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Latest Score: 3rd ODI, Kanpur: India beat England by 16 runs (D/L Method). leads 7 ODI series 3-0, 4 to go..
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Forget whitewash, think about the series

Filed under India vs Australia

DhoniStrongHitter.jpgAt first success, try not to get astonished. war aint over yet!

and I'm glad that's exactly how body language of Captain Dhoni reacted once final ball was bowled and India had won the Sector 16, Chandigrah one day match. Sure there was a team hurdle afterwards, but every Indian cricketer on field knew there was nothing to get relaxed about. their work had just began.

India vs Australia, 4th ODI Chandigrah : India won by 8 runs. Australia still lead the series 2-1 with 3 more games at Baroda, Nagpur & Mumbai to go

The look in Australian camp was like they had lost the series, but it was just a cricket match they didn't win, that too by a whishker. After over England at home, men from downunder looked determined to earn another clean sweep over India. and this time abroad!

I've to say that Australia still look good to win next 3 & rediculous the scorelines, but their actual dream of the tour has been broken, never the less.

And it started with old shoulders of Sachin Tendulkar & Sourav Ganguly opening for India for the 169th time. Another 91 were added to the openers tally, & Indian team headed for respectable score. Few fireworks from emerging Robin Uthappa coupled with captain Dhoni's 35 ball innings -- finishing with 20 off last over by Nathan Brackan and reaching his exact 50.

Indian were batting first, first time in the series, and notched up 291 off their quota of onedayer overs. respectable! you'll say.

"Very Easy" said Mathew Hayden. Power hitting cricket at its best. 92 off 92balls scored Haydos & Ponting applied the bottom hand. result - Australia motoring at a rate of 7.75 untill 13th overs with 100 on board. and accelerating!

Trick came with Murali Karthik (opps I'd mentioned Murali in my article 10 days ago) who bowled slower, and slower n slower. absolutely no pace to hit the ball. On other end, we had Harbhajan Singh who seems to have taken on him to beat Aussies after his 'verbal fury' against Michael Clarke & others in 2nd ODI. Together these two brought the asking runrate over 6 for the first time & India didn't allow the baundaries in the slog over - same trick they used brilliantly in twenty20 world cup.

48 off 42 Australia needed, with 6 wickets standing, but they managed to throw the game away. Think about Choking!

Few scores you may like
Ganguly 41(59), Tendulkar 79(119),
Yuvraj 39, Dravid 13, Dhoni 50*(35),
Uthappa 30(18), Extras 39 (31 wides)
India : 291 for 4 in 50 overs.
Australia : 283 for 7 in 50 overs.
Gilchrist 18, Hayden 92(92), Ponting 29,
Clarke 6, Symonds 75, Hodge 17, Hopes 23.

Few notes you may try

1. India won a one day match over Australia after a gap of 3 years, 7 n half months. Since Brisbane 18th Janurary 2004, Losing 8 & no result 3 times off 11 encounters in between.
2. Rudra Pratap Singh had changed the name on his shirt (frim RP Singh to Rudra) & bowled really quick. Quickest of his life for sure. 148.6 km per hr he reached on speed gun. around 92 miles an hour!
3. Zaheer Khan bowled the last over, Aussies needing 16 to win. but what made Indian captain select Zaheer? well, it was Zaheer's B'day of course & he took India to party.
4. Australia conceeded 39 extras in their bowling innings - the most by them ever. Their previous worst effort was giving away 38 extras against Srilanka at Perth in 1989.
Wonder what's the record for most extras?? Its 59 by Pakistan vs West Indies. 5.India had 15 cricketers in squad, with Gautam Gambhir down with hamstring Injury.. remaining 3 (Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik & S Sree Santh) were substituting most of the time whereas Sachin Tendulkar was no show at all.
6. Brad Hodge has played all the 4 ODIs of Future Cup so far, and got past 3 for the first time.
7. Talk about shielding players? Everyone knows Ponting's incapability against Harbhajan Singh & thus, Mathew Hayden faced first 2.2 overs bowled by Bhajji alone.. keeping/shielding captain Ponting at the non-strikers end.




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