India thrill crowds in amazing comeback

MUMBAI
A packed Chinnaswamy Stadium with 38 000 cheering fans got their money’s worth in Bangalore, where India scripted an amazing turnaround to win their first World Cup warm-up match against Australia on Sunday night.
The atmosphere at the Chinnaswamy stadium was good enough for a World Cup final but some lacklustre batting from the Indians threatened to let the home crowd go away disappointed.
That was until a four-wicket spell from Piyush Chawla sent the Australian middle order back to the pavillion.
Chasing 215 runs to win — Shane Watson and Tim Paine opened up Australia’s innings.
They put up a 51-run partnership and didn’t look like getting out till Chawla took a blinder off Sreesanth to dismiss Shane Watson (33 of 26 balls).
That brought skipper Ricky Ponting to the crease.
Ponting was making a comeback into the side after a finger injury and started off with three 4s in an Ashwin over.
Then began the battle between Sreesanth and Ponting. Sreesanth being Sreesanth couldn’t stay quiet for long and Ponting being Ponting wasn’t one to turn away without giving it back.
The verbal exchange brought the crowd to their feet and was followed up by a huge appeal for a caught behind in the same over.
Ponting looked out and the Indians even started to celebrate but the Umpire didn’t think there was an edge.
Ponting and Tim Paine (37 off 57 balls) formed another solid partnership (67 off 83 balls) and with the Aussies at 117/1 the writing seemed to be on the wall.
But this Indian team has proved that you can’t write them off so easily.
Tim Paine’s wicket triggered off a mini-collapse which allowed India to creep back into the game.
Michael Clarke (0 off 4 balls) left without upsetting the scorers when he played Chawla onto the stumps.
Chawla then picked up Cameron White (4 off 13 balls) and David Hussey (0 off 1) who was stumped by MS Donhi.
Callum Ferguson was let off at first slip by Virat Kohli but he edged another delivery to Kohli yet again in the same over giving Chawla his fourth wicket for the day.
Chawla’s spell silenced most of the debate over his inclusion into the World Cup squad, and as Dhoni said in the post match press conference — has given India some more options.
Ponting (57 off 85 balls) was then stumped by MS Dhoni off Harbhajan Singh’s bowling with Australia on 166/7, throwing the game wide open.
Another stumping from Dhoni off Harbhajan sent Mitchell Johnson (15 off 19 balls) back and put India in the driver’s seat.
Harbhajan then picked up Jason Krejza in the same over leaving Australia with 30 runs to win with just one wicket in hand.
The end was near and soon enough R Ashwin bowled Brett Lee (1 off 7 balls) to clean up the Australian innings.
Earlier in the day, India decided to rest Sachin Tendulkar and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan.
The Indian captain later said that both of them had very minor niggles.
Dhoni would have hoped that Sachin skipping out would help them test the rest of the batting — Kohli, Yuvraj and Raina, and finalise on India’s middle order.
Things, however, didn’t exactly go to plan.
Virat Kohli (21 off 33 balls) arrived at the crease after Gautam Gambhir’s (6 off 15 balls) early departure and was looking good with some crisp drives until he cut a Hastings delivery straight to David Hussey at point.
Kolhi’s 42-run partnership with India’s other opener Virender Sehwag would turn out to be the highest partnership of the innings.
Sehwag (54 off 56 balls) back after a shoulder injury, ended up being India’s top scorer.
Sehwag started off slowly and didn’t get a lot of the strike early on — he finally brought up his 50 in style with a huge six clobbered over long-off, but was out off the very next ball — a short one from Krejza.
Yuvraj Singh (1 off 7 balls) failed to stake his claim for a permanent spot in the eleven.
His indecisive shot only managed to guide the ball into the hands of wicket-keeper Tim Paine.
Captain Dhoni (11 off 24 balls) couldn’t do much either and got an inside edge from John Hastings onto his stumps.
India weren’t in good shape at the halfway mark with the score on 122/5 and things didn’t get much better from there on.
Suresh Raina (12 off 16 balls) headed back soon — chasing and edging one outside the off stump as soon as Brett Lee decided to come around the wicket.
Next at the crease was India’s supposed new all-rounder Harbhajan (4 off 2 balls).
The first ball he faced went to the boundary as he cut towards fine leg.
The crowd’s joy was short-lived once again as Lee sent his middle stump flying with a perfect yorker off the very next ball.
Chawla was out for a duck (0 off 6 balls), Lee hitting the stumps yet again and picking up his third wicket.
Yusuf Pathan (32 off 38 balls) got a life when he was dropped by Shane Watson on 13 after edging one to first slip while attempting a drive off Johnson.
Pathan took his time even as scored a couple of boundaries at the other end.
The 39th over saw two huge sixes from Pathan and everyone was hoping for a replica of his last innings in Bangalore.
The rescue act however was short-lived as a mistimed slog off David Hussey sent him packing.
India’s tailenders R Ashwin (25 not out off 47 balls) and Ashish Nehra (19 off 24 balls) scored some handy runs towards the end and took India past the 200-run mark before the innings came to a close at 214 in just the 45th over.
India will now take on New Zealand in Chennai tomorrow in their second and final warm-up match.
The Aussies take on Zimbabwe in their first match on Monday — ICC World Cup.