Harbhajan Singh took out Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting to leave Australia at 103 for 3 on a pitch that was increasingly aiding turn. Australia still held the advantage, needing only a further 68 runs for victory, but if they lose couple of quick wickets, it could still turn out to be a tricky little chase.
The early morning dampness had evaporated under the sun and Dhoni realised India’s only chance was going to be spin and he wasted no time in bringing on the spinners. Ravindra Jadeja was introduced in the sixth over and Harbhajan came on in the 13th over and both bowled with men crowding the bat to create problems for Australia.
Harbhajan didn’t have a great start to the series but improved in the last two games, bowling lot slower and altering his line of attack to the off and middle. He continued in the same vein today and let the pitch and the pressure to clinch the series work on the batsmen. At times, he operated with a slip, leg slip and a short leg and slowly cranked up the pressure. Watson and Ponting had resisted valiantly and in fact appeared to be in control at 85 for 1 when Harbhajan removed Watson. It was the bouncing off break outside off and Watson top edged the attempted slog sweep.
An inspired Harbhajan then lured Ponting into one of those typical bat-pad dismissals that is a common theme in the battle between these two players. Jadeja, too, bowled really well, mixing in quite a few arm-balls to keep the batsmen honest.
However, until Harbhajan struck twice in succession, it was Watson who stole the show with his positive batting. He stretched forward, ensured he kept his pads away from the line and played several skilful shots. There were two fours in particular that stood out, both coming against Jadeja. Both were arm-balls, fizzing on towards the top of the off stump and Watson brought his bat down at the last minute to crunch them past first slip.
Watson pulled, drove and cut the spinners and had started confidently against the seamers, too, driving and pulling Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar for boundaries, to seize the momentum for Australia. Like he did during the first IPL in India, he took an off and middle stump guard and didn’t waste any run-scoring opportunity. However, he fell against the run of play, to open a small door for India. Will India gate crash into the visitors’ party?
48 overs India 170 (Jadeja 57, Praveen 54*, Bollinger 5-35) v Australia
On a slightly damp pitch, Mitchell Johnson found his mojo and combined with Doug Bollinger to bundle out India for 170 and push Australia closer to a series win. Bollinger was at the top of his game today on a track conducive to his style and found his mark immediately, nipping out two wickets early and snapping two dangerous partnerships later en route to 5 for 35.
It would have been worse for India, who were tottering at 27 for 5, but Ravindra Jadeja featured in two fighting partnerships, a slow repairing job with MS Dhoni and a violent one with Praveen Kumar, to offer a semblance of respectability to the total.
Though Jadeja and Praveen played the best knocks of their respective careers, it was Australia who held all the aces after a superb bowling effort. Were the conditions so English that the ball was swinging wildly? No. Was the pitch aiding alarming movement? No. There was just a bit of movement, in the air and off the pitch, and Australia exploited it superbly to bundle India out.
Johnson, whose inability to swing the ball into the right-handers had blunted his threat in the recent times, found that inswing today and immediately looked a different bowler. With a slightly round-armish action which helped him to tilt the ball back in, Johnson gnawed away at the batsmen at disconcerting pace.
For a year Australians have fretted and puzzled over this man’s inconsistency. They were proud of his performances against South Africa and cussed him over his poor showing in Ashes but they have always known that Johnson is a different bowler when he gets that inswing going. Today was one such day. It was an early-morning start, the pitch was damp and there was hope in the air.
The start wasn’t flattering – his second delivery was whiplashed for a six over point by Virender Sehwag – but Johnson bounced back in the same over to start the demolition job. It was the full delivery, Sehwag shaped for his big drive but the ball curved in to thread the bat and pad gap and splayed the stumps.
Egged on, Johnson went from strength to strength and unfurled his full repertoire: The rapid pace, the extra bounce, the slinging round-arm, and the consistent line and length. He removed Gautam Gambhir with little bit of help from the batsman, who perhaps was swayed by Johnson’s bad days when the ball wouldn’t swing away from the left-handed batsmen. It was a delivery on the off and middle and Gambhir shaped to work it to the on side as if he expected the ball to angle in to his pads but, to his horror, the ball straightened to take out to the off stump.
Johnson went on to trouble Yuvraj Singh in the corridor before he took out Suresh Raina after harassing him with his bounce. The set-up was obvious – bowl a few short balls and push the batsman back before slipping in that fatal full delivery – but Raina fell for it again. Perhaps the ball stopped on him a bit, but Raina was late in getting forward to a full delivery and ended up flicking it straight to short mid-on.
If Johnson created an opening with his incisive bowling, it was Bollinger who provided the perfect supporting act with his unspectacular but consistent seam bowling. There is nothing flashy about Bollinger; you know what you will get from him: the steady line and length, the changes in pace, and the ability to bowl to his fields and it was enough today to get him two big wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.
Tendulkar was restricted to just one run from seven Bollinger deliveries when he pushed at a back-of-length ball a touch early. Perhaps, it stopped on him a bit and he ended up pushing it straight back to Bollinger who took a good reflex catch. There was a bit more luck in his second dismissal. The ball ricocheted off Yuvraj’s pad over his right shoulder and as Yuvraj, clueless about where the ball went, turned behind to place the bat back inside the crease, he only succeeded in pushing the ball back to the stumps. And he returned for the second spell to take out Dhoni and Harbhajan.
India’s sole resistance in the top half was offered by Dhoni and Jadeja who added 48 runs for the sixth wicket to spark a fightback. Both the batsmen dealt in singles with nudges and dabs to push the score to 75 when Dhoni, who was fortunate to survive a caught-behind decision against Bollinger when he was 0, was given out lbw to the same bowler to a delivery that was missing off stump.
Jadeja’s was the type of innings that the situation demanded and he delivered with admirable tenacity. He built his innings through singles and though he was beaten a few times by spin and seam, he didn’t allow it to affect his temperament. For the main part, he pushed the ball into gaps and tried to block the good deliveries before he freed his arms in the end.
Praveen started the acceleration in the end overs with some big hits. None were more furious than the one he unfurled against Clint McKay when he used his bottom hand to lift a very full delivery over the straight boundary, a la Dhoni, for a stunning six. Praveen vented most of his aggression against McKay, caning him for 28 runs from 18 deliveries, with several on-the-up adventurous swings over mid-off or mid-on. Time and again, he backed away to the leg side and knifed through the line and whatever he tried came off today.
At the half-way mark of the game, despite plucky knocks from Jadeja and Praveen, India’s good run in bilateral series – they have lost just two out of 14 since 2006 – looked most likely to end.
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