Australia captain Ricky Ponting said the way his fast bowlers bullied India into submission in their Group A match on Saturday was all part of a calculated plan. With man-of-the-match Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath all in top form, India were skittled out for 125. ‘‘Bowling short of a length at them was a definite plan and it worked very well today’’, said Ponting. TOTAL RECALL Day 7 — India/ Australia PARTNERS IN CRIME Lee and Gillespie, on an unresponsive pitch, broke the Indian batting spine, and returned fantastic figures PAPER TIGERS The Men in Blue. For the nth time in the past couple of months, universal condemnation of the way they played REPEAT OFFENDER Virender Sehwag comes a close second, but captain Saurav Ganguly takes the honours. After about 10 similar dismissals on the trot, he chose to hang his bat out to dry yet again. SPARING THE BLUSHES They couldn’t change the match, but Harbhajan and Kumble did what the top order couldn’t: string up a 40-run partnership to take India to three figures SHOT OF THE DAY Hayden, who else, blasting Srinath over long-off for a huge six. The misery was complete WHAT WAS THAT? Umpire Asoka de Silva continued his fine form with yet another inexplicable decision, giving Yuvraj leg before to one that was high and going down the legside ‘‘Their players had struggled on the recent tour of New Zealand and we wanted to continue with the way they had bowled to them, fairly short and aggressive. The tactic was designed to unsettle the batsmen and it did it fairly well as it didn’ T let any of their batsmen get away from us.’’ ‘‘At the same time, the tactic can also give you some dot balls to build pressure so it worked both ways and it was pleasing the way all the bowlers stuck to the plans today’’, he added. With that strategy in mind, Ponting gave the new ball to Lee ahead of Gillespie and was rewarded with outstanding performances from both players. ‘‘India’s weakness is sheer pace and bounce and if anyone will get that out of the wicket it will be Brett Lee’’, said Ponting. ‘‘I wanted him to blast out a couple of their top order and he did that, which set us up from there. Glenn McGrath then bowled a couple of maidens in a row just as Jason Gillespie came on and we really tightened things up against them.’’ ‘‘We have played particularly well in the first two matches (against Pakistan and India)’’, Ponting said. ‘‘We knew they might be among our toughest so we geared ourselves up to making sure we were somewhere near our best for them. In 1999, we made a slow start and we spoke about not wanting to do that again so we focused on doing well in these two games.’’ (Reuters)
