CRICKET/ Fourth Test: A cricket match that had long since slipped the surly bonds of earth finished in Sydney yesterday with everyone still absolutely flying.

A record fifth-day crowd of more than 27,000 roared their appreciation all the way to the end of the amazing contest between Australia and India and for nearly an hour beyond as the Australian captain, Steve Waugh, was chaired round the ground by his team-mates at the end of his 168th and positively last Test.

Yet the game itself, the fourth and final Test, was drawn. Indeed it had been almost certain for hours beforehand that it was going to be drawn. The series itself was drawn, 1-1. But everyone was enthralled for five days solid.

This was partly because many Australians, with the faith that comes from living in a young country that wins a lot of cricket matches, believed they were going to score the unprecedented 443 needed for victory even when it was moving towards the mathematically impossible.

They believed that in part because Waugh himself was at the crease and apparently on his way to a century, one last cricketing coup de theatre.

Waugh was infected himself. When he reached 80 he tried to hit Anil Kumble for six and was caught, by Sachin Tendulkar no less, on the deep square-leg boundary. Adam Gilchrist was out two balls later, which meant Australia were six down and once again in at least notional danger of defeat.

"It shows that after 168 Tests you can still lose the plot under pressure," Waugh said.

Australia came through, finishing on 357 for six on a still benign pitch. But, if anyone had the sniff of victory at the end, it was India. They retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (a bauble that has a new importance within the game) and, though they failed in their major objective, to win a series in Australia for the first time, the Indians emerged with their reputation dramatically enhanced. Their home series against Australia nine months hence now becomes unquestionably the cricketing event of the year.

India, meanwhile, now believe that, if they can put together the renewed confidence of their leg-spinner Anil Kumble, who finished with 12 wickets in this match, with the left-armer Harbhajan Singh, when he is fit again, they will have the basis of an attack to match their outstanding top six. Australia are not dethroned as world champions yet, but for the first time since the mid-1990s there is a contender who can look them in the eye.

And Waugh will not be there to glare back. As his beautiful batting yesterday showed clearly enough, he is still plenty good enough for Test cricket.

But he has stage-managed his retirement more like an auteur than a sportsman, so much so that Farewell Waugh - The Remake would be a bummer at the box office.

No one has ever gone from cricket like this. Mike Atherton waved his bat once at The Oval crowd and slipped into the commentary box; the late Hansie Cronje was one step ahead of the constabulary; Waugh went on a triumphal journey round Australia that was enhanced rather than diminished by the sudden hints of vulnerability in the team he created.

Waugh emerged with the score on 170 for three, and with his helmet on rather than his famous baggy green, even though the spinners were on. The helmet was his way of indicating there was business to be transacted.

But the brain beneath it was starting to relax.

Soon afterwards Australia were 196 for four, the top four batsmen having all got to 30 without making 50, which put paid to any serious chance that they would score the 443.

Waugh batted with more grace and fluency than one normally associates with him. Each of his 15 boundaries got a cheer that normally greets a hundred.

He had, he said later, "a feeling of tranquillity", adding: "It's only a game after all and perhaps it took me until the last innings to realise it."

By then he was safely off the field and into cricketing history, with 10,927 runs and a final average of 51.06, reflecting gracefully and stylishly on a job well done over 18 years. Not merely did he not put a foot wrong on the field - that last shot excepted; there was not a word out of place either. Even the press applauded his exit.

Guardian Service