India in danger of being knocked out before the semifinals after their key clash against Australia is washed out; teams allotted a point each.
Dust storms swirled, the sound of thunder resounded, lightning flashed across and the skies threatened to open. It turned darker with each passing over and the wind grew stronger. The Australian batsmen, however, weren’t affected by the elements of nature.
The skies opened late during the Australian innings forcing the players to take early dinner. They had to split points as heavy rains ruled out the resumption of play. It means India will have to beat West Indies in a day/night encounter at the Wanderers on Wednesday but they would have an outside chance of advancing only if Pakistan beat Australia earlier in the day.
Australia were clinical in their approach. The Indian bowlers once again didn’t show enough heart a crunch game requires and Harbhajan Singh went wicketless. Ponting and Michael Hussey didn’t put a foot wrong during their partnership. Ponting loves the big occasions.
He walked out when Shane Watson fell early. Ashish Nehra had struck early again. Ponting and opener Tim Paine didn’t allow their innings to go off track. For the second game in a row the Indian bowlers didn’t look primed for the battle.
Ishant Sharma got his first breakthrough only in the 41st over while Praveen Kumar was quickly sorted out by the Australians. India had decided to boost their bowling resources by including leg-spinner Amit Mishra in the side.
Batting wasn’t easy on this fresh wicket at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. The ball at times bounced more than expected and occasionally kept low or didn’t come onto the bat. The nature of the wicket demanded that batsmen earn their runs. Ponting and Paine ran hard and slowly pushed up the run rate during the Power Play overs.
Paine smashed Ishant for a six. Ponting shortly dismissed Kumar in similar fashion. India were once again losing their grip on the proceedings. Dhoni turned to Mishra in the 12th over, while Harbhajan Singh was brought on in the 14th. Sweeps and reverse sweeps were used to blunt the spinners. Paine unsettled Harbhajan early. He first paddle swept Harbhajan and then reverse swept the main spinner to the fine leg and third man boundaries.
Mishra was proving to be the more difficult customer for the Australians. Paine paid the price for trying the sweep too many times getting a leading edge. Hussey looked confident from the outset. Ponting had overcome the threat from Sharma, his tormentor from the past. As a unit the bowling department didn’t generate too much confidence. Dhoni decided to bring in a fifth bowler to provide teeth to the attack in the middle overs and also support Harbhajan.
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