After losing match against Australia now india need both of match against West Indies & Sri Lanka.
Australia have made the statement that they want to dominate the shortest format of the game in emphatic fashion. After a solid victory over Pakistan, a shaky win over Bangladesh, they've now slain the biggest dragon of the competition - India.
The clash was billed as the dress rehearsal to the final - let's hope it wasn't. Even if India do make it that far, they will want to do a lot better than they did today. They were well and truly bullied by the global force of world cricket, who snuck into the tournament unnoticed, without much fanfare and without too many billing them as favourites. That label belonged to India and Pakistan, who now both find themselves in a position where winning their next two matches is compulsory.
Australia now have the luxury of being able to slip up against either Sri Lanka or the West Indies, but after their performance tonight, one doubts there will be any sneaky banana peels attaching themselves to the Australian team's soles. The match began in the tense fashion most expected. Harbhajan Singh bowled a maiden over, all deliveries right on the money and not a single run squeezed out. That was simply a calm before a flood of runs that the other Indian bowlers leaked.
Ashish Nehra's first over went for 12 and gave both David Warner and Shane Watson an opportunity to score a boundary each. Watson was dropped off Singh in the third over and that was the catalyst for the onslaught that followed. Three bludgeoning sixes off Ravindra Jadeja's over opened the floodgates and the Aussie openers shared a century first wicket stand. That was brought up in 11 overs and proved ultimately damaging to India.
Quite simply, their spinners, barring Harbhajan, bowled too short and offered Watson and Warner too many juicy chances to find the rope, and more often, go beyond it. They hit 13 sixes and three fours between them. Jadeja paid the highest price for his short offerings, going for a ridiculous 38 runs in two overs, 36 off those runs came in six consecutive balls spread over 2 overs.
Zaheer Khan, who made a return to the team in place of the injured Praveen Kumar, was ineffective and expensive. It wouldn't be entirely improbable to think that he would sit out for R Vinay Kumar in the next match. The Indian bowlers were not at their best, that cannot be argued, but the Australian openers were magnificent.
David Hussey was the other batsman to get in, but if India had been able to snuff out the other batsman like they did Brad Haddin and Michael Hussey, they might have had a less daunting total to chase. Haddin fell to Yuvraj Singh, a delivery that spun away and allowed Dhoni to whip the bails off. Nehra got Hussey out with a yorker that knocked out Mr Cricket's leg stump.
Nehra bowled a superb last over mixing up the slower balls and low full tosses with short deliveries and then climaxing with that dangerous yorker. India only gave away 18 runs in the last four overs of the Australian innings, and surprisingly Harbhajan didn't bowl a single one of those overs. Yuvraj, Nehra and Khan just managed to find the right formulae. For Yuvraj it was variation of pace, for Nehra it was deception with the slower ball and for Zaheer it was six fuller deliveries. Why the trio took 16 overs to discover that, only they know.
That lull in proceedings helped India hold Australia to 184 for five, when the batting side would have been eyeing in excess of 200. It is still the highest total to be scored on this ground in the tournament so far but after India saw how the pace and bounce helped Australia they would have thought conditions may have assisted them similarly.
In fact, it was exactly that which outdid the former champions. Dirk Nannes removed both openers, both of them to shots they shouldn't have played. Raina fell to a short ball, as Shaun Tait extracted good bounce from the pitch. When Nannes took his third wicket and India were 23 for four, they would have had flashbacks of the 2003 World Cup final, where chasing an improbable 359 they crashed to 59 for three.
At 42 for six, India may have been wishing it was the 2003 final when at 208 for six, with 15 overs left, they still had a sliver of a chance. All Australia had to do after that was be the Australia we all come to love to hate and clinically go about hunting down the next four batsmen. Jadeja's evening got worse as he was run out for four, and the rest fell duly after.
Rohit Sharma was the only Indian batsman to find some fight. His 79 off 46 balls epitomised everything the young man learnt over the last year. He started watchfully, accelerated in the all the right places and looked classy as he struck six sixes. The two off Steven Smith's over were particularly pleasing to watch as he came down the track for the first one and made some room for himself in the second.
He could never be a lone ranger though. India needed someone else to assist Sharma. They were out blitzed by the team that is now aiming for ultimate cricket autocracy. Australia looked like the team of world beaters that they are. This is the only format of the game where they have not laid claim to a trophy and that must have been on their minds going in to the event. They didn't even enter the tournament as one of the outright favourites. Now, they must surely be most peoples pick to win.
The clash was billed as the dress rehearsal to the final - let's hope it wasn't. Even if India do make it that far, they will want to do a lot better than they did today. They were well and truly bullied by the global force of world cricket, who snuck into the tournament unnoticed, without much fanfare and without too many billing them as favourites. That label belonged to India and Pakistan, who now both find themselves in a position where winning their next two matches is compulsory.
Australia now have the luxury of being able to slip up against either Sri Lanka or the West Indies, but after their performance tonight, one doubts there will be any sneaky banana peels attaching themselves to the Australian team's soles. The match began in the tense fashion most expected. Harbhajan Singh bowled a maiden over, all deliveries right on the money and not a single run squeezed out. That was simply a calm before a flood of runs that the other Indian bowlers leaked.
Ashish Nehra's first over went for 12 and gave both David Warner and Shane Watson an opportunity to score a boundary each. Watson was dropped off Singh in the third over and that was the catalyst for the onslaught that followed. Three bludgeoning sixes off Ravindra Jadeja's over opened the floodgates and the Aussie openers shared a century first wicket stand. That was brought up in 11 overs and proved ultimately damaging to India.
Quite simply, their spinners, barring Harbhajan, bowled too short and offered Watson and Warner too many juicy chances to find the rope, and more often, go beyond it. They hit 13 sixes and three fours between them. Jadeja paid the highest price for his short offerings, going for a ridiculous 38 runs in two overs, 36 off those runs came in six consecutive balls spread over 2 overs.
Zaheer Khan, who made a return to the team in place of the injured Praveen Kumar, was ineffective and expensive. It wouldn't be entirely improbable to think that he would sit out for R Vinay Kumar in the next match. The Indian bowlers were not at their best, that cannot be argued, but the Australian openers were magnificent.
David Hussey was the other batsman to get in, but if India had been able to snuff out the other batsman like they did Brad Haddin and Michael Hussey, they might have had a less daunting total to chase. Haddin fell to Yuvraj Singh, a delivery that spun away and allowed Dhoni to whip the bails off. Nehra got Hussey out with a yorker that knocked out Mr Cricket's leg stump.
Nehra bowled a superb last over mixing up the slower balls and low full tosses with short deliveries and then climaxing with that dangerous yorker. India only gave away 18 runs in the last four overs of the Australian innings, and surprisingly Harbhajan didn't bowl a single one of those overs. Yuvraj, Nehra and Khan just managed to find the right formulae. For Yuvraj it was variation of pace, for Nehra it was deception with the slower ball and for Zaheer it was six fuller deliveries. Why the trio took 16 overs to discover that, only they know.That lull in proceedings helped India hold Australia to 184 for five, when the batting side would have been eyeing in excess of 200. It is still the highest total to be scored on this ground in the tournament so far but after India saw how the pace and bounce helped Australia they would have thought conditions may have assisted them similarly.
In fact, it was exactly that which outdid the former champions. Dirk Nannes removed both openers, both of them to shots they shouldn't have played. Raina fell to a short ball, as Shaun Tait extracted good bounce from the pitch. When Nannes took his third wicket and India were 23 for four, they would have had flashbacks of the 2003 World Cup final, where chasing an improbable 359 they crashed to 59 for three.
At 42 for six, India may have been wishing it was the 2003 final when at 208 for six, with 15 overs left, they still had a sliver of a chance. All Australia had to do after that was be the Australia we all come to love to hate and clinically go about hunting down the next four batsmen. Jadeja's evening got worse as he was run out for four, and the rest fell duly after.
Rohit Sharma was the only Indian batsman to find some fight. His 79 off 46 balls epitomised everything the young man learnt over the last year. He started watchfully, accelerated in the all the right places and looked classy as he struck six sixes. The two off Steven Smith's over were particularly pleasing to watch as he came down the track for the first one and made some room for himself in the second.
He could never be a lone ranger though. India needed someone else to assist Sharma. They were out blitzed by the team that is now aiming for ultimate cricket autocracy. Australia looked like the team of world beaters that they are. This is the only format of the game where they have not laid claim to a trophy and that must have been on their minds going in to the event. They didn't even enter the tournament as one of the outright favourites. Now, they must surely be most peoples pick to win.
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