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Journalism of Courage
Walking back to his mark during the seventh over,Ryan Harris looked a defeated man. In the over gone by,Virat Kohli had hammered his 90 mph scorcher inside-out for a boundary. The following ball was a yorker,bowled at the same speed,which Kohli played with soft hands and thundered across to give his partner-in-crime,Rohit Sharma,the strike.
Running in to bowl at Rohit,Harris had dropped his velocity rather drastically,but the batsman simply scooped the cutter through point and covers for another ferocious boundary.
Unlike Kohli,Rohit is never too deterred by words spoken in the middle. Rohit pursed his lips in reply,but threw his otherwise elegant bat at a short-pitched one next ball only to look ugly by missing it all ends up. Next ball,Rohit tried to pull over midwicket,but missed that too. Both times,Harriss follow-through ended somewhere near Rohits nose,and the Mumbai batsman lost his top in a battle of words.
Not thinking about his strategy of scoring off the lose ones and rotating the strike otherwise,Rohit tried to pull the last ball of the over through midwicket,but missed that too. Having broken Rohits calm,Harris smiled.
The fast bowler followed the same routine after Kohli slapped his bouncer in the ninth over for a stunning boundary through the midwicket region.
When Clint McKay was introduced to the attack in the 12th over,Kohli was on 31,Rohit on 21 and the pair had put together a 51-run partnership for the third wicket. McKay slipped one wide outside the off-stump,and Kohli cut the ball straight to a diving Ricky Ponting at point,who completed his second incredible catch of the match. Two balls later,Rohit fell jabbing at a short one and was caught behind. It was the period of play that turned the inaugural One-dayer of the tri-series on its head.
Kohli,the teams top scorer,and Rohit had done something that no other Indian pair managed to: stitch together a partnership. And without a decent stand between any other pair,as MS Dhoni found out later when the middle order was baited out swinging with him stuck at one end,the visitors fell 65 runs short.
Rain break
Quite unlike the Indian reply,the only breaks in flow of the Australian batting innings were a few initials jitters and one three-hour long drizzle-break. Otherwise,one partnership led to another as ODI debutant Matthew Wade continued to remain a thorn in Indias flesh with a magnificent 67. More importantly,the opener shared a 73-run stand with Michael Hussey,while little brother David strung a 62-run unbeaten one with the second debutant of the day: Daniel Christian. And thanks to their cameos,Australia scored 99 runs in the last 10 overs of the game.
Apart from failing to replicate Australias partnerships,it didnt help that the Aussie bowlers had a distinctive plan for each of the Indian batsmen,starting with Sachin Tendulkar. Having struggled against Mitchell Starcs inswingers during the Perth Test,Clarke got his young left-arm pacer to shape one away from the legend. Tendulkar chased it,and Ponting did the rest as his aging body flipped,twisted and hit the ground hard at point with the ball within his grasp,leaving India 9/1.
It was soon 13/2 when Gautam Gambhir nudged one into the hands of wicketkeeper Matthew Wade. Gambhir likes to run the ball towards third-man and has nudged India to victory several times over the most recent instance being the second T20. But doing it with three slips in place was always going to be suicidal. Once Rohit and Virat were gone,the rest fell like autumn leaves. There were no guesses for the strategy used to get Suresh Raina,as Christian banged one above his hip. He pulled,Hussey junior caught.
When Ravichandran Ashwin came out to bat,the Aussies aimed at his end of the run and they soon got him during a double like the West Indians did in Mumbai,thanks to his slow jogging legs and bat limp in the air. While the Indians fell to every possible trademark dismissal during their collapse,the Aussie bowlers reaped in the rewards,especially McKay who finished with four wickets on his return game. The two most important ones,however,belonged to,and were set up by,the wicketless Harris.
