By the time the match was about 10 overs old, Dhoni would have already regretted the decision to bowl first. Shane Watson and David Warner put on a hundred runs for the first wicket in a little more than 10 overs.
Later, David Hussey joined the party and Australia made 184 when they should probably have got 200 plus considering the great start they had. The last four overs by the Indian bowlers would have made Dhoni happier as he might have sensed a momentum shift in India's favour. But any such notion was soon set to rest when India batted. At 50/7 it was all but over.
Rohit Sharma's 79 could not prevent a massive win for the Aussies, though it might help keep India in a net run rate contention, in the event of a triangular contest between India, Sri Lanka and West Indies.
Between them, Nannes and Tait accounted for six Indian wickets on a day when nothing went right for India. India made three changes to the side that beat South Africa in the preliminary group match.
An injured Praveen Kumar made way for Zaheer Khan, while Piyush Chawla was dropped to accommodate Rohit Sharma and Gambhir was included at the expense of Karthik.
One other decision Dhoni made on the day was perplexing: he decided to go with only 3 specialist bowlers. India had eight specialist batsmen to be followed by Harbhajan and Zaheer, and yet were reluctant brides when they had the choice of batting first. Reminds one of Ganguly's Hamlet act, in the ODI WC 2007 final.
To paraphrase Tony Grieg, if you can't do it with 7, you can't do it with 8. (Am referring to India's batting line-up, of course.) Coming back to team composition.
No comments:
Post a Comment