After a high pressure game at Hyderabad, the two teams have gone North-East and will face each other in a day match that starts as early as 8-30 AM. The sun is likely to fade away quickly as the day progresses as it always does in the North-East and also the fact that is winter time.

The pitch will be an uncertainity and perhaps fielding will be a better option as there could be life in the wicket plus swing in the air. It may also be a slow and low bouncing track like in Delhi. Reckon its a game where the new ball bowlers will decided the course of the game, and in particular in the first hour of the match. It will probably need the sheet anchor type of innings over here for the batsmen.

The biggest worry is that it could be a curtailed match towards the end because of the bad light conditions. Once the match goes beyond 4:00 PM local time, then its very difficult to resume and Mr.Duckworth-Lewis will have to come into play.

The afternoon started with Ricky Ponting winning the toss and electing to bat first on a beautiful batting pitch. His openers Watson and Marsh provided him with the perfect start putting on nearly 150 runs on board for the first wicket at the half way stage. Watson kept the momentum going all the time with some attacking pull shots in the air while he had Shaun Marsh batting himself in and giving the strike back to the former. Watson was very unlucky to miss a century by 7 runs when he top edged a slog sweep off Harbhajan. The all-rounder scored his 93 in 89 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes.

Ricky Ponting and Shaun Marsh continued to keep the heat on the Indian bowlers although their scoring rate was curtailed slightly by the spin combination of Harbhajan and Yuvraj. Everything though went Australia’s way and even the batting powerplay between the 35th and 39th was fruitful for them. Ponting (45 from 45 with 3 fours and a six) got dismissed just at the fag end of the powerplay after missing a pull and getting bowled off a slower one from Praveen Kumar. The Aussie Skipper put on 91 runs for the second wicket to take his side to 236 for 2 in the 39th over.

Shaun Marsh continued further to bring up his maiden ODI century and created a bit of history with that, he had his father Geoff Marsh are the only father-son duo to score ODI hundreds. Marsh eventually fell after a run-a-ball 112 in the 43rd over taking Australia to 270 for 3. The big hitting Cameron White then entertained the crowd with 5 sixes in a 33-ball 57 and along with him Michael Hussey chipped in with 31 from 22 balls with 2 sixes. Australia finished at 350 for 4 and even on a perfect strip, India had to play out of their skin to go past that score. The Indian fielding was very bad, atleast three catches went down and there were just too many fumbles.

The Indian chase started on the right note with both Sehwag and Tendulkar wasting little time to get going. A few overs of action and India were red hot before Sehwag fell top edging his pull off a superb bouncer from Hilfenhaus that was equally well caught by Bollinger at short fine leg. Sehwag yet again failed to convert a start into a meaningul score, this time falling for 38 from 30 with 5 fours and a six but took India to 66 in just under 9 overs. In the 14th over, India lost one more wicket in Gautam Gambhir caught playing an upper cut to thirdman and four overs later the big fish Yuvraj Singh spooned a return catch off the splice to a rising ball from Watson.

India were reduced to 126 for 3 in the 19th over when MS Dhoni joined Tendulkar. The little master Sachin Tendulkar danced down the track to send Hauritz twice over the sightscreen region to counter for the loss of Yuvraj. Just when things were starting to look good again for the batting side came a turning point when Adam Voges at point dived to his right to catch a blistering cut shot from MS Dhoni (6). India were down in the dumps again at 166 for 4 but Tendulkar still kept his focus and got a partnership developing with Suresh Raina. The left hander every now and then played an outstanding shot to take off the pressure from the free flowing Tendulkar.

The pair of Sachin and Raina took India past the 40th over without further damage to the wickets column. Again there was a twist in the game when Raina blindly went for a pull shot which he top edged to be caught brilliantly by a backward running Graham Manou towards short thirdman. Raina scored a run-a-ball 59 with 3 sixes to take India from 162 for 4 to 299 for 5. The youngster did everything well until that moment of madness in the 43rd over at a time when India were in the striking distance with 52 to win from 45 balls. Australia in the same over got the wicket of the dangerous Harbhajan Singh for a duck. Watson was the bowler taking these two wickets.

India took the powerplay in the 45th over with a tired Sachin Tendulkar and Ravindra Jadeja at the crease with 46 to win from 36 balls. The left handed Jadeja took off a lot of pressure off Sachin with a couple of timely boundaries in the 47th over. India needed just 19 from 18 when Tendulkar went for a cute paddle off debutant McKay but only to get caught at short fine leg. It was a master piece knock of 175 from 141 balls with 19 fours and 4 sixes. But at a point when just singles were needed, Sachin caused his own downfall and his team’s with a high risk shot. In the same over, Ravindra Jadeja (23 from 17 balls) ran himself out under pressure when his partner never called him for a single.

The hosts were now left with 16 runs to win from 12 balls with two wickets in hand. Before Praveen Kumar could get the strike, Ashish Nehra lofted one needlessly to get caught at long on. Praveen Kumar got the strike after the dismissal and vented out his anger with a six to bring India back in the hunt with 10 to win from 11 balls. Few moments after that India needed 8 to win from the final over to be bowled by Watson. The first three balls yielded three runs to make it 5 from 3 and the fourth ball saw the heart breaking moment when Praveen Kumar got run out trying for a desperate second run. Australia jumped in joy with a 3-run with that and to lead the series 3-2. Tendulkar had got the Man of the Match award to round off a spectacular match.

For the fifth ODI, India will be boosted with the return of Gautam Gambhir. The left hander will mostly take the place of Virat Kohli. India is unlikely to make any other changes apart from that. So far this new stadium in Hyderabad hasn’t been auspicious to India as they lost the two ODIs played here against South Africa and against Australia. However in both the ODIs, Yuvraj Singh has smashed centuries and is on the verge of a hat-trick at this venue.

Australia are likely to play Clint McKay in the vacant place left by Moises Henriqes’ injury. Another vacant slot created by Peter Siddle injury is likely to be taken by Ben Hilfenhaus. The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium has a South African kind of pitch with good pace and bounce. It doesn’t mean that the batsmen will find it difficult to play their shots though as seen in the Champions League T20. It could be a high scoring contest coming up in a couple of hours time.

Both teams will be wary of the fact that the dew is going to be a bigger nuisance here at Mohali than the previous venues of Nagpur and Delhi. Australia had already tasted failure because of the dew at Delhi when its key bowler Nathan Hauritz failed to grip the ball properly. The Aussies though will like the Mohali pitch which has traditionally generated good bounce and pace. The Australian batsmen too can play their free flowing horizontal shots here.

For India, Sachin Tendulkar is due to score a big one especially due to the possible absence of Sehwag and Gambhir. Tendulkar has looked good so far, striking the ball pretty well and showing good footwork. Its only matter of time  before he gets his customary one century in a series to stamp his authority.

Both teams may not have practiced that well for today’s day night affair. But as the Indian Skipper MS Dhoni said one day’s practice will not make any difference. Well Cricket is like that, if its your day, then you are just unstoppable and that applies not only to an individual but also to a team.

If India has to make two changes then obviously it could be Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli in to replace the two injured Delhi players. Karthik once again floats into the team because of injury to another player. To his credit, he has done superbly well to even find a place in the team when there is a solid wicket keeper batsman in the Captain himself in MS Dhoni. And that’s only because Dinesh Karthik has been able to prove his mettle as a batsman alone.

Australia will have to watch out for the wides and noballs they have been conceding in this series. For Mohali, the pace bowlers have got to lift their game up and probably look to bounce out the Indian batsmen. The guy to watch out in the bowling department is Doug Bollinger. The left arm quick did make Yuvraj dance in the last game at Delhi. Bollinger was unlucky not to get a single wicket though he conceded not more than a mean 26 runs off his 10 overs.

Batting wise, Australia seem to be a touch negative which certainly is not their nature. Looks like Ricky Ponting is feeling a lot of pressure on his shoulders with the likes of Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin not available to win games. All in all, two things to say, one is that the pressure is on Australia to win this match and two the momentum is certainly with India despite the twin injuries.

The replacement for James Hopes is going to be another all-rounder Clint McKay who plays for Victoria. McKay featured in the Champions League T20 and because of that has good experience of the Indian conditions unlike someone like Graham Manou who struggled to cope up during the Delhi ODI. However it doesn’t look as if McKay is going to take part in any of the matches as the all-rounder spot seems to have gone to Moises Henriques, who was actually the star for the New South Wales in the same Champions League T20 tournament.