Young Indian team ended their three-month tour on a high note by clinching the CB series by beating Australia 2-0 in best of three finals. After taking the lead of 1-0 at Sydney in first final, India beat Australia by 9 runs to clinch the series.
Chasing 259 to square the series, Australia were bundled out for 249 with two balls to spare. The stars of the show were Sachin Tendulkar, who scored a polished 91, and medium-pacer Praveen Kumar, who claimed four crucial wickets to halt the hosts in their tracks.
Indian bowling attack created the tremendous pressure right from the word goes especially Praveen Kumar who bagged two important wickets in his first spell to reduce the Australian score to 8/2 in 2.3 overs. Michael Clark was also not able to hold the inning and he departed soon in the 9th over to leave Australia tattering at 32/3.
However Mathew Hayden (55 runs of 66 balls) and Andrew Symonds (42 runs of 56 balls) did manage to frustrate the Indians by putting 89 runs for fourth wicket. After Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds revived Aussie fortunes, Hopes along with Mike Hussey took Australia close to the target with a 76-run stand. But once Hussey was dismissed by S Sreesanth for 44, the hosts had a daunting task on hand.
James Hopes (63 runs of 80 balls) batted bravely with Brett Lee (seven), Mitchell Johnson (eight) and Nathan Bracken (one) but in vain.
Earlier M.S.Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first at BRisbane ground. However their prime fast bowler was not able to recover from fingure injury and they have to bring S.Sreesanth in place of him, while they stick to same team combination which was played at Sydney.
India didn’t capitalize on the start given by their openers and they fail to accelerate their inning in the end loosing wickets at regular interval after Tendulkar dismissal in the 40th over. Australian bowler came back strongly in the last 10 overs of Indian inning gave only 52 runs while picking up five Indian wickets.
Many cricket experts was feeling that Indian team were 20-30 run short after brilliant 1st wicket partnership between Sachin Tendulkar (91 runs of 121 balls) and Robin Uthappa (30 runs of 49 balls) who put on 94 runs in 20.4 overs. However some tight bowling and brilliant fielding they manage to restrict the Australians to 249/10 in 49.4 overs.
Praveen Kumar was declared Man of the match and Nathan Bracken was declared Player of the series.
Match Summary
India – 258/9 in 50 Overs
S.Tendulkar– 91Y.Singh– 39
N.Bracken – 9-1-31-3M.Clark- 10-0-52-3
Australia – 249/10 in 49.4 Overs
M.Hayden– 55J.Hopes– 63
P.Kumar- 10-2-46-4S.Sreesanth- 9-0-43-2
Highlights - India Vs Australia 2nd Final of CB Series
