Perhaps the choice was dictated by the prevailing circumstances in the country but it robbed the viewers of what could have been an exciting finish.

At Mohali, or for that matter at any place in the North of India, fog plays a major role in dictating the outcome.

India won the toss and elected to bat first. It was indeed a good batting surface but overcast conditions might have forced Dhoni to have second thoughts about the decision.

If it didn't, Sehwag's early dismissal certainly would have. With an out-of-form Rahul Dravid batting at three, it could easily have been a different story.

But Dravid found some form at just the right moment and brought up a well-deserved century in testing conditions both on and off the field.

On the field the English bowling have shown a lot of depth and variety, enough to make the batsmen work hard for their runs; and off the field there was the intense media scrutiny over the career of Dravid and he responded in the only way he knows - by scoring runs.

Gautam Gambhir, along with Dravid, ensured India reached to a strong position. Gautam has matured as a batsman and scoring 1000 Test runs in 2008 underlines his consistency.

The English bowling has impressed me a great deal as they've managed to ask more questions in two Test matches than the Australian team did in the previous four.

In Graeme Swann they have unearthed a good off-spinner and if Monty Panesar can find form, who I think needs to add variety in terms of bowling speed to be more effective, they can be a very competent spin duo to complement their already more than decent fast bowling attack.

Once India posted 453 runs in the first innings, taking into account the number of overs lost everyday, only two results seemed likely: another win for India or a draw.

England, to their credit, pursued the game and with some very aggressive batting, the Test began to come to life again. But despite Pietersen's blistering century, which deserves a special mention as it was a display of high-class aggressive batting, England still ended up conceding a huge first innings lead.

India lost early wickets and couldn't drive home the advantage. They chose caution over aggression and decided to shut shop.

There was a fair amount of criticism in the media about India's approach but, considering that India were already 1-0 up in the series and it was the last Test match of what has been a very long and demanding season, one could understand and even somewhat sympathise with their decision.

The Indian team has gone from strength to strength in the year 2008, where they started with their tour to Australia and finished the year on a bright note, beating both Australia and England to maintain the impeccable record at home.

After seeing the English team bowl on lifeless Indian wickets and bat against quality spin, I can see the gap bridging between the top Test teams in the world.

Australia can no longer take their numero uno position for granted as there are some serious contenders to challenge their supremacy.

Australia, India, South Africa and England form the elite group and we are assured some exciting Test cricket whenever these four are involved against each other.

I'm eagerly looking forward to the Ashes contest this summer.

 
This series was also the last one for both Kumble and Sourav who retired from Test cricket after it. It seems to be the end of an era in Indian cricket: an era in which India graduated from a tough team to beat at home to an almost invincible team in home conditions. India started winning more games while touring overseas as well.
 
The good thing is that they've left the team in able hands and the future looks promising. Please don't get me wrong, they will surely be missed because it's tough to fill the shoes of such icons but the team seems to be moving along in the right direction. 
 
Coming back to the game in Nagpur, India did all the right things in the match to put themselves in the position of regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It started with winning the toss and then just doing the basics right. The pitch didn't offer much to the bowlers with bounce being on the lower side and the pace on the slower. 
 
Tendulkar went on to score his 40th Test century and his 10th against the Aussies. If a team needed to force a result, it was Australia and for that they had to create opportunities. Instead they dropped catches and allowed India to score 441 in their first innings.
 
The only bright spot for the Aussies was debutant Krejza, who took eight Indian wickets in the first innings to go with the four in the second. He got a lot of tap from the batsmen but showed a lot of heart to flight the ball and look for a wicket despite taking the beating he did and his brave bowling display was rewarded with a man-of-the-match award on debut.
 

Some of the tactics employed by Australia surprised me. After a solid start in the first innings where they were scoring at nearly four runs an over (189 for 2 in 49 overs), they went on to score just 166 runs in remaining 85 overs on day three and played into India's hands. On the fourth day they managed to reduce the Indians to 160 odd for 6 at tea and were within striking distance of wrapping up the innings in quick time. But they started off with the part-time bowlers and let the opportunity slip once again.
 
Yes, the overrate was slow and the captain would've been penalised with a one-Test ban but letting go of the chance of winning the Test and with it retaining the trophy didn't make sense.
 
India managed to claw their way back into the game and once they had the cushion of 382 runs to bowl with in the last innings on a day five pitch, the trophy was theirs even before the result was known.
 
Australia tried to chase the target but made a right hash of it. They were outplayed by a superior side and the questions regarding their supremacy on international cricket loom larger than ever.

India take on England in a seven-match ODI series followed by a two-match Test series.

While England have shown great improvement under Pietersen's captaincy, beating this Indian team would take some doing. Personally, I would've preferred at least one, if not two, more Tests because seven one-day matches are a couple too many to keep the interest going. In either case, it's certainly an exciting six weeks of cricket to look forward to.

Aakash Chopra opened the batting for India in 10 Tests, forming an all-Delhi combination with Virender Sehwag during India's tour of Australia in 2003-04. He also made his mark as an exceptional bat-pad fielder. He writes columns for the Hindustan Times and Cricinfo. He recently wrote Beyond the Blues, out in December, his season diary for Delhi's 2007-08 championship season.

An injury to his left hand limited his participation in the third Test against Australia and prompted him to call it a day immediately after the game ended in a draw.

He bowled with a heavily bandaged left hand in Delhi after receiving 11 stitches and he will be remembered for his bravery as well as for his immense skill.

Who can forget his spell against West Indies in Antigua in 2002 when he bowled with a broken jaw after originally planning to fly home to India to have it operated on.

Once he that Sachin Tendulkar was getting the ball to turn and a possible Indian victory was in sight, he decided to ignore the pain, got Brian Lara's wicket and left the field only when the chance of an Indian win was gone.

Such was the courage of the man - he has always been a fighter and lived up to it even in his last outing

The thing that separates Kumble from other great Indian bowlers was his ability to win Test matches on his own. Give him a turner and he would almost guarantee an Indian victory with a bagful of wickets.

In the early part of his career, he was criticised for being a one-dimensional bowler and was considered lethal only on turning Indian wickets.

He took that criticism on the chin and continued to add variety to his bowling so that he eventually became a threat in all conditions, home or abroad. His outstanding performances in Australia underlined his growth as an all-round champion bowler.

Kumble was a little off-colour in his last couple of series and being a thorough professional, he knew his time was up. In one of his columns prior to this series, he wrote that he would go out on his own terms and he did just that.

The match in Delhi was dominated throughout by the batsmen and we witnessed only 22 wickets falling in five days. Not a pleasant sight for the spectators.

Two Indians - Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman - made double centuries in the first innings and further exposed the ineffectiveness of this Australian attack.Both of them batted with a lot of patience and panache.

Gambhir has come of age as a Test cricketer and his back-to-back centuries showed his hunger for runs. Laxman has had a liking for the Australian attack for quite some time and it is no wonder they rate him so highly.

This was the first time two batsmen scored double centuries in one innings against an Australian team led by Ricky Ponting which says a lot about how lacklustre their bowling in general has been and how much they've been missing a quality world-class spinner.

Australia had to bat out of their skins to save the game and they did exactly that. Each player applied himself and ensured that wickets didn't fall in a heap. Despite just one century in their reply, the Australians managed to string together enough partnerships to keep India at bay.

The injury to Kumble during the match and Harbhajan Singh before it, resulting in him missing the game, meant India needed someone else to shine. Virender Sehwag did exactly that and took his first five-for on his home ground.

I rate Sehwag as more than just a part-time spinner because he has a lovely body action and puts a lot of rotations on the ball when he bowls. The rough outside the off-stump was assisting the off-spinner more than anyone else and that made me wonder what would have happened had Harbhajan been fit - it might have been a different story altogether.

Unfortunately, 'ifs' and 'buts' don't matter in sport.

Once the Australians scored 577 in their first innings, the match was going only one way - a dull draw. There was never enough time left in the match nor enough life in the track to provide any other result.

Australia salvaged some lost pride after the defeat in Mohali but there's still a lot to be done if they are to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy and they will have to force the issue in the final Test.

Nagpur, the venue for the last Test match, might bring back some happy memories for Australia as this is where they clinched the series in 2004. But the Vidharbha Cricket Association has built a new stadium since then and this will be the first Test match played there.

No-one really knows how the track is going to behave but with the trophy up for grabs, we can expect a hard-fought battle.

Aakash Chopra opened the batting for India in 10 Tests, forming an all-Delhi combination with Virender Sehwag during India's tour of Australia in 2003-04. He also made his mark as an exceptional bat-pad fielder. He writes columns for the Hindustan Times and Cricinfo. He recently wrote Beyond the Blues, out in December, his season diary for Delhi's 2007-08 championship season.

Dhoni's contribution, as shown by his man-of-the-match award, was invaluable. His two fifties put the game that much out of the Aussies' reach. His batting was backed up by his fantastic work in the field, not just as keeper, but also as an inspiring young captain. That's new-age cricket for you!

A few words on the track. This particular pitch is made of black soil and if one takes away the grass and moisture, it becomes a really good surface to bat on. The bounce is always on the lower side, and without any grass or moisture, the lateral movement is non-existent too. The ball just skids onto the bat to be hit through the line.

I never expected the Australian spinners to make an impression here but even the quicker bowlers let them down. What surprised me was their complete inability to get the ball to reverse swing in the air and that left them with very few options. At times (especially in the second innings) they looked like they were waiting for things to happen and the batsman to make a mistake.

When it was India's turn to bowl, they found a new hero in debutant Amit Mishra. He became only the sixth Indian to take a "five-for" on debut. The absence of Anil Kumble was a major cause of concern before the start of the game but Mishra slipped into the role seamlessly.

It just shows the depth of talent available in India. We have a quality fast bowling line-up and even the spin department looks very efficient. Add to that the formidable batting order and it just makes you wonder whether this was such an unexpected result after all!

The Australian batting failed twice on a beauty of a track and this was a combination of several things. Firstly, the pressure of 469 runs in the first innings is a lot, regardless of the quality of batting at one's disposal. Secondly, the Indian bowlers used the conditions better than their counterparts and kept a tight leash throughout. Last but not least, the shot selection of a few Australian batsmen left a lot to be desired.

The tables have now turned. If it was India who needed to do a lot of thinking after the first Test, it's now Australia's turn to come up with the answers because they seemed to have none to the questions thrown at them in this match.

Aakash Chopra opened the batting for India in 10 Tests, forming an all-Delhi combination with Virender Sehwag during India's tour of Australia in 2003-04. He also made his mark as an exceptional bat-pad fielder. He writes columns for the Hindustan Times and Cricinfo. He recently wrote Beyond the Blues, out in December, his season diary for Delhi's 2007-08 championship season.

Winning the toss in the sub-continent has always been very important but on tracks like the one at the M._Chinnaswamy_Stadium, it's almost a must.

Australia did the expected by choosing to bat first and piled on the runs. One could argue that with the scoring rate, which hovered around three runs an over instead of the four we're so used to seeing when Ricky Ponting's side are batting, that they weren't really finding it easy going.

1. The track didn't offer substantial bounce and even the pace kept decreasing with every passing hour. A slow-and-low wicket is never conducive to exciting strokeplay and it showed here.

2. The most aggressive Australian batsman (Matthew Hayden) didn't fire and the absence of a Gilchrist-type player lower down the order showed up when they could've forced the issue.

Australia, though, managed not only to post a huge first innings total but also negated the Indian spin bowlers very efficiently. Ricky Ponting managed to fight the ghosts from his past (of not doing well in India) and Michael Hussey, yet again, proved his worth.

The more I see of Hussey, the more I appreciate him. His footwork is very decisive and he always plays with a lot of intent. The good thing is that even after crossing the three-figure mark, he doesn't drop his guard. It just shows his hunger to score as many runs as possible and make up for lost time (he made his Test debut at 29).

Nine wickets were shared between the quicker bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, and that might be of a little concern in the Indian dressing room. Not that there's anything wrong with fast bowlers taking most of the wickets, but to win a Test match at home, the Indian spin department must fire and do most of the damage, which it didn't in this match.

The Indian batting never got going and at one point looked like conceding a big first innings lead or even failing to save the follow-on. That's when Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer got together and pulled India out of the woods. This Indian team has always shown a lot of grit and fighting spirit and this was on display once again.

When Australia were struggling to dislodge the tail, they must've missed Shane Warne. Both Cameron White and Michael Clarke are nowhere near the quality of spin one would want to see at this level.

Australia did eventually manage to get a slender first innings lead but the moment had passed and Australia had lost their stronghold on the match. The time consumed and the runs scored by the lower Indian batsmen were vital in the context of the game.

In a Test match, time is of the essence in forcing a result and by batting a tad slower than their normal scoring rate and then taking a lot of overs to dismiss the opposition, it left Australia with very little time to score enough runs, put India in again, and then bowl them out in the last innings. Australia are surely missing Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist.

India did manage to hold on to their own in the last innings - but only just. The track was definitely not the best to bat on and it didn't suit the strokeplayers at all. And most Indians are precisely that and their inability to adapt to a different role, the role of a grinder, showed up.

Australia won more sessions than India and walked away with more positives. The key to start the tour strongly is to do well in conditions favouring the home side. Australia did it effectively (negated the spin, used reverse swing to counter the lack of bounce and played a lot off the front foot because of the lack of bounce and pace) and that has put the pressure back on the Indians to come up with new ideas for the remaining games.

But while India have a few things to ponder in the days prior to the second Test in Mohail, Australia have only one major worry - the lack of a quality spinner. But they can't do anything about that anymore.

Aakash Chopra opened the batting for India in 10 Tests, forming an all-Delhi combination with Virender Sehwag during India's tour of Australia in 2003-04. He also made his mark as an exceptional bat-pad fielder. He writes columns for the Hindustan Times and Cricinfo. He recently wrote Beyond the Blues, his season diary for Delhi's 2007-08 championship season.

The 31-year-old is a prolific opening batsman, who made his first-class debut during the 1997-98 Indian season.

With India struggling to find a consistent top order pair, he was given his first Test cap against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 2003 and followed that with two half centuries in the following game at Mohali.

Chopra went on to make 10 appearances before losing his place during the home series against Australia 12 months later, but has remained a heavy scorer at domestic level.

During the 2007-08 season he scored almost 800 runs to help Delhi win the Ranji Trophy and again put himself in the farme for a Test recall.

He also plays for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League.