Team India walking back home after defeating Australia by 38 runs
The whole concept of warm-up games are not new to those who live the game, just like me. Just the way teams have net sessions everyday and a practice game after tat, a warm-up game is quite similar, only that the opponent in this case is a different nation. The whole environment is just a touch serious when teams wear their national colours and if this game called cricket is being played in India, one better take it seriously.
Warm-up games are, no doubt, important- just to get you into the groove. But I am not too sure whether a win or loss in such games have any effect on the mindset of the players and the respective teams. But it definitely gets you going for the whole campaign. A win in such matches does not guarantee you a birth in the quarter-final stage nor does a loss take away any chances of you lifting the Cup.
But having said all this, let us not take away the credit from Team India for kick-starting their World Cup 2011 Campaign on a high and a positive note after defeating world champions Australia in Bangalore early today. It is rightly said, "Never take your enemy casually" and that is what the Indian team did today. Facing the Aussies first-up in the tournament and beating them can do a world of good to you and MS Dhoni & his men, I must say, did quite well to finally win the game, which at one point of time seemed totally impossible.
Sehwag after scoring his half-century
Having elected to bat first after winning the toss, India got off to a poor start losing their opening batsman Gautam Gambhir early in the innings. Virat Kohli, who came in next, did hit few good boundaries but he too did not last long. The next three batsmen in the form of Yuvraj Singh, captain MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina could not trouble the scorers either and fell cheaply to some good disciplined bowling by Brett Lee and John Hastings. Remember team India, rightly so, decided to rest maestro Sachin Tendulkar and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan for the warm-up game. So it was upto the likes of Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni and Raina to lead the batting line up but that unfortunately did not happen. The top-order and middle order collapsed once again. It was only Virender Sehwag who looked good with the bat today. He scored a quick 56 before getting out to spinner Jason Krejza.
Again it was left to the brutal force of Yusuf Pathan to add some crucial runs and help his team reach a decent score to defend. He was in that mode, having scored 32 crucial runs, but could not carry further. Credit has to be given to spinner R Ashwin who stuck to his crease and scored those much needed 25 runs off 47 balls. Team India could not bat through to their full quota of 50 overs and was bundled out cheaply for 214 runs, setting the World Champions, literally the easiest of targets to chase under lights (Well that's what everyone thought, including me).
Chasing a score under lights, that too in the sub-continent is never an easy task- and this game proved it again. The Aussies got off to a flyer, courtesy some handsome batting by their openers Shane Watson and Tim Paine. India's wild-card entry S Sreesanth managed to get a breakthrough for his team and slow down the scoring rate. Captain Ricky Ponting also played a decent knock of 57 runs. The Aussies were cruising along quite well at 120-3 in 22 overs, until the 'Chawla Spin Fever' got onto them.
Clarke was Chawla's 1st dismissal followed by White, Hussey & Fergusson
The selection of Piyush Chawla in the final 15-member squad had not gone down too well with different sections of the society- media, mass (including me), former players,etc. And this reaction of his inclusion in the team was in his head. He just waited for this day to answer all of them back with his turning deliveries. He silenced all his critics by picking up four big wickets- Michael Clarke, David Hussey, Craig White and Callum Fergusson, that too at crucial junctures of the match.
India's ace off-spin bowler Harbhajan continued his consistent record of dismissing his patent opponent player Ricky Ponting along with Johnson and Krejza towards to bottom end of the innings.
Piyush Chawla silenced one and all with his match-winning spell of 4-31
To summarize it all, in my opinion, the day belonged to spinner Piyush Chawla who managed to get good turn on the pitch. Though there have been criticisms about the condition of the pitch, one cannot take away the due credit for this young spinner who is yet to get a confirmed place in the full-strength Indian team. Having said that, it is now high-time India should get order their top-order clicking and stop hoping players like Pathan, Harbhajan, Ashwin to score some crucial 30-35 runs in order to post a decent total. Let the openers consolidate a good score to be only complemented by some big hitting towards the death end by the ever-brutal Yusuf Pathan.
But as said in the beginning, I am sure both teams will leave the result of this game behind and start preparing themselves for the main encounter that starts on Saturday February 19 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hardly did anyone expect India to defend this score against the Aussies but at the end all went well and gave us the confidence that we can still defend a total as meagre as 214, if our bowling department can work wonders just like it did today.
Here's wishing Team India good luck for their next practice game against the Kiwis on the 16th of February and even better luck for the league matches starting on Saturday.
Picture Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/?CMP=chrome
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