1st ODI: Ind v. NZ: India win by D/L method!

India beat New Zealand to take 1-0 lead in the five match ODI series. Rain interrupted the match several times and the officials had to reduce the over on each occassion. Understanding the weather, Dhoni decided to bat first after winning the toss.

The overs were reduced to 38 overs a side and India scored 273. Sehwas was at his best with blistering knock of 77 in 56 balls with 11 fours and a six. Though the ground was small compared to other grounds in Australia and India, one really has to score. Sehwag started the ODI series well for himself and the Indian team.

Tendulkar departed early on 20. Dhoni scored unbeaten 84 in 89 balls with 6 fours. He played the captains innings and lead from the front. Though Yuvi was run out for 2, Raina played master innings. He scored 66 in 39 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes.

The three blocks of powerplay were for 8, 4, and 3 overs. Raina's knock really turned the match with the Indian team scoring quick runs in the third power play which had 3 overs limit. India scored 40 runs in the 3rd powerplay in which Raina scored 25 runs and Dhoni scored 14 runs. In the last 10 overs, India scored 109 runs which really gave India winning score.

New Zealand was given a revised target of 278 in 38 overs. In the 21st over, rain intervened and the target was reduced to 216 in 28 overs which is next to impossible against the Indian bowling attack. New Zealand never looked winning and India was on top from the beginning.

During the presentation, the captians said:

Vettori: "Disappointing result and some serious lack of execution cost us. We bowled pretty poorly and Raina's innings, in particular, took the game away from us. We put ourselves in a difficult situation while batting second and the revised target was never within reach."

Dhoni: "The important thing was to get a good start, and when you manage that you'll often end up setting a good enough target for the bowlers to defend. Raina batted really well, and so did Sehwag. There were times in the Twenty20 games when we went all guns blazing and lost too many wickets doing so, but our overall approach has been very good. Praveen Kumar bowled well too, he's a street smart cricketer, has some good variations and bowls according to the conditions."

Dhoni was declared man of the match for his wonderful batting.

Scoreboard:

Tour: India to New Zealand
Series: ODI
Match #: 1
Date: Tuesday March 3, 2009
Venue: Napier
Captains: Daniel Vettori (NZ) and MS Dhoni (Ind)
Umpires: AL Hill and RE Koertzen; GAV Baxter-third umpire
Toss: Indai won the toss and decided to bat
Match: India won by 53 runs by D/L method
Man of the Match: MS Dhoni off India
Additonal Information: Match reduced to 38 overs a side; In the 21st over of NZ innings, the target was revised to 216 in 28 overs

India 273 for 4 in 38 overs (V Sehwag caught Taylor bowled Vettori 77, Tendulkar caught McCullum bowled Butler 20, MS Dhoni 84 not out, Yuvaraj Sing run out (Vettori/Guptill) 2, SK Raina caught O'Brien bowled Elliott 66, Yousuf Pathan 20 not out, Extras--4 (b 1, lb 1, nb 2), KD Mills 7-0-69-0, IE O'Brien 8-1-52-0, IG Butler 8-1-42-1, JPD Oram 2-0-19-0, DL Vettori 8-0-42-1, JD Ryder 3-0-27-0, GD Elliott 2-0-20-1)

Fall of Wickets: 1-69 (Tendulkar, 9.4 ov), 2-121 (Sehwag, 18.2 ov), 3-131 (Yuvraj Singh, 22.4 ov), 4-241 (Raina, 34.6 ov)

New Zealand (target revised in 21st over: 216 in 28 overs) 162 for 9 in 28 overs (JD Ryder caught Sehwag bowled Kumar 11, BB McCullum caught Harbhajan bowled Kumar 0, MJ Guptill caught Gambhir bowled Harbhajan 64, LRPL Taylor caught Tendulkar bowled Y Pathan 31, GD Elliott run out (Dhoni/Sehwag) 11, JDP Oram caught Dhoni bowled Yuvaraj 0, NT Broom st Dhoni bowled Harbhajan 2, Butler caught Patel bowled Zaheer 0, Mills caught Sehwag bowled Harbhajan 0, Vettori 26 not out, O'Brien 3 not out, Extras--14 (lb 10, w 3, nb 1), Zaheer Khan 6-1-19-1, Praveen Kumar 6-1-28-2, Munaf Patel 2-0-14-0, Yuvaraj 6-0-42-1, Yousuf Pathan 4-0-22-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-27-3)

Fall of Wickets: 1-0 (McCullum, 1.5 ov), 2-23 (Ryder, 7.4 ov), 3-81 (Taylor, 15.5 ov), 4-111 (Elliott, 20.5 ov), 5-111 (Oram, 20.6 ov), 6-132 (Guptill, 23.3 ov), 7-132 (Broom, 23.4 ov), 8-132 (Mills, 23.6 ov), 9-132 (Butler, 24.1 ov)

2nd Test: Ind v. Aus: Day 4: Gambhir Scores Hundred! India on the way to Victory!

At the end of day 4, Dhoni and team could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, India is sensing huge victory against the Australians. Resuming the day with 100 for no loss in addition to the lead of 201 runs, India were sensing victory in the 2nd Test.

The questions in everybody's mind was, "when will Dhoni declare?" "what is the optimum score to set as target for Australia?"

Sehwag and Gambhir dominated the Australian bowling attack. Indians were scoring more than 4 runs an over, which is normally the Aussie way. Sehwag missed the hundred by 10 runs, his usual style of batting. He is not worried about whether he is on 0 or 40 or 90. He plays his short.

Gambhir scored his 2nd century and it came at a very good time, giving India the huge lead. Sehwag was caught behind off Siddle and the first wicket partnership was 182 runs in just 235 balls. Gambhir reached his 100 with 7 fours and a six. His mistimed shot was a wicket to White.

Dhoni and Gambhir added 42 for the 2nd wicket in 52 balls. Ganguly, who came early of Tendulkar scored 27 off 37 balls with 2 fours was caught by Michael Clarke off Lee.

Dhoni reached his second consecutive 50 of this match and was not out on 68 off 84 balls with 3 fours and a six. Tendulkar was not out on 10 with a four.

India went past 300 and Dhoni declared the innings at 314 for 3 in 65 overs at a run rate of 4.83 per over.

The target set for Australia was 516 runs in 136 overs.

During the Australian bowling, a misunderstanding and an argument took place between Lee and skipper Ponting. Lee was not happy that he was not given the ball to bowl during the first session of play. Hussey, Watson, White were bowling but not him. When he had a chat with Ponting on the field, they were discussing and after a while, Lee walked away, inspite of Ponting wanted to talk.

Starting the 2nd innings with a huge target, Hayden and Katich played well. Hayden was positive, but very much agreessive. He scored few good boundaries of Zaheer and Ishanth. When they were about to build the partnership, Harbhajan provided the break-through. When the score was 49, Bhajji bowled round the wicket, pitched the ball on the middle stump, Hayden tried to sweep it and missed the ball. He was trapped in front of the wicket for 29.

In the same over, four balls later, Katich tried to cut the ball, which went in the air to point where Tendulkar misjudged it for a second, but realized it soon and took a diving catch. The ball was dipping than he anticipated which forced him to dive for the catch. This really put the Aussies on the back foot. With 50 for 2, Hussey, the inform batsman, tried to pull a short ball from Harbhajan's next over. The ball did not bounce as expected and hit him in the pad in front of the middle stump. The first three wickets were picked by Harbhajan and Aussies were struggling at 52 for 3.

Skipper Ponting and his deputy Clarke had to take the responsibility and play the innings of their lives.

Ishanth had his man and he sent a superp delivery to send Ponting back to pavilion. This is the 5th time he is getting his wicket in the last 3 test matches.

The ball pitched outside the line of off-stump, swung in, Ponting played forward with a gap between pad and bat. The ball came in quick and sharp, went through the gap to remove his off stump. He was bowled for 2 with score on 52.

Watson was trapped leg before for 2 for which he took 22 balls. He was struk in front of the wicket off Ishanth leaving Australia at 58 for 5.

Aussies were never in this position in the recent history of cricket. They used to have the opponent in such a situation, but the World Champions had no clue on what was happening to them.

Clarke and Haddin played the rest of the day though Haddin survived few edges. At the end of the day, Australia were 141 for 5 with Clarke on 42 and Haddin on 37. they added 83 runs for the 6th wicket.

If Indian can break this partnership on Day 5, as early as they can, the victory will be in sight that fast.

Score at the end of day 4:

India 1st Innings 469 allout in 129 overs (Gamhhir 67, Sehwag 35, Dravid 39, Tendulkar 88, Laxman 12, Ganguly 102, Ishanth Sharma 9, Dhoni 92, Harbhajan Singh 1, Zaheer Khan 2, Mishra 0 not out, Extras--22 (b 4, lb 2, w 5, nb 3), Lee 24-5-86-1, Siddle 28-5-114-3, Johnson 27-4-85-3, Watson 24-3-71-0, Clarke 7-0-28-0, White 19-0-71-2)

Fall of Wickets : 1-70 (Sehwag, 14.2 ov), 2-146 (Dravid, 40.5 ov), 3-146 (Gambhir, 41.1 ov), 4-163 (Laxman, 45.1 ov), 5-305 (Tendulkar, 81.5 ov), 6-326 (Sharma, 89.6 ov), 7-435 (Ganguly, 119.1 ov), 8-442 (Harbhajan Singh, 123.1 ov), 9-469 (Khan, 127.6 ov), 10-469 (Dhoni, 128.6 ov)

Australia 1st Innings 268 all out in 101.4 overs (Hayden 0, Katich 33, Ponting 5, Hussey 54, Michael Clarke 23, Watson 78, Haddin 9, White 5, Lee 35, Johnson 9 not out, Siddle 0, Extras--17 (lb 13, nb 4), Zaheer Khan 25-7-56-1, Ishanth Sharma 21-4-68-2, Harbhajan Singh 29-9-60-2, Amit Mishra 26.4-8-71-5)

Fall of Wickets: 1-0 (Hayden, 0.3 ov), 2-17 (Ponting, 7.5 ov), 3-62 (Katich, 21.6 ov), 4-102 (Clarke, 40.5 ov), 5-130 (Hussey, 47.5 ov), 6-146 (Haddin, 55.3 ov), 7-167 (White, 62.2 ov), 8-240 (Lee, 90.1 ov), 9-262 (Watson, 99.2 ov), 10-268 (Siddle, 101.4 ov)

India 2nd Innings (lead by 201 runs) 314 for 3 declared in 65 overs (Gambhir 104, Sehwag 90, Dhoni 68 not out, Ganguly 27, Tendulkar 10 not out, Extras--15 (b 3, lb 4, w 5, nb 3), Lee 14-0-61-1, Siddle 15-1-62-1, Johnson 14-0-72-0, White 8-0-48-0, Watson 5-0-20-0, Hussey 8-0-38-0, MJ Clarke 1-0-6-0)

Fall of wickets: 1-182 (Sehwag, 39.1 ov), 2-224 (Gambhir, 47.5 ov), 3-290 (Ganguly, 61.6 ov)

Australia 2nd Innings (516 to win) 141 for 5 in 46 overs (Hayden 29, Katich 20, Ponting 2, Hussey 1, MJ Clarke 42 batting, Watson 2, Haddin 37 batting, Extras-8 (b 4, lb 4), Zaheer 8-1-44-0, I Sharma 9-4-29-2, Harbhajan 15-2-23-3, A Mishra 9-1-34-0, Sehwag 5-2-7-0)