last year. His performance stands testimony to the fact that things will happen if you work hard enough. His emergence has given us one more option at the top of the order. In the past, Darren Lehmann and Damien Martyn have performed quite well at the top of the order. Now Hayden too can offer us an alternative at that spot. This means we have five options at the top of the batting and this is the kind of flexibility the team is striving for.

At Goa, the ground was fantastic and the facilities were pretty good. However, the wicket was a little soft and not as batsman-friendly as the earlier ones. This was not a bad thing since a pitch that offers some help to the bowlers does make the game a little less one-sided. Bevan once again proved that he is the best One-Day batsman around. Others may have scored more runs, especially at the top of the order, but he scores his runs towards the end of the innings when he is under pressure. The number of matches he has sealed for Australia entitles him to the title of the world's best One-Day batsman.

Goa was a great place to end the tour, and it was a bit of a godsend to a team that was yearning for some privacy. At our wonderful resort we could walk around and have a quiet swim without too many people around. This ends what will almost certainly be my last Test series in India. However, I have no doubt that my various ties with India will bring me back here. I am involved with Sporting Frontiers, an organisation that has interests here. That apart, there is Udayan, which is a cause that I'm working for. I'll be back here in some capacity or the other, I have no doubts about that.

© Gameplan

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Australia tour of India

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India