 Murali Kartik allround performance both with bat and bowl combined with aggressive batting from Rbin Uthappa (47 of 59 balls) and Zaheer Khan (31 of 43 balls) help India to register a heart breaking win against the World Champions in the final ODI at Mumbai. Indian front line batsman fail to deliver while chasing a modest target of 194 runs for victory. At one stage their six batsman back in the pavilion for just 64 runs on the board, it needed a patient and plucky 52-run unbeaten ninth-wicket stand between bowling hero Kartik (21 off 34 balls with three fours) and left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan (31 off 43 balls with three fours and a six) to give the hosts their second win in the seven-match series. India lost both Saurav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik in the space of few deliveries. They got out without troubling the scorer. However Sachin Tendulkar (21 runs of 36 balls) looks in fine nick before sent back by Brett Lee. Australia slowly and slowly tightened their grip as they sent Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni and Irfan Pathan very easily and reduce the Indian score to 64/6 in 18.5 overs. Earlier Australian Captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and decided to bat first, but they didn’t get the start they wanted. On a very first ball of their innings Zaheer Khan gave India their first breakthrough when he trapped M. Clark plump in front of the wicket. However Ricky Ponting (57 runs of 78 balls) and Adam Gilchrist (19 runs of 26 balls) put on solid 60 runs partnership for the second wicket. But Irfan Pathan gave India second breakthrough when he gets rid of Adam Gilchrist on 19. Brad Hodge (16 runs of 29 ball) and Ricky Ponting manage to get the Aussie Score pass to 100 run marks by putting 57 for third wicket before all drama began. Then after it was all India and Murali Kartik (10-3-27-6) who manage to bowled out the World Champions for 193 runs in 41.3 overs. Murali Karthik was declared Man of the Match fro his brilliant all round display both with bat and bowl. Andrew Symonds was declared Man of the Series. Match Summary Australia –193/10 in 41.3 Overs Ricky Ponting – 57 Mitchell Johnson– 24* Murali Kartik – 10-3-27-6 R.P Singh- 8.3-0-59-2 India –195/8 in 46 Overs Robin Uthappa – 47 Zaheer Khan– 31* Mitchell Johnson – 10-0-46-3 Nathan Bracken- 10-0-30-2 |
