Playing their first match at Barbados, India made two blunders to kickstart their Super-8 campaign with a daylong hara-kiri. Piyush Chawla was rightly replaced but wrongly with Rohit Sharma. On a track offering pace and bounce, Vinay Kumar would have been a wiser choice. Next, Dhoni called right at the toss but made the wrong decision to bowl first. Including just two pacers (Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra) on a fresh early-morning pitch clearly showed that Dhoni was on the backfoot from the word go.
David Warner
Harbhajan opened the attack with a maiden, but it all changed dramatically once Jadeja was introduced in the fourth over. The last three balls of his over were deposited in the stands, signaling an intimidating Aussie onslaught. There was no stopping Watson and Warner after that who plundered 76 runs in 9 overs. Jadeja was brought back but nothing changed. This time, his first three balls went skywards and ended in the crowd.
It was Yusuf Pathan who quenched India’s wicket thirst by castling Watson in the 11th over, ending an opening stand of 104 runs. He scored 54 in 32 balls with one four and six towering sixes. However, Watson’s departure couldn’t plug the run-leak, instead it turned into a hemorrhage with Warner going berserk and David Hussey (35) following suit. Warner greeted Yuvraj with two huge sixes but luckily for India was dismissed in the same over having made 72 punishing runs in 42 balls with two hits to the boundary and seven flying over it.
Warner’s dismissal started a little Indian fight-back where they gave just 39 runs and took three wickets in the last five overs, which restricted the total to 185/5. Harbhajan (4-1-15-0) and Nehra (4-0-31-2) were particularly impressive, though the former’s wicket-less analyses in all the matches is starting to hurt India badly.
Gautam Gambhir
Time and time again, India’s vulnerability to short-pitch stuff has been exposed by opponents and Tait and Nannes were out there to make it public once again. They peppered the Indians with rib-crushers. None of the top three could fathom what was happening and were sent packing by the fourth over, leaving India at 17/3. When Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan failed as well, India was staring embarrassment at 50/7.
Ironically, Rohit Sharma – who seemed a wrong pick by Dhoni – was the only one able to answer the Aussies. His sublime undefeated knock saved India the blushes. He stroked 79 runs in 46 balls with four fours and six sixes. Harbhajan and Zaheer partnered him for 47 and 36 runs respectively, which minimized the defeat margin to 49 runs in the end. Nannes and Tait were the chief destroyers taking three wickets each.
With two matches left against West Indies and Sri Lanka, India have their task cut out. They not only have to win both but also keep an eye on the net run-rate.
JS on Cricket 