Bevan spearheads Aussie
series win
Prem Panicker
Michael Bevan walked off to a standing ovation from a crowd that had begun gathering at the Nehru stadium in Fatorda, Margao, from 6.30 this morning hoping to see the home side do well.
And that ovation said it all, really -- Bevan, in the game that mattered, came to the party and turned out to be its life, and soul. Coolness of nerve and an ability to absorb enormous pressure and still function is what he is famed for -- and it was those qualities that were on display, as he guided Australia to a 4 wicket win with two overs to spare, to clinch the one-day series 3-2.
Australia may have failed to break the hoodoo of not being able to win in India in a Test series -- but they can now go away with the consolation that India's record of being undefeated in bilateral ODI tournaments in 13 years, has ended.
They say a one-day game spans 100 overs. Amazing, then, how time and again, the game is won and lost in the space of a few overs in the middle.
In this case, the outcome was decided in the space of the final ten overs of the Indian innings when the home side, from a platform of 217/2 at the 40 over mark, managed to total just 265/6 in the next ten. And in overs 6-15 when Australia batted, when Australia went for 20/0 to 102/2.
The overs progression tells the real story of this game. India, batting first, went 17/1 in 5, 28/1 in 10, 55/1 in 15, 93/1 in 20, 125/2 in 25, 152/2 in 30, 173/2 in 35, 217/2 in 40, 235/5 in 45 and 265/6 in 50.
Australia went 20/0 in 5, 70/0 in 10, 102/2 in 15, 122/2 in 20, 147/3 in 25, 168/3 in 30, 188/4 in 35, 204/6 in 40, and 239/6 in 45.
Check those two sets of figures out: India started off slowly, built up a nice momentum, and then fell away just when you expected the pedal to be pushed to the floor. Australia started off like a rocket, lost its way in the middle, and then the heroics of Bevan made light of the conditions, and the ask, and took the visitors home.
Those figures also reflect the nature of the track -- a bit two-faced, the odd ball stopping on the batsman and injecting just that little element of doubt in their minds. India, with one change (Yuvraj Singh coming in for Robin Singh) won the toss, and opted to bat first. The quibble, regarding team selection here, was that on a track expected to break a bit as the game goes on, three seamers seemed a worse option than a two-spin, two-pace balance.
Nathan Bracken, for the second time on the trot, played the star turn with the ball for Australia, early on. A ball angled across Sachin Tendulkar, and bouncing a bit, saw the batsman shape to drive on the up, the extra bounce finding the edge through to Gilchrist, to give India an early setback.
There is this saying that Rahul Dravid, and a couple of others, have stuck inside their kitbags -- 'Tough times don't last, but tough people do'. Today, it looked as though Sourav Ganguly had pasted it inside his helmet -- the Indian skipper grimly weathered early pressure and his own nerves, ignored the odd verbal blast, focussed as he hasn't in this series till date, and suddenly, the unsure Ganguly was gone and the confident one-day player was back in the middle.
If you are reviewing the video of the game to spot the time things changed, check out the seventh over. Glenn McGrath, around the wicket, with seven men packing the off cordon bowled one just outside off, and Ganguly threaded an immaculate cover drive for four.
From that moment on, the Indian skipper took charge. Warne was dismissed for two fours in the 14th over, then smashed a six over long on in the 18th over to bring up the 50 of the partnership off 80 balls. In between, a flicked straight drive by Laxman saw Ian Harvey dive, and fail to hold, a very hard return chance. Ganguly brought up his own 50 with another big hit -- this one, straight and clean back over Warne's head for six. With both batsmen settling into a smooth rhythm, the run-rate accelerated, and the 100 of the partnership came up off 120 deliveries.
Ganguly, who has a history of producing very big knocks in tournament finals, seemed on course for yet another one when he was struck by a bit of a blunder. Glenn McGrath, brought back in the 25th over, made one kick. Ganguly was surprised by the lift and when he played the ball in front of his face, he had both feet off the ground and the ball was still climbing on him. Ponting held the ballooning chance; Ganguly looked at the square leg umpire to see if it had been no-balled for height -- but it wasn't. The Indian skipper walked back with 74 off 83 to his name, and the statistic that will give him most satisfaction is the 17 runs he took off 19 balls from McGrath, and the 30 he got off 18 balls from Warne -- those two bowlers having tormented him the most on this tour.
Ganguly's departure saw Laxman slip smoothly into the senior partner's role, while Dravid, who on drove the first ball he faced from McGrath for a four, settled into strike rotation. This brings up a point worth making -- over this one day series, a significant improvement can be noticed in India's running between wickets (if you ignore the run outs for a moment, that is). Till date, India has been an either four or nothing side -- increasingly, the emphasis has shifted to singles, as evidenced from the stats of the day -- 50 singles inside the first 26 overs and, at the end of the Indian innings, 121 singles taken as against 11 twos, 26 fours and the two Ganguly sixes.
121 singles in an Indian innings of 266 spells improvement -- and for this one, John Wright will need to take a bow.
Australia had its own problems. Warne's four overs had gone for 37, Symonds had gone for 22 off his first three, and that meant that the third regular bowler, plus the twenty due from the non-regulars, were costing them plenty. As the overs ticked down, Laxman went into overdrive, producing a murderous display of hitting all round the wicket.
India seemed superbly placed in the 41st over, when Dravid went down the track to Symonds, looking to loft over midwicket but managing only to get the toe of the bat to the ball as it stopped on him, and holing out to midwicket.
Two overs later, Laxman -- by then reeling from dehydration and fatigue -- brought up his first one day century -- off just 105 balls, and 10 fours. An over later, a tired hoik aimed to the on side only managed to spoon the ball high for Gilchrist to hold on the off side.
Laxman was democratic in his strokeplay -- 10 runs off McGrath's 17 balls, 5 off 7 from Bracken, 25 off 17 balls from Warne, 23 off 21 off Lehmann... no one was spared.
With the platform in place, India lost the plot. Badani hit all across the line to be bowled by Harvey off the next ball to the one that claimed Laxman. Yuvraj and Dahiya struggled to get the ball off the square in the death, mostly because they aimed too many cross bat heaves on a pitch made more for playing straight, and eventually, India ended with 265 in its alloted overs.
Srinath and Zaheer began on a nice, tight line and length, the first five overs producing two dangerous inside edges, one each off Hayden and Gilchrist, that flashed very close to the leg stump. And then, for no visible reason, both the opening bowlers, and Agarkar (22 runs in his first three overs) at first change, lost the plot entirely. "We bowled too short," Ganguly said curtly during the post-match presentation, and he was understating the case.
Gilchrist in particular, during this phase, found the ball rolling exactly the way he likes it, and shifted gears into murderous mode, slashing through off and pulling and lifting over the on to rocket Australia ahead. At the other end, Hayden seemed on the confidence high of a lifetime -- no fuss, no muss, just clean, clinical hitting to all parts of the field.
Srinath had some success in the 11th over, when Hayden attempted to drive through the V. The ball flew off the bat, swerving in the air enough, at speed, to wrong foot Ganguly at mid on. The Indian skipper held his nerve, got one hand behind the line of the ball, and to his evident relief, it stuck. Hayden's real contribution, in his innings, was his assault on Srinath -- 28 runs off 26 balls, at a time when Srinath just about seemed to be settling into a good line.
Two balls later, Ricky Ponting was walking back. The number three smashed at a ball from Srinath outside off, getting into the shot late, finding the edge for Dahiya to reduce Australia to 74/2 and bring India back into the game.
Gilchrist, however, had got the bit between his teeth, and swung for glory every chance he got -- each big hit easing the pressure that little bit on the batsmen to come. His 53 came off 28 balls with nine fours and one six -- and there were 11 dot balls in there as well.
The measure of his innings is contained in these figures -- Gilchrist, in the first 15 overs, took 12 off 11 balls by Srinath, 15 off nine from Zahir, 20 off 6 from Agarkar, and 13 off 7 from Harbhajan.
Tendulkar's advent, in the 19th over, began India's fightback. The first victim was Gilchrist -- attempting to cut at an arm ball pushed through quicker and flatter, beaten, and bowled after playing an innings of 76 off 60 deliveries (his last 23 runs taking 32 balls).
Gradually -- as you see from the run-progression given at the start of this article -- Australia were pegged back, and the pressure began to tell. India around this point missed a bet, keeping fielders way too deep on the on side and letting Bevan and Steve Waugh race twos (at the 30 over mark, Australia had taken 52 singles to 64 by India, but had got 11 twos to just four by India).
Steve Waugh, under some pressure from Sachin's bowling, had a rather prolonged exchange with the bowler around this point. And an over later, went down on one knee to try and swat Sachin over long on, managing only to hole out to the fielder there and give the bowler his 100th ODI wicket, a couple of games after he had registered his 10,000th ODI run.
Tendulkar's spell ended in the 37th over -- with yet another wicket, when Darren Lehmann attempted to blast him through point, misread the ball, and found Yuvraj taking the flat, hard hit superbly on the run, to reduce Australia to 196/5. Helping Sachin keep the pressure on was Zaheer, who bowled a very tight second spell of 4-0-11-0.
Bevan, meanwhile, had registered his 50 off 81 deliveries -- and from this point, he took charge. Relying on his chip and charge routine, Bevan kept the board ticking over all the time, even as he lost partners at the other end. Andrew Symonds, in the 40th over, stepped to leg to blast Srinath through point -- and Badani, running around the line from the sweeper position, held a well judged catch.
The game should have been sealed in the 41st over. Harbhajan, coming back in the 41st over, beat a paddle shot by Ian Harvey, got the edge down the leg side -- and Dahiya had both arms rising heavenwards appealing for an LBW, when the edge went through his legs and down to the fence for four. Dahiya's keeping has been patchy throughout this series -- today, it was downright atrocious.
Tight bowling had pushed the ask over 6 an over, and the pressure was beginning to show on the Australians when Srinath, into his final over (the 44th), let the reins go. The first ball was short, and Bevan blasted the four on the on side. A couple of balls later, another short ball was despatched, this time by Harvey, for another four. At the start of the over, Australia needed 45 off 42. By the time Srinath had finished, 11 runs had come off 6 balls -- and from that point on, Australia never were in danger of losing.
"I kept an eye on the board, ensured that the ask didn't climb too far above six an over," man of the match Michael Bevan said after the match, explaining his strategy. "I figured, whenever the ask went up, I could chance one big hit given how small the ground was, and get it back in control."
A perfect blueprint for a late chase, perfectly executed by a man who has made this something of an art form, saw Australia coast through the remaining runs, to pull off a fine win, ending an enthralling series that swung one way and another before the World Cup holders finally wrapped it up.
Mathew Hayden -- who, by right, should have been watching the fun from back home in Australia -- was named man of the series. And the crowd greeted the award with a roar -- the dynamic opener, with over 1000 runs on this tour, has captured the imagination here with his combative cricket.
Scoreboard
Bev-Win! -- Images from the match
Adam Gilchrist on the fifth ODI, in Real Audio
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