India vs Australia 2013: Australian fighters are back

James Faulkner

Though I am an Indian supporter, today’s match made me feel happy. Australia’s side was finally looking in good touch and it is clear that the 7 match ODI series is going to be an exciting contest. Aussie players will surely give a tough fight to the world champions to maintain their no. 1 ODI ranking.

After 0-4 loss and a recent T20 debacle, George Bailey’s young side looked in full command from the start to the finish. The team looked a good side with every players performing to their tasks. Their collective team effort is why they are presently leading 1-0 in the ODI series and having a strong momentum going into the 2^nd ODI at Jaipur.

Phil Hughes and Aaron Finch opening partnership provided a good start to the Aussies. They were slow at first, scoring just 14 runs in the first 6 overs. After that over, they took on the mediocre fast bowling of Vinay Kumar and Ishant Sharma and also played Ashwin well. Finch was well behind Hughes in the first 6-7 overs but in no time he started scoring smoothly.

After Jadeja’s strike and Yuvraj’s 2 wickets the run-rate came down a little but captain Bailey anchored the innings almost till the end. He scored 85 off 82 balls and maintained the run-rate.

Glenn Maxwell continued his hard-hitting form and did his captain’s job in the powerplay overs. In the 38^th over he dismissed Vinay Kumar for 2 big sixes, scoring 31 off 23 balls.

Indian fast bowlers’ weaknesses were shown when they failed to contain the batting of the tailenders. Faulkner, Johnson and Mckay finished the Australian innings by hitting a collective of 3 fours and 3 sixes in the 48^th, 49th and 50^th over.

James Faulkner carried his IPL experience forward and he was seen swinging the ball well, which also led to the dismissal of in-form Shikhar Dhawan. He went for 38 runs in his first 5 overs, but gave away just 9 runs with a wicket of Jadeja in his next 3 overs, all of which came in the powerplay overs.

Clint Mckay was one of the pick of the bowlers in Australia’s bowling department. He was perfect in bowling slower deliveries especially in the39th over, where he bowled 5 consecutive slower balls with a Yorker in the sixth one. His delivery to dismiss Dhoni was a magnificent one and I literally clapped after seeing that ball. That was a delivery deserving of a prize wicket.

Mitchell Johnson showed his experience by bowling accurate short balls. He exposed the traditional weakness of Indian batsmen by bowling quick short pitched balls which ultimately took the wicket of dangerous Yuvraj.

Today it looked as if Maxwell came to the field with the objective of not allowing any run. He was of course successful in it and was fielding like Jhonty Rhodes. The batsmen were finding difficulty in finding a run when the ball went near to Maxwell. The Aussie fielder played a good role in the middle innings.

On the whole, finally it seemed as “Australia” was playing against India. After a long time, the Kangaroos were successful in giving a tough fight to India in India. The Australian fighters are back and the ODI series will, undoubtedly be a mouth-watering one to watch.