ICC World Twenty20: India Irresistable

A full house at Kingsmead in Durban witnessed a highly skilled and competitive World T20 second semi-final where India held on to defeat Australia by 15 runs. It was a thrilling match with plenty to cheer about for both teams but in the end India, led wonderfully by MS Dhoni, were too strong for a depleted but willing Australian team. 

Australia were playing their first match of the tournament in Durban whilst India were playing their fifth and the extra knowledge acquired during those matches proved to be a crucial factor in India’s success. Dhoni won the toss and asked Adam Gilchrist’s bowlers to have first use of a flat and true pitch that offered little movement off the seam or in the air.

The match began in fits and starts with Virender Sehwag tweaking a muscle in his groin or thigh just two balls into Brett Lee’s first hostile over. He immediately called for a runner and this gave India an advantage in running between the wickets which they exploited ruthlessly. Amongst the confusion of two runners backing up, Australia were under constant pressure in the ring as the Indians continued to drop the ball at their feet and run the cheeky single. The ball was pinging around the infield like a sugar-crazed fat kid in a well-stocked Grubber as not one Australian shy hit the timber early on. The backing-up of the throwing was supremely professional with not one overthrow despite a dozen attempts missing the target.

India batted watchfully and sensibly to the new ball and after the field-restricting first six overs India were 36 for the loss of Sehwag who was out-foxed in Mitchell Johnson’s first over. Australia had definite plans for India’s openers and to a man they bowled short at Sehwag and full to Ghambir. Sehwag, who may or may not have been hampered by his apparent injury (he was bowling only 100 minutes later), fell to one of the oldest tricks in the fast-bowlers manual. Johnson gave him a wide one to start with which Sehwag squirted square for four. The next ball was quicker, straighter and on the same length and predictably the batsman played the same fruitful stroke but was cramped for room and could only get a top edge through to Gilchrist. Australia have picked up Virender in the same fashion on several occasions in Test matches and despite his explosive batting talent he still has a few lessons to learn. Perhaps T20 will revive his career but I am not expecting to see him in the forthcoming Test series against Australia in December.

Interestingly, Australia still had a slip in place as the seventh over began which was bowled quite brilliantly by Stuart Clark. In this eventful over Uthappa was given a life when Pup Clarke spilled a difficult leaping well-timed chance and then the same fielder missed a run out chance from 35 metres the very next ball. Fortunately, Stu Clark picked up Ghambir off the last ball of the over after Brad Hodge made a relatively simple outfield catch difficult by slipping on the dewy outfield as the ball sailed towards him.

Taking a wicket is always cheerful for the fielding team but they are not always welcome in T20. With Ghambir’s demise in strolled the seemingly unflappable star of the tournament, Yuvraj Singh. The elegant left-hander became the first batsman to hit six sixes in an over in international T20 while scoring the fastest ever half-century against a hapless and brain-dead England a few nights ago and he continued in a similar style carting the Australian bowlers to every corner in a match-winning partnership with Robin Uthappa. The stylish pair added 84 in six and half overs and when Uthappa was run out coolly by a clearly frustrated Andrew Symonds, India were well on their way to setting a significant total for Australia to chase.

The Indian skipper and superstar talisman Mahendra Dhoni joined Yuvraj at the crease and both looked comfortable until Yuvraj was deceived by a Michael Clarke arm-ball and with 15 deliveries remaining India were 155/4. Yuvraj scored 70 from 30 balls with five fours and an equal number of sixes. It was a thrilling innings and if Yuvraj can continue his superb clean-hitting when Australia arrive in India at the end of the week, the Australian brains-trust will be enduring many sleepless nights trying to devise a method to curb his ebullience.

Dhoni, now paired with the under-rated Rohit Sharma, opened his shoulders and played some inventive agricultural swipes that would have done a sickle wielding thatch-cutter proud. When he was dismissed run out scrambling for a bye off the penultimate ball, the job was done and India finished with a respectable and hefty 188/5 from the twenty overs allowed.

Australia did not bowl or field below their usual excellent standards. Only one wide was delivered and only one chance was put down. And that was a very difficult opportunity to grasp. A few close run outs were missed but you cannot expect a fieldsman, even some of the best on the planet, to hit the stumps every time. Truth is, India matched Australia’s intensity and backed themselves to put a big total on the board. Runs up front are always important in big games and this tournament has proved that twenty-over cricket is not much different to longer forms of the ancient game. It is only condensed. The same themes apply.

With a crowd that was overwhelming supporting India, which is not surprising given that according to the 2001 South African census 600,000 people of Indian descent live in the Durban metropolitan area, Australia were always going to find nine and more an over a significant challenge.

Gilchrist started strongly regularly clipping anything full on middle and leg through and over midwicket but Hayden found the impressive Shanthakumaran Sreesanth a handful and the aggressive quick beat Hayden repeatedly while the ball was still shiny. Gilchrist was finally dismissed after a whirlwind cameo by a scorching late in-swinging yorker from a gesticulating Sreesanth in the sixth over.

Hodge joined Hayden and after hitting an exquisitely timed maximum over long on, he was dismissed when he middled a hook straight to Joginder Sharma who didn’t have to move in taking a safe catch at backward square leg. Hodge looked in good touch and was a tad unlucky picking out the only fieldsman behind square in the ring on the leg side. 

At 68/2 in the ninth over Australia had some work to do to in their chase and the muscular Queenslanders Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden set about the task as you would expect a world champion pair would in the circumstances. They both batted with determination and flair and when Sreesanth brilliantly bowled Hayden in the fifteenth over Australia had reduced the run rate required to a gettable but difficult 10 runs an over.

At this point with five overs remaining the Indians were showing signs of nerves, fumbling in the field exacerbated by Harbhajan and Yuvraj barking orders to anyone in listening distance, but that all changed when Symonds attempted one cross-batted slog too many and was clean bowled by the wily Pathan with the score at 156/4 with twenty legal deliveries left to bowl.

With three overs remaining and Australia now requiring 30 to win, the Indian senior players, Dhoni, Harbhajan and Yuvraj met mid-pitch for a long and at times quite heated discussion. The game was in the balance and one wrong move could spell disaster for either team and on Yuvraj’s insistence Harbhajan Singh, Australia’s long-time nemesis, came on to bowl with Clarke and Hussey at the crease. It was a telling decision and in hindsight, the most critical over of the match. Harbhajan bowled Clarke with a perfectly pitched dart and then tied up Haddin until the last ball of the over where India gladly gave him the single.

With only three runs and a vital wicket coming from the over, Australia’s run-rate ballooned to in excess of 13 from the final two and when RP Singh deceived Haddin four balls in succession after bowling a beamer first ball, the game was as good as decided. Hussey, who like Sehwag required a runner, was left disappointed and lonely at square leg wondering what might have been if the Australian selectors on this tour weren’t so infatuated with the New South Wales gloveman’s apparent hitting ability. Considering that fifty runs were regularly hit off Australia’s fifth bowler combination of Clarke and Symonds and that Haddin contributed next to nothing in the matches he participated, it takes no imagination to state that Australia should have played Brad Hogg after Ponting and then Watson were declared unfit.   

India were deserved winners and the World Twenty20 has a final that has been dreamed of by around a billion people for decades. India and Pakistan in a showdown for a global trophy. This match-up will obviously be recorded as a major match in cricket’s long and winding history and it will no doubt give this new format credibility and a firm place in the future of cricket. Saying that, there are a few things I, as a spectator and active cricketer, would like changed.

Firstly, to keep the balance between bat and ball, a must for a competitive cricket match, I’d like to see the free-hit scrapped and replaced, if they must have an extra penalty for over-stepping, with a two run penalty instead of the standard one.

Secondly, some of the most famous matches in the cricketing annals have been ties and if a winner must be decided, I’d favour an extra five overs each much like extra-time that you see in other sports to decide the contest. Be far more exciting and credible than a ridiculous bowl-out.

Thirdly, I’d like to see the beamer punished more harshly, not only in T20 but in all forms of cricket. As someone who has had the displeasure on several separate occasions to be beamed by a vengeful fast bowler, I guarantee that it is not a fair contest and is outright dangerous even with a helmet. Rather than a no-ball and a warning, I propose an instant 5 run penalty, a no-ball and a warning. This delivery is becoming more and more prevalent in the game and only a fool would think that it does not affect a batsman’s mind for a short time after. In T20, the match can hinge on a ball and although I think it would have made no difference to the result, RP Singh’s vicious first up delivery to Haddin shook him and with so few balls left and still runs to score it was a sinister, unsporting and unnecessary ploy.

And lastly, I’d like runners to be banned in T20 cricket. Twice during last night’s match the momentum of the spectacle was broken firstly by Sehwag calling for assistance between the wickets and then Hussey. T20 is a short game and sides aren’t regularly bowled out and if the batsman injured his hand instead of his lower appendages he would just politely retire hurt. Seeing Sehwag bowl and field shortly after batting with a runner was suspicious to say the least and if his injury wasn’t too bad he could have retired hurt and returned later in the innings.

That’s it for The Shed at the World Twenty20 and like the Australian team I am now turning my attention to the vastly populated landmass of India where a seven-match ODI series and a single T20 international is scheduled in the coming weeks. Australia learnt plenty at these inaugural championships and will be far better off from the experience. Clearly the two best sides are in the final and it promises to be a cracking contest. The next instalment of this tournament is in England in 2009, the same year as The Ashes, and it won’t surprise me if Australia are once again under-prepared for the hurly-burly of the World Twenty20. The Ashes is the prize that Australian cricket covets most and that’s where their energies will be placed in 20 months time. You can bet your house on it.

[Nesta Quin] [Image: Getty]