India break MCG jinx to lead table

That Australia played with their full side makes the victory even sweeter for this 49,369 audience with majority of Indian supporters and they were third time lucky as India finally broke the big MCG jinx on this tour. Rohit Sharma and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni ended matters in the most sedate manner, adopting the safety first approach with an unbroken 58-run partnership for the sixth wicket.

But it was really the lanky kid from Delhi who bowled with a grumbling pain in his stomach and bigger complications with his front foot and the white line. Ishant spectacularly set up this victory with his first two spells of 5-0-34-1 and 3-1-3-1 from the same Southern stand end that had where started with his first two overs going for 24 runs. Ishant returned to add one more victim in his last seven-ball to earn his maiden man of the match award—though Australians have a right to moan that situations would have been different had they got a couple of umpiring decisions right.

It’s a pity that such a good win for India opened up with a rank bad judgment from umpire Rudi Koertzen. It began on the third ball of the afternoon when he upheld Sreesanth’s lbw appeal against Adam Gilchrist who got a thick inside edge to a full-length delivery. Sreesanth was spot on in the corridor of uncertainty while the other new-ball operator Ishant bowled a couple of wicket-taking deliveries and between a barrage of a wide, a couple of no balls and well-pitched up deliveries.

The first runs off the bat came through an edge when India’s nemesis Mathew Hayden was dropped on no score as Rohit Sharma palmed a difficult chance at third slip off Ishant. He edged once again but it was too high for the second silp to hold on a no-ball but the lanky India pacer was third time lucky—this time Hayden went for a booming cover drive and nicked it fine to Dhoni to complete the formalities. Ricky Ponting started off pushing through the cover region but was squared up once again on nine as Ishant hit the deck to earn extra bounce and take the shoulder of Ponting’s bat before landing in Sehwag’s safe hands.

Andrew Symonds walked in at 47/3 and put his head down along with Micheal Clarke in the middle. One-change Irfan Pathan got into the groove straightaway with a nagging line and soon forced Clarke to hit straight to Rohit at mid-wicket. Dhoni made a great tactical decision by pressing on with his the seamers—he got Sreesanth to bowl seven with a change of end after five and then brought back Ishant again for a second spell, who responded with the big wicket of Symonds, again by making the ball hold its line after four incoming deliveries in the 140s kmph range.

3-1-3-1 and Ishant was off, Harbhajan came in along with Virender Sehwag at the other end but from 75/5 Brad Haddin and Mike Hussey had an enormous re-building process. Haddin, however, couldn’t last long falling prey to a clever piece of bowling by Harbhajan and a smart stumping by Dhoni down the leg-side. Haddin stepped out and tried to heave over leg-side but Harbhajan smartly fired the ball wide on leg-stick and Australia were 91/6 and without a recognised batting pair three balls past the half-way mark in their innings.

Harbhajan was outstanding in his eight over spell, bowling with a lot of air and teasing the batsmen with flight. But for the nine runs he conceded in his last over, Harbhajan would have had even more flattering figures. Mike Hussey held fort admirably and though he received support from Brett Lee in that 53 run-partnership, Australia were falling way too short of a decent total. Hussey reached his half-century from 68 balls with three fours but ran out of partners as Sreesanth and Ishant returned to finish the Australian innings in 43.1 overs for a paltry 159.

Lee came firing in but Sachin Tendulkar looked sublime with his cracking straight drives on either side of the stumps in an over that fetched three boundaries in four deliveries. India’s response wasn’t too intimidating losing Sehwag and surprise one-drop bat Pathan. Tendulkar on 24 was lucky when Keortzen refused to raise his finger to Stuart Clark’s appeal for a caught behind decision.

The end then was inevitable but Australia dragged it long, giving themselves an outside chance by suffocating India to get Gautam Gambhir, Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh. But then Dhoni and Rohit, taking advantage of Ponting having used his four main bowlers, waited for the part-time bowlers to come on before finishing the task.

Scoreboard

Australia: A Gilchrist lbw Sreesanth 0, M Hayden c Dhoni b Ishant 25, R Ponting c Tendulkar b Ishant 9, M Clarke c Rohit b Pathan 11, A Symonds c Dhoni b Ishant 14, M Hussey not out 65; B Haddin st Dhoni b Harbhajan 5, B Lee c Dhoni b Pathan 10, M Johnson c Uthappa b Sreesanth 3, N Bracken c Tendulkar b Sreesanth 1, S Clark c Dhoni b Ishant 0; Extras (1b,3lb,9w,3nb) 16

Total (all out, 43.1 overs) 159

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-37, 3-47, 4-64, 5-75, 6-92, 7-145, 8-151, 9-155.

Bowling: Sreesanth 9-0-31-3, Sharma 9.1-1-38-4, Pathan 8-0-26-2, Harbhajan 8-2-19-1, Sehwag 5-0-24-0, Yuvraj 2-0-11-0, Tendulkar 2-0-6-0.

India: V Sehwag lbw Bracken 11, S Tendulkar c Lee b Johnson 44, I Pathan lbw Johnson 18 G Gambhir c Clarke b Lee 21, Y Singh c Hussey b Clark 3, R Sharma not out 39, MS Dhoni not out 17; Extras (2lb,5w) 7; Total (for 5 wkts, 45.5 overs) 160

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-54, 3-89, 4-96, 5-102

Bowling: Lee 9-0-42-1, Bracken 10-0-35-1, Clark 10-1-26-1, Johnson 10-1-24-2, Clarke 4-0-12-0, Symonds 2.5-0-19-0

Next match: Tuesday vs Lanka