Australia fought back hard in the 7-ODI Series with a 24-run win in the 4th ODI at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. The visitors had their back to the walls when they posted just 250 on what was a beautiful batting wicket. But their bowlers with the exception of Mitchell Johnson did a splendid job under the lights and were backed up by the high-standard fielding to pull off victory.

The Aussies were put into bat first by MS Dhoni and their innings didn’t go anywhere at the start with the openers putting on 24 in 7.4 overs. Marsh, who had come into the XI in place of Voges was the man to get dismissed first, lbw to a full ball from Nehra after a scratchy 23-ball stay. It was again left to Watson and Ponting to lay the platform. Watson was cruising to a well deserved half century before he was caught behind off a bouncing delivery from local boy Harbhajan Singh. Watson scored 49 from 52 balls and added 64 runs for the 2nd wicket with his Skipper Ponting.

Ponting took charge of the Australian innings the moment he walked in, he got himself a good start after smacking Ishant Sharma for about three fours and a six. For the third time in this innings, the Australian Captain fell after reaching a fifty. This time his exit came through a brilliant direct throw from deep squareleg by Ravindra Jadeja. Ponting scored 52 from 59 balls and left the park at 123 for 3 in the 27th over. The fielding side were on top at this stage and they managed to keep things quiet. The in-form Hussey had to take his chances as Australia needed to post 280-300 on this wicket. The left hander put on a healthy 73 runs along with White for the fourth wicket but just after smashing a six got himself out pulling Yuvraj to deep mid wicket. Hussey failed to notch his fourth consecutive fifty by 10 runs.

The final ten overs saw India bowl magnificently well to give away just 49 runs. The likes of White, Henriques and Johnson all got dismissed at the wrong period of time. White’s was the biggest wicket to fall at this time as he was well settled having scored 62 from 71 balls. The Australians were bowled out in 49.2 overs for 250. Nehra was the pick of the bowlers for India with 3 for 37 in 8 overs. The spinners – Harbhajan, Jadeja and Yuvraj bowled 27 overs amongst themselves and conceded only 129 runs.

When the chase began under the lights, Sehwag seemed to be in a hurry as he smacked the first ball of the innings itself in the air for a boundary. At the receiving end was Johnson who was celebrating his 28th birthday but Sehwag was showing no mercy towards him. In the 7th over, the Aussies breathed easy when Sehwag threw his wicket away by lofting Bollinger flat to Watson at mid off. It was a short stay of 19 balls for Viru and he had blazed away to 30 with 7 fours. Normalcy was restored after Sehwag’s exit with Tendulkar playing in a steady manner in the company of Kohli. Australia’s next breakthrough also came through Bollinger who found some extra bounce to have Kohli nicking a cut shot in the 15th over. It was four overs later that Australia could come back strongly in the game when Nathan Hauritz struck the pad of Tendulkar (40 from 68 balls with 6 fours) who tried to be adventurous with a cute flick shot.

The Indians were under pressure at 94 for 3 in the 19th over when Yuvraj Singh was joined by Captain MS Dhoni. Before the two match winners could forge another good partnership, came a direct throw from Ricky Ponting that got rid of Yuvraj Singh. It was a bad call from MS Dhoni which resulted in the big loss of Yuvraj (12). About 30 minutes later, Dhoni joined him back in the pavilion after getting bounced out by Bollinger down the legside. The Indian Captain played a slow innings of 26 from 46 balls.

At 145 for 5 in the 32nd over, the writing was very much on the wall. India went onto lose its remaining two recognized batsmen in Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja in succession. At 177 for 7 in the 39th over, India were still having a minute chance to win with Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar in the middle. The two men seemed to repeat their Vadodara show as Harbhajan Singh got a few sweet boundaries followed up with a stupendous slog off Johnson for a six during India’s batting powerplay which was taken in the 40th over. Just when Harbhajan was turning the heat on the Aussies came a freak dismissal, a hard smack back to the bowler Shane Watson who held onto the catch. Bhajji departed after a breezy 31 from 25 balls with 5 fours and a six. He left Praveen Kumar to win the match on his own with as many as 47 more runs to get. Praveen Kumar had to go for his shots and it was just matter of time before he committed a mistake which he did off Watson. Before that he had smashed three boundaries which provided the glimmer of hope. The match ended when Ashish Nehra holed out to long on in the 47th over leaving Australia winners by 24 runs.

Shane Watson got the Man of the Match for his all-round performances in all the three departments – 49 with the bat, 3 for 29 with the ball and two good catches. The two teams now head towards South in Hyderabad for the 5th ODI which will be played after a couple of days break.

Tags: Australia Cricket, Doug Bollinger, India Vs Australia, Indian Cricket, Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson