India prevailed over Oz in a cliffhanger||India V Australia,4th ODI

India’s determination to stay afloat saw them through. Faced with a do-or-die situation, the Indians responded in a brilliant fashion. They played like a well-knit unit, held their nerve at crucial moments to canter home by eight runs in a cliffhanger here today, recording their first victory in the fourth match of the seven-ODI Future Cup series against Australia.

First RP Singh in the penultimate over and then Zaheer Khan in the last over of the match bowled valiantly. Needing 22 runs off the last two overs, RP Singh was at his nagging best and conceded six singles as James Hopes and Brett Lee tried hard.

In the last over, Australia needed 16 runs. Though Zaheer conceded a first-ball boundary, he staged an immediate comeback and did not concede more than a single off each delivery afterwards as pressure finally got the better of the Australians as India won to make it 1-2 in the series.

In fact, it turned out to be the match of changing fortunes as the Australians were in pursuit of the 292-run target at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium. After the early fall of Adam Gilchrist, who threatened to run away with the match but fell while being too extravagant too early, skipper Ricky Ponting and burly Matthew Hayden made batting look so easy that the visitors looked in cruise mode.

But Ponting’s dismissal bordering on the bizarre was the first jolt suffered by them. Ponting came out to drive an Irfan Pathan delivery, failed to make any contact and Dhoni removed the bails in a flash. The action replays showed Ponting’s foot on the line and the Australian skipper was ruled out, leaving him bewildered.

The eviction of Michael Clarke by Harbhajan soon thereafter meant that the Indians were back in business. But a determined Hayden, who has been a thorn in India’s flesh in the series, and rock-solid Andrew Symonds steadied the ship. They strung together a decent 58-run stand to again tilt the balance in Australia’s favour.

Comeback man left-arm spinner Murali Kartik did not take much time to find his moorings. He settled into a decent line and length and got perhaps the biggest scalp for his team when Hayden, in sight of a century, was undone by crafty Murali. The batsman was batting on 92 and threatened to go berserk any moment.

After the fall of Hayden, Symonds guided and prodded Brad Hodge as both added crucial runs to the total. With the score nearing the 250-run mark and six wickets intact and the asking rate not steep, Australia again looked like coasting home easily.

But the dismissal of Hodge by Harbhajan, who bowled impressively, and the twin dismissals by quick and accurate RP Singh set Australia back. First he castled Symonds, who made 75, and then off the very next delivery, he ran out Brad Hogg as India sniffed victory.

Both Hopes and Lee fought hard, but ran out of steam in the face of some disciplined bowling.

Batting first after winning the toss, India finally got off to a good start, thanks to resolute batting by openers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Though is was largely a quiet innings from Tendulkar, both did well to deny Australia initial breakthrough. India had 91 runs on the board when Ganguly snicked a Hopes delivery into the hands of Gilchrist behind the stumps.

Yuvraj, playing on his home ground, looked solid during his 39-run essay, while Tendulkar was content to rotate the strike through taps and nudges.

An uncharacterically subdued Tendulkar struck his first boundary in the 15th over of the innings. In all, he struck just three boundaries before he was run out for 79 in an unfortunate manner.

Dhoni and Robin Uthappa were at their effervescent best as the death overs approached. Both played powerful strokes as the Indian score galloped to 291 for 4. Dhoni remained unbeaten on a 35-ball 50, which included a huge six over long-on off the last delivery of the innings bowled by Bracken, while Uthappa was undefeated on an 18-ball 30.

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