Impressive Australia draw level
Monday, November 2, 2009
Australia picked up the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh to reduce the pressure of a rapid start provided by Virender Sehwag, leaving the game intriguingly placed at the half-way stage of the chase in Mohali.
The first decisive moment came when Ricky Ponting introduced spin in the 17th over. Nathan Hauritz stuck in his second over, getting a favourable lbw decision against Tendulkar but the ball appeared to be missing leg stump. The second blow occurred in the 24th over when Ponting fired in a direct hit from cover to run out Yuvraj.
There were only three singles in the first seven overs as Sehwag launched into a stunning assault, scoring all his 30 runs from 14 deliveries of Mitchell Johnson. He whiplashed a square drive, flicked through midwicket, flashed past point and played a skilful upper-cut over slips but the shot of the session was a stunning on-the-up punch to the left of short extra cover. However, he didn't capitalize on the start and fell, trying to clear mid-off against Doug Bollinger.
Like Sehwag, Tendulkar wasn't keen on taking singles and faced most of Peter Siddle's spell. Barring the third ODI, where the pitch demanded them to bowl straighter, Australia have been pitching full and well outside off stump to Tendulkar, who fell twice to such deliveries while driving away from the body. Today, he was patient and waited for the straighter ball before he went for his off-drives. Siddle slipped up on only two occasions: the first one was a short and wide delivery which was cut, and the second was a full delivery around off stump which was driven through covers. Johnson, in his second spell, and Moises Henriques weren't as tight as Siddle, and Tendulkar capitalised, collecting boundaries with flicks and pull shots.
Bollinger was as disciplined as Siddle, mixing in a few slow cutters with his length deliveries, and picked up two wickets. They weren't genuine wicket-taking balls - a full delivery took out Sehwag and a short and wide one took care of Virat Kohli - but he had induced those mistakes by applying pressure with his discipline.
| ||
Four batsmen went past 40 but none carried on for a big innings as Australia reached 250 on a good batting wicket in Mohali. The Indian bowling, led by the crafty Ashish Nehra, was very disciplined without ever looking too threatening, and it was enough to restrict Australia to total that India will fancy chasing down.
Australia's innings was almost a replay of the Delhi script. Again, they seemed to settle for a competitive total rather than push for a daunting one. The injuries to Michael Clarke and Tim Paine seemed to force them into a cautious mode, with the inexperienced batting line-up lacking in confidence and putting extra pressure on Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Michael Hussey. They all made useful contributions, but none of them could carry on for a big score. As a result the innings meandered at times, especially in the last ten overs where they scored only 49 runs. Ponting and Watson couldn't carry on with their promising partnership and the same fate befell Hussey and White.
White played a responsible hand to keep Australia in the game. He has a reputation for powerful shots, but here adapted his game and moved his score with the help of singles and twos. The big hits have eluded him so far in the series, reducing him to being merely a useful contributor rather than one who can take the game away from the opposition. His best shot was a well-adjusted short-arm slog sweep against Yuvraj Singh: He leaned forward to seemingly push it away for a single but at the last minute, just stretched out to swat it high over midwicket. He went on to unfurl more skilful shots when he backed away a couple of times against Harbhajan Singh to loft him inside-out, against the turn, but for the main part, he drove and flicked for singles to rotate the strike.
White took the batting Powerplay in the 45th over but couldn't make use of it as he was run out after backing up too far and failing to beat the direct hit from the bowler Nehra. Mitchell Johnson too fell soon, cleaned up by a slower one from Nehra, and Australia failed to make the Powerplay count.
Earlier, White added 73 valuable runs for the fourth wicket with Hussey to keep Australia afloat after they lost Ponting and Watson. Hussey played another typical innings: he was calmness personified, pushing the ball into the gaps for singles and collecting an odd boundary with a cover drive or a sweep. Occasionally, he charged out to the spinners to loft them over the in-field, with one such stroke off Yuvraj Singh sailing for a six over wide long-on. However, he too fell after getting a start, pulling Yuvraj straight to deep midwicket.
Australia's task was made even more difficult by the discipline of all the bowlers except Ishant Sharma. The new-ball bowlers Praveen Kumar and Nehra found enough movement to keep the top order quiet and both returned to choke the batsmen in the end overs. The spinners, too, found enough bite to cover up for Ishant's wayward spells. Harbhajan put in his best performance of the series, slowing up the pace and flighting it on the off and middle stump line.
Nehra curved the ball away from Shaun Marsh, who was rusty and out of touch, before trapping him in front with a full delivery. Australia shrugged off that early loss to reach 43 for 1 in 11 overs when their chance to break free arrived with Ishant being introduced into the attack. Almost immediately Ponting pounced on him with relish. He lofted him for a few boundaries - a highlight being a nonchalant hit over long-on - and Watson, too, joined in the counterattack. But just when the partnership was threatening, Harbhajan induced Watson to edge behind with a flighted delivery that bounced.
The second turning point came when Ponting, with the score on 123 for 2, clipped one towards deep square-leg and decided very late to turn for the second but couldn't beat the direct hit from Ravindra Jadeja. From this point on, you felt Australia wouldn't risk the chance of a collapse in trying to go for the big total. As it turned out, they didn't.
0 comments:
Post a Comment