Atrocious umpiring and inept batting sink India

SYDNEY: Atrocious umpiring and inept batting on Sunday led to a shock 122-run defeat for India against Australia in the second cricket Test marked by bitterness between the two sides.
   
India failed to survive the last seven balls of the match as Michael Clarke snapped up three wickets in a span of five balls to give the hosts a record-equalling 16th consecutive Test win.

On a controversial fifth day's play, the Indians were left to chase a stiff target of 333 in 72 overs but they were skittled out for 210 in 70.5 overs as Australia took an invincible 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

In the nerve-wracking final moments, it seemed India would manage a draw at 210 for seven but Clarke dismissed Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh and Ishant Sharma in quick succession to hand a dramatic victory to his team.

The victory in this rivetting Test, marked by controversial umpiring decisions and a simmering race row, allows the home team to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

The fifth and final day was sullied by some horrendous umpiring decisions and as has been the case so far, Australia had no reason to complaint while India found themselves at the receiving end of the goof-ups by Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson.

Although the Indians had reasons to be aggrieved with umpiring, the batting collapse was quite inexplicable as the fifth day SCG track did have something for the bowlers but was not unplayable for an experienced batting line-up.

Tendulkar (12) then dragged one on to his stumps, a familiar sight by now.

Ganguly and Dravid still tried to steady the rocking boat but another mini-collapse followed and it was triggered not by any Australian bowler but by umpire Steve Bucknor.

A howler by the Jamaican umpire marked Dravid's exit, a decision that upset the otherwise unflappable batsman who looked dismayed with the decision.

Dravid had padded a Symonds delivery that brushed his knee-roll before landing on Adam Gilchrist's gloves and Bucknor ruled the batsman caught out.

When replays were shown on the screen, the crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground responded by booing Bucknor.
   
It was a sad end to Dravid's 103-ball defiance that yielded 38 runs with the help of six fours.

In Yuvraj Singh's case, however, there was no such confusion as the off-colour left-hander scratched around and then edged Symonds to return without bothering the scorer.
  
Ganguly was in red hot form, something he underlined with three successive boundaries off Symonds but Benson cut short his stay, ruling him caught by Michael Clarke off Brett Lee even though the fielder apparently took it off the ground and also grounded the ball while rolling over.

It was a fatal blow that left Dhoni and Kumble to wage a grim battle and then Clarke came up with the magical over to dash India's hopes of a draw.