Five centuries, four defeats

The fourth ODI between India and Australia at Canberra on Wednesday was the classic case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. If anyone out there is wondering why India lost the match, then don’t search for many reasons, there is only one reason for the defeat – India losing nine wickets for 46 runs.

Until the 38th over, India was well on course for Australia’s 348. The run rate was 7.4 per over, with only 75 runs needed from 78 balls and nine wickets in hand, India was cruising towards victory or, at least, we thought so. When Dhawan departed in the third ball of the 38th over after playing a scintillating innings of 126, no one thought India will lose the match from that point, not even the Australians.

Steven Smith had tried everything in his armoury up to that point; he even rolled his arm over for no avail. And their best bowler in the innings up to that point – John Hastings was in his last over. The next twelve overs produced nine wickets as India plunged from 277/1 to 323/10.

In fact, if we compare both teams' performance phase by phase, India led from the start to the 40th over and were a step ahead of the Australians. But from overs 41-50, where Australia scored 111 runs, India scored 41 and lost six wickets. The reason for the Indian batsmen going for the glory shots in the last ten overs remains a mystery when India was sitting comfortably ahead of the run rate.

Another important statistic to look out from the Indian innings is the partnership. The top 3 in the Indian side, who have scored five centuries among them, made 273 runs out of the team’s total of 323. In fact, after Kohli and Dhawan’s 212-run partnership for the second wicket, India was not able to stitch one semi-decent partnership which crossed the 15-run mark.

From the inexperienced youngsters to the experienced captain, everyone in the Indian line-up lost their heads in the final phase which could have been a cake walk if there was one, forty or fifty-run partnership in the middle. The Aussies also dropped three catches during the period to help their counterparts, but no one from the away side stood up to take the side home.

How India recovers from this defeat remains to be seen, but if they do not pull themselves out this hole, an embarrassing 0-5 whitewash will be the result.