Memories of this tour will linger

What a satisfying feeling it was for the Australian side when Michael Bevan smashed a four to win the final and deciding match in the one-day series.

The match itself was the best of the series as far as competition between the two sides is concerned. The previous four games were very one sided to the victorious team, so it was great that such a close match, produced a fitting finale.

The one-day series, whilst not regularly producing nail-biting, close finishes, was still a very exciting spectacle for the spectators and players.

If we cast our minds back to the opening match in Bangalore, we will remember the arrival of a very talented young cricketer in the form of Virender Sehwag.

Throughout the Test and one-day series the Indian team fielded new, exciting players who will carry the hopes of the Nation along with the regular stars like Tendulkar and Dravid.

It was a terrible shame that Sehwag's series was cut short through injury, but there is no doubt we will hear his name mentioned regularly in future Indian line ups.

Another youngster who took his opportunity with both hands was Hemang Badani. His maiden century in the second match at Pune was all class. Another name to remember.

There were also brilliant centuries from a few names that have been regularly mentioned as being amongst the best batsman in the world. Mark Waugh elegantly polished off his 18th ODI century in Pune, before a broken finger prematurely ended his tour. Run machine Matthew Hayden continued his amazing feats throughout the one-day series and I think every cricket supporter, no matter which team you follow, would have been thrilled when Ricky Ponting cast aside his poor tour form and smashed a courageous hundred in Vizag.

Sachin Tendulkar's century in Indore is the type of innings the cricket world has come to expect from the master. We shouldn't take these pieces of master craftsmanship for granted, as I believe we are witnessing the work of a player who is in a league of his own, particularly in these sub-continent conditions.

To support his century, Sachin also created history by becoming the first player to notch up 10,000 one-day runs. It almost feels as though half of them have been against us!!

A contentious issue during the series was our policy of rotating players in the squad, regardless of form or past results. Our basic line of thinking is to make sure that all members of the side are exposed to pressure situations and gain experience at different positions in the side.

We do this with an eye to the future, more specifically the 2003 World Cup. Our aim is to arrive in South Africa, ready to defend our title with a squad of players who have all gained plenty of experience through many matches, in varying conditions.

Yes, there will be a loss here and there, but we feel that those set backs will only be to the long term benefit of our side.

And so another Australian Tour of India comes to an end. There is no hiding the disappointment of not leaving these friendly shores with a win in the Test series. That was certainly our major goal of the trip. The Indian side were too good in their familiar conditions and deserved to take the series.

In the one-day mode we are the current World Champions, so it was extremely important that we went on to win the series and maintain our strong position in the shortened version of the game.

From a cricketing point of view we can now take away the experience of a tough tour and try to learn from our mistakes and also highlight the things we did well. All this will be extremely valuable as we prepare in the future to make another assault on the elusive Test series win in India.

As for the general experience and memories of touring this country, they will be thoughts that will stay with us forever. Hard, tough and exhausting, but amazingly enjoyable and a pleasure to have been here. The people of India were continually friendly and made us always feel welcome in their unique country.

For this we are very thankful and I personally look forward to the next challenge for this Aussie side over here.

by Adam Gillchrist

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