India Innings
Australia defeated India by a crushing margin of 49 runs. Chasing 185 for a win, India was out of the contest in no time at 37 for 5 in the 8th over with most of the batsmen falling to the rising deliveries. India was heading towards an embarrassment of getting bundled out a lot under 100 when they slipped to 50 for 7! Fortunately, there was atleast one batsman who was able to cope up with the fiery pace and bounce in the form of Rohit Sharma and he showed his class and remaining unconquered with an unbeaten 79. Rohit's knock came in 46 balls with 4 fours and half-a-dozen sixes. India all because of that innings got some respectability to its total!
Totally outplayed was India and it was an abject surrender on the fast and bouncy Kensington Oval. The innings ended in 17.4 overs with India putting up 135. Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait picked up three wickets each.
Australia Innings
Australia smashed 184 for 5 against a wafer thin bowling attack of India. Openers Shane Watson and David Warner took the bowlers to the cleaners with their destructive stand of 104 inside 11 overs. As many as 16 sixes were struck by the Aussie batsmen which easily outnumbered the fours which counted up to just the six! Shane Watson plundered 54 from 32 balls with a four and six sixes. Three of his sixes came off consecutive pull shots off Ravindra Jadeja, the same player who had dropped a difficult catch off the same batsman at short fine leg. David Warner, the other opener was equally destructive with his 72 from 42 balls with 2 fours and 7 sixes. And like Watson, Warner too took three consecutive sixes off Ravindra Jadeja. The poor left armer went for 38 runs in his 2 overs! Also contributing well with the bat was no.3 David Hussey who scored 35 from 22 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes.
India had started off brilliantly through a Harbhajan Singh who bowled a maiden in the very first over of the innings. They were also lucky enough to restrict Australia to 184 as it was looking that the batting side could easily put up 220 on the board! The last four overs of the innings were taken for only 23 runs which could be the turning point of the match should India chase well! For India, Harbhajan Singh of all bowlers was simply outstanding to finish with figures of 4-1-15-0!!
Toss and Teams
MS Dhoni, India's Skipper called Heads correctly to win the toss and put Australia to bat first in the Super Eights Match at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. Quite a few changes says Dhoni in the line up with Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Zaheer Khan coming in for Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla and the injured Praveen Kumar. Michael Clarke reckons he was happy to lose the toss as he wasn't sure of batting first or bowling first. Australia have made just the one change with Mitchell Johnson returning back in the place of Ryan Harris.
Well the pitch as you all know will be having plenty of pace and moisture. The team bowling first will have the moisture in the track to aid in moving the ball off the seam and there should be swing as well because of the early morning start. Australia will hold the advantage in this game because of their pace attack and its a test for the Indian batsmen whether they can deal with the rapid pace and bounce of this track or not. Fortunately their attack is being led by two class left arm pacers in Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra. For starters, Australia would be looking to get atleast 160 on the board to feel confident of winning thus match.
Australia XI : David Warner, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (C), David Hussey, Cameron White, Brad Haddin (WK), Michael Hussey, Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait
India XI : Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra
