The quarter final match played between India and Australia, gave jitters to everybody as we all sat glued to the television. It all started off as Australia won the chose to bat and as usual as soon as the match progressed we started our usual will India beat them? Will we make it to the next stage, the usual words that ring in all our minds throughout the time span of the match. It came across as a pleasant surprise to me, when the Aussies were actually struggling to score runs. This showed that Dhoni’s men had strengthened up their fielding. They were simply superb when it came to fielding that day and Oh the new man, Ravichandran Ashwin, our very own Chennaite took two wickets and crucial ones that too. Very well played Ashwin. He had performed well in his debut match as well and Dhoni made the right choice of keeping him in the playing eleven.
Another tough decision that Captain Dhoni took was to have Suresh Raina in the place of Yousuf Pathan, which should have been a hard decision for him considering the kind of drastic games that Pathan is capable of when he is at the crease. But I suppose consistency was what India was looking at and that where Pathan had a back seat.
On the other hand, as the match went on Australia was struggling to touch a run rate of 5 per over and their captain Ricky Ponting, as he entered in the 3rd slot stayed on till the end as the biggest pillar of support for the series of batsmen who entered and exited. On a personal record, it was 100 after a long time in ODI cricket and he seemed quite happy about it except that the constant pressure and tension of having to be there for the team haunting him. Over all Australia scored 260 and it was pretty much what they were expecting to score anyways.
Then came the second innings of the match with little maestro Sachin and Sehwag opening to bat and though Sehwag did get out quickly Sachin did stay on for quite sometime and contributed.
After the exit of Sachin Tendulkar was when problem for India started along with the rising tensions amongst fans throughout the country. At one point when the score got too close, for a split second I even thought we wouldn’t make it, but then came in the heroes of the day Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh. They both played beautifully under pressure and with such calm and poise. So much pressure on them ,tensions mounting up, with the number of balls decreasing and the runs to be scored pretty high, it were the series of fours that were hit by the duo that got India into the quarters sending the Aussies back home.
As we were nearing the end of the match, it was getting more exciting and we could see the entire crowd go mad with joy once Yuvi finished off the match with a stylish four talking India into the Semi Final. Opting to have Raina in did yield fruits at the right moments and credit must be given to the captain for having that kind of confidence and courage to change the playing eleven for a crucial match as this.
Yuvi at the end of the day was awarded the Man of the Match Award for being the all rounder performer and the happiness of India had no limits. Next India will be meeting Pakistan in Mohali, and is always the most expected and anticipated match that everybody just loves watching. Every ODI, the whole country waits to see if Sachin would get his century of centuries record, but I suppose the best is saved up for the last!!
Will India make it to the final beating Pakistan is something that we need to wait and watch!!!
