India-Australia in same boat after Port trip

India-Australia in same boat after Port trip
N Jagannath Das

Visakhapatnam, April 3: For the Aussies, Mathew Hayden (111; 112b, 180m, 9x4, 2x6), has been the biggest success story on this tour.

After his fantastic run in the Test series (549 runs) and scores of 99 and 67 in the first one-day matches, the big opener was a victim of the rotation policy at Indore. The Aussies did not repeat that mistake in the fourth one-day international match as their pride was at stake.

The busy opener turned out to be their trump card at Indira Priyadarshini Municipal Stadium today as he destroyed the Indian attack to enable Australia score a fine 93-run win to keep the one-day series alive.

In the process, Hayden, the man of the match, slammed his maiden One-day century and also guided Ricky Ponting (101; 110b, 162m, 13x4) out of poor trot. Ponting hit his seventh one-day century. The two stitched a record-equalling 219 runs for the second wicket to set up an Australian day. The two turned the heat on the Indians once Steve Waugh won the toss by helping Aussies put up 338/4, beating the record of 329/5 scored in Adelaide last year.

India, with an asking rate of 6.78, ran out of gas once left-arm medium pacer Nathan Bracken had master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar (62; 38b, 68m, 11x4) caught in the covers. India were all out for 245, with Zaheer Khan (29) and Harbhajan Singh (46, 3x6, 3x4) avoiding them to suffer their worst-ever defeat of 152 runs against the Australians.

The last One-day match will be played on April 6 at Goa.

It was a statistical delight for the Australians. Hayden and Ponting, who made mincemeat of Indian attack, equalled the Australian second wicket best of 219 which was held by Mark Waugh and Ponting scored against Zimbabwe in Delhi in 1998.

It was a too big total to chase. The last time when India chased a target of 316 which was against Pakistan in Dhaka in 1998, Sachin Tendulkar scored a blistering century. The visitors knew that it was the one-man army of Tendulkar who had the capability of pulling off a miracle win. The champion batsman batted in his typical, flamboyant style. He went after McGrath and Fleming before he played straight into skipper Steve Waugh’s hands at cover off Bracken. There was jubilation in the Australian camp. The match was over as a contest and the crowd too moved out of the stadium.

Thereafter leg spinner Shane Warne, returning his best figures after the Mumbai Test, and skipper Steve Waugh, bowling for the first time in the series, returned with three wickets each. But it was left-arm medium-pacer Nathan Bracken who broke the back of Indian batting by claiming the vital wicket of Tendulkar.

But then did skipper Saurav Ganguly the right thing by walking into open especially after his horrendous run in the series? He may have improved his average from 3.33 to 4.06 but consumed 26 balls for his 9 when India needed a brisk start. His misery ended when he tamely put up a catch at covers off Bracken.

Scoreboard
AUSTRALIA
A Gilchrist c Dahiya b Srinath 6
M Hayden st Dahiya b Harbhajan 111
Ponting c Tendulkar b Agarkar 101
M Bevan not out 43
S Waugh c Srinath b Zaheer 35
S Lee not out 25
Extras: (b-7, nb-3, w-7) 17
Total: (For 4 wkts in 50 overs) 338
Fall of wkts: 1-6, 2-225, 3-246, 4-304
Bowling: Srinath 10-0-61-1, Zaheer 10-0-71-1, Agarkar 9-0-63-1, Harbhajan 10-0-58-1, Robin Singh 6-0-37-0, Ganguly 4-0-29-0, Tendulkar 1-0-12-0
INDIA
S Ganguly c Warne b Bracken 9
S Tendulkar c Waugh b Bracken 62
VVS Laxman st Gilchrist b Warne 11
R Dravid c & b Warne 7
Badani c Warne b Waugh 25
R Singh c Gilchrist b Waugh 16
V Dahiya c Hayden b Warne 7
A Agarkar lbw Waugh 9
Zaheer Khan c Waugh b McGrath 29
Harbhajan Singh c Lee b McGrath 46
J Srinath not out 7
Extras: (lb-2, w-12, nb-3) 17
Total: (in 45 overs) 245
Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-85, 3-87, 4-102, 5-135, 6-144, 7-149, 8-169, 9-228
Bowling: McGrath 8-0-62-1; Fleming 8-1-53-0; Bracken 7-1-21-2; Warne 10-0-38-2; S Lee 3-0-11-0; S Waugh 6-0-29-3; Bevan 3-0-29-0
Man of the Match: Mathew Hayden