India wins a thriller against Aussies by 8 runs, keeps hopes alive in Future Cup

Oct 08: Men in Blue will have to work hard to pull off the series victory

Team India and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni at last opened their account beating Australia by 8 runs in a thriller in the fourth ODI of seven match series of the Future cup played at the Sector-16 stadium in Chandigarh.

This victory is Dhoni’s first victory after he was appointed as the ODI captain of Team India and it also turned out to be special for him, as he was awarded man of the match. India is still trailing 1-2 in the series and if they want to pull off the series victory, they have to win rest of the matches in the series.

The Aussies fell eight runs short with two wickets left, as their tailenders could not be able to get past the pace duo of Zaheer Khan and RP Singh. Australian captain felt that Indians deserved to win this match as they batted superbly followed with their good bowling effort in the death overs.

James Hopes and Brett Lee, who had to get 22 runs from the last two overs and then 17 from Zaheer's final six balls were asked too much from their team. The 31 wides proved to costly for the Aussies at the end.

The turning point of the match was when RP Singh cleaned up Andrew Symonds for 75 in the 47th over after having a bad run in the match till that stage. He gave another dent in the very next ball by running out Brad Hogg and the pressure came directly on the visitors.

Australian openers had a good start but soon out of form Adam Gilchrist got out early in the first ball of the sixth over to a RP Singh’s delivery on the other hand his opening partner Matthew Hayden missed out a possible century scoring 92 runs in just 92 balls while trying to complete his ton in a hurry and falling down to Murali Kartik’s delivery.

Skipper Ricky Ponting hasn’t got his form back after coming back from the injury, as was stumped while trying to drive Irfan Pathan but was beaten outside off stump. Dhoni quickly whipped off the bails in a flash.

Andrew Symonds once again for Aussies rescue but this time could not sail his team to reach victory. Symonds added up 56 runs with Brad Hodge for the fifth wicket and scored a 44 ball 50 before his stumps were castled by RP Singh.

Hodge foxed through Harbhajan Singh’s turner as Dhoni stumped him leaving his team into trouble.

Earlier Indian skipper MS Dhoni opted to bat after winning the toss. Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar overcame a wobbly start to guide India's innings with 79 of 119 balls along with Sourav Ganguly before Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Robin Uthappa went for a late bust to carry team’s total to 291 for 4. Dhoni and Uthappa put the finishing touches on a solid team effort as India scored 89 in the final ten overs, including 20 from the last six balls.

Both Tendulkar and Ganguly provided an inspiring start to Indian innings before Ganguly made his way back to the pavilion, as James Hopes dismissed him in the Ganguly tried to slice Hopes delivery and edged the ball to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist in the process. Ganguly made 41 runs from 59 balls.

With Yuvraj Singh and Tendulkar holding the fort for India after Sourav Ganguly’s dismissal, the game was leading for a good showdown. Soon after, 50 runs came for Tendulkar from 93 balls after he played cautiously to avoid any collapse in the top-order. This was Tendulkar’s record breaker 84th ODI fifty as he surpassed Inzamam-Ul Haq’s previous record (83) of maximum half-centuries in limited overs of cricket.

Yuvraj Singh who had made 39 runs from 55 balls got out on a soft dismissal while lofting a length delivery into the safe hands of Ricky Ponting.

India did not have the pressure of chasing a target for the first time in this series and Dhoni and Uthappa enjoyed that freedom. Uthappa took the field at the end of the 46th over. It would have been better for India to promote him ahead of Rahul Dravid. Uthappa powered 30 from 18 balls.

Dhoni completed his 50 from 35 balls with a six in the last ball of the innings. He gave away much-needed support by putting himself up in the order to No. 4. He added some more runs on the stage that had been set by Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh (39).

Tendulkar was heading towards his 42nd ODI century when a sharp piece of fielding from Lee departed him on 79. Tendulkar paddled sweep straight to fine leg and Lee at short fine leg threw back the ball sharply into the striker's stumps that found Tendulkar well short of the crease.

Tendulkar was bit cautious at the start and gradually worked out his innings, as Bracken almost got him lbw first ball and Lee beat him with fast outswingers on numerous occasions. He faced 17 consecutive dot balls in the initial part and had three lucky breaks, which was turned down by the umpire

Australian bowling effort in between the middle and final overs was not up to the mark, as they conceded as many as 31 wides in their innings. The killing punch in the attack was missing, and the slow bowlers Brad Hogg and Andrew Symonds were never looked dangerous. They went for almost five runs per over.

Uthappa and Dhoni then hammered Australian bowlers all over the park to post 291 runs on the board in the stipulated 50 overs.

India earlier made three changes in the squad with Murali Kartik coming in for Ramesh Powar, Sourav Ganguly replacing Gautam Gambhir and RP Singh included in place of S Sreesanth.

This win keeps the Indian hopes alive in the ongoing series and the interest of the common men who were losing interest in the game and in the team after the Twenty20 euphoria.