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India's chase fizzles out after Tendulkar treat

By S. Dinakar

Australia captain Ricky Ponting lifts Murali Kartik for a six on way to his century in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photos: K. Bhagya Prakash

Bangalore Nov. 12. There were Mexican waves in the stands and out in the middle, there was a dash of Flamenco too.

Twinkling footwork, and strokes big, bold and beautiful, much like those splashes of colour on a large canvas. Shots boomed on a belter of a pitch and a fast outfield as the batsmen took flight much like the flock of pigeons that swirled under the floodlights.

First, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, both high on octane, delighted with punishing hundreds, and then that little genius Sachin Tendulkar assumed centre-stage dismissing the bowling with an amalgam of timing and power, precision and placement.

On a pitch that held little for the bowlers, the man with subtle changes of pace made the decisive difference, and when seamer Ian Harvey breached Tendulkar's (89) defence, the Indians, in pursuit of an awesome 348, had their backs to the wall.

As the dust settled on this TVS tri-series encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Wednesday, Australia ran out a comfortable winner by 61 runs, finishing its league engagements with 28 points.

The Indians, who picked up a point from the match, now have ten from five games, the same as the Kiwis.

When the Indian chase got underway, Virender Sehwag, lucky to be reprieved twice off one Michael Kasprowicz over, in the slips and point, on six and eight, made an unconvincing 39 before being castled by Harvey.

But by then, the openers had provided a platform adding 103 in 17.3 overs.

After Tendulkar's departure, though captain Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, who succumbed to a spectacular return catch by Kasprowicz, promised for a while, the batsmen had too much to accomplish after the Indian bowlers had allowed the Australians too much leeway.

Earlier, after Ponting called right, Man of the Match Gilchrist (111) `pulled' his weight in the side yet again, Ponting (108 not out) cleared the ropes with ridiculous ease to leave the bowlers panting, Damien Martyn (61 not out) caressed the ball through the covers, and Matthew Hayden (44) unleashed some typically powerful blows.

The left-arm combination of Zaheer Khan and Nehra, both rhythm bowlers, the former a seamer and the other a swinger, was always going to run into problems against two top-notch left-handed openers.

It must be conceded though the two pacemen were let down by some sloppy fielding from skipper Ganguly, Sehwag and Kaif in the early stages of the match.

Ganguly redeemed himself to a certain extent when he released the ball quickly from point to 'keeper Dravid after Hayden had set off for a single and then changed his mind.

Among the Indian bowlers, Murali Kartik made an impression with his flight and drift, although he was taken for 14 runs in his final over by Ponting, which included two sixes (he struck seven in all), one over long-off and the other beyond the mid-wicket fence.

The left-armer was desperately unlucky though to watch Dravid failing to effect a regulation stumping when the Aussie captain, tentative initially, was on 25.

Anil Kumble started well, tended to stray down the leg-side later, yet secured the only Australian wicket taken by an Indian bowler when Gilchrist holed out to Zaheer at the square-leg fence.

Ponting, his nemesis Harbhajan Singh missing from the attack (the official reason was a viral infection), freed his arms to reach his 15th ODI hundred.

For Gilchrist, it was his ninth three-figure knock in limited overs Internationals.

It was clear that the marauding Aussie batsmen had dented the Indian bowlers psychologically. The scars of the World Cup final have still not gone away.

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