The supremacy of the Aussies in the 50-over game remains unchallenged. They may once in a while step on a banana skin, but recover too quickly for anyone to even notice the slip. And when given a modest target of 149, their gait remains as casual as it was in the fifth one-dayer, winning by a comfortable nine wickets.Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting had said that they would treat the match as a final and produce their best game. And they proved once again that it’s a rule, not an exception, that they can raise their game on crucial occasions. Toss, weather, opponents everything just blurs into the anonymous zone. Only their resolve remains prominent. On Thursday, at the IPCL Cricket Stadium, they strangled India, with clinical precision, never allowing them to break free, taking an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series. The blunder of miscommunication between Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, that saw Ganguly take off on a call as his partner retreated quickly with the latter stranded and run out for a duck, was something India never recovered from. On the fourth ball of the day, Ganguly played down a shorter delivery on middle and leg stump into the mid-wicket region. The two agreed but the southpaw took off quickly and was too committed into the run as Brad Hodge and Adam Gilchrist combined to set the tone for the day. Rahul Dravid perished next ball, trapped plumb in front of the wicket, as his poor run in the series continued. “We lost early wickets and never came back into the game,” said Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni later. “We performed well. Got an early run-out and then bowled well. We assessed our performance in the last game and tightened all loose ends,” said Aussie skipper Rocky Ponting. The Aussies kept depositing Men in Blue back into the pavilion. Sachin Tendulkar (47), Zaheer Khan (28), Irfan Pathan (26) and RP Singh (12 not out) were the only Indian batsmen to reach double figures. Tendulkar played some glorious shots during his 73-ball stay at the crease to keep the crowd briefly on its feet. Pathan was giving him a good support by remaining glued to the crease, taking 18 balls to open his account, and then launched Brad Hogg once into the stands. But Brett Lee brought an end to the sixth wicket partnership, by sending Tendulkar back. Zaheer Khan took India’s total to reasonable respectability — if 148 may be called that — playing some entertaining shots to contribute 41 runs in 63 balls for the last wicket.But nothing was enough to match the ruthless Australian attack as Indians were bundled out in 38.4 overs. Though Lee broke through the visitors early, the wrecker-in-chief was Mitchell Johnson, returning record figures of 10-0-26-5. It was simply not India’s day. Even Indian skipper Dhoni’s ploy to open the Indian bowling attack with Harbhajan Singh didn’t not work. “Apart from the toss, we were beaten in all other departments,” said Dhoni. The tourists achieved the target in the 26th over with Gilchrist, who earlier in the day equalled his own record of most dismissals by a wicket-keeper with six catches, being at his destructive best. His unbeaten innings of 79 off 77 balls was woven with four towering sixes and seven hits to the ropes. Ponting remained unconquered on 39. RP Singh took the only wicket for India when he dismissed Matthew Hayden.“We thought a score of 240 on the track would have been competitive, but could never get partnerships going. They bowled in the right areas which did us in,” said Dhoni. “We didn’t have any plan to restrict India to a particular total. We just wanted to execute our own strategy, and everybody did that well. It was very satisfying,” said Ponting. Not being able to take India’s poor performance, the Vadodara crowed erupted, throwing bottles into the ground with Australia on 118 for 1 in the 22nd over, halting the match for a few minutes. India will have to win the remaining two ODIs in Nagpur and Mumbai to level the series. A daunting task really, but Dhoni gave some hope: “The series is not over yet.”
