World Cup 2015: Play stops reign

six and out! Rohit Sharma was cleaned up by a steaming Mitchell Johnson a ball after he had hit the fast-man for maximum. (Source: Solaris Images)

Scoreboard pressure does strange things on a big night. Pull a delivery from well outside off, like Virat Kohli. Unable to resist the adrenaline rush and hole out, like Shikhar Dhawan. Dangle the bat so limply at a short ball, like Suresh Raina. Steve Smith termed 328 as par total but the pressure of the World Cup semi-final and sustained pressure from the Australian bowling was enough to topple Indians.

It’s 2015 but it felt like the 90’s. Indian stadiums would empty out when Sachin Tendulkar fell. Now they cry when Virat Kohli falls and leave when MS Dhoni goes in a chase. At the start of the game, the Sydney cricket ground was a streak of blue punctuated by limey yellows and by the end it was just a riot of yellow.Virat Kohli’s nervy stay reflected the extent of Australia’s domination and India’s capitulation to scoreboard pressure. Both Mitchell Johnson and Kohli have had relatively quiet tournament but Johnson, who hit a nine-ball 27 to finish on a personal high, carried that confidence into his bowling.

His mini-battle with Kohli handed the control to Australia. He let rip three bouncers in the first four deliveries. Kohli responded with a hurried stab, a steer and a hop. Kohli took a single of the final delivery but was tied down again in the next over by the disciplined Josh Hazlewood.

In the next over, Johnson banged it short and also slanted it across Kohli, who decided to go for the pull. An unwise decision. The ball swirled up off the top edge and by the time Brad Haddin pouched it, tears had started to flow in the stands. India were 78 for 2 then but lost another big wicket of Rohit Sharma soon after to make it 91 for 3. It was Johnson again who did the damage.

Sharma had just pulled Johnson for a six over square-leg when the bowler came back to silence the crowd’s celebrations. It was a full-length screamer that shaped back in after pitching, and a movement that surprised Sharma. His bat came down in the line of the off stump, the ball crashed through the middle stump line and he tried to adjust but could only inside edge it to his stumps. Sharma’s exit wasn’t the case of scoreboard pressure but it was an example of how Johnson managed to dig deep and bring the best out in adversity.

Before Kohli and Sharma, there was Dhawan, whose fall was the one that hurt India the most. As far as the momentum-killing moments go, this was right at the top in the chase. He was dropped early on by a diving Brad Haddin off the impressively disciplined Hazlewood but started a mini-assault on James Faulkner. It was during that phase that the ubiquitous Indian chant of ‘Jeetega bhai Jeetega’ was at its loudest at the SCG.

India had ramped up from 39 to 72 in three overs as Dhawan pulled, drove, dragged, slammed Faulkner for quick runs. India reached 76 in 13th over when Dhawan did what his captain later termed as soft dismissal “at a time we could have put the bowling under pressure”, and “didn’t really need to play a big shot”. It was full delivery from Hazlewood, and Dhawan, who had hit 27 runs in his last 12 deliveries, couldn’t hold himself from having a go. There was one man on the boundary on the off side, Glenn Maxwell at deep extra cover, and Dhawan found him.

The bowling too had suffered on the big stage in the afternoon. For some reason, they fed Steve Smith with some lame short stuff and found the difference between real bouncers and mere short balls. But the bowlers, led by R Ashwin, recovered to restrict Australia. At one point in the batting powerplay, when Maxwell and Aaron Finch were blazing away Australia were on course for 360 even but Ashwin pegged them back by dare and skill. Unafraid to either flight or bowl slowly through the air, he had Maxwell sweeping straight to Ajinkya Rahane at long leg.

The seamers then struck with some good short balls, took a few wickets and just when it seemed India might even restrict Australia to 310, Johnson hit them with force. It was the beginning of the end. By the night, C’mon Aussie C’mon’, the song conceived in 1977 for the immensely popular Kerry Packer’s World Series cricket, filled the air.

Source:: Indian Express