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
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