India halt Aussie ODI streak

"It's a bathing beauty", the curator at the Chinnaswamy Stadium said when asked about the pitch. Of course, he had something in his mouth at the time, so it is more probable that he meant 'batting beauty' -- cause that is what it was. A nice, flat track, endlessly rolled to ensure that it stayed true and firm for the duration of the game.

The batsmen -- of both sides -- certainly agreed. And so they paraded out into the middle, one by one, and paraded their wares in abundance. The bowlers got together and thought of forming a society to agitate at this needless cruelty -- then figured that with the pajama party well and truly on us, there was no point anyway, and just gave up.

India went in with three seamers, and the sole spinner in Harbhajan Singh, Virendra Sehwag being picked as the batting all rounder who can also bowl a bit of off spin. Australia for its part picked the in-form Mathew Hayden, in the process splitting the Mark Waugh-Adam Gilchrist opening stand, and like India, opted to go with the sole spinner in Shane Warne.

Saurav Ganguly won a very important toss, and promptly opted to bat first. Just in passing, the two teams had played each other twice at this venue and on both occasions, Australia batted first on winning the toss, and lost.

Ganguly had got into this ODI series with a bad run in Tests -- and was against opponents who, even in the limited overs version, hadn't let him get going against them. Here, it seemed like too many things were preying on his mind, not least his personal form. There was an element of pre-determination about his play, and that had him in a tangle time and again, till he finally pushed forward early at a Fleming delivery that was slower, shorter, and should have been played on the back foot. Ganguly found himself on the front foot, though, and could only push a tame catch to Mark Waugh at short cover.

At the other end, Sachin Tendulkar -- 101 shy of becoming the first batsman to notch up 10,000 runs in ODIs -- had been playing quiet cricket, tapping singles around. His captain's dismissal seemed to wake him up and to McGrath's discomfiture, it was he who was bowling then. The first ball, was a good one, nicely on line of just outside off -- only, Tendulkar out of the blue climbed into that, and smashed over midwicket for a huge six. Then came an array of drives hit with utter disdain, culiminating in 19 runs being taken off the over.

It seemed as if Tendulkar had the bit firmly in his teeth, and was looking to run away with the game, when a ridiculous run out saw him walking back. Laxman hit one out on the off, they raced the single and turned for two. Michael Bevan, sweeping behind cover, ran around to field brilliantly, and Laxman promptly held his hand up. Sachin, by then, was however running full pelt, couldn't check in time, and was caught way out of his ground by a flat, hard throw in from the deep.

Laxman seemed hell bent on making up for that dismissal, and went after Shane Warne with a vengeance, taking 15 off his first over. India was fair rocketing along, crossing the 100 mark inside of 15 overs, when the number three, who seemed from his shotmaking to have carried his Test form into the limited version, went for a flat hit over long off, off Ian Harvey. The all-rounder's changes in pace are his forte, he produced a lovely slower one, Laxman hit too early, got the toe of the bat to it, and holed out to Damien Martyn at long off.

Hemang Badani's play is characterised by composure, and a willingness to stick it out there. Today, though, those traits deserted him -- through his short tenure, he kept reaching out for Warne's flighted deliveries outside his off stump, and finally got the inevitable edge to a badly played drive, to edge through to slip. India 122/4 in the 22nd over, and the signs warned of a typical collapse.

Cue in Virendra Sehwag, to play a brilliant innings. The stocky all-rounder has a very slight backlift, but incredible wrists that seem to generate enormous bat speed going into his shots. And that explained his ability to time and again punch the quicks through cover -- the one shot that really captured the imagination today. He also showed an eagerness to race singles, convert them into twos, and generally keep the score ticking over at a fair clip without ever seeming to be in a tearing hurry.

At the other end, Rahul Dravid -- also carrying his Test form into the short game, and looking a more relaxed player all of a sudden -- kept chipping the singles and running brilliantly between wickets, and India not only weathered the loss of those four wickets, but actually pushed Australia back on the defensive in a 100-run 5th wicket stand off just 95 balls.

Noticeably, the Aussies were losing their cool. There was a throw by Fleming at the batsman, fielding off his own bowling, that seemed a tad unnecessary -- which is putting it mildly. Then came a more dramatic incident, when McGrath fielding at midoff said something that had the normally phlegmatic Dravid all incensed, and walking across to take the fielder on before the umpire intervened and pushed Dravid away out of harm's way.

Sehwag, meanwhile, seemed to respond to each provocation -- like a chest high full toss from Ian Harvey, and that throw from Fleming, with another boundary. In the 38th over, however, he abandoned his naturally short back lift, wound up for a big one off Fleming, misread the fullish length and reverse swing, and lost his off stump.

Not that it made much difference -- Vijay Dahiya came out and, if anything, played an even better knock, full of lovely improvisation and a seeming ability to stay unmoved by pressure. Dravid, meanwhile, played an interesting innings -- when he was into his 60s, with an 83 per cent strike rate. With the overs running out, Dravid went into overdrive -- in the process losing some of that elegance and coming up with mishits. One such, an attempt to loft over long on, finally found the fielder with Dravid not being in control of the chipped drive. India 283/6 in the 44th over, and Dravid 80 off 84 -- demotion seems to work wonders on this man.

Vijay Dahiya, for his part, just carried on, completing a superb half century off just 38 balls before he took on Michael Bevan for an impossible second run in an attempt to keep the strike, and paid for it with his wicket. The tail duly made its customary mess of things, and India ended up all out 315, with one ball left of the allotted quota.

There really is no point in talking about the bowling -- given that Warne at 5.8 per over was the most "economical", no other comment is needed, really. This was the kind of track on which bowlers, if they are wise, develop tummyache the night before a game.

Australia went in to bat chasing 316. For those into statistics, that figure is in fact the highest successful chase by Australia -- achieved for the loss of four wickets against Pakistan in 1998. As against that, Australia's highest chase thus far against India is the 263/3 they made in 1986, at Rajkot.

The trouble with a chase this huge is that a pair of batsmen make 6 an over, for two, three overs, and realise that despite it all, they are still a percentage point or three behind the asking rate. And that brings with it enormous pressure, even on a batting track as good as this one.

That is what proved Mark Waugh's undoing. Australia had scored 16 off the first 15 balls, but it just wasn't enough -- and so the opener stepped away from his stumps to try and blast Srinath through the off side, the bowler spotted it, pushed one through quick, full, and on leg, beat the flailing bat and pegged back leg stump.

Ricky Ponting despite his poor form in the Tests was in at number three. Clearly nervous, he kept pushing hard at the ball -- a sure sign of a batsman struggling for form and timing. One such drive, hit too early at Zahir Khan, got the toe of the bat and Dravid, at mid off, timed his run and jump to perfection to hold very well at mid off.

That brought Mathew Hayden and Michael Bevan together, in a partnership that looked to be taking the game away from India. Bevan was his normal self, placing the ball perfectly and running at Olympic sprint speeds between wickets, while Hayden, retained in the ODI squad only thanks to his Test heroics, batted in a fashion that made you wonder why he is not the first name pencilled in by the selectors. Hayden is immensely powerful, and that power, and impeccable shot selection, were the hallmarks of his batting, here as in the Tests.

Scoring comparisons tell the story here. India after 20 overs -- remember, these overs included the Tendulkar and Laxman blasts -- 118/3, 145/4 in 25, 168/4 in 30. Australia in contract, had 121/2 in 20, 184/5 by the 30 over mark.

Saurav Ganguly had till that point been having a horrible evening in the field. In the 25th over, with Australia seemingly running away with the game, the captain decided to bring himself on -- and sure enough, off the last ball of the over, his penchant for taking partnership-breaking wickets was evident again. It was a short ball, begging to be hit -- so Bevan hit. And the pull found Robin Singh, substitituting, at midwicket. 153/3 Australia, and that was probably the biggest wicket of the innings.

With one foot inside the door, the Indians hit back. Virendra Sehwag was bowling his offies as fast and as full as he could. Mathew Hayden had powered his way to a majestic 99, and seemed so desperate to get the one run he needed for his first ever ODI hundred, that he hurriedly walked out to one from Sehwag on a full length, looking to force on the off against the angle. It was a clumsy looking shot -- which missed, the ball hitting the pad and reducing Australia to 174/4, in the 28th over.

Damien Martyn was sent in ahead of Adam Gilchrist -- for all the good it did, he might as well have come in at his own batting position. With a slip in place, the batsman tried to get cute, and dab to third man past that slip. All he managed though was to edge behind, off a top spinner from Sehwag that stayed low. Dahiya stayed low likewise, and pulled off a good catch.

Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist had the field to themselves -- captain and vice captain, engaged in a rescue act. Waugh is not normally a batsman who is overly found of the sweep -- to quote Ian Chappell commenting during the Tests, the last time Steve Waugh tried to sweep behind square, Adam was a little boy. Given the need for runs, he tried that shot here. Got it on the pad. And found the umpire's finger going up.

As Waugh walked past the umpire, he told him something. And that in turn triggered the curiosity of the television commentators, who went into replay after replay. Was the line right? Yes, said the first replay. Was the strike in line? Yes, showed the second one. Finally, on the fourth replay, the problem became clear -- there was the faintest of under-edges onto the pad. A wrong decision -- but not, in that cauldron of noise, a bad one.

Adam Gilchrist found the onus entirely on him -- and given his own slump in form, the task proved too much. An inswinging full toss from Zahir Khan saw the Aussie vice-captain attempt a strange sort of one handed shot, the ball swinging in past the flailing bat to crash into middle stump.

The wheels were coming off the Aussie wagon, with a vengeance. India by then could afford to let singles go, and concentrate on just saving the fours. The pressure was fully on the batting side, and it began telling. Ian Harvey had a huge swing at a slower ball, wide of off, from Agarkar -- and managed only to get the toe of the bat to it, the ball going high in the air and down Ganguly's throat at point.

Shane Warne went soon after -- attempting to hoik Srinath from off to leg, he got one on a very full length that seamed in late, to beat the shot and take out his leg stump. At that point, the score read 254/9 off 43.2 overs -- and with Glenn McGrath walking out to join Damien Fleming, the rest of the story tells itself, doesn't it? Srinath finished off with a yorker, McGrath took it on the pad, and it was all over. The real pity, though, was that this decision was a shocker -- the ball was going well to leg.

Another Aussie streak had been halted.

Before wrapping this, a point needs making. Every single time there is an ODI series in India, the BCCI for some reason insists on using two new umpires for each game. And every single time, the umpires -- largely inexperienced, and certainly incapable of handling the enormous pressure of standing in high-voltage games before incredibly noisy capacity crowds, have made more mistakes than you want to see.

That is going to be repeated here. Before this series is over, a parallel scoreboard will be keeping track of umpiring errors.

And again, at the end of the series, a question will be asked: Why cannot the BCCI ensure that such key series are used not to give under-qualified umpires a paid outing in the middle? Why cannot the BCCI realise -- even as they proudly announce that 70 million people followed the recent Test series on TV -- that it is vital for them to ensure that those 70 million people are able to enjoy the game, without that enjoyment being blighted by as sorry a parade of officials as you never want to see?

It's such a pity, really, that a good, hard fought game ending in a win for the home side has to be tainted by one bad decision, and one horrible decision -- the latter, what's more, coming at a time when it would have made no difference to the ultimate outcome?

Detailed Scorecard
Indian innings | Australian innings

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