India Vs. Australia (MCG – Melbourne Cricket Ground dated 10-2-08)

The Indian team started off positively. It just shows that the Indian youngsters have a great attitude and some of them a great temperament specially Rohit Sharma, Gautam Ghambir, Dhoni and Ishant Sharma.

The bowling attack came good. Though it started with a wrong umpiring decision in the very first over where Gilchrist was given LBW, the rest of the wickets were great. Ishant Sharma made his point that he is going to be the front line bowler with his fast pace and quick bowling. He surely enjoys taking the wicket of Ponting. His excellent bowling accounted for Hayden and Ponting early. When Pathan came to the attack he took the wicket of Clarke quickly and the Australians were struggling with 4 wickets down. Some good and tight bowling in the middle order by Harbajan Singh meant that the Australians were going to be restricted to a low score. Finally they managed just 159 runs and were all out in the 43rd over. Hussey played a patient knock and was not out in the end at 65. This shows why he has such a great average and an ability to stay at the crease right to the end.

The Indian inning started off well. Both Sehwag and Tendulkar got off to a flying start. However Sehwag was out on 11. It was a good move to send Irfan Pathan up the order and he made a useful 18 runs at a good Strike Rate. Thus there was less pressure on the batting line up to follow and also on Tendulkar. However some tight bowling and good fielding did not let the Indian batsmen to settle down and Tendulkar (44 runs), Gambhir (21 runs) and Yuvraj (3 runs) were the next batsmen to go and India were reeling at 102 for 5. This put a lot of pressure on the young Rohit Sharma and the Indian Captain who waited patiently till Australia brought on the fifth bowler to attack. Rohit Sharma showed a lot of maturity in his excellent knock of 39 not out and was one of the contenders for the man of the match award. Finally India got to the target with 6 overs and 5 wickets to spare.

The man of the match award was given to Ishant Sharma who deserved it for his 4 wickets. This just shows that this youngster has learnt very fast and has a long career ahead with the Indian team.