It was raining sixes at the Bridgetown stadium in Barbados, as the Australian openers tore into the Indian bowling attack striking them for one six after another that crashed into dancing spectators thronged at the venue.
All in all sixteen sixes were smashed from the bats of the Aussie batsmen as they piled a gigantic total of 184 for 5, after having been sent into bat by Indian captain MS Dhoni.
After playing a rare maiden over the Australians held the bull by the horns, as they went for the leather in an astonishing assault on the Indian bowlers which saw them hit an incredible 16 sixes in their innings!. The two Ws’ Warner and Watson took a liking to the slow bowlers especially Ravindra Jadeja, who went for six consecutive sixes, in two different overs. He was first taken for 18 runs, courtesy three sixes by Watson, and in his next over Warner repeated the dose of the first three balls.
The hapless left armer went for 38 runs in his two overs, as the short boundaries at Bridgetown were made to look like a mere 30 yards. Most of the sixes went well out of the park, sailing into the crowd that was left dazed at the audacious stroke play.
The two openers and one down batsman Davis Hussey had put the Aussies in an impregnable position, with their domination of the Indian attack. Dhoni totally ran out of options in the first sixteen overs, however a commendable effort by Zaheer stay Khan and Ashish Nehra ensured that the Aussies with in the 200 run mark, in fact eventually they did not even got to equal their joint record of 191 runs set against Pakistan at St.Lucia earlier in the week.
The Indian reply was all paced out, but unfortunately it was not paced off the Indian bats, rather it was swiftness generated by the Australian opening bowlers Shuan Tait and Dirk Nannes that blew away the top order.
The two pacers were extracting tremendous bounce off the wicket compelling the opposition batsmen on the back foot, the Indian response was very meek, as the batsmen were caught out playing “get away” shots.
Gautaum Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yousuf Pathan captain MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja were back in the hutch with the total reading 47. The beleaguered Indians were rescued by an audacious knock by Rohit Sharma who plundered 79 off only 48 balls.
The right hander was the only batsman who coped with the demanding conditions, resorting to spellbinding stroke play, as he looked a batsman from a different team. His illustrious partners had looked a shadow of themselves as they groped and prodded at the steaming deliveries before throwing their wickets away due to the sheer recklessness in their approach.
The Indians were eventually rescued from an embarrassing situation, when Rohit Sharma found some support in Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, as he pushed the total to a respectable 135 runs. The men in blue were knocked over in the 18th over, when a searing Tait yorker went through last man Nehra’s defenses.
Shaun Tait finished with two scalps while the left-armer Nannes accounted for three batsmen in a ferocious opening burst. The 49 run defeat has had a negative bearing on the Indian net run rate which has plummeted to -1.56, the 2007 champions would have to ensure that they win their last two matches with a big margin, if they are to progress beyond the super eights stage.
On the other hand the Aussies have clearly emerged as the team to beat at this year’s championship their batting and bowling openers have made the difference in almost every match they have played in, at this rate they would be impossible to stop.
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