It’s a crucial match for Australia — “the biggest in the series,” as their captain Ricky Ponting puts it. They are already 2-1 up the series. But they would like to get back to the winning habit, after losing the last game in Chandigarh.The Australians are known for raising the level of their game in big matches. And they are treating tomorrow’s match at the IPCL Stadium here as if it was a final. “Hopefully we will play our best cricket tomorrow. We always like a bigger stage. We are taking the match as a final,” said Ponting on the eve of the match.But to win tomorrow, Australia would need to plug some holes. They haven’t been too comfortable against the spin of Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik. Not just that, their opener Adam Gilchrist has yet to fire in the series.Even Nathan Bracken, who skipped the first three matches as he wanted to be with his wife for the birth of their baby, went for 7.8 runs an over in Chandigarh and managed to scalp only the wicket of Rahul Dravid.But the Aussie captain refuses to recognise them as problem areas. “Well, we played spin pretty well in the series so far. Yes, Harbhajan and Kartik bowled beautifully in the last game and got India back in contention. But I don’t really see spin as a threat. As far as Gilly is concerned, he looked pretty good in the last two games, though he didn’t get enough runs. But that’s how he plays his cricket. Sometime he scores and sometime doesn’t. Bracken also didn’t let us down too often. He was in Australia and just had two practice sessions after coming here and went straight into the match. But he is very reliable,” was how the skipper stood by his players.And what about the 31 wides bowled by the bowlers in the fourth ODI? “You expect wides to be bowled in a match, but you don’t really expect them to go for five runs so often. We will try to contain that,” he said. The Aussies are also finding it tough to cope with the weather here. “It’s quite hot and humid here. We are very cautious of the fact. So we are taking plenty of fluid,” said Ponting.India, on the other hand, would like to maintain the momentum they have got in the last match and keep the series alive. “We have prepared well for the game. We just need to execute them. It’s going to be a very competitive series,” said Sachin Tendulkar.“Against Australia it is important to get a momentum. Once they get a grip on you, they maintain it. In the last match, we managed to break free. It would have been difficult to comeback if we had gone 3-0 down in the series. And now, we are looking to maintain that momentum,” said Murali Kartik. But Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds could be the stumbling blocks in India’s way. Both scored big fifties in the last three games, and naturally Team India’s think tank must be working overtime to find out ways to tackle them. Kartik caught the essence of the situation when he joked: “The only way to stop them is to take them away and hide them in a room. They will stop one day and hopefully it’s tomorrow.”The hosts gave away too many runs during the middle overs in all matches in this series. “Australia play their game differently during the middle overs. It becomes difficult for a bowler to check the run rate and also take wickets against them then. So Harbhajan’s and my role will be very important during the period,” Kartik said.India would, however, like to take positives from their past record at this ground. Both Tendulkar and Ganguly have fired at this venue. That apart, India have won five of their six outings here. And then there is the Irfan Pathan factor. He has been playing well ever since his comeback and tomorrow it will be a home match for him.
