Aussies seal No. 1 debate, clinch series with a comprehensive win

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: November 9, 2009

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Guwahati: If there were any doubts about who the No.1 team in the world is, they were all put to rest by a clinical Australia as they beat India in the 6th one-dayer by six wickets to clinch the seven match series 4-2.

What makes it more special for the Aussies is that they were without four key players at the beginning of the series and lost four more during the series. But they showed remarkable spirit and temperament to win the series with one match to go.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and to everyone’s surprise decided to bat first on a damp wicket under heavy weather conditions. India were soon reeling at 27 for 5 with the entire top order back in the hut, thanks to some outstanding swing bowling by Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger. The hosts could just not recover from there, getting bowled out for a modest 170. The Aussies then chased down the target in just 41.5 overs to finish off the game and win the series.

Virender Sehwag (6) opened the Indian innings with a six over point of Mitchell Johnson in the very first over. But that’s all he could manage as Johnson cleaned him up with a fast in-swinger on the fourth ball of the over. Johnson struck again one ball later, this time with a perfect out-swinger, rattling the stumps of Gautam Gambhir (0) and India were 7-2 at the end of the first over.

Doug Bollinger then accounted for Sachin Tendulkar (10), the master playing one straight back to the bowler. Yuvraj (6) was the next to go in what may be one of the most absurd dismissals ever in the history of the game. The ball ricocheted off Yuvraj’s pad over his right shoulder and as Yuvraj, clueless about where the ball went, turned behind to place the bat back inside the crease, he pushed it back to the stumps. Raina (0) went soon caught by Hauritz at mid-on off the bowling of Johnson and India were 27-5 in the 9th over.

At that stage, even a three digit score seemed a distant possibility for the hosts. Fortunately for them, Ravindra Jadeja (57) and Praveen Kumar (54 not out), who slammed his maiden ODI half-century, did not throw in the towel and pushed the score to 170 in 48 overs before the hosts were bowled out, once again without using up their full quota of 50 overs. With the team in dire straits, Jadeja first added 48 runs with skipper Dhoni (24) and starred in a vital 74-run stand for the eighth wicket with Praveen to save India the blushes of being bowled out under 100.

Doug Bollinger (5/35) and Mitchell Johnson (3/39) shared eight wickets between them to virtually knock India out of the game.

Chasing a modest 171 to win, Australia rode on Shane Watson’s 49 off 49 balls while skipper Ricky Ponting (25) and Cameron White (25) chipped in with useful contributions before Michael Hussey (35 not out) and Adam Voges (23 not out) guided them to a comfortable win with more than 8 overs to spare.

Harbhajan Singh tried hard to make a match out of it finishing with figures of 2 for 23 off his 10 overs but 170 was always going to be difficult to defend.

Were the conditions so bad that the ball was swinging wildly? No. Was the pitch aiding alarming movement? No. Well, there was just a little bit of movement, in the air and off the pitch. India just needed to bat through the first hour and it would have been easy pickings after that but Australia exploited the conditions superbly to bundle India out and re-affirm their supremacy in the game.

The last match of the series will be played in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Brief Scores:

Australia 172 for 4 (Watson 49, Hussey 35*) beat India 170 (Jadeja 57, Praveen 54*, Bollinger 5-35) by six wickets

Man of the Match: Doug Bollinger.

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