World Twenty20 favourites Australia smash India
Australia have surely cemented their place as World Twenty20 favourites after a comprehensive 49-run victory over India in their first match of the competition’s Super Eight stage.
A sparkling 104-run opening partnership between Shane Watson and David Warner, which yielded 10 sixes and was achieved at a rate of 10.40 runs per over, set Australia up for the win and Michael Clarke’s side never relinquished their grip on victory from that point.
Australia finished their innings having clubbed an impressive 16 sixes between them, just one shy of the record set by South Africa against England at Centurion last year, but also 17-runs short of the double century that at the halfway mark was starting to look like a fait accompli.
Not that that mattered by the time Australia’s much-vaunted fast bowling attack tore India’s top order to shreds.
The strategy of trying to contain Australia’s batsman with a spin attack was in theory a smart one, but it was in the execution of the plan that India was found somewhat wanting.
With the exception of Harbhajan Singh, who opened the Australian innings with a maiden over and survived the opening partnership having conceded just 12 runs from three overs on his way to a very economical 0-15 for the match, India’s slow bowlers did not hit the mark.
Watson and Warner simply gave a succession of deliveries jammed into the pitch just short of a length the treatment they deserved, dispatching them routinely into the stands, and in one instance, over them.
Ravindra Jadeja, who conceded 38 runs from two overs as the Australian openers ran rampant, was the worst offender as he was smashed for six consecutive sixes by the Australian openers: Watson sending three short deliveries into the stands at the end of the spinner’s first over and Warner repeating the dose, off three admittedly better length balls, when he was re-introduced into the attack in the 10th over.
Watson’s run-fest eventually came to an end when Yusuf Pathan got a delivery to stay low, and after being thumped for the batsman’s sixth six off the previous ball, the bowler finally rattled the batsmen’s stumps, ending a fine innings on 54, made from just 32 balls.
Warner, however, was not done yet and Australia’s Twenty20 specialist hammered three more sixes and 22 more runs before Yuvraj Singh drew an edge into wicketkeeper MS Dhoni’s gloves. And so ended Warner’s time at the crease, 72 invaluable runs, seven sixes and 42 balls after it began.
It was a partnership that that had Australia on course for a 200-run plus total, but after spending the middle overs of Australia’s innings on the receiving end of some punishing batting – David Hussey joining in with a couple of sixes of his own on his way to 35 from 22 deliveries – India’s bowlers managed to restrict Australia to just 23 runs from the final four overs and a comparatively manageable total of 184-5.
It was, however, a proposition that very quickly became a near impossibility as the top order collapsed in the face of the onslaught of pace and bounce delivered courtesy of Dirk Nannes (pictured) and Shaun Tait.
Nannes ensured the task would be just that much tougher for India when he snared Murali Vijay for two at the beginning of the third over and his opening partner Gautam Gambhir (nine) with the final ball over, while Tait was clocked bowling at around 93.5mph (above 150kmh) in the previous over.
The South Australian got his reward the next over when the dangerous Suresh Raina (five) top-edged an attempted pull shot, which despite a fielding collision, saw the ball land safely in Michael Clarke’s hands; Nannes followed that up with his third wicket in the fifth over, hitting Yuvraj Singh’s leg stump with a Yorker to send him on his way for one.
India needed a solid partnership from Rohit Sharma and Dhoni if they were to stand any chance of steadying the ship, but when the India skipper picked out David Hussey at long-on off the bowling of Steven Smith to be on his way for two and to leave his side staring down the barrel at 37-5, an slim hopes of a miraculous comeback faded even further.
Mitchell Johnson soon got in on the action, with Warner’s diving catch ending Yusuf Pathan’s innings for one and leaving India reeling on 42-6. Jadeja’s miserable day of cricket continued when he was run-out by Hussey for four.
As his teammates fell around him, Sharma provided the one positive for India, bringing up his half century and turning up the heat on the Australian bowlers with a string of sixes and boundaries to finish unbeaten on 79 from 46 balls.
It wasn’t a match-winning innings, but it was a valuable one nonetheless as India looked to salvage both pride and a relatively respectable net run-rate from the match.
The day belonged to Australia, however, with Nannes and Tait finishing with three wickets apiece as their side sealed the win with 14 balls to spare.
Later Mahela Jayawardene, 98 not out, fell narrowly short of scoring successive centuries as Sri Lanka eased to a 57-run win over West Indies in their opening Super Eight match at the Kensington Oval.
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