Revisiting the ICC World Twenty20 2007

I had no intention of posting today but just couldn’t resist writing on February 29 as I certainly don’t want to wait for 4 more years to avail the opportunity. I was thinking about what to write the entire morning as nothing of interest in the game of cricket was underway. After my last post I also didn’t want to sit and criticize the Australian clowns who are playing the Lankans now in a match whose result is purely academic. Then the thought of writing about the best cricketing incidents of 2007 came to my mind, but I decided not to go with it as it would be too time consuming. I also couldn’t write about last year’s World Cup as it was probably the most boring World Cup in the history of the game and it was very controversial too, because of the untimely demise of Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer. That was when I thought of writing about a cricketing event in 2007 which took the cricket fraternity by storm- the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 which was hosted by South Africa. The success of this event was overwhelming even though purists slammed it saying that it would destroy the game completely. The tournament, which was popularly known as the Twenty20 World Cup, was just 13 days long, and it brought the ICC more revenue than the month and a half long World Cup in the West Indies.

The first match of the tournament was played between the World Cup hosts West Indies and the Twenty20 hosts South Africa on September 11, 2007. This match was one of the best matches of the tournament. South Africa won the toss and elected to field first and when the West Indies started batting, South African skipper Graeme Smith realized that his decision was completely wrong. The Windies had got off to a flier and reached 50 without losing a wicket in just 5.2 overs! The carnage wasn’t over as Chris Gayle blasted the South African bowlers all over the place and the Windies brought up their 100 in just 9.4 overs out of which Gayle had notched up 64. The first wicket fell at 145 when D.S. Smith departed for 35. Gayle reached his century, the first in international Twenty20 history off just 50 balls. He got out in the 17th over for a magnificent 117 in 57 deliveries with 7 fours and 10 huge sixes. Windies ended their 20 overs with 205/6. South Africa needed to accelerate from the beginning if they wanted to win and they did just that as the openers knocked off the first 50 runs in just 4.5 overs. In spite of losing 2 wickets, the Proteas also reached 100 in 9.4 overs. Gibbs and Kemp hammered the bowling and the South Africans won in the 17.4 overs. Gayle’s brilliant effort went in vain but that knock is certainly unforgettable.


The next match worthy of mention is the India-Pakistan league encounter. Pakistan won the toss and elected to field and the Indians were in deep trouble at 36/4 with Mohd. Asif taking all 4 wickets. Robin Uthappa played one of the best T20 innings under pressure to get India out of trouble. He had scored 50 in 39 balls by the time he was the fifth man out for 82. Dhoni and Pathan hung on and helped in taking India to 141/9. Pakistan was also in a spot of bother at 87/5 but Misbah-ul-Haq played spectacularly and Pakistan had 5 runs to win off 3 balls and had 3 wickets in hand, Misbah was facing Sreesanth and he smashed the ball straight to the boundary for four and brought up his half century. Now it was 1 to win off 2. Sreesanth bowled a well directed bouncer off which Misbah couldn’t take a run. That made it 1 run to win of 1 ball. Sreesanth then fired in a yorker which was played well by Misbah who then scampered for a run and was short of the crease as Uthappa had thrown the ball to Sreesanth who then went on to dislodge the bails. Misbah was run out for 53 off 35 balls and the match was a tie! But T20 rules need a bowl-out to take place in the event of a tie so that there is a winner at the end of the match. India held its nerve and won the bowl-out 3-0 as the Pakistanis missed the stumps on all occasions! India had defeated arch-rival Pakistan in an intense match and the media just couldn’t forget this moment as Dhoni won his first international game as captain.


The India vs. New Zealand match was a good one too. New Zealand was put into bat by the Indians and they blasted 190 runs in their 20 overs. The Indian openers started well but the middle-order couldn’t hold on and India lost the match by 10 runs. Gautam Gambhir played well for 51 off 33 and so did his opening partner Sehwag who scored 40 off just 17 balls and was the first Indian wicket to fall.

Then there was the match played between Australia and Zimbabwe in which Zimbabwe won! I haven’t been able to write about that match as I don’t have many details about it. There is also the Australia-Bangladesh match which wasn’t very interesting as Australia chased down Bangladesh’s 123 easily. The match, however, had a typical T20 knock by Adam Gilchrist who blasted the Bangladeshi attack for 4 sixes and just 1 four in a 28 ball 43, a superb effort if you ask me.

Another interesting match was the one in which Pakistan thrashed Australia by 6 wickets. Australia scored 164/7 in their 20 overs. Pakistan successfully chased the score in 19.1 overs thanks mainly to captain Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq who both made unbeaten half centuries. Malik scored 52 off 38 while Misbah scored 66 in just 42 balls. Misbah’s knock was one of my favourite individual batting efforts in the tournament. Another wonderful innings was by Justin Kemp of South Africa against New Zealand who hit 6 sixes and 6 fours to score an unbeaten 89 off 56 while helping South Africa chase down New Zealand’s 153.

One of the most famous matches has to be the India-England encounter as it was a treat to cricket lovers all over the world. We all know what happened in this match but I will start from the beginning. India won the toss and chose to bat. The Indian openers- Sehwag and Gambhir started cautiously before milking the bowling and had an opening partnership of 136. Sehwag scored 68 off 59 with 4 fours and 3 sixes and Gambhir scored 58 off 41 with 7 fours and a six. Both got out in successive overs and Uthappa followed them back to the pavilion. When Uthappa departed in the seventeenth over, the scorecard read 155/3 and Yuvraj Singh joined Dhoni at the crease. At the end of the eighteenth over Yuvraj had a tiff with Flintoff, at this point Yuvraj was batting on 14 runs in 6 balls, out of which 12 runs had come with the help of 3 fours. When Stuart Broad came into bowl the penultimate over of the Indian innings, Yuvraj greeted him by whacking the first ball for a huge six on the on-side. The next ball too was flicked for six. He hit the third and fourth balls for two huge sixes on the off-side. The last two balls were hit for hit for massive sixes as well, both being on the on-side. Yuvraj Singh had become the first player in the history of Twenty20 cricket to hit 6 sixes in an over and the fourth to do so in senior cricket, the others being Gary Sobers, Ravi Shastri (who was commentating while Yuvraj achieved the feat) and Herschelle Gibbs (who did it against Holland in the World Cup). Yuvraj also scored the fastest 50 T20 cricket in the process, in fact it was the fastest 50 in any form of the game. Before he got out in the last over of the innings he hit one more six, this time off Flintoff before falling to the same bowler for a brilliant 58 off just 16 balls with 3 fours and 7 towering sixes. He batted for only 15 minutes and his strike rate was a phenomenal 352.50 as India finished with a mammoth 218/4 in their stipulated 20 overs. Ravi Shastri’s statement during the course of his commentary aptly sums up Yuvraj’s heroic effort, “He came in like thunder and leaves with lighting.” The Englishmen came quite close as they ended on 200 as India won by 18 runs.

India’s next match was against the South Africans, who till then were unbeaten in the tournament. India’s hero against England- Yuvraj was unable to play the match due to injury. India chose to bat after winning the toss and were in a lot of trouble the score being 33/3 in 5.1 overs. India lost their fourth wicket in the eleventh over when Uthappa tried to loft Morne Morkel over the top but managed to hit the ball straight to Graeme Smith, the score at that point was 61/4. From here, Dhoni and newcomer Rohit Sharma built a crucial partnership which was broken in the last over of the innings. The fifth wicket partnership between the two was worth 85 runs. The partnership ended when Dhoni was run out for a 33 ball 45. Rohit Sharma held his nerve to hit the last ball of the innings for six to bring up his 50 off 40 balls and also take India to a respectable 153/5. I was backing the South African team to win the game as they are one of my favourite teams. I wanted the result to be such that both India and South Africa qualify for the semi-finals which would mean that New Zealand would be knocked out of the tournament. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be as India shocked the Proteas and not only won the game but in the process knocked the Proteas out of the tournament to set up a semi-final clash with the Australians. R.P. Singh bowled remarkably well in this match by picking up 4 wickets for just 13 runs in his 4 overs.

The first semi-final played between Pakistan and New Zealand was pretty much a one sided affair as Pakistan thrashed the Kiwis and reached the finals. However, the second semi-final played between India and Australia was a wonderful match that will never be forgotten. The intensity with which the match was played by both teams was something completely indescribable. India won the toss and elected to bat. India started very cautiously and were 41/2 in the eighth over. Yuvraj, who had missed the last match against the South Africans walked into bat and the entire equation of the match changed. He got off the mark with a six off Stuart Clark, who till then had been the tournament’s best bowler. In the tenth over he hit Brett Lee for the longest six of the tournament, a hit that was 119m long! Uthappa too joined the party but was run out immediately after hitting two consecutive sixes, their partnership was worth 84. Uthappa scored 34 off 28. Yuvraj however continued his assault on the Aussie bowlers bringing up his half century in just 20 balls. By the time he departed in the fifteenth over, India had already made 155 runs. He scored a wonderful 70 runs off only 30 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes. Dhoni accelerated towards the end scoring 36 off 18 before he was run out in the penultimate ball of the innings. India had scored 188/5 at the end of their 20 overs. The total was a good one but the Aussies were in no mood to give up, Adam Gilchrist hammered 2 huge sixes of R.P. Singh and was looking dangerous when Sreesanth removed him with a brilliant delivery that knocked back Gilchrist’s stumps. Hodge too didn’t last long and the Australian scoreboard read 68/2 in the ninth over. Symonds joined Hayden at the crease and the two men combined to hammer the hapless Indian bowlers all over the place. Sehwag bowled one over and was hit for 20 runs. When there was no option, skipper Dhoni gave the ball to Sreesanth who still had one over to bowl. He struck immediately by claiming the wicket of Hayden to whom he bowled an absolutely fantastic delivery to shatter Hayden’s stumps. In his 4 overs Sreesanth picked up 2 wickets for just 12 runs, in one of the most economic and spirited bowling performances in the history of international T20 cricket. As far as I know, I don’t think any bowler has managed to get Gilchrist and Hayden bowled in the same match. This was clearly the turning point as the Indian bowlers made inroads from this point and India won the match by 15 runs setting up an India-Pakistan final, something that no one would have imagined when this tournament began.


It was September 24, 2007 as India faced Pakistan in the final of the ICC World Twenty20. The two teams playing were the same two big teams which had been knocked out in the preliminary round of the World Cup in the West Indies and here there were now playing the final of what many called the Twenty20 World Cup. India won the toss as usual and elected to bat. As Sehwag was injured, Yusuf Pathan (Irfan Pathan’s elder brother) got to make his international debut as he came out to open with Gambhir. He was almost run out without facing a ball but that wasn’t to be, he then went on to hit a six off Mohd. Asif in the first over itself but fell to the same bowler after scoring 15 runs in 8 balls. Other than Gautam Gambhir no one could face the Pakistani bowlers with ease. Umar Gul was in very good form after having taken the wickets of Yuvraj and Dhoni. He also got the wicket of Gambhir for a well made 75 of 54 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. Gambhir has been the best Indian T20 batsman with 4 half centuries. Rohit Sharma accelerated towards the end and took India to 157/5 of the stipulated 20 overs. Sharma was unbeaten on 30 off 16 balls. R.P. Singh was bowling brilliantly and got the first breakthrough in the first over itself. Imran Nazir hammered Sreesanth all over the place in the second over but R.P. Singh got Kamran Akmal bowled for a duck in the third over. Akmal got out while attempting to play the pull shot (something which he calls his favourite shot, but I would call his weakness) Just when people thought that Pakistan were in a winning position, India managed to restrict them to 77/6 when Shahid Afridi, who was named the Player of the Tournament fell for a first ball duck as he tried to hit Irfan Pathan out of the ground but only managed to find Sreesanth. But Misbah had other plans as he played very sensibly and kept decreasing the required run-rate. Sohail Tanvir too joined him by scoring 12 runs off 4 balls, the scoring shots for him were 2 huge sixes off Sreesanth who managed to get his wicket too. Seeing that no other player was playing to get Pakistan victory, Misbah decided to take matters into his own hand and hit Harbhajan for 3 sixes in an over. It all came down to the last over- Pakistan had 13 runs to win with a wicket in hand and Dhoni gave the ball to Joginder Sharma who had also bowled the last over against the Aussies. He may have done the trick against the Aussies, but giving him the ball now was a gamble as Misbah was on strike. Joginder started of with a wide and then bowled a dot ball. Pakistan now had 12 runs to win off 5 balls and Misbah was batting on 37. Joginder bowled a full toss and Misbah smashed the ball for a huge six. The pressure was clearly on Joginder as he began his run up to bowl the next delivery. Once the ball came to Misbah, he moved across and scooped it behind the wicket, the ball went up in the air and everyone who was watching the match had their eyes on the ball, which I thought was going for either a four or a six. I was watching the match at a friend’s place and just then I thought what would happen if a fielder came under the ball. Just then, Sreesanth came under the ball and managed to take what was probably the toughest catch in his life. The catch wasn’t difficult, in fact it was a very straightforward one, but Sreesanth would obviously be thinking of many things like what would happen if he spills the catch and it would have been really difficult to concentrate knowing that people all over the world were watching the ball fall down towards him. It was a fantastic finish to a wonderful tournament. I can’t recollect a final match of a tournament being so thrilling. The only instance that I can recollect is India’s victory over England in the Natwest Trophy final at Lords in 2002 when Sourav Ganguly’s men chased down a score in excess of 320 within 50 overs thanks to Mohd. Kaif, Yuvraj and Ganguly himself. India’s victory at the ICC World Twenty20 was on a different level altogether.


Who would have thought that a team which till the beginning of this tournament has played only one international T20 match would turn out to be the best T20 team in the world? Irfan Pathan was the Man of the Final for his brilliant bowling as he took 3 wickets for just 16 runs in his 4 overs. The team was given a grand welcome when they came back to India (wasn’t that obvious) It is rather strange if you think that India won an ICC tournament without the “Big 3”- Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid playing. Yusuf Pathan, who just played in the final, will have a medal for having been part of a team which won an ICC tournament but the “Big 3” who have contributed a lot to Indian cricket and in fact cricket as a whole don’t have any such accolade. It would be ridiculous to say that these players don’t deserve to keep playing after India’s Twenty20 triumph as ODIs and Tests are a different ball game altogether. That, however, doesn’t mean that the T20 triumph isn’t a big thing, it is and I feel proud to have written a post which reminded me of India’s road to the final and ultimately, their victory in a form of cricket, which till a year back the BCCI thought wasn’t important at all.

History repeats itself as the Aussies fall back on the Earth

When India was playing in the second test against Australia at Kolkata in February, 2001 they were in a big mess. Sourav Ganguly's men had been thrashed by the Steve Waugh led Aussie "invincibles" in less than 4 days in the first test at Mumbai. The Australian team had won a world record 16 consecutive tests till then, the previous record being 11 by the West Indies. Australia played well in the first innings until Harbhajan Singh turned the tide with the first ever hat-trick by an Indian in test cricket. But, in the second innings India was bowled out for under 150, thus following on with only V.V.S. Laxman scoring a gritty half century. What followed was a dream as Laxman scored a magnificent 281 (the highest individual score by an Indian in test cricket at that time) in the second innings and put up a huge partnership with Rahul Dravid who scored a determined 180 to set the Aussies a huge target. The Aussies crumbled to the brilliant bowling display by Harbhajan and Sachin Tendulkar (who scored only 10 runs in both the innings while batting). This ended Australia's winning streak and the Aussies also lost the third test at Chennai handing India the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

India beat Australia twice in tests after that- at Adelaide in 2003 (another wonderful game) and at Mumbai in 2004, where the Aussies were bowled out for a paltry 93! Other than these two losses, the Aussies lost to the West Indies in 2003 (when the Windies succesfully chase down a mammoth 418 which is the highest target ever chased successfully) and twice to England in 2005 (thus handing over the Ashes to England after a very long time). But, the last for losses mentioned all took place away from home which shows that if there is any country that can beat Australia at home, it surely is India.

When the Border-Gavaskar Series started with the Boxing Day test at Melbourne a month back, India was outplayed. The second test at Sydney, however, was a different story altogether. The match was evenly contested but was drowned in controversy over dubious umpiring decisions, the racism issue and unsportsmanlike behaviour by Ricky Ponting's men. After the brouhaha at Sydney, the Indian team had two options- to cancel the series and go back home; or to stay back and fight the Aussies with all their effort, they decided to stay. The first two days of the third test at Perth completely belonged to India, who outplayed the Aussies in every department. The Indian bowlers used the famous Perth pitch better than their Aussie counterparts. The much hyped Shaun Tait was a disaster for the mighty Australians as he wasn't even able to take a single wicket in the match.

The third day's play had its moments. Sehwag continued his assault on the hapless Aussie quickies until he was done in by a brilliant delivery by Stuart Clark which shattered the stumps. The triad of Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly fell in quick succession putting India in a spot of bother. Ganguly scored his first duck in about 10 tests as India were 5 down for 150 odd rus. Irfan Pathan who had come in as the Night Watchman hung in for a while and contributed a good 46 runs. He played some wonderful strokes and may well be India's missing link in the middle order. After Pathan's fall, Laxman and Dhoni had a crucial partnership. Dhoni played a good innings of 37 under pressure, he was also succesful in clearing the ropes twice. He fell to Symonds when he miscued a sweep with Gilchrist completing a fine catch. Laxman played wonderfully to be the top scorer with 79. His partnership of 52 for the 9th wicket with the unusually calm R.P. Singh helped India score 294, setting Australia a target of 413. Singh scored a good 30 runs and even cleared the ropes once! Stuart Clark was the best Aussie bowler picking 4/66.

Coming to facts and figures regarding chases, the highest successful run chase on Australian soil is 369, when Australia chased down the score against Pakistan at Hobart in 1999. Only thrice in the history of test cricket has a team chased down 400+ runs in the fourth innings- Australia did in the late 1940s against England, India did it in 1974 against Wet Indies and the West Indies chased down a world record 418 against Australia in 2003. Also, the highest fourth innings score at Perth is 341.

At the end of the third day's play, Australia was 62/2 with Ponting and Hussey on strike. The openers were done in by Pathan in the second innings too. Kumble was able to extract spin as well as bounce on a pitch that was slowly getting dangerous for the batsmen. The match had been a wonderful one until that moment and the only result that could be ruled out was a draw. If India won from that position, they would halt the Aussie winning streak at 1 again and become the first team to beat Australia in 3 years and the first team to do so on Australian soil in 5 years (the last team to do so was also India). Also, it would be the first instance of a sub-continent team winning at Perth. If Australia won, they would create a new world record of 17 consecutive wins and would have the second highest succesful run chase in tests to their name.


The fourth day's first session was an extremely interesting one as one saw a brilliant spell of fast bowling from 19 year old Ishant Sharma, who troubled Ponting as if he was one of the best fast bowlers in the world. Ponting appeared extremely uncomfortable facing Ishant and was finally done in by him an over before lunch. That was the only wicket to fall in the first session, but was a big wicket. Ponting scored 45. It was Sehwag who convinced Kumble to let ishant bowl an extra over and he struck immediately. After lunch, R.P. Singh bowled a brilliant ball moving into the left handed Hussey and trapped him in front for 46. Symonds hit Kumble out of the ground but was given LBW to the same bowler in the next ball. Replays showed that the ball had nicked the bat before hitting the pad and Symonds showed his displeasure, but I personally feel that justice was done. Symonds, after all he was the player who wasn't given out when he was 4 times in the Sydney test and also got a wicket which he didn't deserve to have. Kumble, surprisingly, celebrated a lot more than he usually does on getting Symonds wicket. I think that it was in response to Symonds doing the same when he got Kumble's wicket in India's second innings.


Michael Clarke was playing his shots very well and when Gilchrist came in after Symonds, one thought that the fireworks would soon begin. Just then, Kumble decided to give the ball to Sehwag who struck twice in quick succession. Firstly, he bowled Gilchrist round his legs for 15 and got the better of Brett Lee for a duck. Then, Kumble bowled a wonderful delivery which both spun and bounced. Clarke came forward to the ball but was completely bamboozled by this delivery and Dhoni promptly stumped him. Clarke scored a fine 81, which I feel was his coming of age knock. With the fall of Clarke, no recognized Australian batsman was left with the Aussies being 253/8. The tail enders, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark frustrated the Indians with a 9th wicket partnership of 73. Clark scored 32 and even hit a six during his knock. Irfan Pathan got the wicket of Clark and the Indians could sniff victory. Johnson continued to frustrate the Indians and scored his first half century. He hit Kumble for 2 huge sixes. However, he did have two reprieves when Kumble bowled him off a no-ball and Sehwag dropped him near the boundary. The catch was a very tough one and Kumble was the unlucky bowler this time too. When the Aussies were 340/9, R.P. Singh breached Shaun Tait's defences and gave India a well desrved victory. Australia was halted by India while going for the 17th win yet again as history repeated itself. I would give most credit to the brilliant bowling by the Indian fast bowlers, who for long haven't shown their skills. Irfan Pathan got the man of the match award for his all round performance. The comeback of Pathan and Sehwag played a big role in India winning the match.

The Indian team has proved to everyone that they made the right decision by staying back after the Sydney test. Many people in the world will now consider India as the main challenger to Australia's supremacy in the game. It was wonderful to see the smirk disappear from Ponting's face and also to see him struggling to play young Ishant Sharma. The Autralians have also been charged 10% of their match fee for their slow over rate. But the loss of the match will probably sting them more than the loss on the pocket. Heres hoping that India carries forward their form into the fourth test at Adelaide, where they won last time round in 2003. Till then, HAPPY PERTH DAY!!!!


Some wonderful quotes during the course of and after the Perth test:

• "That's another appeal. No it's not, it's a replay."
  The excitement at the WACA gets a bit too much for Michael Slater.
  
• "Ek aur over karega?"
  Anil Kumble asks Ishant Sharma if he'll bowl one more over after having bowled seven. Ishant did and got the wicket of Ricky Ponting on the first ball. It was Virender Sehwag who asked Kumble to let Ishant bowl.
  
• "It would have been great if you had been my 600th victim."
  Anil Kumble to Adam Gilchrist when the latter congratulated him on his feat.

A debacle, a farewell and an unbelievable comeback

It has been quite a while since my last post and over the past week I have decided to make this blog a topical one. So now, this blog will be completely dedicated to the game of Cricket and as a result we also have a change in the name

The past week was quite an eventful one for the sport- both on the field and off it. It started off with South Africa thrashing the West Indies in three and a half days in the third test match between the teams thus taking the series 2-1. South Africa won by a huge margin of an innings and a 100 runs! West Indies was put into bat and were bowled out for a paltry 139 in a little more than a session on the first day thanks mainly to Shaun Pollock's brilliant bowling display. At the end of the first day's play, the Proteas had already put up a 150 run lead and went on to score a lead of 417 by the end of the second day. West Indies batted for a day and a half but that just wasn't enough. For South Africa, skipper Graeme Smith scored a superb 147. A. B. De Villiers and Ashwell Prince also scored centuries with Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis scoring valuable half centuries. It was a terrific display by the Proteas after they had lost the first test. During the course of the match Shaun Pollock announced his retirement. What a wonderful player this man has been. Probably one of the few excellent bowling all rounders in the game.

Over the past few days, it was the peace making meeting between Indian captain Anil Kumble and Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting that was in the news. The meeting was presided over by ICC Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle. The meeting went off quite well and the captain's agreement about taking the fielder's word for disputed catches was scrapped. Ricky Ponting also promised to look into his team's on-field behaviour as the ICC reprimanded Cricket Australia for their team's behaviour. In a rather surprising move, India took back all the charges put on Aussie spinner Brad Hogg who had allegedly used foul language on Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the field during the controversial third test in Sydney.

The much anticipated third test between India and Australia started at Perth yesterday and the match is already poised in a very interesting position.Perth has always been a very fast and bouncy track and is feared by batsmen all over the world. As a matter of fact in the 1980s there was an occasion when Australian fast bowling legend Jeff Thompson bowled a bouncer which went over the wicket-keeper's head and pitched just once before reaching the boundary thus giving 4 byes to the batting team! There was a lot of hype before this match and I must say that the pitch hasn't lived up to expectations. That doesn't mean that the pitch wasn't fast and bouncy. A lot was said about young Australian quickie Shaun Tait who finally made it to the playing eleven replacing spinner Brad Hogg. Shaun Tait is currently the fastest bowler in the world (disputed) and everyone expected him to strike the Indian batting line-up hard, but that wasn't to be. Australia played a team with 4 fast bowlers and no specialist spinner as they obviously thought that bounce will play a key role in this match. On the other hand, India took 3 quickies and dropped Harbhajan Singh, one of the 2 specialist spinners. Captain Kumble, who is the other specialist spinner obviously played. There were 2 changes for both the teams. For the Aussies, Tait came in for Hogg and Chris Rogers came in for the injure Mathew Hayden. For India, Irfan Pathan came in for Harbhajan and Virender Sehwag came in for the out of form Yuvraj Singh. Sehwag had score a 79 ball hundred against the ACT Invitational XI in the practice game at Canberra last week. Sehwag's selection meant that he would open with Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid would come back to his normal position as number 3.


India won the toss and elected to bat, which experts consider a bold move for a visiting team. India had to play the first half hour extremely carefully and they managed to do just that. Australia had literally packed the slip cordon knowing that the Indians were sure to nick some behind the wicket. The opener's got the best start in the series so far putting up 57 runs for the first wicket. Sehwag was at his belligerent best as he was hitting Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson for boundaries at ease. Unfortunately, he got out just as he was set for a big innings as he nicked Johnson to Adam Gilchrist. He scored 29 of 57 deliveries. It may be quite a small score in tests but it set the foundation for India. Jaffer followed Sehwag to the pavillion soon as he too was caught behind off Lee. With the score reading 59/2, one would have thought that the slide had begun but the partnership that followed put India right back into the game. Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar put up 139 runs for the third wicket. Tendulkar was in imperious form as he tackled the bounce with ease after a few initial hiccups. His duel with Lee was something which can be watched again and again. Tendulkar hit 6 of his 9 fours behind the wicket, which itself shows how well he negotiated the very controlled bowling of the Australian bowling. He took a special liking for Shaun Tait, hitting him for some really brilliant boundaries. Tendulkar had scored a brilliant century for the losing side at this very ground 16 years ago. That was the last time the Aussies had played with an all pace attack. The most notable shot that he played during his innings was the late upper cut which he played to perfection after not quite getting the shot earlier in the innings.

Tendulkar would have surely gone on to make a hundred, but his innings was cut short by a bad LBW decision by Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf. He didn't consider the bounce on the pitch and gave Tendulkar out for a well made 71. Replays clearly showed that the ball would have bounced over the stumps. Ganguly came in next but didn't last for long scoring just 9, his lowest score in a very long time. He hit 2 glorious boundaries and was looking good until he was dismissed by Johnson. The shot was quite good and would have easily gone for four but Mike Hussey pulled off a stunner of a catch. Laxman and Dravid steadied the ship but got out in quick succession playing 2 really terrible shots. Laxman holed out straight to Tait at mid off for 29, the wicket being taken by Lee and Dravid miscued a slog sweep off Andrew Symonds and Ponting took a very easy catch. Dravid scored a brilliant 93. India ended day 1 at 297/6.

Day 2 began quite well with India hitting 31 runs with ease until disaster struck as Dhoni was given LBW by Rauf to another very doubtful decision. I recall Ravi Shastri saying that if an umpire turns down LBW appeals of well pitched deliveries at Perth, then he will be right 9 out of 10 times, and I completely agree with him. After that 3 wickets fell for just 2 runs as India went from 328/6 to 330 all out.


It was expected that Australia would come out with all guns blazing but the Indian bowlers had something else in mind. Irfan Pathan swung the ball brilliantly and accounted for both the openers- debutant Chris Rogers and Phil Jaques . R.P. Singh bowled a superb delivery to get Hussey out for a duck, his first duck in his career. Ishant Sharma struck twice with the wickets of Ponting and Clarke as Australia were reduced to 61/5. It is rather strange to think that these 2 wicket were Sharma's first wickets in this series. Symonds and Gilchrist performed a counter-attacking resurrection with a 102 run stand as both scored attacking fifties. Symonds had got a reprieve when he had only scored 3 runs when Tendulkar dropped a simple catch at first slip, Pathan being the unlucky bowler. It was Kumble who got the wicket of Symonds and that was his 600th test wicket. He is the third player in the history of the game to have taken 600 or more wickets, the other two being Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. Gilchrist hammered three successive fours off R.P. Singh after which Singh surprised him with a superb delivery and Gilchrist was caught behind by Dhoni. Symonds and Gilchrist scored 66 and 55 respectively. The Aussie tail-enders didn't last long and Australia was bowled out for 212 giving India a lead of 118 runs. Dhoni taking 5 catches was quite impressive behind the stumps. R.P. Singh bowled brilliantly taking 4/68.


India got off to a flyer in the second innings, thanks again to Sehwag who as usual was in attacking mood. The openers had put on 45 runs when Clark accounted for Jaffer who was caught behind the wicket yet again. Irfan Pathan was sent in as the Night Watchman and he staved off the Aussie quickies till the end of the days play. India is batting with 52 runs on the board for the loss of a wicket and has extended its lead to 170 runs. Lets see what the third day's play holds.