India may have run Australia close in the first One-Day International, thanks to the tail-enders, but it is not hard to see that they were outplayed for most of the match.
Australia won by just four runs, with victory coming only in the final over, but that was only because of Harbhajan Singh smashed 49 from 31 deliveries and Praveen Kumar got 40 from 32 deliveries in an 84-run stand off 57 deliveries after India looked done and dusted.
Even captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni conceded that his team lost the plot well before Harbhajan and Kumar staged a fightback. He felt the match was lost in the five overs of batting Powerplay -- which was taken at the start of the 35th over -- when three wickets fell while scoring just 32 runs.
"We lost four wickets in the Powerplay and I think that was the turning point. We lost three wickets in the Poweplay without cashing in too much, but thanks to Bhajji and Praveen they took the game close. I think we lost too many wickets in the Powerplay," Dhoni said, reflecting on the defeat at the IPCL stadium in Vadodara on Sunday.
Asked why the Powerplay was taken at that point, he reasoned: "When we wanted to take the Powerplay the equation was around 126 needed from the last 16 overs and we had seven wickets in hand. We had five overs of Powerplay left and with the amount of Twenty20 cricket everyone is playing around the world that was quite achievable."
While four batsmen in the Australian top order got half-centuries, India had only one in their line-up who crossed the 50-run mark. Gautam Gambhir played a fighting innings of 68 from 85 deliveries to keep India in the hunt in the middle overs, but the rest of the batsmen failed to carry on after getting starts.
In fact, there were not even enough decent partnerships between the top batsmen to boast of. The Harbhajan-Kumar ballistic stand of 81 runs was the only highlight of the Indian batting.
"Among the top five or six batsmen there was only one fifty, so when you are chasing a big total like this what you really want from the top order is that one of the guys gets a big hundred, so that makes it a bit easy. If not, you want big partnerships to happen and it doesn't matter that you get four half-centuries. What only matters is how many partnerships you have got. A 100-run partnership really helps or one or two 50 or 70-run partnerships, especially when you are chasing such a big total," said the Indian captain.
Dhoni had a few words of praise for his fast bowlers, who he thought did well despite the conditions.
"There are plenty of positive that you can take from this game. It was not a wicket where there was a great deal of help for the fast bowlers, but I thought they bowled well and in the right areas. Of course, we got just one fifty from our batsmen, but if you look at the scorecard we came close to winning the game. So there are plenty of positives we can take from the game."
The Indian skipper said one of the big positives to come out of the game was Ishant Sharma's good showing with the ball. The Delhi fast bowler, struggling for the last few months, checked Australia's progress, claiming three for 50 in his ten overs.
"He is a bit low in confidence and that happens to guys when they are 20 or 21. They have always seen success, so it is tough for them to deal with failures. You don't always get four wickets or five wickets, or, as a batsman, you don't always score big hundreds. It is part and parcel of cricket. I thought he bowled really well today and he bowled in the right areas.
"If you see Ishant when he is bowling well, the speed automatically goes up from 127 to 130 or close to 135. You can then know he is bowling with the right rhythm and in the right frame of mind. I can say he bowled really well today," said Dhoni.
He also seemed relieved that Yuvraj Singh, regarded as one of India's best finishers in ODIs, would be back for the next match.
"Yuvraj will be back for the next match. You don't get just finishers in the game. Yuvraj is young but at the end of the day he has played over 200 ODIs and that is how you learn how to finish a game."
