Piyush Chawla
If the warm up match on the 13th of February was a trailer for what is to come, we are in for a roller-coaster ride that much is for sure.
It is always a scary sight when you see full stands for a warm up match, makes you wonder, how in gods name you are going to be able to buy a pass for any match when the actual World Cup matches begin.
Everything was the same, the players were the same the crowd was the same, only difference was this match didn’t count in the tally and there was no post match presentation, but whoever was watching it was still cheering and cursing like they would for any other match, this is how crazy everyone has become.
The Warm up match between Australia and India was a treat to watch, At times when it looked like India was going to lose for sure, we would tell ourselves “relax, its just a warm up match, it doesn’t even count” and change the channel, but when it suddenly felt like India was going to win it towards the end, we were ecstatic and discussing about how much of an advantage it would be for when the tournament actually began. That is the game of cricket.
Looking objectively, the match was on even footing for both sides through out, the only difference in the end being, India’s spin attack which was due to the “hypothetical” man of the match Piyush Chawla.
The day started well for India, winning the toss and electing to bat first.
Fortunately, we saw Virender Sehwag with some spark and he made 54 runs of 56 balls, lets all touch wood for his sake. Sehwag was dismissed by Jason Krejza.
Gautam Gambhir however, didn’t manage to show any of his skills, he made only 6 runs of 15 balls and was dismissed by Doug Bollinger and gave Australia the early breakthrough they always desire.
Virat Kohli also didn’t perform best to his potential making only 21 runs of 33 balls and his wicket was taken by John Hastings.
Yuvraj Singh will be thanking his stars that this was only a warm up match as he made only 1 run of 7 balls and his wicket was claimed by Mitchell Johnson.
Skipper MS Dhoni skipped in and skipped out in a span of 24 delieveries managing to make only 11 runs as he was dismissed by John Hastings. But Dhoni cannot be criticized too much for his batting, he showed in his wicket keeping how amazing he truly is and makes up for his pathetic batting now with his stunning stumping abilities. He didn’t even miss one in this match and was as fast as he could humanly be.
Suresh Raina also did nothing much, he made 12 runs of 16 balls and was dismissed by Brett Lee. Yusuf Pathan played a sensible innings and ended up making 32 runs of 38 balls before getting dismissed by David Hussey.
Harbhajan Singh made 4 runs of 2 balls and Piyush Chawla made 0 of 6 balls both were dismissed by Brett Lee. They more than made up for their bad score in the bowling attack.
The 9th wicket partnership was a much needed miracle, Ravi Ashwin remaining not out at 25 runs of 47 balls and Ashish Nehra surprising everyone including his own team made 19 runs of 24 balls but was ultimately dismissed by David Hussey.
So now India made 214 runs for Australia to chase at 4.80 runs per over, not a very daunting ask.
With the help of Ashish Nehra it looked like Australia was going to chase the total with 10 overs to spare. He bowled badly and fielded even worse, sloppy fielding will end up becoming India’s downfall unless they do something about it, Raina, Yuvraj and Kohli cant be fielding at all positions, the rest have to contribute and unnecessary runs should not be given especially if it is a low total match.
It was obvious with the beginning of the Australian innings that the pace attack was doing nothing. Except for Sreesanth who took the wicket of Shane Watson who at one point of time looked like he was going finish off the match all by himself made 33 runs of 26 balls but thanks to Sreesanth he got to see the back of him and Munaf Patel who whacked him in the groin. Opener Tim Paine also ended up being quite the menace, he made 37 runs alongside Shane Watson but was dismissed by Yuvraj Singh.
It was probably then that MS.Dhoni realized, only spin will work if they could win this match, and so they did.
Rickey Ponting made a match winning 57 runs of 85 balls but ultimately was dismissed to the man who’s bunny he has been previously, Harbhajan Singh.
So between Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh, they cleaned out the entire Aussie side.
Chawla took 4 wickets that of Michael Clarke on a duck, Cameron White on 4, David Hussey also on a duck but Chawla missed his hat-trick.
He also took the wicket of Callum Ferguson who made just 8 runs.
Bhajji cleared out the balance, Mitchell Johnson who made 15 runs of 19 balls who we all know has the capability of playing as well as a middle order batsman and Jason Krejza who made 0.
Ravi Ashwin got to claim the last wicket that of Brett Lee who just made 1 run. John Hastings remained not out on 1. Australia made only 176 runs in 37.5 overs.
So, India won the warm up match by 38 runs and it doesn’t really matter but hopefully this will not put India in a false sense of security, the matches haven’t even started yet.
Tags: Australia, Cricket, Harbhajan Singh, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India, Piyush Chawla, World Cup
