Ashes 2013
India look to do England a favour
October 11th
Strange, but
true. Better judges than me have wondered about the timing of Australia’s
latest tour to India ahead of the Ashes, given that Australia have made tours of
India before the last two Ashes series with two series whitewashes in Tests the
result. This time the tour consists of a T20 and seven ODIs, but the recent
pattern is continuing.
Australia have
not won an international match in India – outside the World Cup held there –
since their ODI win on November 8th 2009. Since then their record
makes grim reading. In Tests, P6 W0 D0 L6. In ODIs, P2 W0 L2 (3 abandoned). And
now, in T20, P1 W0 L1. When the two sides line up for the first ODI in Pune on
October 13th, Australia will be facing the prospect of a tenth
consecutive international defeat in India.
Of course, a
sequence like that cannot last for ever but, as Australia saw how a monstrous
chase of 202 was hunted down by the Indian batsman with such comfort that they
could take the foot off the gas for the last two overs and just nudge the runs,
it was hard not to feel for the poor (presumably Australian fan) who wailed in
CricInfo’s feedback “is no score safe for these guys?”
At the end
of the tour of England, wins started to come in the T20 and the ODIs, albeit
against very much a second-string England side, that gave credence to the
Australian spin that they had been the better side over the second half of the
Test series [the associated claim from a section of the Australian support that
they were robbed of victory in the Test series by rain and bad umpiring, is a little harder
to accept]. Defeat in India, particularly if it is heavy, would cause a feeling
that the crisis is back. It matters not a jot that the squad in India is very
different to the one that will play the 1st Test, the feeling of
positive momentum into the return Ashes series will be lost.
In yesterday’s
T20, Australia got off to an extraordinary start that saw them 74-1 after 6
overs and seemingly set for a score that could reach 240-250. Two wickets in
the 8th over slowed the innings down again, but it re-ignited when
Aaron Finch took 24 off the 10th over despite letting two dot balls
through. Despite the massive platform of 114-3 after ten overs the second half
of the innings stuttered badly and only a last ball six allowed Australia to
pass 200.
202 in 20
overs, even on a placid Indian pitch is a huge target, but India showed how to
chase it by keeping in touch with wickets in hand and not panicking. Despite
being 28 behind Australia’s score after 13 overs with the same wickets down,
the Indians knew that the last 7 overs had brought Australia only a modest 58
runs, do not panic and, by the middle of the eighteenth over were ahead of the
run rate and cruising on the shoulders of a brilliant Yuvraj innings. The
turning point was probably the seventeenth over, Faulkner’s third, where
successive deliveries went for six, six and five huge leg side wides. A game in
which Australia had been in command for 36 of the 40 overs suddenly sailed away
from them.
Australia’s
surrender of a strong position mimicked what happened last summer in England,
particularly at Chester-le-Street and, for many, at The Oval, where England
were robbed of a victory by bad light (many Australians would say that that
match does not count because Australia had declared, but the truth of the
matter is that any Australian side of the previous 20 years would have ensured
that England got nowhere near a very tough target).
Defeat
becomes contagious, whatever the format. The BCCI might not like it but, a big
win against Australia in the upcoming ODI series would be the best favour that
they could possibly do England.
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