india ne kangaroo ki chutney banaa di ,party time - Page 27

34.4

Harbhajan Singh to Ponting, FOUR

34.3

Harbhajan Singh to Ponting, no run

34.2

Harbhajan Singh to White, 1 run, White goes for the cute paddle to a ball tossed up outside off stump, gets it in the air, almost carried to the diving man at short leg

34.1

Harbhajan Singh to Ponting, 1 run, turning in, not short enough, but Ponting swivels and pulls it through square leg

Our stats man Madhu: "The lowest total Australia have defended in a 50-over game is 172 against South Africa in 1993. The lowest successfully-defended target against India is 187 in Christchurch in 1990. More recently, they defended 203 against India in Adelaide in 2008."

33.6

Khan to Ponting, 1 run, goes too full and down the leg side now, is flicked away to fine leg

33.5

Khan to Ponting, no run, bangs this one in from round the stumps, he goes back to defend

33.4

Khan to White, 1 run, punched off the back foot into covers

An apt interval for the drinks break. Over to Abhishek for commentary, while I revert to Chatterbox.

33.3

Khan to MEK Hussey, OUT, Zaheer does it again. It's again that mystery bare-knuckle slower ball. It's the latest invention from the Zaheer labs. Instead of getting fore-finger and middle-finger behind the seam, he gets the middle finger alone behind the ball and pushes it with the knuckle. Hence, there is a subtle change in pace, that the batsman can't read out of the hand unless he has binoculars. Hussey doesn't. The knucle ends up pushing the ball in and also helps it move in after landing on the turf. Devon Smith got it the other day, and played all over it. Exactly how Mr. Cricket just did. 118 kph, flummoxes the batsman all ends up and castles him as he heaves the flick and misses. Zaheer spreads his arms on either side, breaks into a smile and trots along as his team-mates converge. Motera loves it.

MEK Hussey b Khan 3 (9b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33

33.2

Khan to MEK Hussey, no run, nice nip from Zaheer, gets one to go away from Mike. He fishes for it from the crease, neither forward nor back, and nearly feathers it.

33.1

Khan to Ponting, 1 run, fullish ball outside off, angled in from wide of the crease, Ponting walks into the cover drive and gets a single

Zaheer continues.

32.6

Harbhajan Singh to MEK Hussey, no run, lovely ball. Harbhajan draws Mike out of the crease with loop and sharp spin. Mike is a master, though he's beaten and his back foot came out as he looked to defend, he was alert to push it back into the crease before Dhoni could effect a stumping.

32.5

Harbhajan Singh to MEK Hussey, no run, finally he brings Mike forward and gets him to push it with the spin to the covers

32.4

Harbhajan Singh to Ponting, 1 run, nice bowling, curls in from wide of the crease and breaks in sharply from outside off, but Ponting has the line covered as he nudges backward of square leg. Sehwag tumbles and saves.

32.3

Harbhajan Singh to MEK Hussey, 1 run, needs to flight the ball more. Mike plays back and whips easily against the spin to midwicket for one

32.2

Harbhajan Singh to MEK Hussey, no run, back of a length outside off, Mike works it with the spin to point

Saleh: "To be honest this is the best I have seen India fielding in this tournament."

Spot on. Raina's making a huge difference.

Round the wicket now.

32.1

Harbhajan Singh to Ponting, 1 run, flat offie breaks in from outside off, Ponting works it from the crease wide of mid on for a single

Harbhajan comes on now. He has 4 overs to go.