India flat-footed against chin music

Published>Thu, May 13 10 01:17 AM

The land of 3Ws proved to be a happy hunting ground for Australia's 2Ws on Friday. David Warner and Shane Watson, who scored 104 runs from the first 10.4 overs at the start of the game, had a combined tally of 13 sixes. And many of those landed in the Worrell, Weekes and Walcott stands.

And with the start of India's innings being contrastingly different ? they were 50/7 in 10.3 overs ? Aussies cantered to a comprehensive 49-run victory.

The two innings of the India-Australia Super Eight game seemed to be played on different surfaces. While the pitch came across as a flat bed when the Aussies were batting, the mid inning break seemed to have turned it into a minefield.

India's top order batsmen were left fending the short-pitched deliveries as the Aussie pacers made the balls to bounce off uncomfortable lengths and carry to the keeper.

Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 79 from 46 balls and Harbhajan Singh's spell off 4-1-15-0 helped the Indians to avoid a humiliating loss and didn't quite push them out of the run rate race.

Gautam Gambhir got a couple of balls from Shaun Tait that threatened his helmet visor. That apparently had Murali Vijay panicking at the other end. He was soon on the way to the dressing as a leading edge from his bat flew to the covers. Gambhir and Suresh Raina too followed as the Aussie gameplan to hustle the Indian with pace and bounce was working.

Fast and furious

Dirk Nannes sent down a furious first spell of 3-0-10-3 as he removed Yuvraj Singh with a full-pitched delivery and erased hope of a turnaround. Tait complimented his pace and shared the spoils with three wickets as India were bowled over for 135.

While the Indian fans here were heartbroken, the Aussies in the stands along with the neutrals went home speaking about the clinical show by Watson and Warner. But there was a method to the madness. While in the zone, the Aussie openers didn't just target the smaller boundaries but they also factored the wind direction.

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja had a forgettable day. After he put down Shane Watson on seven at backward square-leg off Harbhajan, the last three deliveries of his first over were hit out of the ground by Watson. With Jadeja bowling short, the first two sixes sailed over the mid-wicket boundary while the third landed close to the 10th row at backward square.

Jadeja returned to bowl the 10th over of the innings and after having learnt his lesson, he decided to bowl further up. But the result was the same as Warner hit him for three straight sixes.

That meant Jadeja had conceded 36 runs from his last six balls, spread over two overs. Interestingly, the Aussie innings started with a maiden by Harbhajan while Ashish Nehra conceded just five runs in the 20th over. There was a glimmer of hope for India in the later part of the Aussie innings as they conceded just 39 runs in the last five overs. But, as the Indian batting collapsed, the Aussie victory was never in doubt.

Source: Web Search