Australians leave no room for doubt

Fears of rain threatened a complete washout on the eve of the second India-Australia ODI...

Fears of rain threatened a complete washout on the eve of the second India-Australia ODI here. But the Indians showed that a washout was also possible on a surprisingly bright and sunny day. If the first one-dayer at Bangalore was cut short by intermittent showers, today8217;s game was truncated by an overpowering Aussie outpour.

Although the formality of the official victory margin of 84 runs was completed much later, the jam-packed crowd had gradually started to disperse almost half-way through the Indian innings. When Rahul Dravid was caught inches inside the mid-wicket boundary fence by Mitchell Johnson off Brad Hogg with the scoreboard reading 136/5 in 25.1 overs, it was clear that India would end up miles behind the Aussie total of 306.

As many of those who had prayed for the clouds to stay away from the Nehru Stadium moved towards the gate, they would have wondered if there was a provision for posting a fresh petition to reverse their plea. The Aussies showed today that, except for Twenty20, there can be emotional and sentimental favourites for a cricket game but the Men in Yellow continue to remain the hot favourites always 8212; be it ODIs or Tests.

Aussie skipper Adam Gilchrist showed it on the field first and later said: 8220;In Twenty20, even after a team wins 10 games at a stretch, one can predict the outcome of the 11th game. But in a 50-overs game, the better side will win more often than not.8221;

As India8217;s No.11 batsman Sreesanth continued his verbal warfare with the Aussies despite being woefully ill-equipped to counter the No.1 Aussie bowler Johnson, the left-arm pacer, the day8217;s meaningless final moments typified the mood of this series so far.

India8217;s new aggressive team can mouth smart lines about their fire-to-fire attitude and indulge in staring sessions on the field but the bottomline is this remains a series between the visiting world champions and home boys who didn8217;t even clear the first hurdle.

This inequality was witnessed several times during the first full game after India8217;s new-found Twenty20 world champion status. They got the early breakthrough and even followed that up by taking two more wickets 8212; one of them being that of last game8217;s century star Michael Clarke 8212; to push Australia to 66/3 in 15.3 overs, but failed to make further inroads. The Aussies, meanwhile, had the Indians on the ropes early and delivered constant blows to accomplish a quick KO.

Story continues below this ad

Traditionally, a spin-friendly track is seen as a surface that the Indians prefer and that was the reason they had two offies 8212; Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar 8212; in the playing XI today. But what went unnoticed on match-eve was the presence of left-arm chinaman specialist Brad Hogg in the rival camp. And the fact that his 21 wickets at an average of 15.80 runs in West Indies earlier this year had got him the official status of the most deadliest ODI spinner.

Even Indian skipper MS Dhoni confessed that the Aussies bowlers read the pitch better, pitched the ball better, batted well and were spot-on with their field placements. But the new captain didn8217;t blame his first ODI loss to the Twenty20 hangover.

8220;How can you call this a reality check for us? What are we supposed to do? Stop playing? We gave our 100 per cent and lost to a better team,8221; he said.

Gilchrist seemed sick of repeated questions with Twenty20 overtones. 8220;We have congratulated you for the win, enjoyed your celebrations. Now I think it is time to move on as this is a different ball game,8221; he said.

Story continues below this ad

That was his way of saying 8216;better get used to the Aussie domination8217;. He wasn8217;t giving those killer stares as he delivered the final punchline on a day that saw a highly competitive verbal war and a lopsided cricket contest. He didn8217;t need to, after the show on the field.

SCOREBOARD

Australia

A Gilchrist c Tendulkar b Zaheer 0

M Hayden b Pathan 75

B Hodge c Dhoni b Sreesanth 3

M Clarke st Dhoni b Pathan 27

A Symonds c 038; b Sreesanth 87

B Haddin not out 87

J Hopes c Dravid b Sreesanth 4

B Lee not out 2

Extras b- 4, lb-2, w-15 21

Total 6 wkts in 50 overs 306

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-8, 3-66, 4-160, 5-268, 6-297.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 10-1-55- 1; S Sreesanth 9-0-67-3; Irfan Pathan 10-0-47-2; Harbhajan Singh 10-0-57-0; Ramesh Powar 5-0-30-0; Sachin Tendulkar 3-0-22-0; Yuvraj Singh 3-0-22-0.

India

G Gambhir b Johnson 7

S Tendulkar c Symonds b Clark 16

R Uthappa lbw b Clark 41

Y Singh c Hayden b Hopes 10

R Dravid c Johnson b Hogg 31

M Dhoni c Hodge b Hogg 58

I Pathan run out 1

H Singh st Gilchrist b Clarke 4

R Powar b Clarke 17

Z Khan c Hodge b Hogg 3

S Sreesanth not out 7

Extras b-4, lb-6, w-10, nb-7 27

Total all out in 47.3 overs 222

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-58, 3-79, 4-87, 5-136, 6-139, 7-154,8-179, 9-190. Bowling: Lee 7-0-44-0; M Johnson 9-1-46-1; S Clark 6-0-14-2; Hopes 7-0-33-1; M Clarke 9-1-35-2;Hogg 9.3-0-40-3