India defeated Australia comprehensively for the second consecutive time to take their series lead to 2-1. Delhi, the National Capital of India was hosting its first ever day night ODI. The Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium was houseful and although the pitch was one of the worst ever in the history, it still was an intriguing contest between both sides. Australia were restricted to 229 for 5 and the target was achieved by the homeside through the heroics of Yuvraj Singh (78) and MS Dhoni (71*) in yesterday’s third ODI.

Ricky Ponting had won the toss and elected to bat first as he was paranoid of the wicket becoming worse as the match progressed further. The Aussie Skipper himself had to open the innings along with Shane Watson in the absence of the injured Tim Paine. There were three changes from the visitors. Moises Henriques and Wicket Keeper Graham Manou were making their ODI Debuts after taking the places of Shaun Marsh and Tim Paine respectively. Left arm pacer Doug Bollinger was brought in for Ben Hilfenhaus. India on the other hand stuck with the same team that won the Nagpur match.

The Aussies were off to a solid start from Watson and Ponting, the main objective was to keep the wickets intact and set up a platform for a score of 240 or so. Things were starting to look bad for MS Dhoni with both the openers well settled. Luckily for him, Yuvraj Singh came to the rescue in the 17th over by beating Watson with some turn and MSD pulled off a magical stumping in just a fraction of a second with Watson dragging his backfoot marginally out of the crease. Watson scored 41 from 59 balls (with 5 fours) and had put on 72 runs for the first wicket. Ponting took the Aussies forward through another partnership, this one with Michael Hussey. But before he could go the long distance, came a blunder from Punter as he played all around a full pitch ball from Jadeja around his middle stump to get lbw. Ricky had played responsibly if not freely for his 59 from 92 balls (with 4 fours) before falling in the 32nd over.

The platform was nicely set at 128 for 2, but the Indians now had the advantage after getting a lucky wicket of the strong hitting Cameron White. A rough caught behind decision off Suresh Raina’s bowling saw Australia lose their third wicket at 129 for 3. The next man in, Adam Voges ensured along with Hussey that his team didn’t have any middle order collapse. A 31-ball 17 from the right hander helped Hussey to take Aus to 172 for 4 in the 42nd over before Voges holed out. Hussey stayed right till the end after that and guided Australia to 229 for 5. It was a Michael Bevan kind of knock with not many boundaries but a lot of ones and twos that still gave him a strike rate of nearly 100. For the record, Hussey remained unbeaten on 81 from 82 with 3 fours plus a six off the final over from Nehra. The Spinners did the job for MSD, four of them bowling 31 overs and giving just 131 runs while taking five wickets!

Under the lights, it was felt that India were going to smash their way to the target as the pitch was expected to play better because of the dew. A couple of boundaries in the first over itself provided the momentum which was quickly killed by some better bowling. The Aussies had to wait for their breakthrough which came in the 9th over when the dangerous Sehwag (11 from 25) exposed his stumps and tried to whip one across the onside but only to have his furniture disturbed by Johnson. India had slowly gone to 37 for 1 then and about 7 overs later found themselves in deep trouble at 53 for 3 losing both Tendulkar and Gambhir. Tendulkar ran himself out having looked in fine touch for his 32 from 47 balls while Gambhir was outsmarted by a turning off break from Nathan Hauritz.

The match was firmly in the hands of the Aussies with the combination of Doug Bollinger and Nathan Hauritz sustaining a lot of pressure. Bollinger troubled Yuvraj a lot by getting the ball to reverse in and out. Yuvraj survived a couple of attacking inswinging yorkers and soon took charge of the situation along with MS Dhoni by pinching singles regularly. At half way stage, the Aussies were into trouble not from the batsmen but from the heavy dew on the outfield. Hauritz was forced out of the attack by the slippery ball and Ponting had to rely only on his pacers.

The pair of Yuvraj and Dhoni were more than happy as the ball also stopped reversing, the former cut loose with a flat six off Henriques. There was no looking back after that for the homeside. Before Yuvraj could finish the match with a flurry, came a bad lbw decision to send him back out of action at 201 for 4 in 44 overs. Yuvraj had played a brilliant knock of 78 from 96 balls with 8 fours and a six each off Henriques and Voges. The remaining chunk of runs were scored by MS Dhoni in the company of Suresh Raina. With the batting powerplay taken in the 46th over, it was very difficult for the Australians to pull off a shock defeat although it was a run-a-ball situation. Dhoni remained unconquered with 71 from 95 balls with 6 fours. His partner in crime today – Yuvraj Singh walked with the Man of the Match. After a day’s rest, the two teams meet again at Mohali for the fourth ODI.

Tags: Australia, Delhi, India, India Vs Australia, Michael Hussey, MS Dhoni, Ricky Ponting, Yuvraj Singh