A new hero is born as India knocks out Aussies

Maybe, they hadn’t heard of Yuvraj Singh. They didn’t realise he was an Aussie at heart; his bat was golden, he fielded like a tiger and one who cared little about all that sledging. He could meet fire with fire, didn’t mind letting players like Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Brett Lee and even Steve Waugh know what he thinks of them.

He battled when others panicked and it was his knock (84) which softened up the Aussies. His amazing catch to get rid of Ian Harvey, when he leapt and caught the ball mid air off a full-blooded cover drive charged up his fellow team members.

But the one that changed India’s destiny was the brilliant pick-up-and-throw, all in a single motion, which ran out Michael Bevan, the most dependable batsman under these circumstances. The match was won and lost on that single moment. The Aussies would never forget him now. Also, the birthday-boy Zaheer Khan whose pace with left arm rattled the Aussies and they gave a taste of their own stuff.

The dumb-struck Australians are taking the first flight back home. They fought the way only they can, losing out by 20 runs in the end, but the Indians were from a different planet today. They raised their fielding to such lofty heights, it was the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket. There won’t have been more than 8,000, maximum 10,000 people at the Nairobi Gymkhana but it could have been anywhere. It could have been Calcutta’s Eden Gardens or Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium so very Indian was the atmosphere here. India needed this win badly, even if to counter all that the match-fixing scandal has reduced the Indian cricket to.

Tell me, how many of the Indians would not savour the day they humbled the world champions. More so, in conditions truly alien and unhelpful and against a team which boasted of two of the world’s fastest new-ball bowlers, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee.

The result was only as dramatic as the start of the day. One has never seen Tendulkar so venomous. He was angered by the Aussie suggestions ("We know his weakness, we will get him early"), so what did he do?

He went a couple paces down the pitch and hit McGrath straight out of the ground! The next ball, Tendulkar hit him one-bounce into the stands. A little later, McGrath disappeared over the square-leg pavillion. One wondered, whether some sort of history was in the making? Sadly, Tendulkar’s cavalier approached, interspersed with some hit-and-miss batting, faltered to deceive but it had the desired effect and the Australians were somewhat rattled. Then followed a typically-timid Indian show as an off-colour Ganguly, Dravid and Vinod Kambli went in a huff. The Aussie game plan, it seemed was coming off as their bowlers were on top, inspite of a good run-rate the Indians maintained courtesy of Tendulkar’s hitting.

Yuvraj played straight, absolutely straight. He was confident alright but it was his timing and the power in his shots which caught the Aussies off guard. The Chandigarh lad Yuvraj, fond of big hitting, played responsible even though batsmen around him wilted under the Aussie onslaught. Each of his 12 boundaries bore the stamp of class and the only loose stroke he played, off Shane Lee, resulted in his downfall — only sixteen runs away in his first batting stint ininternational cricket.

The Aussie batsmen appeared a bit rusty in their 266-run pursuit. Steve Waugh admitted later, he was "disappointed with his batsmen" but the Indians picked wickets at regular intervals and even though at one stage they appeared lost, they kept their cool.

Obviously, they had the youngsters so it was poetic justice that the young guns Yuvraj and Zaheer will live for another day here.

Scoreboard

India: Saurav Ganguly c Gilchrist b Gillespie (42b, 5×4) 24; Sachin Tendulkar c Martyn b Brett Lee (37b, 3×4, 3×6) 38; Rahul Dravid c Shane Lee b Gillespie (18b, 2×4) 9; Vinod Kambli c Gilchrist b Steve Waugh (40b, 4×4) 29; Yuvraj Singh c&b Shane Lee (80b, 12×4) 84; Robin Singh b Harvey (30b) 19; Vijay Dahiya c Mark Waugh b Brett Lee (11b, 1×4) 5; Ajit Agarkar c McGrath b Shane Lee (9b) 3; Anil Kumble run out (21b) 12; Zaheer Khan Not Out (13b, 2×4) 13; Venkatesh Prasad Not Out (1b, 1×6) 6; Extras: (lb 12, w 8, nb 2, b 1) 23; TOTAL: (for nine wkts in 50 overs) 265; Fall of wickets: 1-66 (Tendulkar), 2-76 (Ganguly), 3-90 (Dravid), 4-130 (Kambli), 5-194 (Robin), 6-215 (Dahiya), 7-222 (Agarkar), 8-239 (Yuvraj), 9-258 (Kumble) Bowling: Glenn McGrath 9-0-61-0, Brett Lee 10-0-39-2, Jason Gillespie 8-0-39-2, Ian Harvey 9-1-54-2, Shane Lee 10-0-31-2, Steve Waugh 4-0-28-1.

AUSTRALIA: Mark Waugh c Kumble b Agarkar (24b) 7; Adam Gilchrist c Ganguly b Zaheer (23b, 4×4, 1×6) 33; Ian Harvey c Yuvraj b Prasad (24b, 3×4) 25; Ricky Ponting c Robin b Tendulkar (59, 5×4, 1×6) 46; Michael Bevan run out (52b, 3×4, 1×6) 42; Steve Waugh b Zaheer (34b, 2×4, 1×6) 23; Damien Martyn b Robin (8b) 1; Shane Lee run out (6b) 4; Brett Lee c Ganguly b Agarkar (28b, 3×4, 2×6) 31; Jason Gillespie c Robin b Prasad (15b, 3×4) 14; Glenn McGrath Not Out (8b, 1×4) 6; Extras: (lb 4, w 7, nb 2) 13; TOTAL: (all out in 46.4 overs) 245; Fall of wickets: 1-43 (Mark Waugh), 2-51 (Gilchrist), 3-86 (Harvey), 4-159 (Ponting), 5-163 (Bevan), 6-169 (Martyn), 7-189 (S Lee), 8-224 (Steve Waugh), 9-226 (Brett Lee) Bowling: Zaheer Khan 10-0-40-2, Ajit Agarkar 8-1-59-1, Venkatesh Prasad 7.4-0-43-2, Anil Kumble 8-0-42-0, Sachin Tendulkar 7-0-31-1, Robin Singh 6-0-26-1.

Result: India won by 20 runs
Man-of-the-Match: Yuvraj Singh

Sunday’s Match: Sri Lanka vs Pakistan