loss at Melbourne - Aussie streak ~ optical illusion of Ishant

At Melbourne in ODI no. 3725 – it was a similar tale.  Rishi Dhawan and Gurkeerat Singh made their debuts.  The Aussie attack comprised of Kane Richardson, J Hastings, JP Fauklner, SM Boland, GJ Maxwell and MR Marsh….. you don’t see Johnson, Starc, Siddle, Pat Cummins, Pattinson – yet … today Virat Kohli went in vain just as Rohit Sharma’s in the 1^st and 2^nd ODIs.  Scott Boland recorded the worst bowling figures for an Aussie on debut since David Colley who had forgettable figures of 72 in 11 overs in his only ODI – no. 3 in 1972.

Remember vividly the match between India and New Zealand in Jan 1986 at Brisbane. Indians were chasing a formidable 259. Richard Hadlee was the bowler – with field restrictions – Hadlee had midoff inside the circle.  Srikkanth lofted him over the in circle for a 4.  Next ball – fine leg was brought inside, deep long-off.  Srikkanth got inside the line flicked towards fineleg for another 4 and we were ecstatic. India won by 5 wickets with 12 deliveries to spare.  Srikkanth made 50; Mohinder Amarnath made 61; Kapil Dev remained unbeaten on 54 off 53; Shastri unbeaten on 36.

In Perth 309 was insufficient, in Brisbane 308 was inadequate. Today at Melbourne it was 295 [all seemingly good totals] – for sometime it appeared that the Series would remain alive with an Indian win.  At  38.1 Ishant pushed one short, Wade mistimed a pull and skier was easily taken by Shikhar Dhawan.  At 215/6, Indian fans felt a win – Australia media stirred in what could be another call for DRS.  Remember this Series is played with DRS but with Umpiring omissions is turning out to be a sound advertisement for the same.  It was stated that Ishant Sharma had overstepped by a big margin – but replays and from footage it was to be seen that it was an optical illusion of Maxwell bat and not the crease. The first impression of the photo would be different from what you see after reading this.

In the end it was another day when Aussie bowling and batting clicked – it is 17 Consecutive ODIs won by Australia at home, including this three-wicket win at the MCG - the longest streak for any team. They surpassed West Indies' winning streak from 1986 to 1990 and Sri Lanka's from 1996 to 1998 of 16 consecutive wins each. Australia's last defeat at home was to South Africa at the WACA on November 16, 2014.  India has played 46, won 10 in Australia.  At Melbourne their record is much poorer – it is loss no. 8 in their last 9 ODIs at MCG since 1986.

Today, Jadeja bowled very well.  When we thought there was pressure on batsmen, Umesh Yadav offered two freebies down the leg side to provide Australia eight runs that eased the pressure. Dhoni let his frustration at such instances show. "If you take the deep fine leg slightly wider and that's one area where you don't want to get hit for a boundary," Dhoni said, "And that's where off the two next balls, back-to-back boundaries are hit

Sad for the Indian Cricket fan !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

17^th Jan 2016