Australia thrashed India by six wickets in the last league match to qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy.
MOHALI: India persisted in their reputation of being a team that’s seldom rampant in the face of pressure, even as Australia displayed just why they are the dominant side in one-day cricket on a Mohali wicket that had been pruned to favour the bat.
Rahul Dravid won the toss and chose to bat first, presumably wary of India’s lack of much success chasing against the world champions. India’s total of 249 for eight looked defendable given the recent history of chases at Mohali, but the Aussies asserted their class on the friendly track, hauling up the target with remarkable ease.
Australia won by six wickets with 4.2 overs to spare. Authoritative performances by Shane Watson (50), Ricky Ponting (52) and Damien Martyn (73 not out) lower down the order in the face of an uncharacteristically tame bowling attack ensured that India never really looked like they were on top of the chase.
India desperately needed a solid foundation and Virender Sehwag laid just that — a couple of shaky swipes in the beginning notwithstanding — with a knock of 65.
Sehwag was lucky twice. First, Michael Clarke’s fingertips refused to stick astride an ill-timed leap at gully when Sehwag was still looking for his feet at 10. At 46, Dinesh Mongia’s (18) reluctance to risk his chance in the side almost saw the man from Najafgarh run out but Shane Watson’s sprawling follow-up to his ball missed the stumps by a mile.
Sachin Tendulkar (10) lost the battle against Glenn McGrath for the seventh time in ODIs, adding more fuel to the debate that despite his prodigious talent the Mumbaikar does not come good consistently for India when the team really needs him.
Skipper Rahul Dravid continued to show that the burden of captaincy does not weigh down his willow, with a classy 52 from 63 balls. He built up the highest partnership for his team in the company of Mohd Kaif, adding 60 runs for the fourth wicket. Kaif, too, could not make use of the opportunity to assert his place in the middle as he produced an insipid 30 before Brett Lee compensated for his lack of control in the beginning by scalping both Dravid and Kaif in successive overs.
The initial momentum of the innings refused to get the tail flapping as the last 10 overs yielded a miserly 67 — MS Dhoni’s 28 from 23 balls being the only innings of note at the lower end even as Suresh Raina’s lackadaisical form continued with just 13 coming off his bat.
India’s main strike bowlers, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel, were costly propositions with the former yielding 42 in seven overs. The freshly recalled S Sreesanth’s figures of 8-1-43-2 displayed his hunger and he was the only man to manage a maiden over while Dinesh Mongia was surprisingly economical, giving away 36 runs in his nine overs while trapping the dangerous Watson for 50.
The result would surely make the job easy for new chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar to announce some chopping in the squad for the forthcoming tour of South Africa when the new team is decided on Monday.
Raina, RP Singh and Romesh Powar are expected to be on their way out while two more changes will be affected to replace the injured Ajit Agarkar and Yuvraj Singh.
India Innings
V. Sehwag lbw b Johnson 65
S. Tendulkar c Gilchrist b McGrath 10
D. Mongia c Hussey b Watson 18
R. Dravid c Clarke b Lee 52
M. Kaif b Lee 30
M. Dhoni lbw b Bracken 28
S. Raina c Watson b Bracken 13
I. Pathan c Martyn b McGrath 10
H. Singh not out 5
Extras (lb-5 nb-4 w-9) 18
Total (for 8 wickets, 50 overs) 249
Fall of wickets: 1-46 2-89 3-126 4-186 5-197 6-224 7-239 8-249
Bowling
B. Lee 10 - 1 - 54 - 2 (nb-3 w-1)
G. McGrath 10 - 1 - 34 - 2
N. Bracken 10 - 2 - 56 - 2 (w-1)
M. Johnson 8 - 0 - 33 - 1 (nb-1)
S. Watson 9 - 0 - 48 - 1 (w-7)
A. Symonds 3 - 0 - 19 - 0
Australia Innings
Adam Gilchrist c Raina b Sreesanth 23
Shane Watson lbw b Mongia 50
Ricky Ponting c Tendulkar b Sreesanth 58
Damien Martyn not out 73
Andrew Symonds b Pathan 20
Michael Clarke not out 2
Extras: (8lb, 18w) 26
Total: (for 4 wickets, 45.4overs) 252
Fall of wickets: 1 61, 2 111, 3 185, 4 230
Bowling:
Irfan Pathan 7 0 42 1 (3w)
Munaf Patel 8.4 0 61 0 (7w)
Shantakumaran Sreesanth 8 1 43 2 (3w)
Harbhajan Singh 10 0 49 0 (3w)
Dinesh Mongia 9 0 36 1(2w)
Virender Sehwag 3 0 13 0.
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