If India wanted to win this match to keep the series alive by not giving away the series to Australia they wanted their top 3 batsman to fire. Sachin and saurav gave a tremendous start. Tendulkar and Ganguly reeled off a 26th century stand, giving India hope of a first successful run-chase against Australia in nearly a decade. The turning point was undoubtedly Tendulkar's dismissal after a magnificent 72, smartly stumped by Gilchrist off Hopes. This was a major turning point in the sense that after Sachin they sent Irfan up the order to utilize the 3rd powerplay. He played his role quite well but it was this move that backfired. With Ganguly alone they needed another batsman to support him well. But with the net run rate required creeping up and with Irfan back in the hut iut was left to Ganguly to launch the attack. Thus giving away his priced wicket.
Everything was going good. With Rahul dravid and yuvraj playing and still Dhoni and Robin left it was anybodies guess to put their money on Indians. But with too new batsman at the crease and with Rahul clearly out of form slowed down the run rate.
Just think from 140 in 100 bowls thay needed to 100 of 5 balls. That was affect of not sending a inform batsman at one down. Dhoni and specially Robin did play superbly at the death. But it was the pressure that did them more than anything.
Ponting really made some good decisions and with his bowlers bowling briliantly it was becoming very hard for dhoni and robin. And thus both Dhoni and robin going in the last penultimate over.
But what really delights me is the way the Indians went with their planning. They even gave a fight to the champoins which surely was missing at baroda. A superb opening partnership. But it was the lack of taking singles during the period when two new batsman were at the crease. And losing too many batsman did them lose hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment