Blog Time - India V Australia. As it happened

 Oh well. It had to happen sometime. Unfortunate. Especially because the team was on such a good winning trot. They were on the verge of winning their tenth match continuously. Now that is a really big deal indeed. Hence the loss would hurt a lot more. From Australia’s point of view, they are truly relieved indeed. One, they would have gone down in history as the team against which India won their tenth match on the trot. And they had their own losing streak to break. Relief times two. It’s hard to break that kind of habit you see.

So what happened? The Aussies won the toss and decided to bat first. And did they bat or what? Finch began the innings with David Warner and that was the partnership to break. The Indians never stood a chance. They were on a roll. The first wicket partnership was 231. If anything can break the morale of the opponent and raise the team spirit, it is this opening partnership. The rest was a piece of cake. A 30 here and a 40 there. A mammoth total of 334 on the board.

The men in blue knew they had one hell of a match in their hands. And they did not let the number get to them. The Indian Scoreboard did not honestly look terrible. They did fight back. Three half centuries and one 40 on the board. It just was not enough. Rain interrupted. Duckworth and Lewis threatened to enter. But it was not necessary. Play continued. India batted for all 50 overs and lost by 21 runs.

Where would you say they went wrong. Well, no great partnership for one. The way they got out showed that they were trying for the big shots. They were trying to avoid playing safe and defensive. Well, the total is not a small one. You cannot go tok-tok can you? Dravid Out. Ganguly In. Time for aggression. No being nice. 

Rahane was out near the boundary when he was going for the big one. Bad luck. Rohit Sharma was run out by brilliant fielding. Again, he tried. Kohli was bowled. Pandya was also out near the boundary. So was Finch. With the top order taking a hit big time, the pressure was beginning to take its toll.

It would have been a good match to win. Achieving a massive target has a tremendous boosting effect on the team. Having said that, India really tried. Let’s not be too hard on them.

It was a good day for cricket. Better luck India.

Indu