India defeated Australia

Jaipur, October 16
What do you do after watching a thriller like the one played out at Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Wednesday - admire India's herculean batting effort or lament the miserable bowling attack that was torn to shreds.

A difficult question to answer, considering that the performances batsmen and bowlers came up with qualify to go down as one of the best and worst in the annals of the Indian cricket.

At the end of the day,however, it's the superlative batting effort that will stay in the minds of the people for a long, long time, pushing the forgettable bowling show into oblivion. And that's how it should be as Indian batsmen scaled an almost insurmountable peak in chasing down a mammoth 359, in what is overall the second highest successful chase and India's best ever in the ODIs. The chase, in addition to the fabulous victory, also gave India its fastest centurion in this format - Virat Kohli who hammered unbeaten hundred off just 52 balls, studded with eight hits to the boundary and seven over it.

The match, before this incredible effort, looked all but lost for India after the Australians butchered Indian attack to put up a record 359 - the same total they amassed in the 2003 World Cup final against India, with all of their top five batsmen hammering half-centuries, a first in the ODIs.

With nothing short of a shot required at history for victory, it's only fair to assume that the opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma would have had more doubts than hope swirling in their head as they walked out to the middle.

But with every passing over, as they grew in confidence and the strokes started flowing from their willows, the hope returned, and everyone sat tight in anticipation of the victory that they would retell everyone who had not been fortunate enough to witness it.

The faint glimmer of hope started flickering a little more violently when the raced to hundred with loss, and then, in no time, India had 176 runs on the board without loss. At this juncture, India lost Dhawan, missing the highly deserved hundred merely by five runs.

If one thought he had seen the best knock of the day, punctuated with rasping pulls and thumping cover drives and ferocious cuts, and Australia had got the window of opportunity they were desperately looking for, it didn't take him long to stand corrected.

Entered Virat Kohli, and the balance tilted even more rapidly in India's favour. While Rohit Sharma also played an impressive 141-run knock, it was the stunning hundred from off just 52 balls from Virat Kohli, the fastest by in Indian in the ODIs, that took away one' breath and the game from Australia. "It was just an unbelievable knock from Virat. No matter what we did, he just going…that's was pretty much the turning point of the game for me," said Australia captain George Bailey.

It was indeed an incredible assault from the Delhi boy, something impossible to describe in words. All one could say is that the harder the Australians threw the ball at him, the farther it flew into the stands. He got into the thick of things the moment he arrived on the wicket, and soon the ball was flying to all corners of the stadium.

The Australians just didn't know what and where to bowl, and soon the daunting target was overhauled just like that with plenty to spare, 6.3 overs and nine wickets. An incredible win indeed!

The Indian bowlers, too, must have taken some heart and consolation from the beating their counterparts took. Given the limitation of this particular attack, no one was expecting them to bowl the Aussies out for a modest total. 

All one would have hoped for was par performance, not letting Australians set a target that was tucked away in the realms of the impossible. Yet, that's what exactly happened. It all began with the pacers inability to pick up early wicket. Aaron Finch and Phil Hughes saw off the new ball without any damage yet again, putting on 74 run for the first wicket. With the platform laid, the following batsmen, Shane Watson (59), George Bailey (92) and Glenn Maxwell (52) tore apart the Indian attack.

While the charge from the Aussies was of course brutal, the bowlers were guilty of offering them easy pickings, bowling short of length, full tosses and over-pitched stuff with alarming regularity.

SCOREBOARD

Australia
Finch run out (Raina) 50
Hughes c Dhoni b Ashwin 83
Watson c I Sharma b Vinay 59
Bailey not out 92
Maxwell run out (Raina) 53
Voges c Kumar b Vinay 11
Haddin not out1
Extras: (lb 5, w 5) 10
Total (5 wickets; 50 overs) 359
Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-182, 3-212, 4-308, 5-347
Bowling
B Kumar 10-0-54-0
I Sharma 9-1-70-0
Vinay 9-0-73-2
Jadeja 10-0-72-0
Ashwin 8-0-50-1
Yuvraj 4-0-35-0

India
Rohit not out 141
Dhawan c Haddin b Faulkner 95
Kohli not out 100
Extras: (lb 5, w 21) 26
Total (1 wicket; 43.3 overs) 362
Fall of wickets: 1-176
Bowling
Johnson 9-1-68-0
McKay 7-0-64-0
Watson 5-0-47-0
Doherty 10-0-70-0
Maxwell 5.3-0-48-0

Faulkner 7-0-60-1