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The only question remains - How to beat Australia..!!

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DLF Cup in Malaysia has shown such twists that no body expected - Indian team should have beaten West Indies in the first match after scoring 309, but failed. Australia should have beaten India after reducing us to 35 for 5, but failed to Weather god..... and then, Australia were favourite to win against West Indies which the didn't..

Now DLF cup has one last Friday League match remaining - India vs Australia and whoever wins the match, will play West Indies in the finals on Sunday. And that's why, 5 following points come to my mind which I would like to discuss with you --

Logic of playing 5 bowlers justified :

Cricket is a tricky game and team composition matter a lot. Sourav Ganguly was very much like present West Indies captain Brain

Lara, who believe batsmen win ODI games and always looked to add as many batsmen as possible into the playing eleven.... Well, those days are gone for India now and the command is in the hands of Rahul Dravid. With logic's coming from Coach Greg Chappell, who after having Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Iran Pathan as all rounders, always try to play 5 regular bowlers.

By playing 5 regular bowlers, you might be compromising with 20-30 runs while batting, but you you also tell the opposition - "we will bowl you out even with this smallish total". Indian team proved it at Delhi against England on 28th of March, when the defended a small total of 203 and very recently on Wednesday when they bowled out West Indies for just 146 at Kinrara Oval.

Indian think tank dropped Irfan Pathan but still played 5 regular bowlers and justified its logic.

The logic of Dravid as Opener and Sehwag at no. 4 yet to be justified :-

I tell you why Dravid is opening - because Sehwag has flaws in his batting style and almost 60% times, Indian team loses one wicket very early in the innings. No doubt rest of 40%, when Sehwag gets going, Indian team gets a flying start but present Indian think tank is not ready to take that risk..

Power plays are now of 20 overs and Indian team has also got Sachin Tendulkar back. This means that Sehwag still has time to play his natural self and Indian team preserve some wickets at the start. The only thing remains is this logic to come good. 4 matches have gone with Sachin -Dravid combination working only once. And Sehwag at No. 4 yet to work a single time..

Lets give them one more chance..!!

Australia sends three players home :-

Our batsmen are stroke makers, which means that whenever a fast bowler gets his rhythm right or the pitch starts to offer assistance, Indian batsmen can't play shots and get out. They need good pitch or mediocre bowling to show their skills..

The good think about this India vs Australia match 6 at Kinrara Oval will be that Mitchell Johnson has been sent back home to Australia and the pitch on which this match will be played has been the better of the two at Kinrara Oval for this DLF Cup.

The Danger Men :-

I see three danger men for India on Friday - Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey (if he plays). The reason I name Brett Lee but not Glen McGrath is because the older one if still finding his way to pick up wickets after returning to International cricket but still is very good at bowling maidens. This will mean that Indian team attack Brett Lee from the other end..

But the biggest danger comes from Ricky Ponting. If this Aussie Captain gets going, he has phenomenal ability to hit sixes and

take the score to ungettable limits. Ricky ponting should be out very early..

And Micheal Hussey - the latest thunder in ODI cricket. I believe you know that this man is having an ODI average of 84.33 from 41 matches and scored his first century against West Indies last time. It's very unlikely that Micheal Hussey will be playing this match against India on Friday because of Australia's rotation policy, but Australia also know that they have to win this match to reach the final of DLF Cup... They may use this trump card as well..!!

The Points table and weather forecast :-

Now this is a very important factor for Friday's game. The fact is that India have to beat Australia to reach the final of DLF cup while Australia reaches the final if there is no result for India vs Australia match. This is because Indian team has 6 points and Australia 7. Indian team were in position of reaching 7 points as well when they have taken 7 West Indies wickets for just 96 runs the other day. They needed to bowl out West Indies for 129 or less to win a bonus point, which they eventually couldn't.

Now when Australia walks into finals with even a no result on Friday, India has to beat Australia to reach there. Here's Weather report 1 and weather report 2 for Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

Its Only Cricket

The only question remains - How to beat Australia..!!

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