Australia
today crushed India by 7 wickets in the second one day international (ODI) in
Brisbane to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. This follows the first
triumph of the hosts in Perth with some curious similarities between the two
matches.
India
won the toss and elected to bat first on both occasions. India surpassed the
300 mark both times—set a target of 310 in the Perth ODI and 309 in the
Brisbane ODI. For India opener Rohit Sharma hit tons in both—a huge 171 then and 124
today. The other opener Shikhar Dhawan failed in both. Indian spinners,
deprived of their slow tracks back home, hardly did anything spectacular and
Indian pacers, hardly promoted in slow pitches back home and selected out of
nowhere, could not be realistically expected to perform, in both. Apart from
Rohit, Kohli and Rahane no batsmen could perform for India in both. Thanks to
some accurate Aussie bowling with perfect yorkers in the death overs made India
fall short of at least by 20 runs in both. And
most importantly India lost both.
For
Australia George Bailey was the key in both ODIs with a century in the first
and half century in the second. Aussie fast bowlers, supposedly inexperienced, restricted
India to manageable 300+ scores in both. Steve Smith contributed to the victories
in both. If they were lucky not to lose Bailey early thanks to umpiring in the
first, they were unlucky not to get Rohit a little earlier in the second. The hosts
cruised to victory in both without having any kind of pressure.
Similarities
are only of academic value, the significant part is that despite the wonderful
momentum provided by the top order on both occasions India failed to capitalize
fully on that. On good batting tracks just around 300 is never enough nowadays, one needs
to build on that, particularly against formidable Australia. Maybe Indian
skipper Dhoni did not have the confidence to put the hosts in because of the
scare that with this kind half-baked Indian bowling attack the targets for
India could have been around 400!
Indian
batsmen and bowlers need to dig themselves in putting their sweet memories of spinning
friendly home tracks in short-time oblivion. Else, in Melbourne on Sunday the series will be all over
with the hosts wrapping up in a ‘similar’ fashion.
