Yusuf Pathan played a brutal innings that made him a super man, which made the one-sided match alive but South Africa pulled the series by 33 run at the end of the match. The final of the day of series that lasted two and half months witnessed yet another Hashim Amla century and poor stroke display by Indian batsmen.
achin Tendulkar has always opted out of ODI matches after he hit two hundred against South Africa in Gwalior this February. Now he is back in to the ODI team against the same South Africans but this time against their own backyard. Sachin is all set to open with Virendra Sehwag, which would be last ODI series before world cup 2011 to be held in sub-continent. This would be the practice series for the world cup.
Indian bowling coach admits that Indian selectors and coaches are having exciting time ahead since every single young player has performed very well and grabbed their chances. He told that apart Yusuf Pathan who played a blinder in Bangalore ODI, Viral Kohli, R Ashwin, Parthiv Patel and Rohit Sharma all have performed well and left selectors with too many choices.
Indian batting line-up yet again succumbed to the quality attack in a seaming pitch in Dambulla. Even school kid knows that pitch would aid for fast bowling and Indian batsmen were either under-prepared or did not able to coup with the seaming deliveries. If we take Sehwag and extras out of the scored board, Indians again scored were well under 100 runs. Considering this is not the first time during this series, Indian think-tank should come out concrete to resolve this long pending issue along with 4 bowlers and 7 batsmen theorem.
Australians have beaten Pakistan by massive 135 runs in the fourth ODI thus looking to clean sweep the series 5-0. If Australia does that, it is only the second time Pakistan is clean swept. Michael Hussey and Nathan Hauritz with the bat and Ryan Harris with the ball tormented the Pakistan and handed over such a humiliating defeat.
India showed the bench strength as Gambhir and Kohli scored centuries with ease to beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets and clinched the series in Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Both Gambhir and Kohli surpassed three figures even after Indians were tottering for 23-2.
In a bravely fought match, New Zealand has beaten Pakistan by 7 runs thus clinched the series 2-1. Highlight of the match was the last wicket partnership of 103 runs between tail-enders Mohammed Aamer and Saeed Ajmal. They almost took Pakistan to the victory before New Zealand struck in the last over of the match.
There is a famous saying “A job half finished is a job unfinished”. Passing on the bug to others is the crime. Sachin Tendulkar has played one of the best innings of ODI by scoring a valiant 175 while chasing mammoth 351 yet India lost the match by 3 runs to Australia. And this is not the first time it has happened. Well, the lesson was not learnt. It is sad that Indian cricket travelled back to the mode of depending too much on Sachin for victory.
Cricket great Boycott said that Shahid Afridi is the best bowling alrounder in the world at the moment. Shahid Afridi proved that by displaying fine alround performances, which inspired victory for Pakistan. New Zealand was beaten by Pakistan by huge 148 runs in the first ODI in Abu Dhabi.
The other name of Australians can be kept as fighters as they won the battle against India in the fourth ODI in the batsman friendly wicket in Mohali. They have beaten India by 24 runs to level the series 2-2.
