Wade, Hogg & Hussey strangle India in their pursuit of their 1st win of this tour

Finally when Dhoni won a toss, the result just doesn't seem to get any different. MSD won the toss and put the Australians into bat anticipating rain & more dew. But unfortunately the plan backfired on him with some lusty hitting by top order batsman Matt Wade & some brilliant spin bowling choking the Indian batsmen to a 32 run defeat. That eventually handed, debutant Player/Captain, George Bailey a comfortable & impressive win on his first assignment. 

The Australians got off to a flyer, thanks to Warner & Wade for some power hitting. Though, the highlight of the small partnership was the switch-hit from Warner. Ashwin's new ball ploy failed here, with the batsmen going berserk. Vinay Kumar came into break the partnership & duly did so, when Warner scooped the ball high to Raina at cover. Vinay Kumar, Raina & Rahul Sharma briefly halted the progress with some tight bowling, which eventually led to Birt's wicket just the stroke of the completion of 10 overs. Rahul Sharma bowled with a lot of heart, though he dropped a couple of chances hit straight back to him. His webbing split while attempting one of the caught & Bowled chance, leaving him with spilling some blood. David Hussey joined Wade to threaten the Indians to take the score beyond 180, with some ruthless hitting down the ground. A small spell of shower proved to be a breather for the Indians from the onslaught. 

After the resumption from the break, without any reduction in the overs, Raina bowled a skidder to remove the in-form Wade. India were lucky to remove this man before the score could reach threatening heights. R.Jadeja & P.Kumar were taken for aplenty as they couldn't complete their allotted spells. Thus India having to rely on the slower bowlers on a very damp outfield. With the spinners not able to grip the ball properly, it was given that they would be taken for runs. Australia eventually completed their quota of 20 overs with a very competitive 171/4. Thanks to an under par performance to Captain Bailey, who just was not able to capitalize & score runs, that limited the Australian score by atleast 15 runs. 

India required a flier & more importantly a positive intent at the top of the innings. Sehwag started off with a trademark slash to the boundary, but fell to a steaming Brett Lee, edging one to the slips. This tour just wasn't getting better for Sehwag. In a rather surprising move from the "Out-of-the-box" captain Bailey, he introduced slow spinner, Doherty to share the new ball with Brett Lee. Kohli Joined Gambhir, who showed glimpses of sublime form and a fighting spirit, which was missing thus far in the tour. Just when India were motoring along well, Gambhir fell to Hussey trying to play the Inside-out shot over cover. And within a span of the next 10 deliveries 3 wickets fell. 

Comeback man Hogg, was full of energy and smiles during his entire spell & claimed Kohli, his first wicket on his come back. Boy, wasn't he happy after that wicket. It was like a return celebration to Kohli's after the way he celebrated on reaching his century. Rohit Sharma waited the entire summer to get a chance only to score a golden duck. Hussey the man, who turned the tide in favor of the Australians. India were facing an uphill task, which was by then made habit in every single game in this series so far. The Australian Spinners Hussey & Hogg strangled the Indian Middle order to juice, not letting them even think of getting close the target. Hussey - 2-0-4-2 & Hogg - 4-0-21-1; with figures such as this from an occasional spinner & a 40 year old spinner respectively, you cant ask for something more to win a T20 game. 

Though M.S.Dhoni & Raina showed brief resistance, the Auz bowlers never let the batsmen off the hook. Dhoni was running out of partners & was just not able to score runs freely. With Raina & Jadeja failing in their attempts to accelerate the run rate, it was left to Aswhin & Dhoni to perform a miracle. It so didn't happen, with every ball increasing the pressure on the Indians, they could see the match slipping away from their hands. Though a few lusty blows from MSD helped in reducing the margin of defeat, India was still not able to get a taste of victory in this tour so far. Eventually India ended at 140/6 at the end of 20 overs. 

Full credit to the Australian bowlers for completing a clinical victory & main thanks to Wade for powering Australia to such a total. The surprise packages were Hussey & Hogg, who proved effective with their simple stump-to-stump bowling with very minute variations. India still have a lot to ponder over. With the next game coming in a couple of days, the team composition needs to be sorted out. Expected Irfan pathan to figure in this team at the cost of one spinner, as anyways India totally have 9 bowling options in the 11. Vinay Kumar was the pick of the bowlers today with figures of 4-0-28-1. This time Indians have no one to blame & are beginning to fail even in this format. But as I always say, there's always a tomorrow & would expect India to bounce back in the next game... Still Hoping !!!   - The ever hopeful Indian fan !