Watson, Bailey open up after rebuilding
The Report by Sidharth Monga
Asked to bat first on a slow pitch, Australia failed to take toll of the quick bowlers, found themselves struggling to go
fluently once the spinners came on, but had begun to get some momentum owards the 25th-over mark. R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja
and Amit Mishra - playing his first ODI in India - shackled them with their variations and accuracy, going for 45 in their
first 12 overs, but the last three cost 35.
Phillip Hughes and Aaron Finch both threw away starts, and it could have been worse for Australia had Ravindra Jadeja not
overstepped - by centimetres - when Shane Watson was caught off his bowling. Australia would have been 69 for 3 then in the
17th over.
The slowness of the pitch was apparent from how MS Dhoni stood up to the stumps as early as in the third over, and had short
straight mid-on and short midwicket in place quite often. The start looked good for Australia until Hughes pulled
Bhuvneshwar Kumar straight into the lap of square leg. Finch, who had looked even more dangerous, lost his head at the sight
of Ashwin, jumping out of the crease and hoicking down the wrong line.
At 45 for 2 in the 12th over, Australia needed some solid rebuilding, but Watson didn't seem to be of the mindset to settle
down and then open up. He soon tried to slog-sweep Jadeja, and got an edge towards cover-point. Replays, however, revealed
the tightest of no-balls: as his toe landed, his heel - in the air - was over the line, and not behind it.
Jadeja was replaced by Mishra, who looked the most impressive of the spinners. Neither Watson nor George Bailey picked his
quicker legbreak or googly early on, but towards the 25th over the two batsmen began to open up. Bailey took the charge to
Ashwin, lofting him over extra cover and then straight down the ground for four and six in the 23rd over. In the 24th,
Mishra provided a full toss that Watson deposited behind deep midwicket. In the 25th, Watson late-cut Jadeja for four to
bring up his fifty a ball later with a single, and followed it up with a flat straight six to suggest the tide had begun to
turn.
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