India Exploits The Match Against Australia To Test Its Weaknesses

India had an advantage in their favour which they turned into an opportunity. The team had qualified for the semis with a game to space against a tough side like Australia. The team decided to test all the areas in which they had a shred of doubt and still went on to win the match.

India Beats Australia

A marked win by 73 runs after bowling out the Australian team for 86 within 16.2 overs will add confidence to the Indian team. On Friday, India will face South Africa in Mirpur for the first Semi-Finals of the tournament. South Africa was placed in the second position on Group 1, after Sri Lanka defeated New Zealand in the Super 10 match on Monday.

The Indian team chose to bat second and the conditions were significantly changed due to dew that started interfering with the game in late evening. The bowlers did not have the opportunity of defending a total in such conditions. Captain Dhoni did not win the toss and the team had to bat first on Sunday. The absence of dew could have hampered the game but it didn’t. ViratKohli was out of the game quite early which provided Yuvrajsingh enough time to get back his prowess.

Initially, Yuvraj struggled to hit the balls but later one he made some clean sweeps to entertain the audience in the stand. It is no wonder that he fetched one of the highest sums offered in the IPL auction. Singh was hesitant to run between the wickets which caused panic among partners at some point. The situation got under control when Dhoni came out to bat alongside him on the field.

Singh hit consecutive sixes off James Muirhead, leg spinner and went for a long haul off a delivery by Michael Starc. A classic swing off mid-wicket in a ball delivered by Shane Watson brought up his total to 50 runs. Yuvraj finally scored 60 runs off 43 balls with four sixes and five hours. With Dhoni, he had an 84 run stand for the fifth wicket. ShikharDhawan’s performance as opening batsman was also concerning as he failed to score good runs in the first three matches.

Dhoni chose AjinkyaRahane although it was Rohit Sharma playing at the other end who was dismissed quickly. The choice of the opening pair was debatable although the 19 runs off 16 balls by the batsman from Mumbai displayed good performance.

The Australian batsmen gave India a lot of practice for catching the ball under lights, which was a problem with the Indian team as brought up Dhoni is several press conferences. RavindraJadeja and Kohli caught two balls each, Rohit took one by diving in front and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar took one in the deep square leg.

Dhoni had reserved Mohit Sharma and Amit Mishra for later stages of the game. Mishra got to bowl for three overs while Sharma was given two. Sharma had replaced bowler Mohammad Shami for the match.

Do tune in to watch India take on South Africa on Friday on your TV sets. Make sure you get sporting merchandise to cheer team India!