Related Links : India Vs Australia 2007/08 : 4th ODI Scorecard
Mahendra Singh Dhoni led his boys from the front with an all-round show both with the bat and the gloves to help his side win for the first time in three years in a One Day International against the Aussies. India won the fourth ODI at Chandigarh by a close margin of eight runs despite Australia being in control of their chase of 292 for most part of their innings. Dhoni with a rapid fifty with the bat and a couple of smart stumpings that changed the course of the game to win his first ODI as a Captain.
International Cricket was returning after a long time at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh. It was a perfect atmosphere for cricket with the conditions being hot and sunny. The pressure was on the Indians to win the match as the overall team performance wasn’t being good enough to challenge the Australians. India made three changes to its line up with Ganguly for Gambhir, Murali Kartik for Rohit Sharma and RP Singh for Sressanth. Interestingly all the three replacements played a significant part in India’s victory. The Australia brought in Nathan Bracken for Stuart Clark. Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first but his side was put on the backfoot by a red hot new ball spell from Brett Lee. But the two Indian openers – Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly survived the testing period although they were going at a slow rate. Tendulkar in particular was going at a tortoise rate and in the first 10 overs could barely get into double figures having got a significant amount of strike. Ganguly on the other hand played some handsome shots whenever he got the opportunity. Sachin Tendulkar should have been dismissed very early when he got infront of the stumps to Bracken and then got away with an inside edge off Lee that was taken behind. Riding by some luck and experience, Sachin and Sourav got their team to a decent start with almost a hundred up on the board. Ganguly (41 from 59 with 6 fours) became the first casualty in the 20th over after an attempted big shot off James Hopes resulted in an outside edge. It was a good knock from Sourav considering that it was his first one in this series.
Tendulkar never really gave up in his struggle and it continued in the company of the local lad Yuvraj Singh, who was very fluent in his strokeplay to take the game forward. The runs started to leak from the Australian bowlers with even Sachin Tendulkar finding some boundaries. James Hopes returned back to break yet another good partnership, this time he got rid off Yuvraj Singh after the left hander got 39 in 55 balls with 5 fours in a partnership of 83. Dhoni promoted himself up the order at no.4 and got going straightaway without much fuss. Tendulkar not for the first time missed out on a hundred, this time by a long way after getting run out by Brett Lee. He accumulated 79 in 119 balls with the aid of seven boundaries. India finished at 291 for 4 towards the end although it appeared that they would be restricted to something below 270. The difference between a 270 and a 290 plus score was the brilliant cameo played by Robin Uthappa – the new ‘Ajay Jadeja’ of the team. Uthappa scored an unbeaten 30 from 18 with 6 fours while his Captain had a good final over to finish on 50 from just 35 with 5 fours and the only six of the innings which came off the final ball of the innings. Brett Lee for some reason was under bowled by Ponting. Lee bowled just the 7 overs in which he conceded 26 runs but remained wicketless. Nathan Bracken was very expensive as he went for 78 in his 10. The extras given away by the Australian bowlers were 39 which included three sets of five wides down the legstump.
In complete contrast to the Indian opening batsmen, the Australian openers got their team off to a flier by smashing a six each along with the boundaries. The Indian bowlers struggled with Gilchrist and Hayden making batting look so simple. But a good captaincy move from Dhoni probably influenced by Sourav Ganguly’s suggestion of having a deep mid wicket fielder for Gilchrist plotted the opener’s downfall. Gilchrist got dismissed by RP Singh in the 6th over after having got 18. Ponting continued the flow with the powerful Hayden leaving India hardly any chance for coming back in the game. However, a small mistake from Ponting of having his backfoot on the crease cost his wicket with an alert MS Dhoni taking full advantage with a shrewd stumping. Ponting’s 29 built an 85-run stand with Hayden. After a few overs, Harbhajan Singh finally took his first wicket of the series by deceiving Michael Clarke in the air with a doosra to take a return catch and now the Indians were going after the Aussies. But then Andrew Symonds spoilt the fun by combining in a smooth partnership with Hayden. Just when the pair was getting their team to cruise through, Hayden holed out to Zaheer in the deep with a one handed sweep off Murali Kartik. Hayden was very unlucky to miss out a hundred by eight runs, his 92 came in as many balls with 11 fours and two sixes. MS Dhoni got the Man of the Match award for his inspiring show.
After Hayden’s departure in the 34th over, Symonds took care of the chase with Brad Hodge. Both batsmen put on 56 runs for the fifth wicket before Dhoni once again pulled out a smart stumping, this time the batsman being Hodge and the bowler being Harbhajan who struck in his final over. Harbhajan Singh with 2 for 43 in 10 overs bowled a spell that is required from him on a regular basis. The biggest wicket for India came when Symonds tried to manufacture a cut shot to an express RP Singh delivery that went onto crash onto his offstump leaving the Aussies at 268 for 6 in 46.5. In the next ball, RP Singh struck a direct throw at the striker’s end to get rid off Brad Hogg. The Australians after a while were left to get 22 from 2 overs with James Hopes and Brett Lee. A good penultimate over from RP Singh made it 16 to get from the final over. Zaheer who was bowling the final over got smashed for a first ball boundary by Hopes but then recovered nicely by hitting the blockhole to ensure an eight-run victory.