Plunder before rain: Gambhir, Dhoni strike form

It was not just about conquering those doubts in Gambhir8217;s mind after many interrupted innings at the international level. It was also about having to fight with legendary batsmen Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and his personal favourite Virender Sehwag8212;from whom he gets his bats autographed before playing8212;for a permanent place.

It was in 2002 that he had touched down at the adjoining Allan Border field8217;s Centre of Excellence to learn the nuances of playing overseas with two other promising teammates. Lakshmipathy Balaji has faded away, while the world never came to know about Thilak Naidu8212;the clone of Sachin Tendulkar8212;as he first came about.

But Gambhir has hung on. His unbeaten innings of 102 today was a good reflection of how his personal career has shaped up8211; he has moved inch by inch, like the ones and twos this evening. When he had created a fast lane for himself, he sped away.

Back in Australia, Gambhir has scored in the most testing conditions for batting and against one of the best attacks in the world.

After missing out on the previous occasion, there was a desperation to get to his fifty first. He cut out the horizontal bat shots and other frills of batting like in domestic cricket, and once he and the team was safe, the launch was just a matter of time.

There weren8217;t many at the Gabba tonight to watch8212;6841, to be precise. But Gambhir had with him the man who backed him to the hilt. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni simultaneously came back to form, scoring 88 not out.

The left hand-right hand of number 3 and 6 in the order orchestrated the Indian innings in perfect symphony8212;beginning with soft keynotes and finishing with a power-packed drumming of rock-n-roll. 105 runs came in the last ten in an unfinished partnership that was worth 184. That India were 83/4 at one stage makes the score much more competitive than an average 5 -an-over chase to defend.

Sri Lanka8217;s experienced bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan returned the most expensive of the lot as Dhoni and Gambhir engaged in lusty hits around the park. Gambhir started with a straight drive off Vaas and then hit a square drive off the front foot before returning into his shell against Muralitharan. The middle order had just collapsed; Sachin Tendulkar had departed 7 runs after gathering 16,000 runs in ODIs when he ticked off to the other end with a single towards mid-wicket.

Virender Sehwag8217;s promising innings abruptly ended with the wicketkeeper with an attempted hook, while Yuvraj8217;s comeback lasted merely 14 minutes, 11 balls and 2 runs in the hands of Jayawardene at slip against old nemesis Muralitharan.

Two balls later in the same over, Rohit Sharma was unlucky to be given out nicked by umpire Rudi Koertzen. India looked in similar trouble when Dhoni joined Gambhir in the last ball of the 21st over.

Gambhir was dropped by Sangakkara on 11, but that was the only minor glitch in that innings. He and Dhoni ran the singles hard, converted the twos into threes as Gambhir got his half-century from 71 balls, with an exquisite inside-out shot to the off-spinner for his fourth boundary.

At 162/4 in the 40th over, Dhoni gave the go ahead and Gambhir launched into innovations. A six over long-on to Malinga, a late-cut to Murali, a Misbah-shot to Vaas, and the runs came thick and fast.

At the other end, Dhoni was waiting for such an occasion. And he cut loose too: flicking it past behind square to the one that reversed in and then banging Jayasuriya straight over to bring in his fifty from 74 balls that had just two fours in it.

He followed it up with an ambidextrous reverse-sweep shot against the same bowler later on.

By that time the rain had began to come on; Gambhir was on 92 when he eventually got strike on the second ball of the last over. Two balls were all he needed to get the remaining eight runs. And Dhoni hit a hard shot on the last ball to take his score to 88.

The match was about how well Gambhir batted, how well Dhoni batted and how well India recovered. And that8217;s the way it remained after umpires called off play at 8 pm local time.

Scorecard

India:V Sehwag c Sangakkara b Amarasinghe 33,S Tendulkar b Malinga 35,G Gambhir not out 102,Y Singh c Jayawardene b Muralitharan 2,R Sharma c Sangakkara b Muralitharan 0,MS Dhoni not out 88; Extras: 3lb,4w 7

TOTAL: for four wickets; 50 ovrs 267. Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-80, 3-83, 4-83. Bowling: Vaas, 10-0-72-0, Malinga 10-1-56-1, Amerasinghe 10-2-30-1, Muralitharan 10-0-51-2, Kapugedera 6-0-23-0, Dilshan 1-0-8-0, Jayasuriya 3-0-24-0