Was it a tight match?

Everybody was willing it to be a tight match. This will go down to the wire they said. India’s bowling was not good enough they said. India keeps collapsing in the powerplay they said. This is Australia and they don’t give up easily they said. Personally I was confident of a comfortable victory, and even though India tried its best to make it as tense as possible we won easily in the end.

1. The Australian batting at the end of the 1st over decided that 260 was a good enough score for them to defend. They did not take into account the depth and form of India’s batting and the inadequate nature of their own bowling.

2. India bowled well and fielded well almost above par. This ensured that Australia did not get 280. We have to remember that this was a Ponting playing for pride. They kept saying he played his part. The fault lay with the others. Haddin hit his par score. Hussey failed. Clarke and White were unimpressive. An out of form White should never have batted so high up yesterday in the first place.

3. India batted easily. The Oz bowling never threatened. Lee was consistent. Tait and Johnson were consistently bad. Krezja is their best spinner? Sorry not enough for the best batting team in the world. There never was a real fight from the Aussies. No fantastic catch, no match turning direct hit run out, no pressure to prevent singles in the middle overs. This was not a typical Aussie trench fight. A bad shot from Kohli and some mad running made the game more interesting than what it actually was.

4. Finally when Yuvi and Raina smashed the winning runs it finished a “supposedly” tight match.

5. Some thoughts from the match – Raina was a good pick over Yusuf after all the chances he was given. Munaf is getting predictable but should be persisted with I think. Bhajji needs to step up with a few wickets. Dhoni did a great job by getting Sachin and Kohli to bowl. That should help in case one of the main bowlers get hit. Sehwag & Raina can also able to chip in if necessary, the team looks more settled. I just hope Mohali does not encourage Dhoni to pick Sreesanth for the next game, but then who knows what he can come up with!

Sanjay