Australia defended successfully a modest 250 at Mohali today to level the Seven Match Cricket ODI Series against India at Two all
I was a bit surprised that Dhoni opted to chase on winning the toss…because the Mohali wicket is a scoring one and batting first and putting up a score of 300 + would have been the idea….Dhoni was apparently worried about the dew factor which influenced his decision
To me the Turning Point of the ODI today at Mohali was Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket…..it was a bad and harsh decision of LBW given by Sri Lankan Umpire,Asoka de Silva.India’s ex captain,Saurav Ganguly has been retained by Times Now News Channel for commenting on this Series.He bluntly put it across on the Channel that the match refreee,Chris Broad should have a quiet word with Asoka de Silva who is well known for giving bad decisions…he had given Ganguly out LBW four times in the 2002 series in West Indies when each time the ball had pitched outside the leg stump
Clearly Asoka de Silva is confused with the definition of LBW….he’s unable to give a good and honest LBW decision …ICC should demote this guy
India was 94/2 when Nathan Hauritz bowled an off spinner to Tendulkar that turned quite a bit and was clearly going down the leg side and would have missed the leg stump by a foot…Asoka de Silva was quick to raise his finger on the appeal.Tendulkar was on 40 at the time and had taken over from Sehwag who had scored a quickfire 30 before holing out to Shane Watson at mid off.No Indian crossed 40 in the Innings and Asoka De Silva saw to it that Tendulkar did not reach the record 17000 runs mark in ODIs at Mohali!…Tendulkar walked without showing emotion or dissent….but when he saw the replays,he was seen gesturing animatedly in the dressing room…There was no doubt that he was not out…he’s in great batting nick and has been curbing his weakness to reach for the ball outside the off stump…he had got out to such a shot in the first match in this series
There should be a rethink on reintroducing referring a disputed LBW to the Third Umpire….because bad umpiring decisions can change the course of the match…Saurav Ganguly,however, is not in favour of an Umpire Referral System…one has to accept Umpiring Howlers in this Game of Cricket,says he…..but what if such Howlers are a deliberate act!? and what if Neutral Umpires show clear bias !?
Having said this,I must say India yet again demonstrated inconsistent application to the job on hand…Though they fielded well,there was a little slack visible in the batting application.It cost them the match.Tendulkar’s wicket exposed a fickle middle order and it triggered a collapse…I’m getting increasingly dissapointed with Jadeja’s batting…he’s seems to be in awe at the International level…both,Raina and he continue to be suspect against the short ball…we sorely missed Gautam Gambhir today…Swashbuckling Sehwag would be a deadlier player if he curbed his impetuousness..but then that’s the way he plays!…he can be the matchwinner…today,he began as if he would be,smashing Johnson…poor bloke was celebrating his birthday….but under pressure from having played out four dot balls of a Bollinger over,he tried unsuccessfully to clear Shane Watson at midoff
Australians bowled and fielded well and were lucky India did not apply themselves well to the task of getiing 251 to win….Australians have their own problems with their batting line up…Imagine the Bowler,Johnson coming in at Five Down !
2-2 and Hyderabad,Ahmedabad and Mumbai to go…India has the better balanced side and if they shake off their slackness and complacency,they should win all the remaining games and the series 5-2 and regain the Number 1 ODI ranking
Expect Dhoni to once again lead from the front