India Wins Again! The Victory had Praveen Kumar written all over it
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)
Popularity: 19% [?]
