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Final one-dayer washed out

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

A depleted Australia won the crucial moments of the series

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

PLEASED AS PUNCH: In spite of many key players missing out due to injuries, Ricky Ponting led the Australians to a memorable series win.

Mumbai: The ‘Maximum City’ woke up to a steady shower. The rain never stopped and a venue that had geared up for its first One-Day International remained damp while some diehard fans waved the Indian flag.

At 5 p.m., the seventh and final match of the Hero Honda Cup series was called off at the Dr. D.Y. Patil Stadium here on Wednesday. The signs of a wash-out were too obvious even at 3 p.m. as the television crew began to roll back their cables while the giant screen beamed the satellite image of Cyclone Phyan whirling across the Arabian Sea.

Australia had already won the series at 4-2 after a clinical display at Guwahati on Sunday. The last game here presented an equal opportunity for the visitors to reiterate their dominance and for M.S. Dhoni’s men to retrieve dented egos but the weather gods decided otherwise.

On October 21, Ricky Ponting and his merry band had touched base at Mumbai and spoke about the need to play at their best to defeat an Indian team that remained daunting at home. The series between the top two ODI teams enjoyed a cracking start at Vadodara where tail-enders Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar nearly upset Ponting’s plans.

Missed opportunities

India, however, lost the match by four runs. It was repeated in another close match at Hyderabad despite Sachin Tendulkar’s gut-wrenching 175 as the Men in Blue lost by three runs.

Add to it the inability to get past Australia’s 250 at Mohali and the shocking 27 for five at Guwahati that inevitably ruined the Indian hopes of drawing level and eventually wresting the trophy.

The Indian batting failed to live up to its billing. “Our batting was not consistent,” Dhoni had said at Guwahati.

And the numbers do tell a tale. The six regular batsmen — Dhoni, Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina — aggregated 1,140 runs. These are low returns indeed from blue chip batsmen with a collective yield of over 40,000 ODI runs.

Take away Dhoni’s 124 at Nagpur and Tendulkar’s 175 at Hyderabad and the batting numbers become even more anaemic.

Compare this with an Australian line-up that lost Tim Paine midway through the tour but yet racked up 1,198 runs through just five batsmen — Michael Hussey (313), Ponting, Shane Watson, Cameron White and Shaun Marsh.

The Australians enjoyed just one century — Marsh’s 112 at Hyderabad — but had a better share of critical partnerships.

Bowlers too struggle

The Indian bowling too struggled as Harbhajan Singh remained the highest wicket-taker with eight but with an average of 33.87 and an economy rate of 4.51 he was unable to choke the Australian batsmen.

Among the speedsters, Ashish Nehra bagged seven wickets but leaked 6.08 runs per over. To add to the woes, Ishant Sharma ebbed away while left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja was sorted out and Praveen Kumar failed to make an impact.

The Australian attack presented a better picture despite missing Brett Lee after the first game.

Peter Siddle bowled a tight last over at Vadodara, Doug Bollinger grabbed nine wickets in four games, Watson regained his confidence to top up with 10 wickets and a below-par Mitchell Johnson (nine scalps) still found his spark at Guwahati.

Watson’s distinction

Watson was named Man-of-the-Series though he was not present to receive the award as he has already left for Australia.

As the damp dust settled at the D.Y. Patil Stadium, Indian cricket has more questions to answer in a season that began with the summary dismissals of bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh.

The Sri Lankans are here and there is no time to pontificate.

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