India
trounced by Australia in T20 ame
MELBOURNE, Feb 1: World champions
India were brought down to earth when
they were squashed by a ruthless
Australia by nine wickets in a
low-scoring Twenty20 cricket match here
today.
The
Indians were bundled out for a paltry 74
in 17.3 overs and the home team rattled
up the required runs in just 11.2 overs
in what turned out to be a totally
lop-sided contest at the packed Melbourne
Cricket Ground.
A wide
from Ishant Sharma brought the winning
runs for the hosts who relied on
contributions from captain Michael Clark
(37 not out) and Adam Gilchrist (25) to
win the one-off game.
The
visitors opted to rest the in-form Sachin
Tendulkar for the match but the
youngsters, many of whom were part of the
World-Cup winning squad, gave a poor
account of themselves against the hosts
who managed to record their first
Twenty20 win against India.
Only Irfan
Pathan (26) managed to reach double
figures while all the other batsmen
hardly troubled the scorer as they found
it difficult to come to terms with the
conditions.
The Indian
slide began from the very first over when
the swashbuckling Virender Sehwag (0) was
run out and could never really recover
from the blow as they kept losing wickets
in quick succession.
After
failing to bat out 20 overs, the Indians
were never in with a chance against their
formidable opponents who rode on a
blazing start by Adam Gilchrist and
Michael Clark to overhaul the meager
target without much fuss.
Electing
to bat, India batted pathetically and
were 32 for 5 at one stage, and just
three fours hit in their innings convey
the total domination which the hosts
exercised over them.
The
Indians just about avoided scoring the
lowest score ever witnessed in a Twenty20
game, just marginally ahead of the 73
which Kenya scored against New Zealand in
the twenty20 World Cup in South Africa
last year.
The young
Indian batsmen played school boyish
cricket to disappoint over 90,000 cricket
fans who had gathered in expectation of a
keen contest.
Batsmen
after batsmen hit uppishly in the air and
tried to take on fielders leading to
their dismissals.
Sehwag (0)
ran himself out off a direct hit. Gautam
Gambhir (9) and Robin Uthappa (1) tried
to hit over the top and succeeded in
going only as far as the mid-off while
skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (9) and
Praveen Kumar (6) picked fielders in the
deep for a sorry end to their innings.
Dinesh
Karthik (8) made room to slash a high
full toss from Lee and Rohit Sharma went
to pull a delivery hardly short as their
rattled timbers made a sorry sight.
The best
stand of the innings was of 17 runs
between top scorer Irfan Pathan (26) and
Dhoni for the sixth wicket.
Pathan
alone redeemed himself in this terrible
display in the middle, striking 26 balls
from 30 balls.
Australia
tried six bowlers and all of them were
among wickets with Adam Voges, the slow
left-arm bowler playing his second
International, once taking two wickets
off successive balls.
It was as
consummate a display as Australia could
have only hoped for before the start of
the days play as the Indians proved
completely unsuited to be in the same
park as the Australians.
Winning
the toss was just about the only thing
India did right in the evening. Along
with their performance, the crowd’s
hostile reception everytime Harbhajan
batted or handled the ball in the field,
suggested a testing time ahead for the
visitors.
To make it
worse for Harbhajan, the off-spinner
shouldered Irfan Pathan from accepting a
catch off Adam Gilchrist in the
Australian innings.
Every
stroke of retiring wicketkeeper-batsman
Gilchrist was greeted with fulsome
applause from across the stands though it
was his partner, and captain in the
match, Michael Clarke who produced more
big shots.
Clarke
twice picked up the slower deliveries
from Sreesanth, once square driving him
past point and then depositing him into
the long-on stands.
Australia
lost Gilchrist with 18 remaining for
victory after the batsman had hit Praveen
Kumar over fine leg for a six. The next
delivery he attempted a shot, Gautam
Gambhir caught him at long on.
SCORE
BOARD
India:
Gambhir c
Hopes b Bracken 9
Sehwag run
out 0
Karthik b
Lee 8
Uthappa c
David
Hussey b
Bracken 1
Rohit
Sharma b Hopes 8
Dhoni c
Lee b David Hussey 9
Pathan c
Gilchrist b Bracken 26
Praveen c
Voges b Noffke 6
Harbhajan
c Clarke b Voges 1
Sreesanth
c Hodge b Voges 0
Ishant
Sharma not out 3
Extras
(w3) 3
Total (all
out, 17.3 overs) 74
Fall of
Wickets: 1-5, 2-12, 3-20, 4-20, 5-32,
6-49, 7-60,
8-63, 9-63
Bowling:
Brett Lee 3-0-13-1, Nathan Bracken
2.3-1-11-3, Ashley Noffke 4-0-23-1, James
Hopes 3-0-10-1, David Hussey 3-0-12-1,
Adam Voges 2-0-5-0.
Australia
Gilchrist
c Gambhir b Kumar 25
Clarke not
out 37
Hodge not
out 10
Extras
(1b, 1lb, 1w) 3
Total (for
one wicket in 11.2 overs) 75
Fall: 57-1
Bowling:
Irfan Pathan 3-0-18-0, S Sreesanth
3-0-25-0,
Praveen
Kumar 2-0-15-1, Ishant Sharma 1.2-0-8-0
(1w),
Harbhajan
Singh 2-0-7-0. (PTI)
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