#AustraliaDay and #RepublicDay on 26th Jan. #India v #Australia at the #SCG on 26th Jan 2015
India's last chance really to beat Australia and higher their morale before the #ICCWorldCup2015. Need to really pull up their socks and beat the Aussies.
Australia sitting pretty with 3 wins out of 3 and can experiment. However, given the big occasion they would definitely want to win this one too! #Chakde India
Venue: Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru What climax? What drama? What a game of cricket? Spellbinding stuff from both teams in this very high scoring game! On paper, the Indian team appeared much stronger and expected winners of this contest. A beautiful afternoon in the garden city and #MSDhoni, the Indian captain won the toss and elected to bat. #Sehwag and #Tendulkar started in blazing fashion and put on 46 until Sehwag was prized by #TimBresnan for 35. #Gambhir joined Sachin and both of them tore into the English attack. Sachin was severe on #GraemeSwann, the premier English spinner and notched up his century. When he fell for a superb 120, score read 236 for 3 in 38.2 overs. This meant an ideal launch pad for the Indian middle order to unleash their guns in the last 12 overs. #YuvrajSingh 58 and #Dhoni 31 launched an assault of epic proportions to propel India past 300 shortly. When Dhoni was claimed by Bresnan at team score of 305 in the 46th over, India was looking well beyond 350 as target. However amazingly, they just imploded through poor strokeplay and tight disciplined bowling by the English bowlers towards the end. Final score India 338 all out in 49.5 overs. Bresnan starred with a 5-for, mostly responsible to hold that total back. One bowl short of 50 overs. Will that one unplayed delivery cost Indians dearly? A massive target none the less. England needing around 7 runs per over from the start to chase it down. Looked real tough. However to their advantage the Chinnawamy stadium is extremely flat and docile for batting. England captain #AndrewStrauss and top batsman #KevinPietersen opened England's innings in style pummeling the Indian quicks to all parts of the park. They reached 68 in under 10 overs before Pietersen was caught and bowled by #MunafPatel. #JohnathanTrott followed soon after for 18, scoreline 111-2 (16 overs). Runs were under control but they needed to ensure wickets were not lost too soon. #IanBell joined his captain and slowly they started dominating the Indian bowling. Strauss was severe on the seamers and equally attacking against the spinners. Ian Bell found his touch too. In no time, they had crossed 150, then 200 and 250 as well (under 40 overs). Strauss completed a brilliant hundred to match Sachin's century while Bell completed a wonderful supporting fifty. At 281 in the 43rd over (and on course for a facile victory), tragedy struck for England. In desperation, Dhoni threw the ball to #ZaheerKhan, the master of reverse swing, and he produced a magical spell to claim Bell and Strauss in one over followed by #PaulCollingwood soon after. Suddenly, the target seemed to be slipping away from England's grasp. However there was still some twist left in the tale. Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan, who had bowled wonderfully, produced some massive sixes against #PiyushChawla to get things closer. When #AhmedShahzad smashed Munaf Patel for six over long on in the last over needing 10 runs to win, England sniffed victory again. Last ball, 2 runs to win. Munaf to Swann A good yorker, dug out by Swann towards mid off and scamper for a run. Scores tied India 338 all out England 338 for 8 Amazing scenes in the dressing rooms. England felt they should have won. India thought they shouldnt have been stretched this far after putting up a mammoth score. All in all, a tremendous result. Cricket was the winner in this one! MOM: Andrew Strauss (As Nasser Hussain put it during the presentation party - very few innings can match, let along surpass, a Sachin Tendulkar hundred and Strauss did just that today!) Match Highlights:
