India vs Australia ODI match Brisbane 4 March, 2008 - A Fun Report

For once India got lucky with the Toss and got to bat first. Certainly not a good sign for Australia. India gambled by playing Piyush Chawla again and went in with 5 regular bowlers. India started cautiously at just around 3 RPO. Slowly they nudged to 4 RPO and gradually to around 5. And by the time Aussies knew, they already had 94 run partnership for the first wicket. Tendulkar was again cruising towards a century. India added runs in small but useful partnerships and soon they had crossed 200 losing just 3 wickets. No one except Backen was bowling good enough. Somehow, the part time spinners Clarke and Symonds did enough to choke India at the end. And India finished at 258/9. Would this be enough? Tendulkar had hit a fine 91! Dhoni Yuvraj and Uthappa contributed 30s.

Ishant Sharma had to sit out due to his injury, and the question was would it prove too costly for India? Soon Australia had Praveen Kumar written all over them. And again the obnoxious little weed turned out to be the nemesis of obnoxious big weeds. Hayden and Hopes hit half centuries and Hussey a useful 44, but Australian wound up at 249 - 9 short of India.

Praveen Kumar and Tendulkar were the heroes of the day. Praveen Kumar was the Man of the Match since he closed the chapter right in his first over!

(the above are written in a funny mood and not intended to hurt your sentiment - i doubt if any actual players gets time to read - so please don’t (get) hurt yourself defending them)

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India vs South Africa U-19 World Cup ODI match Kuala Lumpur 2 March, 2008 - A Fun Report

South Africa captain Parnell won the toss and elected to field. Leading from the front, he sank his teeth into the Indian Team, bowling 2 maidens and not allowing Indians to score. When finally India had been able to score just 3 runs in 4 overs, Taruwar Kohli from Jalandhar got impatient and edged one to Malan off Parnell. Goswami didn’t last long too. And India were 2/27. Virat Kohli did play a short knock to restore the innings but the score was still 74 when he left. Srivastava left after a good knock of 46 as the highest scorer, but the score was only 4/83 when he left. Small contributiona here and there but India could only total 159 and could not consume the full overs. Parnell finished with rocking figures on 7.4-2-21-2. In fact, all of the bowlers did well. Well, it seems that the Indian Honeymoon was over. India had already had their day in the morning when they beat Australia in the first final of the CB Series by 6 wickets. Tendulkar had scored a scintillating century and carried his bat through. Well, India seemed to have run out of luck in the U-19 World Cup!

The South African innings started tentatively with Sangwan and Agral bowling well. Soon, Agral sent Malan packing to start a collapse. Soon South Africa were 3/17 and Agral was having a dream spell reading 4-2-3-2!! When play resumed after a rain spell, the target was revised to 99 off 98 balls. And when it resumed Ravindersinh Jadeja (the descendant of Maharaja Ranjit Singh as well as erstwhile Indian player Ajay Jadeja) took a quick wicket and made it 4/22. And just when it looked that India could go ahead and win it from here, a partnership started between Hendricks and Captain Parnell. Finally Jadeja ended the 50 run partnership getting out Hendrick at 36 (he was dropped earlier a couple of times, including once by Virat Kohli). Another wicket fell immediately. Parnell played a Captains knock and kept trying but it became more and more difficult. India won the match by 12 runs as SA ended at 103/8.

(the above are written in a funny mood and not intended to hurt your sentiment - i doubt if any actual players gets time to read - so please don’t (get) hurt yourself defending them)

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India vs Australia ODI match Sydney 2 March, 2008 - A Fun Report

Australia were once again lucky with the Toss and got to bat first. They’ve been too lucky with this stuff. Today the bowling was opened by Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma. They were bang on target as Australia began earnestly scoring more than a run a ball. Praveen Kumar struck removing Gilchrist, and then Ponting after his usual struggle that we’ve seen on this tour was released when Praveen struck again. Have you noticed that he has stopped sledging. Maybe sledging has something to do with form! But then there’s the Sri Lankan and West Indian teams who don’t sledge at all. Well at least the Australian team, only the men in form sledge! Well once Ishant joined the party Australia were tottering at 3/24. At this juncture Symonds joined Hayden and they steadied the innings. And then they started striking the ball at a run a ball. They added 100 runs in about a 104 balls. Well it was left to the “obnoxious little weed” Harbhajan Singh to remove some other obnoxious big weeds - He removed both Symonds and Hayden. Well, obviously it was going to be a great send off as Harbhajan has been tormented by both of them this series. Well the remaining batsmen and tailenders slowed down and could add just 104 runs thereafter from 22.3 overs. India has played Piyush Chawla instead of Munaf Patel in this match. Piyush Chawla was happy to bowl to them and returned with low RPO of 3.3 but didn’t get any wicket. The final score of 239 was not very high but seemed adequate for the Australians who were playing 5 bowlers.

India began their reply with fast scrorer Uthappa weighed down by the responsibility of opening the innings. Somehow, either this is not a good idea, but anyway, Uthappa should play his usual fast game irrespective of where he bats. Then Gambhir was unlucky to get run out and Aussies could sense a chance there. Yuvraj came in a soon Ponting put Hoggy since Yuvraj cannot seem to control his delight at spinners. Well, soon Hogg was rewarded by his wicket when he clean bowled a tentative Yuvraj. Now Rohit Sharma joined Sachin Tendulkar who was determined to last. Rohit batted quite slowly initially hitting a run every two balls, as Tendulkar kept hir scoring rate near to a run a ball. Slowly Rohit eased out and scored at the same pace in the latter part of his innings. Rohit hit a smart 66 in a 123 run partnership with Tendulkar before he was bowled out by Hopes. Hopes turned out as predicted to be an important player throughout the tournament with useful contributions both with the bat and the ball each time. Well with only 30 runs left Dhoni cracked a few fours and Tendulkar continued savaging the attack and they finished off in style beating Australia by 6 wickets with more than 4 overs remaining. This was a memorable knock from Sachin Tendulkar.

(the above are written in a funny mood and not intended to hurt your sentiment - i doubt if any actual players gets time to read - so please don’t (get) hurt yourself defending them)

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