Having managed to halt the Australian juggernaut in its tracks at Chandigarh, India will seek to carry the momentum when they go into the fifth ODI.
VADODARA: Having managed to halt the Australian juggernaut in its tracks at Chandigarh, India will seek to carry the momentum when they go into the fifth cricket one-dayer here on Thursday, hoping to level the seven-match series.
The eight-run victory over Ricky Ponting's men and the semi-final win over the Aussies in the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last month clearly indicated that when put under severe pressure, even a champion team can feel the heat and fumble.
This is exactly the kind of situation that captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team would be aiming to put the visitors in again when the two clash in another high-voltage tie in front of a capacity 20,000-crowd at the Reliance Stadium here.
If India manages to turn the tables here again, they would have beaten Australia in two successive games for the first time in six years.
But to achieve that, they need to show the sort of aggression they displayed in South Africa and in the fourth ODI two days ago.
A pointer to how rattled the Australian captain was when Dhoni and Robin Uthappa took the attack to the visitors is the fact that the visitors' best bowler on view - speedster Brett Lee - did not complete his quota of overs despite having given away very few runs in his first spell.
The match will assume importance for Sachin Tendulkar as it will mark his 400th appearance in one-dayers and the star batsman will be keen to make it memorable.
The Indians have improved with every outing which would not have been lost on the Australians who are bound to come back strongly.
The Indians failed to bat out the 50 overs at Kochi and Hyderabad and tasted defeat but lost only four wickets while piling up an imposing 290 at Chandigarh, a clear indication of the upward swing in their batting graph.
The opening start given by the most successful one-day combination of Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly on a wicket where the ball was darting around initially also played a very important part in the Indians' setting the Australians a stiff asking rate.
The Indians would be looking for yet another big stand from the two senior statesmen of the team.
The power and thrust given to the Indian innings in the middle by the flashing bat of Yuvraj Singh and, towards the end, by Dhoni and Uthappa clearly upset the Australians' bowling rhythm in the last match.
Somewhat troubling has been the form of Rahul Dravid, looking a pale shadow of his usual self, and the tail as usual has not delivered.
However, the bowlers have shown gradual improvement. Spearhead Zaheer Khan, who has given away runs easily, also managed to keep his part of the bargain when it mattered most to stop the visitors short at Chandigarh.
Rudra Pratap Singh has recaptured his rhythm after being dropped after the Bangalore game and his dismissal of the rampaging Andrew Symonds at a vital stage followed by the superb run out of Brad Hogg off the next ball turned the previous match in the home team's favour.
The inspired selection of left-arm spinner Murali Kartik to bowl in tandem with the constantly improving Harbhajan Singh has worked wonders as the two have put the skids on the Australian scoring in the middle overs.
The hosts would want to see an encore from the spin duo in what is expected to be a high-scoring match.
The Australians must be eager for the return to form of their dashing opener Adam Gilchrist whose run of poor scores at the top is hurting their cause.
The wicketkeeper has only 59 runs in the four matches of the series so far while his opening partner Matthew Hayden has been his imperious self with blistering knocks that have fetched him 261 runs with three half-centuries.
Symonds has been another thorn in the flesh of the Indian bowlers who are searching unsuccessfully for the desired formula to dismiss this player, who can turn around the course of a match in a short time, cheaply.
Brad Hodge has flopped in all the matches while Michael Clarke has gone off the boil somewhat after a classy innings at Bangalore and the Australians would be tempted to bring back Brad Haddin in place of the out-of-form Hodge.
If the hosts win to level the series, it would be their second successive one at this venue this year after the triumph over the West Indies in January.
The venue has hosted seven ODIs in the past, six of those featuring India, and has been a very good hunting ground for the home team who have won five of the matches they have played here.
The teams:
India: M S Dhoni (Captain), Yuvraj Singh (Vice capt), Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, R P Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Kartik, S Badrinath,
Australia: Ricky Ponting (Capt), Adam Gilchrist, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden, Brad Haddin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds.
On-field Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and Amish Saheba (Ind)
Third umpire: Suresh Shastri (Ind)
Match referee: Chris Broad (Eng).
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