Aus survive the Tendulkar trauma

Hats off to the Kangaroos! Now we know why Australia has ruled the world of cricket for over two decades! Now we know why they are indeed, the World Champions! With seven of their main players nursing their injuries and with hardly any squad left to pick a team from, ideally Australia should be crushed by India 4-1 by now. But the fact is they are leading the seven match series 3-2.

Yes, this sorry looking side with a bunch of first-class cricketers overpowered India- the team that boasts of having the most balanced cricket side in the world- in their full strength, in their own backyard.

It was one of the most exhilarating ODI contests and it ended in favour of the team that refused to let any adversity come between them and success. Australia won the thriller by 3 runs. But not before the master himself- Sachin Tendulkar came up with one of the best ODI knocks ever. Tendulkar was unfortunate to end on the losing side after playing a terrific knock of 175 off just 141 balls. But such was the magnitude and brilliance of his innings, that in spite of ending on the losing side, he was declared the Player of the Match.

With 351 to chase, one would have expected the Indian openers- especially Virender Sehwag to welcome the Australian bowlers with a couple of scorching hits to the fence but the visitors stuck with their bowling plans right from the word go.

They continued to do what they have been doing throughout the series against Sachin and Sehwag- bowl the outside the off-stump line with a cramped off-side field. They made Tendulkar reach to the ball to induce an edge and drove Sehwag forward to encourage a catch at mid-off.

After an initial caution, both Sachin and Sehwag decided to go after the bowling and that’s when the drama unfolded. Sehwag started it all by smashing Bollinger over the deep point for a six.

In next over, Sachin punched the first Hilfenhaus ball to the mid-off fence. Second ball fetched a single and the third gave a leash of life to Sehwag, as Bollinger dropped him at deep fine-leg. The last ball of the over, Sehwag dispatched it to the mid-wicket fence. The excitement continued for the next two overs where Sehwag and Tendulkar pulled, cut and flicked to unleash a flurry of boundaries. They were looking ominous to say the least. But then, Doug Bollinger decided to make amends for his dropped catch, as he pouched a stunner, running back at the short fine-leg position. Sehwag had managed a top-edge off a Hilfenhaus bouncer. End of the drama!

After scalping the prized wicket of Sehwag, the Australian bowlers didn’t have to wait for too long for another success, as Gambhir, while trying to play an upper-cut over the third-man, presented Clint Mckay with his first ODI wicket.

The Aussie bowlers continued to punctuate the Indian batting worm with red-dots as after Gambhir, Yuvraj and Dhoni too, fell for single digit scores. While Yuvraj gave a return catch to Watson of an extra bouncing delivery, Dhoni was caught brilliantly by Adam Voges at point and debutant Mckay got his second wicket.

Sachin Tendulkar stood there in the middle like a lone warrior as he saw his partners changing at the other end. The Master came up with a knock the world had been awaiting since a long, long time. He showed his might by plundering off-spinner Hauritz for consecutive sixes straight down the ground. He treated his fans with his vintage excellence- the back-foot punches over mid-off, lofted drives over mid-wicket, drives down the cover region, the delicate guides down the third-man area, the stylish flicks and with the other Tendulkar delicacies.

The great batsmen re-attested his greatness by first, getting to 17,000 runs in one-day internationals and then by notching up his 45th ODI century.

After changing three partners, Tendulkar finally found an able mate in young Suresh Raina, who accompanied the legendary batsman to steer India close. in the last 15 overs India needed 109 runs with six wickets in hand. The Aussies bowlers made the task more difficult by stemming the flow of runs, almost drying it. Bollinger and Mckay produced a couple of very quiet overs that put pressure on the two men batting.

But Tendulkar continued to give goose pimples to the crowd and the oppositions. He walloped a short delivery from Hussey to the extra-cover fence and crossed the 150-run mark for the fourth time in his career.

Tendulkar and Raina put up a momentous 137-run partnership off 120 balls, in which Raina was a significant contributor with a run a ball 59. Both these men were threatening to take the game out of Australia’s reach but Raina miscued a Watson delivery and got caught by a backward running Manou. The same over yielded another success for Watto in form of Harbhajan.

With Tendulkar in the sublime touch that he was, India were well on their way to create history by chasing down a record 351. But there came a twist in the tail, a tiwst that turned the game into Australia’s favour. Tendulkar gave yet another debutant a moment of his lifetime. Trying to go for a paddle sweep, he managed a top edge that spelled his and probably, also India’s end.

India completely lost their way from there; the last five wickets fell for 48 runs. Australian bowlers, especially Bollinger and Watson did a remarkable job under pressure. But someone who deserves a special mention here is Clint Mckay, the man who showed immense character and nerve in his very first international outing. He came up with a superb 48th over in which he not only celebrated his first step in international cricket with the wicket of the best batsman in the world but also bowled in tight areas and stopped the runs. He finished with highly impressive figures of 3-59 from his 10 overs.

India needed 16 runs from the last two overs with two wickets in hand and Praveen Kumar still there. But some wretched running between the wickets by the Indian tailenders let them down. Jadeja, second time in a row threw his wicket in search of a non-existing run.

Though one might feel that India did extremely well to reach to 347 in the end, taking into account the contribution of batsmen other than Tendulkar and the a look at the highly depleted Australian side makes the defeat more shameful than it actually looks to be.

With this defeat, India have maintained their 100% failure record in the Uppal stadium of Hyderabad- they have now lost all three matches they’ve played here. The ground also maintains its jinx for the home-teams- the Decan Chargers have not won a single game on this ground in IPL or in the Champions League.

Marsh and Watson provided a perfect start. They were easily taking the Indian fielders on and stealing quick singles. Marsh played a thumping pull shot off Praveen in the 5th over. Aussie openers went along nicely, hitting the ball in the gaps and rotating the strike regularly.

Watson changed gears and started to tear the Indian bowling apart. He didn’t spare any bowler, bludgeoning his way to a 41 ball half century. He made the leg-side his own, mainly with the use of the pull and the flick shot. After starting off steadily with 56 in the first 10 overs, the Watto-Marsh pair belted 41 off the bowling powerplay.

Indian bowlers struggled to the core. Dhoni was a worried man after the 12th over yielded 14 runs and the Australian score-card read 80/0.

The pressure seemed to have got to Dhoni, when he dropped a sharp chance off Harbhajan that gave a life to Marsh. Yuvraj too, committed the heinous crime of putting Watson’s catch down off his own bowling when the dangerous batsman was on 90.

The spinners did manage to cut down the number of boundaries but wickets still eluded India. The batting, on the other hand was brilliant, as both the batsmen ran beautifully between the wickets when the boundaries were not flowing freely. The Indian ground fielding was patchy, with a superb effort following a shoddy one. The young Aussie batters superbly converted the ones into twos.

Just when Watson was looking good for his fifth ODI century, he miscued a flighted, outside the off delivery from Harbhajan to Jadeja standing at deep mid-wicket and fell seven short of the milestone. While Watson went berserk with his big shots, Marsh played a perfect anchor at the other end.

Ponting made an intelligent move by opting for the batting powerplay in the 35th over when Australia were sailing along smoothly at 192/1. The decision proved to be spot on as they annihilated the hapless Indian bowling by bludgeoning them for 44 runs in the five overs. The highlights of the powerplay was a mighty, straight hit down the ground by Marsh off Harbhajan and a glorious cover-drive by Ponting off Nehra.

Australia though lost the all important wicket of their skipper in the bargain, who was cleaned up by a Praveen Kumar beauty in the 39th over.

But one man who carried on undeterred and unfazed was Shaun Marsh. He paced his innings beautifully and brought up his maiden ODI century in 104 balls. It was a splendid performance by the young left-hander, as he collected his runs with some very good running between the wickets. His run-a-ball 112 included eight fours and two hits over the fence. India got the danger man out when he lofted a Harbhajan delivery over to Gambhir at deep square-leg, after fetching six runs off a similar shot in the previous ball.

The beauty of the Aussie innings was that the following batsman continued from where the previous one left. After Marsh’s dismissal, Cameron White took over the hitting honours and came up with a breezy, unbeaten 57 from 32 deliveries. While White played the destroyer, Hussey was his perfect accomplice with a 22 ball cameo of 31.

For India, all the bowlers with the exception of Harbhajan and Yuvraj went for more than 7.5 runs an over. The pitch was as true as it can get, the Aussie batsmen were just too hot, the Indian bowlers were not perfect with their line, there were the usual fielding fumbles and the fact that there were three dropped catches summed up the score-card at the end of the first innings- Australia 350/4!