Sydney, Feb 26: Shane Watson had a near-perfect debut as captain of Australia, leading his team to an 87-run win. As the hosts surge into the best-of-three finals, India will take heart from a relatively disciplined bowling performnace, one that yielded just 47 runs in the last ten overs. That apart, the tourists will be nursing a fresh set of wounds from a tour that’s been a harsh test of character, skill and temperament. Take a look at the numbers that matter from India’s routing at the SCG.
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India were playing their 800th ODI. They became the first team to reach this landmark.
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Shane Watson was leading Australia for the first time in ODIs. He became the 20th player to captain Australia in the shorter version of the game. Interestingly, Watson has never captained his state in any of the domestic competitions in Australia. The only time Watson captained a side in a major game was his IPL side Rajasthan Royals v Kings XI Punjab in 2008.
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Watson became the third captain used by Australia in the tournament after Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting. The only other time Australia had three captains in an ODI series was against South Africa in South Africa in 1996-97 when Mark Taylor, Ian Healy and Steve Waugh led the side.
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Incidentally, only Steve Waugh (217) and Ian Healy (146) had played more ODIs than Watson (140) before leading Australia for the first time.
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India have batted second in all seven games of the series, once by choice and six times after being put in by the opponents.
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The last 18 ODIs played by India have all been day-night affairs. The sequence started with the last match against England in England, followed by all 10 matches against England and West Indies in India last year, and seven matches in this tournament.
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There is only one longer streak of day-night matches for a side. Between April 2008 and May 2009, Pakistan played 24 consecutive day-night matches.
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Ravindra Jadeja dismissed David Warner (caught spectacularly by Suresh Raina) to get his second wicket of the tournament. Raina bowled a staggering 231 balls to get this wicket.
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In the five matches he has played against India, David Hussey's scores read: 38*, 61*, 72, 26* and 54 (today) – 251 runs at an average of 125.50.
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Clint McKay’s dismissal of Virender Sehwag was the 64th stumping for MS Dhoni in ODIs. Only Kumar Sangakkara (80 stumpings in 317 matches), Romesh Kaluwitharana (75 in 189) and Moin Khan (73 in 219) are ahead of Dhoni on this count.
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India conceded only 47 runs in the last 10 overs. This was the best performance by any side in the last 10 overs in the tournament.
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The 47 runs conceded by India are in fact the third lowest by any side in the last 10 overs (41-50) since the Powerplay rules were changed (in October 2011). The record is of 44 runs, also held by India (v West Indies at Cuttack on Nov 29,2011). England conceded 45 runs against Pakistan at Dubai on Feb 18, 2012. Pakistan also conceded 47 runs against Sri Lanka at Abu Dhabi on Nov 23, 2011.
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Sachin Tendulkar was run out for the 34th time in ODIs, the seventh such instance against Australia.
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Tendulkar has now equalled Inzamam-ul-Haq’s tally of 76 run outs (including the instances of partners getting run out). The batsmen involved in most run outs (self + partners) are: Mohammad Yousuf – 79 (self 38 + partners 41), Steve Waugh – 78 (self 27 + partners 51), Inzamam-ul-Haq – 76 (self 40 + partners 36) and Sachin Tendulkar – 76 (self 34 + partners 42)
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MS Dhoni batted for 49 balls for his 14 (SR 28.57). This was his worst performance in an innings of 30-plus balls. Dhoni had made 24 off 77 balls (SR 31.17), also against Australia, at Guwahati on November 8, 2009.
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India were cruising along nicely after 10 overs at 60 for two. However, they managed only 105 for the loss of eight wickets in the next 29.3 overs.
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Australia have successfully defended a 250-plus total at Sydney on 19 out of 20 occasions. The only time they couldn’t do so was against South Africa on January 23, 2009 when the visitors chased down a target of 270.
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Australia have now beaten India in 12 out of the 13 ODIs the two teams have played at Sydney.
