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Australia crush India by 8 wickets

There was a point during the World Cup when the Australian team was being completely written off -- by the fans, by the media, by the opposition. At that time, Steve Waugh was asked what he thought of his team's chances. 'We have quite a decent chance, actually, all we have to do is win the next seven games'.

Waugh can do all kinds of things -- bat like a champion, field very well square of the wicket, lead with sense and inspiration. One thing he can't do though is count -- he's into his ninth straight win where he wanted seven, and still counting.

But never mind the facetious, the flashback to the World Cup became inescapable halfway through the Australian chase. Remember that final against Pakistan? Faced with a small target, Waugh instructed his batsmen to go out there, throw all other considerations out the window and simply go for broke in a bid to bring the target down in a hurry. The tactic worked there, with Gilchrist playing destroyer in chief. The same ploy, in identical circumstances, worked here -- this time with Symonds doing the job and, in the process, picking up the man of the match as Australia cruised to an 8-wicket win. Here's how it all happened:

The pitch at the Galle International Stadium was the same as the one used for the lung opening game, Sunday, against Sri Lanka. Which meant, as we indicated at the close of yesterday's match report, that it would turn a lot, be a shade less than true in bounce, and not come on to the bat quite as well as the strokeplayers would like. In the same match report, we also indicated that batting first on winning the toss seemed the right way to go.

That was the way India went. The next time I write this kind of thing, remind me to add a clause -- the sentence should read, batting first is the way to go, provided the batsmen keep their heads and put up an adequate total. If the target set is less than optimum, then batting first actually becomes a minus -- as in this game -- because the chasing side knows exactly what it has to do to improve its own chances.

Ganguly and Tendulkar opened to the bowling of Fleming and Gillespie, with Glenn McGrath continuing to rest his "thigh niggle". Both pace bowlers were very accurate, bowling the ideal three quarter length demanded by the conditions -- this meant the ball was not in the slot to be driven, nor short enough for the horizontal bat shots. To this basic repertoire, Gillespie added what seemed like seven different changes of pace, and batting seemed a hard act out there in the initial overs.

India in the circumstances did the right thing, playing to see off the two new ball bowlers. Good thinking -- only, with the job almost done, Ganguly, who had been having more than his share of problems against Gillespie's pace and steepling bounce, departed thanks to a lovely set up by the bowler. Gillespie pushed Ganguly back with a couple of quick lifters, then suddenly stepped up a gear, bowled one flat out and full in length, Ganguly initially shaped to play back, then read the fuller length way too late and was beaten on the defensive push to be trapped bang in front.

Another con job got rid of Tendulkar. The Indian skipper till then appeared to be determined to see off the new ball bowlers, and handled both Fleming and Gillespie with confidence, cutting out his flamboyant strokeplay and concentrating on keeping them from breaking through. Fair enough -- but when Moody came on, Tendulkar took it as an invitation to party. The first ball was flicked through midwicket for a brace. The second was pitched short, a deliberate invitation to pull. Tendulkar took the bait, rocked into the shot, Moody's step up in pace took him unawares, the ball climbed on him quicker than anticipated and all that he managed was to mishit to mid on.

Rahul Dravid seemed to be shaping very nicely against Gillespie in particular, riding his pace and spotting the changes very nicely. But of late, as Dravid has looked to improve his strike rate, he has begun to play a shot that is not part of his basic cricketing vocabulary -- and that shot did for him today, as he attempted to run a ball from Symonds down to third man, and managed only to edge to the keeper. That shot is typically played with bat away from body -- something that Dravid doesn't do naturally, and to go against the grain was always going to spell trouble.

Amay Khurasiya, getting into the side ahead of Vinod Kambli (I wonder whether this is an indication of the relative form of the two players, or a signal from Tendulkar that friendship is no criterion?), looked good from the word go, his first two scoring strokes being blazing fours through the off cordon. During his time out there, he played a free-flowing game, working singles, responding nicely to his partner's calling, and at every opportunity, going for his shots.

In the first game, the rain had come down in the 23rd over. This time, it was two overs ahead of schedule, and heavier. When things cleared up (a process that takes inordinate time at Galle, given that it is a slow-drying ground), enough time had been lost to effectively reduce the game to 38 overs a side.

This kind of interruption always has an impact. Look at it this way: at 61/3 in 21.3 overs (when the rain came down), India would have been looking to consolidate; the two batsmen in the middle would be looking to work singles around, keep the board ticking over, keep from losing more wickets so that a big push could be made towards the end. Then comes the rain, and when you get back and the unfinished over is completed, you realise you have only 17 overs left and your big push has to come now.

Khurasiya's concentration snapped. The first ball he got after the break was a loosener from Tom Moody, a nice low full toss on middle, and the batsman gently patted it right back to the bowler -- a waste of a good start.

Jadeja and Robin then settled down to try and turn things around, doing their usual thing -- tipping and running fast, occasionally hitting harder into the outfield. During this period, though, the Aussie bowlers were at their most professional, tightening their line, not bowling anything short or too full, fielding out of their skins and generally making every run seem like a mountain climbed. Squeeze play, at its very best. And that kind of pressure causes something or someone to snap -- in this case it was Jadeja who, after using his feet well to Warne, tried the ploy once too often, lifted with the turn and only managed to pick out Damien Fleming at long off, the fielder judging a line catch to perfection.

Warne then took out Prasad with a neat confidence trick -- the third of the innings. The keeper-batsman was consistently sweeping at the leg spinner, checking his shots to take the singles into the gaps and giving the strike to Robin. Spotting the predetermined nature of the shot, Warne after a series of tossed up leg breaks produced the flipper -- quick through the air, fuller in length and gathering pace off the wicket. Prasad shaped to sweep, then spotted the change of delivery, changed his mind but was a lifetime too late in bringing the bat down from the aggressively horizontal to the defensively vertical, and lost his stump.

Robin Singh batted very well on the day, playing with circumspection initially, then pushing the pedal a touch towards the end, a flat batted sweep for six off Warne being the standout shot. He then went for Gillespie, stepping away from his stumps to club one back past the bowler. But the very next ball, Gillespie did to him what he had done to Ganguly earlier -- a quicker one, fuller in length, beating the batsman for pace and length to trap him bang in front.

In yesterday's match report, I'd mentioned Gillespie's bowling style. One other noticeable aspect of his bowling merits mention. Most bowlers get to the top of their marks, turn, and start their run up all in one flowing move. Gillespie differs -- once at the top of his mark, he turns, squares himself up, visibly takes a deep breath, eyes narrowing as he fights for focus, seemingly waiting to get his thoughts together and then lopes into his run. That pause for thought seems to aid him enormously -- the thinking going into every ball he bowls is very visible, the results equally so.

With Chopra alternately nudging and hitting at the end, India pushed the target -- with some help from Duckworth-Lewis -- to 159 in the allotted 38 overs. But they only needed ten of those overs to give the game entirely to the Australians.

Mark Waugh is a stylist. Grace and elegance are his hallmarks, and when a batsman of that kind starts playing ugly-looking shots, it makes you think, evaluate. The way he got off, running incredibly risky singles and playing some awkward shots, it was apparent that the Australian strategy was to maximise the run-scoring during the first ten overs when the field was in and the ball was hard and would go along the somewhat soggy outfield better. A reprise of the strategy employed against Pakistan in the WC final, in fact, though on that occasion, there was no problems with the outfield.

That being the case, the bowling side's strategy is equally obvious -- keep to line and length, make run-scoring difficult, force the impatient batsmen into error. This, the Indians failed to do. There were some very good balls -- but in every over, there was at least one ball that was too full, another too short (compare this with the Australian bowling at the start of the innings, when even a naturally aggressive batsman like Tendulkar found absolutely no room for strokeplay, while the fluent driving of Ganguly failed to find a single ball for self-expression). And the Australian batsmen, on the lookout for runs, needed no engraved invitation to cash in.

Prasad caused an early flutter when he took out Mark Waugh with a ball just in the corridor around off, lifting off a length and seaming just enough away to square the batsman and flick the glove en route to Prasad. But that dismissal only brought in Andrew Symonds, and the rest was mayhem pure and simple.

While writing about his brief appearance with the bat yesterday, I'd mentioned that though Symonds didn't produce a single one of the big hits he is famed for in the Sheffield Shield circuit, there were indications enough that this guy could be dangerous. Today, he showed just how dangerous he could be -- with a little help from his best friends, the Indian bowlers.

On today's evidence, Symonds' forte is the horizontal bat shots to anything even remotely close to being short of length. He is very quick to pick that length up, very decisive in choosing to go for the pull or square drive/cut, and fearless in putting his full power into the shot irrespective of field setting. And the Indian bowlers fed him to his strength, pitching short too often for comfort and allowing him to power Australia to 98/1 by the end of the 15th over, at which point the rest of the game had been effectively reduced to a formality.

Anyone watching closely would have spotted one facet of his batting that it will bear to keep in mind. When the length is fuller, he is not seen at his best. In other words, he is not one of those big hitters who gets under the full length ball and hits through the line, carrying the V with his shots. A fuller length therefore was dictated for him, but that is precisely what the Indian bowlers more often than not failed to produce. Symonds thus bided his time, chipped the full length balls around for singles and mercilessly clubbed the short stuff to run away with the game.

Gilchrist's innings wasn't pretty to watch, the ball time and again flaring through the gaps or falling just short of the fielders. But it was determined, and it was effective, as the left-hander gave the support Symonds needed, and hung in there to keep his end of the scoring bargain.

In between -- and symbolic really of the Indian effort in the field -- there was a bizarre incident. Symonds called Gilchrist through for a quick single, Robin at midwicket raced in, fielded, and backhanded the ball onto the stumps at the batsman's end and when the ball flicked the stumps, Gilchrist was a foot and a half outside his ground. Trouble was, the bail remained on for seconds longer, then lazily toppled -- after the batsman had made good his ground. A brilliant, yet wasted, effort.

Another symbol of the Indian bowling effort came when Anil Kumble forced his removal from the bowling crease with some short pitched flippers that were despatched with contemptuous ease. Robin Singh at the other end had, till that point, bowled with sense -- and then the disease spread, he bowled two short ones on the trot and was thumped to the long on fence by Symonds for two fours in succession. After the first short-pitched ball, Tendulkar was seen going up to the bowler and talking to him. The next ball was shorter -- and the Indian captain was seen looking at his vice captain, Jadeja, and the two then exchanged shrugs.

A shrug just about covered it, in fact. Throughout the Aussie innings, the field was up, catchers were in place, but only Nikhil Chopra, who bowled with venom but little luck on a turning track, seemed to understand the job definition.

Ganguly, coming on very late in the innings, got Gilchrist to mishit for the umpteenth time in the innings -- only, this time there was a fielder where the ball went. Ponting and Symonds then took it home, and Australia had coasted to its second win on the trot, leaving the Indians with plenty of food for thought.

One other aspect deserves mention. Since he is new to the side, there will be some interest in how Prasad fared behind the stumps. To mention the good points first, he looks assured to the pacemen. He is also good with the vocal stuff -- very clear in yelling to the fielder which end he wants the throw to go to, and that is a huge help. On the debit side, when Chopra in particular made the ball kick head high off a length, his collection was a touch under par. This was not the best of pitches to stand up on, but this aspect of Prasad's glovework will need some attention -- after all, it is on a vicious turner that a good keeper can really turn the screws and help his spinners.

India in any case have a day off to ruminate, before turning out in a day-night game against Sri Lanka. Watching how they go in that one will give some pointers to how quickly lessons are being learnt under the new dispensation -- and a more complete index of Tendulkar's captaincy in his second go-round.

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