Commonwealth Bank Series - Match 4 - India vs Australia
February 15th 2008 14:18
The 4th match in the Commonwealth Bank Series was a throwback in more ways than one. India was facing up against Australia for the second time after their first match-up was washed away by rain. Australia were arguably the team with more momentum after their authoritative 128 run demolition of Sri Lanka. But the Indian youngsters dont really believe in psychological advantages and were sure to come hard against the Australians. Why was this match a throwback? Well, for a change, the pitch and the bowlers actually had something to say to the batsmen in return. And when asked questions, the batsmen did not look the infallible lot that we tend to see on featherbeds of tracks in ODI matches in general. Well, with the honourable exception of the Little Master - Sachin Tendulkar and to some extent, Michael Hussey. We will come to that in time.
Ponting it was who won the toss and elected to bat first. The idea of course was to bat their way past India and then put pressure on the enormously top-heavy Indian batting lineup. Things did not quite work out that way. In favourable conditions at the MCG, Sreesanth and Ishant breathed fire. Yes it was Ishant opening the bowling - brave and certainly good decision from Dhoni. There was excitement right from the first over. Sreesanth who followed up a wide with two good balls - swinging into the left handed Gilchrist - found his second ball hit the legendary wicketkeeper-batsman's pads. But not before there was a huge deflection off the inside edge. Unfortunately the whole business with the inside edge was lost on umpire Koertzen, who promptly gave Gilchrist marching instructions. To his credit, Gilchrist took the decision in his stride and walked off. This brought in Ponting who has had quite a bit of struggle to score runs even in home conditions. Apart from that workman-like century in the last Test match, this whole tour has been surprisingly lean for the Australian captain.
This match was no exception. After a torrid time against Sreesanth as well as Ishant, Ponting finally was claimed, unsurprisingly by the hugely impressive beanpole of a fast bowler. Ishant, generating what definitely qualifies to be called frightening speeds for an Indian fast bowler achieved consistent movement inwards with the occasional ball going straight on. Ponting had somehow contrived to get to the score of 9 when he came up against a brute of a delivery in the high 140s which pitched well short of length outside the offstump and was headed in to cut the batsman in half. But it will always remain a mystery as to why Ponting lunged onto his front foot. That move as well as his lunging momentum ensured that he could do nothing other than poke at that delivery. And the resultant edge sailed safely through to nestle into Tendulkar's lovingly cupped palms. Yet another victory for the bowler over the Australian captain. Are we seeing the dominant Australian's technique unravelled by a rookie fast bowler from India? Only time and Ponting's subsequent series would answer this question.
Well, not everything was going India's way. Mathew Hayden, at the other end decided that attack was the best form of defence against the rampant pace attack of the Indians. He threw caution to the winds and started waving his bat brutally about to good effect. Ishant Sharma was the one who suffered the most. Twice, Hayden's swinging blade got outside edges flying over first slip and then second slip. Strewed in between were powerful strikes that found the middle of Hayden's bat like the sizzling drives down the ground. But Ishant it was who had the last laugh. Seeing that the left hander was pretty much intent on hitting the fast bowlers out of the attack the youngster bowled a ball at good pace very wide of the batsman. So wide that it probably would have been called wide if Hayden had kept his peace. But that was not to be given the current mood of the left hander. Hayden had a swing at that ball as well and got an edge through to Dhoni. Ishant had won this battle as well. It has to be said though that Ishant is not as comfortable bowling at left handers as he is when he is cutting the right handers in half. Be that as it may, he is bound to improve when he finds that around the wicket angle to the left handers. That would bring in much more variety to his blistering pace and disconcerting length. It is easy to see why this youngster is so highly regarded by everybody.
Australia was now in a spot of bother with Symonds and Clark at the crease within the 15th over of the innings. However the run rate was definitely not a matter of concern. They were going at or over 6 an over - thanks to the swashbuckling innings of 25 from Hayden. The opening bowlers also had bowled 4 apiece and it was time for Irfan Pathan to come in as first change bowler. To his credit, Pathan kept it tight and it was tough for either Clark or Symonds to get away. This resulted in an airy forcing shot on the leg side from Clark which was gleefully accepted by midwicket off Pathan. Now Australia still had batsmen to fall back on with Hussey coming in and Haddin and the bowlers still waiting.
It must be mentioned though that the Australians' team selection decision of going in with only 4 bowlers and bolster their batting with the inclusion of Haddin was surprising. It does indicate that the Australians hold this Indian bowling attack very highly. Thats certainly a feather in India's cap but I am not sure that that was the right decision. In retrospect they probably missed Hopes - the medium pace bowling all rounder.
In an inspired move, Dhoni brought Ishant back. And as if on cue, Symonds played and missed a couple of deliveries and then just seemed to hang his bat in place waiting for the ball to come in, get the edge and go through behind the wicket. His feet moved nowhere and he was in no position to play any sort of cricket shot to the ball. How much of this dismissal was in the mind and how much was in the actually physics of the ball moving, bouncing and the batsmen's feet and bat swing is something only Symonds can answer. Australia were now 5 down for 75 and the hearts in yellow would have started fluttering. Haddin, an attacking batsman and heir apparent to Gilchrist walked in amidst great anticipation and interest as to his performance. Any which way it goes, this young man will have a baptism by fire. Looking at his body language, he does not seem to think a great deal of all the outside attention. Good for him - because he will need this equanimity in great measure in the coming years because a comparison with the outstanding Gilchrist is inevitable.
This Australian batting innings though needed to look elsewhere for its hero of the hour. The man they call 'the left handed Bradman' and 'Mr. Cricket' was that man. It is amazing how Australia seem to find one man who stands up to be counted when all the others have had an off day. This is what marks Australia out and also the reason why we see very few absolute collapses from the Australian team while batting. Hussey set about playing intelligently. It was also immensely helpful that neither Sreesanth nor Ishant was in operation while he was playing for the most part. His knock was characterized by dabs, cuts and drives for singles and doubles. More than anything else his innovativeness and ability to maximize run scoring opportunities with aggressive running stood out. And when the balls were there to hit, he never hesitated to give them the full treatment. A short arm pull off Sehwag when the ball was not that short was a revelation.
Meanwhile, the Indian attack had seen the intelligent introduction of Harbhajan. Dhoni was exemplary in his management of resources and to me in this match there was no doubt as to who was the better captain. Dhoni it was - despite a very poor decision when India was batting. But we will look at it a little later. Harbhajan Singh in ODIs nowadays knows how to bowl defensively. He knows it so well that the Australians were only able to take 19 runs off his 8 overs with the loss of a wicket. The complaints against Harbhajan's negative line of middle and leg will not start coming till he starts going for runs in ODIs. But that is something which is waiting to happen - looking at the off spinner's line and length. Even the wicket that he got - that of Haddin - was one where the batsman ill-advicedly jumped out to meet the delivery far too early. Harbhajan, seasoned competitor that he is, saw Haddin coming and slid the ball down the legside for Dhoni to complete the rituals. If there is one thing that Dhoni has excelled in since his name has been linked to the Indian captaincy role, that has been his keeping. Currently, Dhoni seems to have the edge over Karthik as far as wicket keeping is concerned - especialy when the ball is down the legside. That legside stumping that he completed when standing upto Pathan in the T20 World Cup still is fresh on the mind.
With the loss of Haddin's wicket, Australia was down to its bowlers with Hussey fighting valiantly at the other end. It is to his immense credit that he took Australia from 6 for 92 to their final score of 159. 65 of those runs came from his own resolute blade. Brett Lee, a couple of seasons back, threatened to show rare potential with the bat. But nowadays he does not look the part at all, it has to be said. The Australian lower order folded down easily and quickly. And fittingly it was the opening duo of Sreesanth and Ishant that completed the formalities for India. Ishant had 4 wickets to Sreesanth's 3. 159 by today's standards is a measly score in a ODI. And, barring a miracle, India was expected to win.
Sehwag, who is short of runs in this ODI series, walked out with Tendulkar to see if he can whittle down the runs quickly to make the job easier for the men to follow. But Sehwag's poor run continued to haunt him. He looked unconvincing against both Lee and Bracken. And when finally the left arm fast medium bowler fed him a short ball just outside off stump, Sehwag pounced on it expectedly and sent it into the hands of the waiting wide third man fielder's hands. A disappointing innings of 11 runs from Sehwag and India was off to a bad start once again. India may need to have a look at the opening composition in the coming matches. Gambhir with Tendulkar followed by Rohit Sharma, Sehwag and then Yuvraj and Dhoni looks like a more plausible combination at this point.
Lee was generating speeds in excess of 150 kmph and his left handed compatriot was not far behind. Together they were making life difficult for Tendulkar. As if this was not enough of a challenge, the Indian captain sent out Irfan Pathan at No. 3. We need to look closely at how ill-adviced a move this one was. At one point, there was a continuous 17 ball period where Irfan Pathan remained on strike. Then when Tendulkar finally got to bat, it was against the meticulous and accurate Clark. The Little Master attempted a dance down the wicket and a preemptive strike over mid on. But Clark, intelligently seeing the batsman advance, had pulled the length back just that bit. There seemed to be a sound when the ball passed the batsman and the Australians appealed vociferously. In all fairness, there did seem to be a nick which umpire Koertzen failed to spot. Now, could Team India have afforded the exit of Tendulkar at that point? It is eminently arguable that if Tendulkar had been given out at that point, India would have struggled to win this match.
At the other end, Irfan Pathan's unconvincing stay at the wicket for his 18 runs was brought to an end by Johnson - trapping the batsman plumb in front of the wicket. Last game's centurion Gambhir walked in at the fall of Pathan's wicket. That decision to send in Pathan was even more ill-adviced considering the fact that Gambhir was also a left hander and was in great striking form as well. Gambhir, soon after coming in looked much more at ease and was stroking the ball nicely. But this period though belonged to Tendulkar. In an inspired over of majesticity, Tendulkar took apart his nemesis in Test matches, Lee. A slicing cover drive to a not-so-full delivery was followed up by a bulldozing straight drive of rare ferocity. This was then followed up by an elegant and stylish on-drive. All three shots, naturally, reached the boundary easily. Later on, Tendulkar even pulled Lee in front of the wicket when the bowler was consistently bowling around the 150 kmph mark.
But this good little partnership with Gambhir was not to last. A fast lifter from the untiring Lee hit high on Gambhir's bat and ballooned as an easy catch at covers. Gambhir had gone for 21 bringing in Yuvraj Singh - the man under fire. Now this was certainly a new circumstance for the prince of Punjab. He is so used to be the man on fire than this 'under fire' business was wholly new to him. To be fair to him, his Test failures were being taken into account when assessing his ODI performances. As it turned out, after playing another wholly unconvincing innings, he was snapped up on the drive by Clark. Clark's bowling is not the kind that Yuvraj relishes - the tall medium pacer keeps bowling on or outside the off stump and just back of length. The aggressive batsman rarely gets to move fully forward or fully back, thereby resultng in frustration. Pressure is rising on Yuvraj and he would do well to quell the questions with a characteristic innings soon in the series. This brought the hugely talented and highly rated Rohit Sharma out to try and take India to the finish line. India looked to be reaching the finish lines at a romp when Tendulkar played a lofted drive against a Johnson slower ball. The ball which seemed to be clearing midoff all the time, was met in mid air by a twisting, leaping Lee and arrested. Tendulkar had fallen at 44 when his team needed him to be there and take it past the Australian score. It was brilliant fielding from Lee but still in retrospect, Sachin would have thought about the stroke that he played. Still, the stroke was a measure of his mind at the moment. He was in attacking mood and that in itself bodes well for India in the coming games. However the game was not over by a long way and in walked the Indian captain with his customary saunter and rolling walk with the score at 102 for 5.
Much has been written about Dhoni's inadequacy against sustained fast bowling on helpful pitches abroad. But what also needs to be said about this spirited combatant and leader is that he has been humble in recognizing his limitations and playing within himself cutting out theatrics. Again, he applied himself very hard in a partnership with the young Rohit Sharma to take the Indians through to a win against the Australians with 25 balls to spare. And a very big reason as to why India could get home was because Australia lacked a 5th bowler. Almost 7 overs were bowled between Clarke and Symonds and the Indian pair scored 31 priceless runs against this part time bowling. In fact Sharma targeted Symonds once or twice to good result.
Inspite of Lee's expensive looking figures of 9 overs 42 for 1, he was the pace-setter so to speak and provided that spark for the supporting bowlers Bracken, Johnson and Clark to turn in an excellent bowling performance. But at the end of the day the score was just not enough for the Australians plus they missed a 5th bowler very badly.
More importantly India should have learned a lesson from this match about not innovating for the sake of it. Sending Pathan in at one down could have had absolutely disastrous consequences. And it very well could have but for an umpiring mistake as it turned out. Dhoni - but for that blemish had a great game as a captain, batsman and gloveman.
Still,if India won a large part of the credit must go to the young Rohit Sharma (who showed composure beyond his years) and Dhoni who played an ultra sedate innings of 17 off 54 balls. Uncharacteristic it may have been. But its efficacy cannot be questioned. This win also put India at the top of the table in the CB Series. India will go to the next game against Sri Lanka with good confidence. The architect of this win were the Indian fast bowlers and Ishant Sharma it was who bagged the man of the match award. Going by his performance this should be one in a long list of man of the match awards for the tall, lanky and long haired speedster. Has the Indian fire-breather of a bowler arrived?
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