Saturday, January 28, 2012

India drowned under!

Australia fared exceedingly well in the fourth Test at Adelaide to outsmart India by 298 runs and gained a 4-0 series whitewash.

Having been 3-0 up in the series, the Aussies came into the final one with an aim of winning the series 4-0, whitewashing the Indians. Skipper Clarke won the toss and elected to bat on what looked like the flattest track of the series and wanted to put on a good score. His team did not get off to a good start though.

The openers, Warner and Cowan got off to a flier before India struck twice to reduce the Aussies to 31/2. Ponting and Cowan then had a bit of a stand worth 53 before Cowan threw his wicket away and at 84/3, India had their noses in front. But Australia had other ideas. A deja vu of Sydney as Ponting and Clarke got together and had yet another massive partnership. They went on and on, each getting to his double century, staging a partnership of 366 for the 4th wicket. Clarke was finally dismissed for 210 and Ponting followed later on 221 but not before taking Australia to a respectable total. They eventually declared on a mammoth 604/7. Clarke earned a better Batting Momentum of 343. Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers, with 3 wickets and finished with a Bowling Efficiency of 108.

In reply, India got off to a poor start, losing Sehwag and Dravid early yet again. Gambhir and Tendulkar provided a brief respite but eventually got out. India were in all sorts of trouble at 111/5 but two youngsters, Virat Kohli and Wriddhiman Saha, staged a fine fight back. The duo added 114 runs for the sixth wicket and nearly played the entire second session before Saha fell in the last over before Tea on Day 3. It did not take much time for the Aussie bowlers to wrap up the innings after that and bowled India out for 272, gaining a lead of 332 runs. Peter Siddle was the star of the show, with a 5-wicket haul receiving good support from Hilfenhaus with 3 scalps. Siddle finished with a Bowling Efficiency of 166. For India, Virat Kohli was the lone star, making a brilliant 116 and ended up with a Batting Momentum of 139.

Due to the excessive heat and also with the amount of time remaining in the Test match, Clarke decided not to enforce the follow-on and gave his bowlers some rest. Once again, as has been the norm in this series, Australia lost three wickets pretty quickly. But Ponting and Clarke came to the rescue once more with a half-century stand. Ponting remained unbeaten on 60 as the hosts declared on 167/5, setting India a target of 500 in around 5 sessions, with a minimum of 142 overs to be bowled. Ponting finished with a Batting Momentum of 90.

The onus was once again on the Indian star-studded batting line-up but nothing changed. Gambhir lost his wicket pretty early and then the Indian skipper decided to counter-attack. He played a breath-taking knock of 63 but that was not the need of the hour. Sehwag’s wicket opened the floodgate and from 2 down for 80, they were soon struggling on 6/166, courtesy another mega middle-order collapse.

The hosts required 82 balls in the first session of day 5 to pick the remaining four wickets and earned a massive win. This was the seventh occasion of a series whitewash for India, thrice by Australia and England and once by West Indies. 

Nathan Lyon finished with four wickets and gained a Bowling Efficiency of 98 while Sehwag received a Batting Momentum of 79 for his quick-fire innings.

Have a look at the scorecard

Australia completely overwhelmed India on the Castrol Index, finishing 149 points ahead of the visitors. Peter Siddle was awarded the Man of the Match for picking six wickets on a placid wicket, which earned him the Overall Castrol Index of 97. But the top performers of the match were Clarke and Ponting. The former ended with 202 Index points while the latter got two more. Michael Clarke was the unanimous choice for the Man of the Series award for scoring 626 runs in the series.

These two sides will now face each other in a couple of T20Is and then will get involved in the ODIs, which also involves Sri Lanka. First T20I is on the 1st of February at Sydney.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sri Lanka hold nerve to win thriller at Jo’burg

It was a game of turning tables. In the first half. South Africa seemed confident of defending 312. Sri Lanka batted well to nearly seal the game but hiccups towards the end almost spoilt the chase. In the end, a massive slog sweep from new-comer Senenayake sealed the game for the Lankans in the final over by 2 wickets.

After a thrilling win in the 4th ODI, the momentum looked to be with Sri Lanka, having come back from behind. Dilshan won the toss yet again and this time, he chose to field, as they were good chasers and also due to the dimensions of the ground.

His trump card, Lasith Malinga, did not disappoint and got rid of Alviro Petersen in the 4th over. But then. the Proteas fought back with a series of partnerships. First, Smith and Faf du Plessis saw off the Quick Start Overs, helping the Proteas score 33/1 from it before Faf got out in the 18th over and the 60-run stand was broken.

Powerplay 2 yielded just 19/1 and Sri Lanka were doing well. But AB de Villiers and Smith then launched a stunning counter-attack as they took the Lankans to the cleaners. Powerplay 3 was taken early, in the 32nd over and it yielded 44 runs.

The real attack came after that as both batsmen tore the bowling apart. Smith eventually got out after reaching his first century in 36 games. The pair had added a mammoth 186 for the third wicket, which was the best third-wicket partnership for South Africa against Sri Lanka in ODIs.

de Villiers continued on his merry way and finished on an unbeaten 125, helping South Africa to post 312/4, as the hosts plundered 109/2 in the Extreme Performance Overs. Both Smith and de Villiers finished with an exact score of 125 but the skipper earned a better Batting Momentum of 209. The bowling was poor from the Lankans with Malinga picking up 2 wickets and a Bowling Efficiency of 89 but was very expensive.

Have a look at the scorecard.

In reply, the Sri Lankan openers went bang-bang right from the word go and raced to 57/0 in 7.1 overs. Rain then intervened and play was stopped for about a period of an hour. The game did resume after that but no overs were reduced in spite of the delay.

Tharanga was dismissed immediately after resumption and the Lankans were 72/1 at the end of the Quick Start Overs. The hosts continued to peg the Lankans back and that led to Dilshan’s dismissal as the visitors managed 34/1 in Powerplay 2.

Chandimal and Sangakkara continued the good work with a 56-run stand and when Chandimal was dismissed in the 30th over with 138 needed for victory, plenty rested on Sangakkara. He found an able partner in Lahiru Thirimanne and the duo batted superbly. Powerplay 3 was the platform for attack and they hammered 43 runs off those.

The runs kept on flowing and Sangakkara got to his century and was eventually dismissed in the 45th over, with just 38 needed for a victory. But the Lankans collapsed dramatically and it all went down to needing 6 runs off the final over with 4 wickets in hand.

AB de Villiers threw the ball to Robin Peterson who got rid of Kulasekara on the first ball and the set man Thirimanne on the third. More drama as new-comer Senanayake, who was sent ahead of Malinga, blocked the ball. However, with 5 needed from 2 balls, Senanayake slog swept the ball for a maximum to hand Sri Lanka a 2-wicket win.

Kumar Sangakkara top scored with 102 and finished with a Batting Momentum of 148, well supported by Thirimanne who scored 69 with the bat. Tow wickets apiece for Tsotsobe, Duminy, Parnell and Peterson with Parnell finishing with a Bowling Efficiency of 138.

Not much difference in the Castrol Indices, with South Africa finishing on a better value of 53 as compared to 52 of the Lankans in spite of losing the game. South Africa won the area of Batting Momentum while Sri Lanka bounced back in the Bowling Efficiency department. Quick Start Overs belonged to the Lankans while the tables turned during the Extreme Performance Overs. The optional Powerplays went in favour of the visitors.

Kumar Sangakkara was named the Man Of The Match and he finished with a value of 56 on the Castrol Index. The Man Of The Series was AB de Villiers who earned a value of 78 and was also the top performer.

By virtue of this win, the 3-match series ends 3-2 in South Africa’s favour. The hosts drop down to third place in the ICC ODI rankings with Sri Lanka on 4th.