- Australia follow up win over England with victory over India
- James Faulkner hits winning runs with six balls left
It got closer than Australia would have liked but in the end India was 30 runs short of a competitive total.
Rohit Sharma batted beautifully for 138 and he had some nice backup by Suresh Raina. And after 35 overs they were 185 runs for four. But the Indian tail has done what it’s done all summer - nothin’. And too many wickets fell for too few runs.
Okay. Kumar. Second last over. Australia needs 15 runs. Two overs to go. Sorry for dissing this game, Cricket Gods. All is forgiven.
Okay.
Kumar to The Closer - James Faulkner.
Okay, our man Shami, a slower ball to Maxwell who never looked comfortable, and there’s a caught-and-bowled spooned back to the bowler.
Five overs to go. Thirty balls. Twenty-six runs to win. Five wickets in hand. As the great man Greigy used to say, this is the equation.
27 from 36 balls. Home boys back on top. Yadav into him. Haddin cuts, bottom edge.
Ashwin. They’ve just been chipping him. Why go big? No real reason. Just go the run a ball. Maxy might find one anyway. And Brad Haddin... yes, there goes Maxwell - bang - he advances and smashes a six down the ground in his funny flat-bat whacking way. He goes again, gets bat on it - four runs. Now that is an over of one-day cricket.
Bailey is out twice - caught behind and stumped. He can pick which one he’d prefer. He got an inside edge. And he was stumped. He was given out by the square leg umpire. And TV showed he nicked it. So ... there’s no DRS. So he’s probably stumped, given the bowler’s end umpire didn’t give him. Or did he? It’s all so exciting. And here’s Brad Haddin. 38 runs from 40 balls.
Okay 42 off 46. Run a ball. Six wickets in hand. Years ago this would have been quite exciting. Now, not so much. Particularly with Yadav bowling a wide.
Ravi “The Power” Ashwin and his darts from on-high. Bailey and Maxwell chip him for ones. Three of them. Maxy rips off his patented reverse sweep, the one he plays like a normal shot even in Test cricket when he’s batting three and Australia is a couple down for not many. Good luck to him. But he’s not playing Test cricket again with that attitude, don’t care how care-free and funky you are. Can’t believe he really did in the first place, bat three in Test cricket for Australia.
Oh good grief. Maxwell gets a short one that he ducks or sort of bends to evade, but leaves his bat in the air like a periscope and the ball runs off the full face of his bat, safe into the gully.
Double action! Yadav beats Finch for pace, bowls a short one that was probably a little too close to cut ... no it wasn’t, it was perfectly cut-able, but just too quick. Bowled, Yadav. Batted Finch.
Okay. Ten overs to go. Not many runs to win. Glen Maxwell is in now so there might be something interesting happens. Something funky and/or funny. But it would want to be really funny. Like funnier than Billy Connolly.
Well. There you. Old mate Shami. The Shaminator. Has dished up a half-track slower ball that Smith has swotted overhead style, like Rafa Nadal whacking a monkey on the head, and Ravi Ashwin’s taken a simple catch at mid-wicket.
Hundred partnership is up. Great batting. Belting India now.
Four dots. Two singles. This could kill a herd of Peruvian llama.
Patel, again. Australia cruising like a ... shark, say. Or a cruise missile. Or Tom Cruise cruising. Something. Six off.
Okay. Power Play. Australia needs 72 from 90 balls. Eight wickets in hand. Here comes Mohammed Shami. If Australia lose this I will run to Goulburn*.
Yadav. Straight. Fast. Like Merv Hughes bowling to Richie Richardson. Here he is bowling to Viv. Love this like a brother:
Yes, the Guardian OBO guy’s selection as secret weapon for India is launched for six over his head. Big hit by Finch he’s on 82.
Yadav. Oh yes. Like him in Test cricket. In this format ... not so much. Not enough tricks, for mine. Bowls fast straight ones. But anyone can face a fast straight one. That’s all a young Merv Hughes bowled, and Richie Richardson hit him for more sixes over backward square than anyone in the world.
Yes, good move. Suresh Raina, another spinner. He’s dished up a wide. But the India seamers can’t stop the runs here, or really get these guys out.
Snick! Off the fat edge of Finch’s bat and into Dhoni’s upper arm given Kumar’s bowling 130km/h and Dhoni’s keeping up to the stumps.
Ashwin, again. Smith guides a thick edge for four. Then a single, using his feet. This is ... well. Wish I could watch Vikings that I taped on SBS. I will later. See if I don’t.
Kumar is back into it. TV vision of India’s blue cricket kit that’s made out of 33 plastic bottles. Gideon Haigh wrote a funny yarn about it the other day. I’d tip you onto it but Rupert’s hidden it behind a Paywall, the silly old moo.
Ashwin, again. India’s only hope of holding up an end. The big man needs a mate who can take a wicket. As it is he leaks five. India needs. They need.
Bang. Smith drives down the ground, straight down the ground, four runs. He’s going over his stumps and trusting his eye and hands and great thumping bat.
Ravi Ashwin.
Mohammed Shami is back. And Steve Smith carves him nonchalantly through cover. India need five more Ravi Ashwin’s, bowling darts from on high.
True, dis, from Diz:
Bowled, Axel. Three runs, a wicket. And MS Dhoni has dried the runs and drawn the mistake.
Well another beautiful-looking Shane Watson 41 comes to an end as the blonde buccaneer backs away to cut but misses, and he’s bowled by the new boy. And Our Shane is livid, knowing another 80 or so is now out of reach. And as Shane knows, the haters gonna hate hate hate.
Ashwin, doing a job for his captain and country here. Bowling darts from on high. John Emburey-like, or that other one. Phil Someone. Bald man. Had a hot wife who was in the papers for doing something or other.
Axel. Three off. Tidy. Boring. Australian batters setting themselves to Just Bat. And do their thing. And wait for the seamers who’ve they’ve much enjoyed belting.
Ashwin. Tidy. Boring. But tidy. Bowling darts.
Axel, two singles off. And there’s a hundred for Australia.
Ravi Ashwin, fair cricketer. A tall man. Reminds of John Emburey, or that other Pommy who had a wife used to be in the papers a bit.
Yadav steams in again, enthusiastic, fast. And he beats Watson who cuts lustily and misses. But then he doesn’t. And that is four runs, cut hard and square, you can’t hit the cut shot harder. He’s on 23. If you want someone to score you 23 in good style, Watto is your man.
Axar Foley is getting another go. Left-arm orthodox. He tosses them up. Big shout.... LBW? Finch swept. Rapped on the pad low down. Good shout. Fine shout. Maybe just missing off stump with the spin.
Yadav, again, and he beats Watson. Pitch could be a bit up-and-down. Regardless, Watson launches a beautiful off-drive, cover-drive, whatever, he lofts mightily and it’s four runs. Strong stuff from the Thunder Man of Ipswich. And: bang. Four more. Cut shot, high and wide, and he’s pasted Yadav over point, four runs.
Spin! It’s the rookie, Axar Patel ... first ball ... and he’s cut hard by Shane Watson for four, the ball slicing backward of point. Next one Watto tries to whack him, they’re going after the rookie. Dhoni moves the slip. Thanks for the confidence, Skip. Warner cuts again for one. Dhoni’s field has a mid-on and a long-on.
Yadav, beats Finch with one that bounced off length. The batter went to drive, he might’ve cut it. And then, bang, he’s beaten by one that keeps low. Oh, MCG, don’t go changin’.
At the start of this day’s cricket coverage, about six hours ago, we asked what should this Tri-Series be called, vis-a-vie Border-Gavasker, Chappell-Hadlee, etc.
Watson tonks one over mid-wicket, that fine and balanced shot of his off the pads. And a wicket-over also has five runs off it.
Warner advances on a good length ball and goes through with the shot, whatever it was, and a thick top edge soars high straight into the air where Suresh Raina gives people a little heart palpitation but eventually pouches the catch quite well. Big wicket. They all are. But D.Warner, he can ruin a man.
Kumar, again. Three dots, a win against this pair of Big Whackers. Another dot. No, a one, cut hard by Finch. Raina fields well, flings at the pegs. Good cricket.
Boom - Finch goes over extra cover with a front-foot drive ... well, money for jam for Aaron Finch. Wide and not a half-volley but the next best thing. And A.Finch has launched it.
Quick single! Oh! They’ve hit the stumps! But Warner, he reckons he’s home. But Rohit Sharma from side-on has hit them and we’ve gone upstairs. But Warner’s home by quite a stretch.
Warner, short ball, pulled, one bounce, to the fieldsman put there for that very shot.
Finch, quick single. Shy at the stumps just misses. He’d have had him, Dhawan, had he hit. But as it is Finch takes extra from an overthrow.
Yadav is hoicked straight out of the attack after 12 off ... and Shami is welcomed in with a hook shot by Warner that goes fine for four. Then there’s a wide. Then Warner whacks him off one leg over square leg, great shot. TV men talking Gordon Greenidge. Spot on. I’ll dig up some GG Youtube shortly.
Oh - lovely fielding from Virat Kohli. Back foot punch by Finch and Kohli launched himself and took the ball one handed, and then threw at the non-striker’s end. His mates come from all over to say: good one, Virat. You didn’t get any runs today but my, that was a slick piece of fielding. Yes, you are here to get some runs. But yes, that was quite good.
Warner, fat edge through gully but there isn’t one. Yadav, now, in to Aaron Finch who slashes a short wide piece of stupid over third slip. You swing hard at at that stuff, you are going to get a result most times. Yadav follows up with a wide. Then:
Kumar to open. And he bowls a wide. And Finch guides him to third man. And here cometh David Warner. Who ...
Okay. Top batting from Rohit Sharma who scored 138 and Suresh Raina who agriculturally belted his way to 51, and India have a fair score on the board. Reckon they could have had 300 but they don’t really have all-rounders or tail-enders who can bat.
Mitchell Starc took six wickets, he was superb again with his fast left-armers.
Okay. Last one. Jimmy “The Closer” Faulkner to Mohammed “What Am I Doing Here, Really?” Shami.
Yes, another double-wicket over from Starc. He has five wickets. Easily Australia’s best.
Goneski! David Goneski! Full toss that the new man, first ball, tries to smash, misses, bowled him.
And so, Starc, penultimate over. Bowls a full toss and that’s the end of a magnificent innings by Sharma. Gone. Earlier he’d been Dropped! In the deep. Ashwin went big. Put down by Cummins in the deep. Tough chance, a slider. Into the sun.
Pat Cummins? In the 48th over? Let’s see how we go here, George Bailey, captain of Australia instead of Steve Smith the Test captain, a Thing that is.
Faulkner. They call him The Closer. With bat or ball, if you need a Closer, call in THE Closer, James Faulkner. Heap of slower thingos. Good pace he bowls a “heavy” ball when required. And Rohit Sharma charges him. And Faulkner, he’s just bowling back of a length, like that really, really annoying Kiwi used to do. Remember him? Captain Dibble-dobble. Not Gavin Larsen, the other one, who could bat.
Sandhu, again, bowling to Sharma on 127, a lot. Replays showing the LBW decision would have missed leg by a bit . But those ones, they look Out ... give ‘em. that’s not a howler. It just is.
Yeah, pretty good over from Starc. Double-wicket maiden.
Goneski! Starc spears in a swinging full one that hits Patel on the back leg and, well, it looked Massively Out on first look, and our umpire thought: Oh yes, you are David Gonski. Two wickets in the over.
Bowled him! Mahendra Singh cuts and chops one on to his wickets, and that’s the end of his contribution to Team India’s Total.
And the equation, as they once said, is:
Gurinder the New Bloke again. Five fielders out. Four in. Seven overs to go. These things used to finish at 6pm. It’s 5:44 now. What’s doing, Administrators? Hello? Big Three? You run the game. What is this malarkey? They can’t give us 50 overs between 2:2o and 6pm? Hm?
Oh - Starc’s first ball is wider than the Straits of Hormuz. His next one is less wide but still squirted for four through the gully and then third man region. Sharma seeing it like the Earth ball now.
Okay, the new man, Gurinder Sandhu. One wicket, 35 runs, seven overs. Not the worst economy since ... oh, and as I type he’s hurled one down legside, three-run wide. Sharma gave himself room and Gurinder chased him, and down legside for three runs it went.
Faulkner, again, ripping in his funny little leg-spinner back-of-the-hand slower-faster balls. Wins a dot ball, though. So good luck him. Then he beats the bloke on 109 with one that goes 131km. Thinking bowler, Jimmy Faulkner. Not bad for a man hasn’t reached 25. Good nous.
Cummins. Short to Sharma who noodles him off the hip. India have 200. They’ll want ten an over to get 300 from here on in. Who’s next? Anybody?
Boom - our man MS Dhoni goes big and spanks Jimmy Faulkner for four behind fine-leg. Slower ball. Picked it. And whacked it.
Pat Cummins 0/38 off not many, they’ve enjoyed him today, India. He’s hurling them in at 140-odd. But not as straight as required.
And we get it - Sharma squirts a forward defensive through gully region and gets a single. There’s his hundred. Well done, son.
Here cometh MS Dhoni. And he hits a four. And we wait for Sharma’s ton.
Okay. Raina tries to launch Starc out the ground but mis-times and hits catch to Maxwell at mid-on. It’s Power play time, and Starc versus two India Men approaching milestones. Raina got his 50 with a little chip forward of square. Then got out going big.
Faulkner. He draws a French cut from Sharma, but it’s four runs instead of an Out. And Rohit goes to 94.
Boom - Sharma goes to 85 with a fine pull shot. Gurinder Sandhu cops a bit of the treatment. And India rolls on.
Indian batsmen desperate for Maxwell to run them out, it’s the only explanation for their stuttering between the wickets that is asking Maxwell to have a ping.
Gurinder, the new man comes in and ... poor bowling, short and down legside that’ll be pasted for four every day of every week if Suresh Raina is on 39 and looking pretty good in the 30th over. And was. Is. Whatever tense you’re reading this in your head.
Maxy again. Right-arm over, a batsman who bowls. Tossing them up. Being pasted. Sharma’s on 76 and Raina 39. Tasty partnership. As Charlie Sheen would say they are #winning.
Gurinder Sindhu has played for Australia, Australia Under-19s, New South Wales, New South Wales Under-23s, Prime Minister’s XI and Sydney Thunder and has been walloped for several that over, indeed it was 10.
Okay, Glen Maxwell, a latter-day Greg Matthews if you will and I do, he ... yes, he’s launched for four over cover by Sharma, he’s batting quite well.
Batters getting a drink or a rub or something. New helmet? New helmet. You need them if your old one is buggered.
Jimmy Faulkner, the poor man’s left-handed Ian Botham if you will, and I do, he dishes up a normal length ball that Sharma tries to scoop-sweep, I think.
Bit of what could be called “by play” there in the last over. David Warner pinged the ball at the wickets, it went near Raina, and then there was some arguing about the etiquette. And now Watson’s into it. What is it with these teams? They’re chippy, baby. Chippy. Maxwell tries to calm Raina. There is gesticulation. And then we play cricket again.
Boom! Rohit Sharma gets his fifty with a mighty heave over mid-wicket, he takes James Faulkner down-town with a mighty belt into the bleachers, whatever that means, something to do with the white bleach paint they put on seats in the sun in baseball games. Eight off.
Bang - Raina whacks Watson through mid-wicket off the front foot, an agricultural sort of shot but worth no less runs than the purest dab of a late-cut by Mark Waugh.
Cummins, again, he’s pulled well by Sharma behind square. Bit all over the shop today, Patrick Cummins the Wild Colonial Boy. And Sharma goes to nearly-fifty.
Boom - Watto is pasted high over his head, lovely on-drive by Raina who appears to have found the centre of his bat. Four runs, one bounce, into the fence.
Pat Cummins again, shades of the Irish, the Wild Irish, the Wild Colonial Boy about him. He’s pulled hard in front of square by Raina, confidence-building shot by Suresh who’s lacked it. Top shot, front of square, strong. He’s gone to 8. Cummins bounces him. Ball goes over leg-stump. It’s a wide, though. Then he’s cut hard to third man. Good batting, Raina ... the human strainer.
Watto beats Raina. Expels breath out his mouth. Raina’s been poking about early, tentative like a gardener fossicking about in someone’s else’s garden, wondering what plants are these?
Six! Sharma launches a short one by Starc over backward square leg, mighty six.
Watto. Stunning near-maiden. Simply stunning. My but that was a grand and gob-dangling gorgeous near-maiden over.
Mitchell Starc is the relief and pounds the ball into the pitch like he hates it.
Nothing much in that over. But I am joined by my mate Heber from next door who played cricket in the same club as Kevin O’Brien of Ireland who once did this:
Successful over by James Faulkner with three runs off. Big wicket, old Virat, a man at the peak of his considerable powers.
Well, there you go. Not the shortest straight one Jimmy Faulkner will bowl but Virat thought it short enough to pull for four, but instead got a fat top edge that spooned over Faulkner’s head to George Bailey who took a catch simpler than George W. Bush doing a quick crossword with most of the words already filled in.
Here’s our Shane, the great Watto, the great golden bollocks of Australian cricket, the man who I’m informed by men who know has a body built for cricketing sin. Him, our Shane, with whom I kicked penalty goals with at the home ground of the Burleigh Bears for a $20 bet. He concedes a couple.
Run out? No. Kohli was in by about nine hundred miles and I would walk nine hundred more just to be the man who’d fall down dead upon your door. And yet Brad Haddin convinced umpire man to have a look on the big screen which said, Brad Haddin? Stop wasting everybody’d time. That’s what it said in giant bold letters, or should have if there was any fairness in this big old world run by the Big Three.
Yeah. Nothing happened in that over worth even these meagre key-strokes.
Pat Cummins again, and ... bang - beautiful shot from Sharma, a cover-drive right out the screws. Cummins dished up a wide and inviting half-volley and Sharma needed no further invitation. Boom - all the way, four runs. Top shot.
First ODI wicket for the new man, Gurinder Sandhu of Blacktown. First ball at Virat Kohli. And now first wide. Bowls at 135. It’s fast enough if you’re accurate, and the tall loper looks like he is. Twenty-one years old, he’s a prospect.
Well. There you go. The new man has his first ODI wicket with probably his poorest ball of the lot, a short wide-ish one that Rahane cut but fat-edged to Haddin.
Robert Wilson from the internet asks: “Have you ever used a fire extinguisher on a mound of lava? Did it end the way you hoped it would?”
No. But it’d be pretty steamy, one would warrant.
Pat Cummins is getting another go from a different end. He wouldn’t have been bashed back over his head very often, fast bowlers don’t tend to get that, nor like it. For mine he’s a bit like Alan Donald. Don’t know if that’s just me. If one of the TV people thought so they could run one of those montage things where they put two run-ups on the screen together. But he’s quick, young Patty, and he zaps it past the bat. Old White Lightning -and good day to you, sir, if you’re reading - my, but he could bowl couldn’t he. His first ball in Australia he had Geoff Marsh caught behind. I’ll dig up the footage. Ha. How was this not out?
Here he is, the debutant, Gurinder Sandhu, a tall 21-year-old loper from Blacktown in Sydney’s golden west. Angled run in, gets close to the wickets, tries to bowl stump-to-stump. Mostly does. And there’s just the one off his maiden One Day International over.
Rahane slashes at a Starc half-volley wide, takes two. Is all that happens, really.
Well. The Indians are launching into Pat Cummins. Sharma smashes him for six down the ground, beautiful lofted off-drive. Then they run four after a beautifully timed drive off his pads through mid-wicket by Sharma. Top batting. And India is away.
Oh - lucky break there for the Rahane Man, who French Cuts Starc to the fine-leg fence. Just misses his poles. Aussies all up in the particular anguish known to the fielding side: OOOooh, my but that was close.
2nd over: India 6-1 (Sharma 1, Rahane 2)
Pat Cummins, tidy first over. Beats Rahane, has him fending. But the India first-drop is in the super-hot form and sees the young firebrand off like a fire extinguisher on a mound of lava, something like it. Three off.
1st over: India 3-1 (Sharma 1, Rahane 0)
Well, there you go. Super-eventful first over from in-form left-armed pace ace Mitchell Starc who drew a huge LBW appeal, nicked out Dhawan, and bowled with pace and movement on a bone-white MCG wicket. Here’s a younger, right-armed version next up, Pat Cummins.
Well, fifth ball of an eventful over proves more eventful as Mitchell Starc draws Dhawan into a drive to an outswinger and there’s a perfect fat edge to Finch at second slip, who pouched the regulation take right in front of his eyes.
The rest of the over, which isn’t over yet ... went thus:
Batters are out, The People. And Mitchell Starc will bowl the first shiny white rock to Rohit Sharma.
Greetings, The People, and welcome to the mighty monolith that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Game Two of this ... whatever they’re calling the tri-series between Australia, England and India, the Big Three of World Cricket who will rule the world of cricket as they see fit given they earn all the money. Be nice if they spread the love and grew the game around the world but, you know, self-interest is a tough one to crack given you know it’s always having a red hot go.
For now we’ll have a crack at what you, The People, reckon we could call this triangular pre-World Cup tune-up series. The Big Three Tri-Series? The Veletta-Srikkanth-Tufnell series? Let’s hear it, The People, fire in suggestions to matt.cleary@theguardian.com or Tweet @journomatcleary.
Matt Cleary is the man charged with being your ears and eyes today. He’ll be along shortly, but in the meantime, why not have a read of his recent Big Day Out at the SCG, where Australia met today’s opponents India in the final Test.
The crowd is appreciative of the opening pair’s stroke play. Yet it’s muted, almost genteel, here in the Members among people who have to wear collared shirts and a certain sort of pants. Regardless a message on the big screen advises people that they can report anti-social behaviour by text messaging a certain number. Walshy takes out his phone and texts: “You can fuck off”. He chooses not to send it. Authorities have no sense of humour in these frightened, alert-heightened times.
It didn’t use to be like this. Indeed some years ago on the old Hill region, Walshy was escorted out of the ground by two policeman, high-kicking in can-can style, and roared on by 10,000 “beery, cheery mates”, according to the caption underneath a photo of him on page 3 of The Daily Mirror. People will laugh about it at his wake.
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