Rain check Aussies surge against India

BANGALORE: It seemed the rain Gods were mourning the fall of Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket, who was lbw to Mitchell Johnson without troubling the scorers soon before the rains came down and the match was called off. It poured in Bangalore and first match of the 7-match ODI series between India and Australia was abandoned.

India were 9/1 in 2.4 overs, chasing Australia 307/7, which included a brilliant century by Michael Clarke, when rain stopped play at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Saturday.

Angry crowds, who were made to wait couple of hours, without any information on the status of the match, pelted the ground with bottles and chairs after the announcement was made. The second match of the series will be played at Kochi on Tuesday.

Talking point
Meanwhile, the talking point of the match from India’s perspective was the return of the big trio to the side.

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They looked out of place - like grandma’s rocking chair in a twenty first century living room with plasma TV. The oldies (Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly) tried their hardest, exerting their lungs, arms and legs a little more, but they just didn’t fit in.

For most part, they were hardly visible. All three fielded in the outfield for brief period and there were no on-field mentoring sessions as Mahendra Singh Dhoni has claimed there would be.

No discussions
On the eve of the match, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had said that the return of the oldies, all three former captains (Ganguly, the most successful ever), would mean he would draw out from their experience. He even claimed that he would turn to them in case of a crisis.

Crisis there was, as Michael Clarke grafted his way to another spectacular century against India. But at no stage, there was any major group formation and discussion among the former captains and the current. In fact, more often that not, Dhoni turned to his vice-captain Yuvraj Singh. The two looked bosom buds who didn’t want to involve the oldies in their youthful plans.

That, Dhoni, Yuvraj and chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar were seen in keen discussion few minutes before the toss, without the involvement of the senior players, might even be taken as a hint. Now, here there is no obligation to involve anyone in a captain-selector discussion, but going by the way Dhoni was gushing over the wealth of experience he has at his disposal, one would have thought that the trios’ views would be appreciated.

However, at no stage is one finger-pointing at Dhoni. It might be a conscious decision made by the trio to keep away and let the new guard take charge without any interference.

Pup on show
Now, for the matter of the match. The rain pelted down in the third over of India innings, to stop play after the Aussies had won the toss and elected to bat.

They put on board a mammoth total of 307/7, most of it courtesy 130 hit off 132 balls by middle-order batsman Michael Clarke.

Clarke relishes batting in Bangalore. He hit a spectacular 151 on his Test debut here in 2004. On Saturday, again he steadied the Aussie ship after they were rattled by some fine bowling by S Sreesanth. The medium-pacer picked three wickets in his first two spells to have the visitors wobbly at 90-4.

Then, came Clarke. The 26-year-old looked sure-footed, dancing down the tracks to the spinners and playing the pacers with relative ease. He got only 58 of his runs in boundaries (4x10, 6x3) and did all the running to get to 130. But to get to his hundred, he slapped spinner Ramesh Powar for a six.

Dhoni finally unlucky with toss
Having won the toss and chosen to bat, stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist couldn’t provide Australia with a flying start. He looked ominous though, cracking two fours in his brief innings of 12. Before the bite could turn into a massacre, Yuvraj Singh took a stunning catch off Zaheer Khan’s bowling to dismiss the wicket-keeper batsman. Hayden got a start but couldn’t capitalize on it scoring only 34.