Indis vs Australia: Sunday: 19th Feb, 2012

Point: Australia was hurt. They lost badly against Sri Lanka. And the wounded tigers were on prowl. They left no stone unturned to win this match. So they did. Won it, and in style! Here are again, my views:

Australia's bowler BW Hilfenhaus ripped apart Indian batting line-up on Sunday at Brisbane in the Commonwealth Bank Series ODI by picking 5-33 wickets.

Along with excellent bowling from Brett Lee, who picked up 3-49 wickets, they restricted India at 178-10 winning the match by 110 runs. 

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Starting steady, they scored 51 runs in the first 10 overs without losing a wicket. Both Forrest and M Hussey scored a half century before falling victims to Irfan Pathan. The last ten overs turned the face of the game. 101 runs were scored and Australia put up a total of 288-5 runs. 

Rohit Sharma dropped 2 very important catches. To join him, Umesh Yadav too, dropped an easy catch. If that wasn't enough, the umpire decision was reversed; by the umpire himself!!  First time, we saw Dhoni upset and angry. He literally argued with the on-field umpires. This is just an answer to all those who feel Dhoni is defensive! Boss, he is NOT! 

A funny instance was when Virat Kohli took a smart catch and silenced the spectators by pointing to them as shown in the picture! No exchange of bad-words happened so, no fine paid!  

In reply, India's top order failed to deliver and India lost the first 4 wickets in quick succession. Too much of reliance on Gauti and Sachin paaji, but they both went back to pavillion very fast. 

Virat Kohli looked good, played steady. He was OUT with probably what looked like a catch. Well, I doubt if it was a genuine one.

My words fail to express the incompetence shown by Rohit Sharma in the entire series. Not that he is not good, but we have better players who can easily replace him. Manoj Tiwary definitely deserves a chance now.

Only MS Dhoni, captain cool, scored a decent 56 runs. But this did not avoid the inevitable defeat for Team India as they succumbed at 178 runs losing the match by 110 runs.

Well, not playing Ashwin didn't make a big difference either. Australia were too good in all areas and showed the character right from the start. 

Adding salt to wounds, Team India's highest scorer MS Dhoni, faced the ban for the next match against Sri Lanka on 21st Feb, 2012 for slow over-rate. This is the second time in the tour that he is facing the ban. The first being the ban for the 4th Test at Adelaide for the same reason.

As extra affair: Because of bad form, the standing captain Ricky Ponting, has been “rested” from the next match(es). The era of the legendary batsman-captain is on the verge of decline…

Ponting has been the show stealer for a very long time for Australian cricket. Alas! Every good thing comes to an end…

BW Hilfenhaus received MOM for his superb bowling picking 5-for. Also, this put Australia back on top in the points table. Now, we will see Parthiv Patel in the next game as our wicket-keeper. And hopefully, a win too! 

Images courtesy: www.espncricinfo.com 

India vs SL: On the Valentine's Day! No heart breaks!

Really.. No heart breaks! And the super happy moment was when the team was announced! Sachin paaji back in playing 11 in place for Sehwag (per rotation policy!). The surprise entry of Irfan Pathan for Zaheer Khan! (Finally, Irfan got a match!).. As usual, SL won the toss and decided to bat first... Trust me, I knew we would win.. Biased Indian mentality! 

Rotation Policy: Team India will rotate their seniors: Gauti, Sachin and Sehwag in the playing 11 to allow inclusion of the younger players giving them opportunity to play! Smart move or no? Well, that is a big debate!! 

Back to the action: What a match! Who would expect the end that way? Specially when we started so well.. We bagged 2 wickets in the first 10 overs. 1 by R Vinay Kumar and the 2nd by Irfan Pathan. Steady start! The match went very slow till Sangakarra's wicket fell. Then, Chandimal handled the SL innings strongly scoring 81 runs from 91 balls with a strong support from the captain Jayawardene. 

After scoring 43 runs, Jayawardene fell the victim of R Vinay Kumar. Following his suit, Chandimal immediately got out to R Ashwin. Then, SL crawled to decent score of 236-9 in 50 overs. 

Kinda didn't watch many overs as it was getting boring too! :P :P 

Team India's start was the same. We lost an early wicket of Sachin scoring only 15 runs. Same with Virat Kohli, out on 15 runs. Ditto Rohit Sharma, 15 runs. In came Raina. But he too could not deliver and continued to be out of form getting out at 8 runs. In came, captain cool who kept his calm and gave good support to Gauti who was scoring very well for India. 

An unfortunate incident came when Gauti was on 91. A small mis-match by captain Dhoni led to Gauti's RUN-OUT. Infact, Dhoni accepted the fault in the post-match presentation. But this was the highest partnership for Team India: 60 runs. By this, Team India was 178-5. Jadeja failed to bat longer than 3 runs.

Next over by Malinga: first ball: Ashwin mis-timed it; the ball was in the air for a long time; but as the fate would be, Sangakarra dropped it! 1 life for Ashwin. Second was the DOT Ball. In the 3rd ball, Ashwin hit direct catch to the fielder extra cover. And who did not love that SIX by Irfan Pathan? Well that SIX was a no-ball too! My question is who can risk a full-toss ball at such crucial stage? (Every1 jumped off their seats at this 1!). And the next ball, Irfan Pathan sacrificed his wicket in the 49th over to save Dhoni in a RUN OUT. Bravo, as we must say! 

While I may sound like a commentator from ESPN, I cannot help it.. The match was such a ball-by-ball thrill to see.. Work left aside, all I knew was.. We have to win!! 

Vinay Kumar came next. In the last over.. Team India needed 9 runs of 6 balls. Dhoni to face Malinga! 2 runs, 1 run, 1 run, 1run and OUT! Vinay Kumar goes RUN OUT. Dhoni on strike again. 4 runs in 1 ball. Umesh comes in and just has to run! Malinga throws an almost wide ball. Dhoni hits it at extra cover, fielder stops it at sweeper cover. Till then, we have run 3 runs.... And it's a Tie! 

What? Yes! It is a Tie! .. An amazing thriller to say.. The match ended in a Tie on a Valentine's Day; simply means No Heart-Break! .. Each team got 2 points and MSD got MOM for his calm-headed approach in this tense situation! 

A special mention to Devengere Express aka Vinay Kumar. He is improving by every match and is delivering his 100%. While Umesh Yadav is said to be the find of the Tour, Vinay Kumar too, is making a mark in the Team. So far, he is also the highest wicket taker in the CB series. 

It is also a series of continuous non-performance for Rohit Sharma and might get replaced by Manoj Tiwari in the next match. Well, he is trying and he has got good number of chances too. Probably not the right time. 

Captain cool has again proved how being calm pays of well. In the earlier match, he was called a freak by the Aus captain Clarke! Simply put, that is his strength and that is his weapon!  

All-in-all, Well played both teams! Well done..!