All the way until the 47th over of the second innings, Mitchell Starc had remained Australia's player of the day. He had taken six wickets, his career-best figures, and ensured that India fell short of 270 — par on this pitch — by a few runs. James Faulkner, on the other hand, had done none of that. Apart from his solitary wicket of Virat Kohli, this left-arm seamer had gone over six-an-over and when it was his turn to bat, he scored all of nine runs from nine balls. Yet, it was with those runs that the latter changed the climax, hence narrative, of this match. For when he walked out to bat the momentum was with the visitors. Often in ODIs, especially the close ones it's momentum that decides the fate of the game. The skills become secondary. And for close to 10 minutes, India had made all the running. They had dragged back a match that had looked lost with Aaron Finch and Steve Smith in complete command. The equation had gone from Australia requiring 27 in six overs with Glen Maxwell at the crease to them needing 20 off 21 with Maxwell having spooned a return-catch to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. It was Australia under the pump. It was Australia feeling the pinch. The first three balls Faulkner faced were not scored off. The field was in. Three up close on the off-side, swarming around him, and closing in like tigers on the prowl. Kumar had taken up the mantle of finishing the 47th over after Mohammed Shami pulled up post the first ball-ripping his knee-brace off in anguish and despair. He had dismissed Maxwell with a perfectly disguised leg-cutter. To Faulkner, he zoned in on a length on off-stump. Width wasn't an option with noone manning the off-side boundary. Kumar kept up his end of the deal. Faulkner patted all three deliveries away, rather nonchalantly, even as the massive Indian contingent bayed for blood. The MCG had turned into the Eden Gardens. Setting up his target To the Indians, these defensive strokes to the off-side might have seemed like nervous prods. But Faulkner the assassin was simply setting up his target. As Kumar, India and their vociferous fans would find out soon. The next over was bowled by Axar Patel. To his credit, the young left-arm spinner kept his nerve. He had MS Dhoni in his ear almost after every delivery. Here was a young man, all of 20, in the middle of the most intimidating venue in world cricket, shouldering the responsibility of keeping his team alive in a nerve-wracking ODI. He gave away five in the over, three of them coming off an inside-out cover drive from Brad Haddin — a percentage shot that could have gotten the better of him. Faulkner played out three deliveries in this over too. He got no runs off them, except a leg-bye, with the ball striking his pads and invoking a desperate appeal from the Indians. He was hit on the pads once more while attempting a sweep, producing a louder, more spontaneous appeal this time. Faulkner survived again. So going into the 49th over, the Tasmanian had shown no glimpse of what was to come. With 15 required off the last two overs, it was all of a sudden India's match to lose. They were in front. They had all the aces up their sleeve. Kumar had just bowled a virtual wicket-maiden. All Dhoni required from him was an encore. Then as Faulkner, who till then had faced six balls for no run, got on strike for the second delivery of the over, Dhoni brought fine-leg and square-leg up in the circle. Here came the opening. The moment Faulkner had waited for. Time for the KO. He had Kumar in his sights. The ball was pitched on the same line and length that had seen Faulkner prodding anxiously in the previous over. But this time the angular all-rounder got down on knee and swatted it over the square-leg fielder-a few yards to his right-for a boundary. Faulkner had pressed the trigger. The pressure was released. The equation read run-a-ball again. Missed chance The next delivery he pushed towards cover. Brad Haddin had to rush. Shikhar Dhawan shied at the stumps. Haddin hadn't crossed half the pitch when the ball zoomed past the stumps. But there was no connection. Then Haddin pulled out a cover-drive to a very full delivery that sent the ball screaming between cover and extra-cover. All that was required was for Faulkner to finish the job off. Inevitably he did so, lap-sweeping Kumar's final delivery for four, ensuring that the game didn't even go into the final over-and in a way making a mockery of the game turning into a potential last-ball thriller. Ideally, the middle-order should have done so a while back. Chasing 268, the destructive pairing of Finch and David Warner had got them off to a breezy beginning. Then Finch, playing a slightly uncharacteristic knock - steady and at times cagey - had set the game up for an early finish with a 101-run stand. If Faulkner's the cold-blooded finisher, Finch's the merciless basher, one who swings his bat more like a bare-knuckle boxer than one wearing gloves — with the same audacity anyway. And after having crawled-by his standards-to 50 off 80 balls, Finch smashed Suresh Raina for two sixes, and he was away. Then out of the blue, Steve Smith fell to a mistimed overhead smash that would have won him jeers at neighbouring Melbourne Park, and Finch fell four short of his ton, caught behind off Umesh Yadav. But then there was always Faulkner waiting in the wings and biding his time to put a spanner into India's works. As has become his custom, immediately after striking the winning runs, Faulkner clenched his fists, took off his helmet and his gloves and threw them to the side of the pitch along with his bat. No emotion, no remorse, just the satisfaction of another successful heist.
