Bowlers seal series for Australia by Rohit Sakunia

---

Scorecard:	India v Australia
Player:	MG Johnson, DE Bollinger, SR Watson, RT Ponting, RA Jadeja
Event:	Australia in India 2009/10

---

DateLine: 8th November 2009

 

The pitch at Guwahati seemed to offer different conditions to both the sides. When the Indians batted it seemed they were batting at Headingley and the ball moved all around while the seamers bowled. Resultant a new left-arm seamer picked up 5 wickets and the star-studded Indian batting line-up came down like a pack of cards for a mere 170.

 

When the second innings began the pitch looked like a perfect Indian strip. The ball came on to the bat perfectly and boundaries initially became a regularity. Indian skipper MS Dhoni had to bring on his spinners pretty early and though the pitch started to do a few things, the Aussies right from the time, they had dismissed India for the petty 170, looked favourites. The only thing needed on that surface was application and it has to be said that the tourists beat the hosts hands down in that respect. As has been the story so far in the tournament, the Australian batsman again performed together. There was no one scorer who took the team home. First Shane Watson played well, Ricky Ponting held the innings together in the middle and then Mike Hussey and Cameron White together took the team to the brink. The Indians were beaten by 6 wickets and with this another ODI series against the Australians was lost at home.

 

With this win Australia proved more than a few things, prominent among them would be the fact that even with the retirement of legends like Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne and absence of players like Brett Lee and Stuart Clark, their bowling attack wasn't all that weak. The Indians at least on two occasions were beaten by a disciplined bowling attack. For the Indians though a lot of thinking has to be done, but the time would be short considering after the seventh ODI against the team from Down Under, the Indian team would face sub-continental rivals Sri Lanka sooner.

 

Chasing 171 to win the match and lift the series, Australia started confidently and suddenly the pitch started to do good and the bounce turned true. The first ball was confidently despatched to the fence by an in-form Shane Watson and then in the next three overs four more boundaries were hit. The bowlers were found guilty of experimenting in the last deliveries of all these overs which proved costly.

 

Munaf Patel was introduced in as early as the fifth over and it was he who gave India the first breakthrough sending back Shaun Marsh after the left-hander had again looked set for a big one. Munaf's ability to get close to the wicket helped him in getting the nod. Though the ball seemed heading towards the leg-stump, Marsh playing across the line didn't help his case.

 

The wicket brought Ponting on the crease and now two of Australia's most prolific scorers in the series went about the job at hand with a lot of conviction and confidence. Ravindra Jadeja tried his hand at almost everything and bowled some absolute beauties but luck and an edge both evaded him. There were overs when the left-arm spinner beat both the batsmen at the crease on five deliveries out of six but to no avail and most of the time his deliveries were too good to be touching the willow. To add to the woes, on most occasions both he and Harbhajan Singh provided at least one loose delivery an over which took off the pressure if any developed by the good balls.

 

Things started to look easy when Yuvraj Singh was despatched to the fence for a couple of times in the seventeenth over and the required runs came down to less than 100. With just one over from Yuvraj, Harbhajan was brought back to the attack and the move paid dividends as Watson, in a bid to hoick the off-spinner out of Guwahati, only managed to edge one straight up in the air and Sehwag did not miss a sitter. Last match half-centurian Cameron White joined his skipper but the partnership did not last long as Harbhajan sent back Ponting courtesy a beautiful off-spinner. The Australian skipper had been pushing forward and poking all innings long, this time fell for one which turned sharp and took the inside edge, clapped the pad, and went through to leg slip.

 

Mike Hussey and Cameron White then combined as sensible batting became the order of the day. There were no boundaries but the Aussie duo hardly had any problems in picking up singles. This was one area where MS Dhoni missed out. The fielders were scattered when they should all had been inside the circle. The combination yielded 53 runs in 17 odd overs and by the time Suresh Raina dismissed White, the game and the series was well and truly over for the Indians.

 

Hussey and Adam Voges then finished the formalities without another whisker of a problem. Australia with a depleted side beat India and lifted the series 4-2 leaving the game at Mumbai now just of academic importance. Earlier, in an early morning start, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first on a track which looked two paced from the very outset. Australia were boosted by the return of Mitchell Johnson and what a boost that turned out to be. The left-arm seamer to start off was smacked over point for a six by Virender Sehwag but then he found his length and reduced India to 7 for 2 by the end of the first over. Sehwag was cleaned up by a full delivery which swung and caught Sehwag at the crease, beaten by the inswing his off and middle stumps were disturbed.

 

Gambhir as usual failed again. He has been having a terrible series so far and this time the left-hander even failed to open his account. Another full, swinging, pitching off, holding its line delivery became Gambhir's nemesis as the off stump went for a walk.

 

If it was Johnson who opened up the Indian batting attack initially, it was Doug Bollinger who continued the good work throughout the innings. There wasn't anything as glamourous from him, but then good line and length and subtle change of pace brought him a five for so sooner in his career in India against India. He snapped two big wickets from the top order that included those of Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar and then whenever was brought back in the attack, provided the needed breakthroughs, disallowing any kind of momentum for the Indian side.

 

Sachin Tendulkar, the man who was coming back after a wonderful 175 in the last game, hardly looked a pale shadow of himself as he was restricted to just one run from seven Bollinger deliveries before a push at a back-of-length ball a touch early, ended his stay at the crease. The delivery stopped a bit and the only thing Sachin succeeded was pushing it straight back to Bollinger who took a good reflex catch. Luck played a huge role in his second wicket as the ball ricocheted off Yuvraj's pad over his right shoulder and as Yuvraj, clueless about where the ball went, turned behind to place the bat back inside the crease, he only succeeded in pushing the ball back to the stumps.Johnson from the other end continued to show his brilliance. He set-up Suresh Raina's wicket as after harassing him with his bounce and pushing him back, slipped in the fuller delivery. Raina fell for it and got late in getting forward, flicked it straight to mid-on. The damage was done and India were reduced to 27 for five and from here on they looked heading only one way, towards the series defeat with one match still to go.

 

MS Dhoni though took up the cause alongside Ravindra Jadeja. The run-rate though never got anywhere still the duo were successful in taking score past the smallest Indian effort ever. They added 48 runs in the next 22 overs and just when it seemed that it was time for some big-hitting, a bad LBW decision brought MSD's downfall. A Bollinger delivery didn't pitch on line and also didn't look like straightening but the umpire had other ideas. Two deliveries later, Harbhajan was cleaned up and India looked like falling short of the three figure mark.

 

Alongside Harbhajan, Praveen Kumar has also shown his mettle with the willow thus far in the series and he again came to the rescue. Alongside Jadeja, Kumar added 74 runs and the runs came in quite a good time. Jadeja after spending a certain amount of time with Praveen, was happy to play second fiddle as the tailender started to make amends for the last game. The powerplay was taken in the 41st over and the duo took the Australian attack on and brought up their respective fifties also in that period of play. Praveen was lucky to be dropped by Adam Voges but he took full toll hitting Mckay for 15 runs in one of the overs.

 

Jadeja then fell giving Bollinger his fifth wicket, failing to clear mid-wicket in an attempt to pull. Nehra for some time proved good foil for Kumar, giving him most of the strike but in the 48th over a foolish rush of blood brought his downfall. He swung his bat across the line and missed the ball, which disturbed the timber. Munaf Patel as expected didn't last long, cleaned up in the process of trying to push the ball to the third-man region. India could not utilise their full quota of 50 overs and Praveen Kumar was left stranded on the other end with two overs remaining.