The Gabba, Feb 19: Ricky Ponting’s poor run of form continued as he nothed up another single-digit score in the series. That apart, it was Australia’s day at The Gabba with Mike Hussey crossing the 5000-run mark in ODIs and Ben Hilfenhaus earning his first five-for. India’s ploy of using four pacers looked promising in the conditions, but proved unsuccessful. Take a look at the numbers that matter from Australia’s comeback game after two losses.
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India went into the match with four pacers (Zaheer Khan, Vinay Kumar, Irfan Pathan and Umesh Yadav) after more than 17 months. The last such instance was while playing against Sri Lanka in the Tri-Series final on August 28, 2010 when India played Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma. Sri Lanka made 299 for eight in that match.
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Ricky Ponting was dismissed for single-digits for the fifth consecutive time in the series – 2, 1, 6, 2 and 7. Ponting recorded five consecutive single-digit scores for the first time in his ODI career.
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Among the specialist batsmen, only one – Steve Waugh – had a longer streak of single-digit scores for Australia. Between 1997 and 1998, Steve Waugh failed to move into double-digits in six consecutive innings.
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Incidentally, this was Ponting’s third consecutive single-digit score against India, the first such instance for him.
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Michael Hussey completed 5,000 runs in ODIs, becoming the 13th Australian batsman to accomplish this feat.
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Only two batsmen had a better average than Hussey’s 50.52 after completing 5,000 ODI runs. Fellow Aussie Michael Bevan averaged 56.82, while West Indies’ Viv Richards averaged 53.19 (calculated till the end of the innings). India’s MS Dhoni (50.51) is the only other player to average more than 50 while reaching the 5,000 run-mark.
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Ravindra Jadeja did not get to bowl a single ball in the match for the third time in his career. The first occasion was against Sri Lanka at Delhi in December 2009. The game was abandoned after 23.3 overs. The second occasion was at Dambulla in August 2010, also against Sri Lanka, when SL chased down the winning target in 15.1 overs.
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Australia’s 288 for five was their highest score against India at Brisbane, beating the 284 they made in January 2004.
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Ben Hilfenhaus (five for 33) achieved best figures in ODIs, beating his two for 42 against Pakistan at Dubai in April 2009. Interestingly, in his only two other appearances against India (in India), Hilfenhaus had conceded 155 runs in 20 overs while claiming two wickets.
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The win by 110 runs was Australia's sixth win by 100 or more runs against India.
