India vs Australia 2013: The six deliveries that changed the game and probably the whole series
Ishant Sharma, after the 48th over.
Ishant Sharma bowled the 18th over in the Champions Trophy final and turned the game in India’s favor. The same bowler bowled the 48th over yesterday and turned the game in Australia’s favor.
In either case, he proved to be a match winner for one of the teams.
Before “those six deliveries”, Indian fans were celebrating and sensing a convincing victory. They were waiting for MS Dhoni to fetch the Man of the Match award for his brilliant innings of 139. Fans were still remembering the catch dropped by Bailey which gave away extra 30 odd runs. India was going to script another win because of another fighting innings from Dhoni, but after the 48th over- everything was “over”.
That match was another example of Australian fighting spirit. I have heard the incident of Javed Miandad’s six off Chetan Sharma from my parents. The batsman shocked India by hitting that six off the last ball. A similar sort of incident was witnessed by our generation yesterday.
With Australia, needing 44 runs from 3 overs, India were ready to take 2-1 lead in the series. But, James Faulkner had other intentions. When he saw Ishant Sharma with the ball, he said- ”This is it…I am going after him”- and he justified his mindset in the following six balls.
Ishant bowled 3 short balls and a full length delivery to which Faulkner took full advantage. The Aussie dismissed all those four weak deliveries into the stands and extracted 30 runs off that over which reduced the equation to 14 from 12 balls. Ashwin tried his best in the next over and gave just five runs. However, Faulkner finished the match in style by dismissing Vinay Kumar’s full-toss into the stands.
In the Indian innings, Dhoni played a magnificent innings to steer India past 300. When he was taking the first run, he twisted his ankle and a physio was called. Throughout his innings he was facing some difficulty in running but nothing is impossible for captain cool as he reached his ninth ODI hundred and provided some late fireworks-courtesy of the drop catch by Bailey- to accelerate the innings to 303.
The Indian fast bowlers were terrific at the start, especially Vinay Kumar who took the wickets of Hughes and Bailey. Jadeja increased the required run rate for Australia giving away just 31 runs from his allotted 10 overs. When James Faulkner arrived, Australia needed 91 from 51 balls but it was Ishant Sharma who did it all easy for the Australians.
I agree with Dhoni’s words at the presentation ceremony- “the individuals will have to step up; you have to back your strength; you don’t need to spoon-feed bowlers at the international level”. At International level if you give away 30 runs in an over, then that’s truly disappointing.
In a match where a team’s captain produced a fighting innings and scored a century despite his injury, there should not be a bowler who dampens his team’s spirit with such ordinary display of bowling.
Now the Australians are having a 2-1 lead in this series and are having a strong momentum going to Ranchi, perhaps only because of “those six deliveries”.