Indians lose a fighting match against Australia

Even after an excellent century from Gambhir, Indian team failed to win the match against Australia in the 10^th ODI match in Commonwealth Bank series (CB series).

I just yelled Oh my god after seeing the way the Aussies started the match with a run rate of nearly 9. Dangerous batsman Gilly went out in 20s after forming a strong base. Hayden went for a quick 50 with skipper Ricky Ponting’s support, but he was unfortunately run out. After Hayden’s dismissal, it was rain in Ponting’s side. I am not sure whether he came back to form because he got nearly 5 life in this match. But the skipper knocked an excellent 123. Then the man of 5 crore, Symonds added 59 to the Australian score board. Again some words were exchanged between Ishanth and Symonds when he was bowled out in the 48^th over. If I am not wrong, it was Symonds who started the word exchange. I hope this won’t come up as a big issue again. Finally Aussies set a Himalayan target of 318 for Indians.

As usual the Indian innings started with lose of early wickets. I have told many times in my blog that Indian team selectors made the Indian batting line up a weak one. As an impact today Indians stood with 51 for 4 wickets. Some of the experienced batsmen failed to create any impact in bat today. Indian skipper Dhoni as usual played a slow and steady innings but only managed to take 36 runs, but gave a good support for Gambhir. Uthappa was excellent today. He managed to take a half century in today’s match with some of the splendid shots which I should mention now. He smashed a no ball and a bouncer from Brett lee to a six which was an awesome shot. Smashing a bouncer from the world’s fastest bowler to a six is really a tough job, but Uthappa just stepped in and smashed it. This youngster really has a bright future. Gambhir scored his first class high score of 113 in this match. Irfan didn’t give any support for Uthappa. But Bhajji scored 20 quick runs with three consecutive fours and left the ground. Finally Indians were all out for 299. Final wicket of Ishanth Sharma was a perfect Yorker from Brett lee. Brett lee shined the match with 5 wickets. Ricky Ponting was the man of the match for his excellent 123.

Now Indians have to beat Sri Lanka to qualify for finals of CB series.