India moved to the top of the standings in the CB Series
with a hard fought five wicket victory over Australia in Melbourne, a
match which was sparked up by some raw aggressive fast bowling by speedster
Ishant Sharma. That victory was India's first over Australia in Melbourne
after an astounding twenty one years and will give this young Indian side a
lot of confidence in the games to come.
After electing to bat first after winning the toss, Australia
got off to a flier with Hayden and Adam Gilcrhist looking in ominous form. Matthew
Hayden looked to be in splendid form as he trashed the hero of the day Ishant
Sharma to all parts of the ground in an over that yielded eighteen runs. However,
it was Ishant who had the last laugh when he got Hayden to snick one enroute
to Dhoni and this success was followed by another dubious dismissal by Umpire
Rudi Kortzen as he adjourned Gilcrhist out of a yorker that had clearly snicked
the bat earlier. Out came Skipper Ricky Pointing to join Michael Clarke, but
there were no repeats of Friday's magic against Sri lanka as Ishant Sharma huffed
and puffed the Australia captain throughout before scalping him with a jammer
of a delivery that bounced up after hitting the seam. Clarke perished soon after
trying an ambitious swipe and when Sharma had Andrew Symonds caught behind with
another spending outswinger, Australia were looking well and nighly beaten.
The World Champions had been reduced to tatters by some stunning display of
pace, line and accuracy by the Indian pace attack and were no reeling at 64/5.
Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin tried to steady the ship and
while they did manage to stem the rot, the run rate had fallen abysmally low.
Haddin soon departed outfoxed by an inform Harbhajan Singh and the tail did
not last long either as Sharma and Sreesanth combined to great effect to nail
the Aussies down for a merge 159. The India reply on the other hand was steady
and at 85/2, India looked certain to nail the bonus point. However, three quick
wickets put the Australians right back into the match. Gautam Gambhir
was the first to go, steamed in by a rising bouncer by Lee and soon Tendulkar
perished to Clarke with lee picking up a splendid diving catch. However, skipper
Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined in Rohit Sharma after the fall of Yuvraj Singh and
a combination of sensible batting with some lady luck helped India to a five
wicket victory over their arch rivals in their own backyard.
India will be happy to make up for their abysmal twenty twenty defeat to Australia
earlier this month and despite some cracks in the batting line up, the bowling
still looks more than capable of causing a ripple or two. Ishant Sharma has
been a real find for India in this tour and the Delhi speedster looks set to
stake claim to his place in the side for a long time to come.
After the celebrations at Melbourne, India head back to Canberra
to face up to Sri Lanka. India have a huge seven point cushion over Sri
Lanka and will be hoping to further their confidence with another win against
a much inferior opposition in comparison to Australia. Keep up with the
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