By IANS
Melbourne : Two Sharmas – pacer Ishant and batsman Rohit — starred in India’s five wickets victory over Australia in the Commonwealth Bank Triangular One-day Series here Sunday night.
Ishant turned in his short career’s best bowling performance, four for 38 that fetched him the Man of the Match, and then Rohit scored a patient 39 not out (61 balls, 2x4s) to help India successfully chase Australia’s 159 all out. India clinched it with 25 balls to spare, finishing at 160 for five in 45.5 overs.
The other unbeaten batsman at the end was captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who scored a sedate 17 off 54 balls in the day-night encounter. Dhoni and Rohit were involved in an undefeated 58-run partnership for the sixth wicket, though Sachin Tendulkar was the top contributor with 44 (54 balls, 3x4s).
It was India’s first win at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 22 years. Their last win at the MCG had come in 1986.
With this win India are at the top of the points table. From three matches they have eight points while Australia have seven from as many matches. Sri Lanka, the third team in the competition, have two points from two matches.
Each team plays four matches against the other at the end of which the top two teams will contest the best-of-three finals early next month.
India’s first two matches had been abandoned due to rains, because of which they had shared points with their opponents, Australia and Sri Lanka.
Chasing, India did not get a solid start as left-arm fast bowler Nathan Bracken had Virender Sehwag (11) leg before at 18.
Tendulkar and Irfan Pathan, who was promoted to No. 3 after taking two wickets earlier, then put on 36 in 7.2 overs at a decent pace. The scoring rate was immaterial for most of the innings’ duration as India were chasing a small total.
Mitchell Johnson, another left-arm speedster, broke the partnership when he had Pathan lbw.
Tendulkar was again his confident self as strokes flowed from his bat. His two stunning, excellently -timed straight drives off fast bower Brett Lee were the pick of the match.
In-form Gautam Gambhir (21, 43 balls, 2x4s), for a change, did not get going, but in the company of Tendulkar he added 35 for the third wicket, though they scored at a slow pace, 3.28 per over.
Only seven runs separated Gambhir’s and Tendulkar’s dismissals. Lee had Gambhir caught by Michael Clarke and then he himself took a brilliant diving catch to his left at mid off to get rid of Tendulkar off Johnson.
After Yuvraj Singh played another disappointing innings of three, Rohit and Dhoni were associated in the match-winning, unconquered partnership that lasted 17.2 overs. They might have scored the runs at a slow pace of 3.34 per over, but they batted cautiously to see the side through without any more alarms.
Earlier, Ishant generated good pace and gained steep bounce to rattle the Australian batsmen.
The Delhi bowler, who has impressed all through the tour, could have ended with a six-wicket tally but for two dropped catches. He, nevertheless, ended the innings with the highly impressive figures of 9.1-1-38-4 to earn warm applause from the packed stadium.
Only five Australians could enter double-digit score, with Michael Hussey being the top scorer with an unbeaten 65 (88 balls, 4x4s). That their batsmen could not face the pace trio Ishant, Sreesanth (three wickets) and Pathan (two) was evident from the fact that the next highest score was 25 (21 balls, 5x4s) by Matthew Hayden.
Another surprising aspect was that the best partnership of the innings did not come from a pair of specialist batsmen. Hussey and Lee (10, 35 balls) scored 53 for the seventh wicket off 13 overs at 4.07 runs per over.
The next best stand was between Hayden and captain Ricky Ponting (9), who raised 36 in just 4.5 over at a fabulous 7.44 runs per over to threaten to take the game away from India in a hurry. But their partnership was just too good to last long as Ishant drew left-handed Hayden out and forced him to edge the outgoing ball to Dhoni.
Ishant also had disappointment coming his way as Robin Uthappa and captain Dhoni dropped catches off his bowling.
Uthappa at third slip seemed to have just got his fingertips overhead as Hayden slashed and then Bracken was lucky to survive when a diving Dhoni failed to get his glove under the ball.
Sreesanth and Pathan also bowled extremely well to keep a tight leash on the batsmen. Sreesanth opened the floodgates by winning the leg before-the-wicket verdict against Adam Gilchrist though the umpire missed the snick and India never looked back after that.